Jimi Hendrix’s Vox V846 Wah Pedal (Woodstock)

Throughout his career, Jimi used a number of different wah pedals. However, it’s often hard to tell which one he was using on a particular occasion because of the low-quality footage on some of the concerts.

Fortunately, on one occasion that perhaps matters the most to some, that is the Woodstock festival in 1969, the type of the wah used is somewhat well established.

According to Dave Weyer, who at the time worked on Jimi’s equipment, the wah pedal that he used that day was a modified Vox V846, made in the Sepulveda factory in California.

Jimi had a box of wah pedals, and I had, over the course of the year, worked on every one. But Jimi’s favorite was the yet-to-be-seen by the public, Sepulveda model with the TDK inductor and the high beta Motorola transistors. It can be identified by the lack of a Vox logo on the front, the relief where the logo was supposed to be glued on, a West Coast sticker on the bottom, and Jimi’s signature on the inside of the casing wall, applied at a difficult angle, but identifiable nonetheless — and, of course, the things he loved the most, the low noise and the sharp sweep, clearly audible in the Woodstock recordings.

Jimi Hendrix’s Wah-wah Pedal and Amp in J. Levine’s New Year’s Day Auction

This particular pedal was sold at an auction in 2016 for an undisclosed price.