Gary James' Interview With The Inventor Of The Wah-wah Pedal
Del Casher



Del Casher is probably best known for his invention of the Wah-wah pedal, but he's also an accomplished guitarist. As a studio guitarist he performed on recordings by Sonny And Cher, Connie Francis, Bobby Vinton, Burt Bacharach, and the list goes on and on. He even appeared in the movie Roustabout with Elvis Presley. The stories Del Casher could tell, and he's told them to us.

Q - When you went to college you majored in Communications. Does that mean you wanted to be on the radio or on TV? Did you want a career in advertising?

A - No. I majored in Communications because I was very much aware of the fact that publishing and contact with the media was vital to further one's business career, whatever it be. Of course mine was in music. So that's why I wanted to know how to be in touch with the media. When you say Communications, I was interested in knowing how to relate to media. At the time I was at the University Of Pittsburgh. I picked the University Of Pittsburgh because it sounded very important, but they have Carnegie Tech over there which I wished I maybe would have enrolled because they invoke acting and all kinds of arts. But anyway, that was my goal in Communications.

Q - How did that course of study lead you to Hollywood where you played guitar and banjo on The Lawrence Welk Show?

A - It began before going to college. Of course Lawrence Welk was popular around the country long before that. I knew Lawrence Welk was a goal to be on TV because he had nationwide viewers. When I left the University Of Pittsburgh I focused on going to Los Angeles. I felt that was the future, rather than going to New York. Lawrence Welk had his show produced in Los Angeles, so that's why I focused on contacting Lawrence Welk.

Q - You did a lot of session work in Hollywood. I know one of the people you worked with was Elvis, Before I ask about Elvis, who else did you work with in the studio?

A - Well, I was at the golden age of the revolution of music and Rock 'n' Roll. I was stepping into a very fortunate opportunity to work with anybody who needed a guitarist who could read music and play various styles. So it was a great opportunity working with anybody that was in the record business at that time. Sonny And Cher, Phil Spector. The Righteous Brothers. All of the names of that time all needed quality studio musicians to play their sessions. I was fortunate to become part of the The Wrecking Crew of session players that were an elite group of musicians who were well schooled in conventional and any kind of music, plus we were young. We could play Rock 'n' Roll. So that was the flavor of the new generation, and I was part of that new generation coming to Hollywood at the age of 20.

Q - You were on the ground floor.

A - Absolutely. I didn't plan it that way. I didn't say I was going to be on the ground floor. It's just that I was looking to be on Lawrence Welk's TV show because my Dad, who was my first guitar teacher, was an immigrant from Europe, but became a music teacher of fretted instruments. Through his career he had many stringed orchestra instruments. So, I was fortunate to have my father. I thought all fathers knew how to teach guitar. So I was lucky to be well schooled by my father who told me he would teach me guitar as long as I studied every night with him and studied music, not just guitar. In other words, understanding how composition worked with guitar as well. He played his stringed instrument along with me and I learned how to accompany him. So that's how that skill developed into being able to play Hollywood. I used to drive my car in Hollywood with about six guitars, six different guitars. One was an electric guitar. I had a Gibson at the time. I had a Telecaster. I had a Strat. I had a classical guitar. I had a rhythm guitar like an L-5. So, every session was a surprise as to what they were looking for. You'd come into a recording session at Gold Star and there'd be three other guitar players there already with drums and bass and whatever, a few horns, and then you'd find out you're either going to be playing rhythm guitar or they want you to play a rhythm part. Every guitar had a different sound. I remember being called to work on a Phil Spector session and I brought in my acoustic guitar and I brought in my Telecaster and three other guitars. Spector came up in front of me and stared at me and said, "What are you doing?" I said, "I'm tuning up my guitar." He said, "I don't want an acoustic guitar. I want only a Fender guitar." He was very adamant that I put the acoustic guitar away and play electric guitar, which I said, "That's fine." But everybody had kind of a different role every day of the week. One day you might be playing Classical guitar for some kind of film score. Another day you're playing straight Rock 'n' Roll. One day I was called in to audition for Gene Autry's TV show. They asked me if I could read the parts. It was a really, really simple part. It was like lesson one for me. I brought in my electric guitar and played on it and I was hired. I played the Gene Autry TV show series for three years. The nice thing about the Gene Autry people was that Carl Cotner, the band leader, knew that I was quite versatile in playing guitar solos. So every week they would feature me on a different solo. They knew I played banjo and sometimes I'd do a banjo solo. It would be a quick, two minute shot and I would be featured playing either "San Antonio Rose" or "Anther Day At El Rancho Grand" or a banjo solo. So, versatility was really important and I was aware of that. I was very happy about coming to Los Angeles with those skills.

Q - You were in the studio recording on some of Elvis' songs, correct?

A - Yes, but there was a catch to that whole deal. They insisted that I be on the set with Elvis after the recording and appear with him on film. It was a movie called Roustabout.

Q - Why did they want you in that film? To be part of his backing band?

A - Humbly, don't take this the wrong way, I was very photogenic. Looks meant a lot. I think they wanted me to be in the band because I looked the part. This is the way a studio player should look. So that's why they insisted I be in the film with him.

Q - Did he want you to be in other films with him or maybe one day tour with him? Did that ever come up?

