Modtone Vintage Wah vs Dunlop Original Wah

So if you are a fan of the Wah then you probably know all about the dunlop wahs. They range from the simple Original that will cost you $70 to the rack-mounted unit setting you back 600 bucks. They have all sorts of signature wahs and ones that make you sound like Jimi Hindrix, but what about the good old original.

I like to kick it old school. I am not a fan of modular this or signature that, so when I look at pedals I like analog and true by-pass. A wah can "funk" up you sound really well, but when its off I want it to stop funking around with my tone. Fans of the original Dunlop wah have often complained about the lack of true by-pass. There are lots of places to find kits and direction on how the mod your original wah, but why buy something that you have to mod. Price? well lets see...

The Modtone. I like Modtone, I'm just going to lay that out there. They make good pedals, of which I own three. Chorus, Volume, and Wah. The Modtone wah is almost identical to the dunlop. Save for one thing, the LED. The LED is one of the major complaints about the Dunlop Wah. You don't know if it is on or off unless you play through it. This can be kind of impractical in a live situation. When it comes to features, the Modtone Wah wins.

Lets break it down and see which pedal is better.

Features: Modtone
(as we mentioned before, the whole LED thing)
Tone: Modtone
(The Dunlop make a nasty nasally sound when the toe is down and there isn't a whole lot of bass when the heel is down. The Modtone does a nice job of keeping it even)
True By-pass: Modtone
(honestly, the Modtone has True by-pass circutry, not exactly true mechanical by-pass but more so than dunlop)
Sweep: Modtone
(The Dunlop wah almost jumps to one side or the other. This doesn't produce a good sweeping wah sound. The Modtone gives you a pronounced wah, almost like someone saying "wah" huh, go figure.)
Price: Tie (same price $69.99)

As you can see, the Modtone takes the cake for the exception of price where they split the cake.