A - No. That came up later, much later. Going back, Elvis being the Rock star of records, Col. Parker brought him to Hollywood to become a film star. Elvis was a very, very talented guy. I mean, he was able to fit in very, very well with the whole scene. Here was the disconnect on the whole thing: Elvis auditioned for Paramount Studios and they said they were going to sign him up to a seven year contract and Col. Tom Parker said, "No. Elvis is going to work with whatever film company he wants to work with. He can work with MGM, Paramount," whoever he made a deal with. They said, "No. We're not gonna do that." And Col. Tom Parker said, "Well, then you're not gonna get Elvis." So, they acquiesced and said, "Okay. We'll sign up Elvis for the one movie at Paramount called Roustabout. Elvis was opening up to every film company, which was earth shattering for the industry because nobody had ever done that before. To your question, did I ever get offered to tour with Elvis. Elvis was not at that time in the plan for doing any touring. He was strictly doing films. And so my connection was with Paramount Pictures. I worked at Paramount as a guitarist and was featured in Elvis' Roustabout. I was also featured at Paramount in a Jerry Lewis movie called The Patsy, as a guitarist. So, everything at Paramount I got a call for. Elvis was simply so busy with so many different agendas that there was no plan for any tour at that time.

Q - Did you like Elvis personally?

A - The answer is super absolutely, yes! There's more to the story than saying I liked him. When I was in college, Elvis was breaking loose with big hits, "Hound Dog" and all. I was a very accomplished guitarist. As a 16 year old I had my own radio show called The Many Guitars Of Del Casher. I had a weekly radio show in high school where I would over-dub my guitar and sort of make a whole band, sort of what Les Paul had been doing. I had a background in understanding Classical music and I understood sight reading. When I heard Elvis playing, I knew he was a fake guitar player. (laughs) We wasn't really a guitar player at all in my opinion. Of course, I came to find out he totally admits that. My opinion was very guarded about Elvis. In fact, when I was called to go on the movie set they told me I had to be on the movie set for twelve hours a day, which I was not happy about. That just tied up my whole life at that time from doing other sessions. So, I showed up and I was reluctant to say anything to Elvis. Then Col. Tom Parker made an announcement on the set. He said, "If anybody approaches Elvis to talk to him, you're fired! You'll be thrown off the lot. You're not allowed to talk to Elvis." So, I felt no reason to want to get near Elvis at all. But we were setting up these scenes. It was very hectic and nobody really had a chance to talk to anybody. They took a break for lunch and I said, "I'm just gonna sit and play my guitar. And I don't want to talk to anybody and I don't even care about talking to Elvis." Everybody left for lunch except Elvis. And so I'm playing my guitar and I'm going through some of my guitar solos I worked on. I play a chordal, full guitar. I don't play just single lines. I was doing on of these solos I had been working on, on The Lawrence Welk Show. I was playing it and I noticed Elvis had not left and he was staring at me. I was concerned. "What is he thinking? Maybe he's thinking he doesn't like me as a guitar player or something." So, I stared ripping on the guitar all I could. Everything I imagined. And he came slowly up to me and said very politely, "Excuse me. I don't mean to interrupt you, but may I say something?" I looked up and I said, "Well, yeah. Okay. What is it?" He said, "Well, I've been listening to you play guitar and I just want you to know that I'd give anything if I could play guitar like you. You're the most fantastic guitar player I've ever heard. I wish I could be like you." I was s humbled by that statement that I looked up at him and I said, "Elvis, I wish I could be like you." From that moment on, everybody on the set, Red West and all of his buddies with the Memphis Mafia all came around me and I realized that Elvis had talked me up pretty much during lunch time. So, I suddenly became one of the hip friends of Elvis during that whole movie.

Q - And where was Col. Parker during all this?

A - Well, Parker appeared only at the beginning of the production, made a statement, "Nobody talks to Elvis or your fired," and that was made very clear to me. Then he would be meandering around the different scenes and not say a word. But I knew that everybody was being watched. I could walk up to Barbara Stanwyck, a very famous actress, and she'd always be reading books, and I could say, "Oh, hi Barbara. How are you?" They were all wonderful people. Pat Buttram. Then the Memphis Mafia guys, Red West and his buddies all started hanging around me. I had a little studio in Hollywood in my home and Red West started coming to my home and recording at night. He'd record tunes for Elvis to hear. Red said, "I've got to get Elvis to come over to your studio at night. He would be so happy to come up." We almost made it happen, but Elvis was so busy with promotion that he didn't, but Red recorded there and sang just like Elvis. We recorded several tunes that Elvis later recorded on his following albums. So, it turned out to be a very, very wonderful experience being with Elvis.

Q - Were you in touch with him over the years?

A - Actually, I wasn't in touch with him over the years because he went on to do the Blue Hawaii thing. He was just swamped with so many other agendas that he had to cover. So, he was a very, very in demand, very busy guy. So, I was honored that he gave me the time to express what he thought of my playing. They black out those scenes where the band plays behind Elvis in certain spots. When Elvis left me saying, "I've got to go to lunch," he said, "I love your playing so much I'm going to have you be with me forever." I didn't know what he meant by that. It seemed like a strange statement. Is he going to call me? The black out of the scenes, the girls were always with Elvis and the band was way in the background. They stuck me on the right hand side of the stage by myself. I'm playing and I figured I'm never going to be seen in this scene where I could say I played with Elvis Presley. See me with a microscope. As I thought, this is not going to be much of a deal of me showing people I played with Elvis. When they blocked it out, Elvis agreed where all the scenes were. I've got to be right hand stage and he's going to be on the left side. You would never see me except on a long shot. But, you know when the star breaks the rules, it's okay. And we're ready to shoot the scene. We're filming it and Elvis shockingly runs across the stage and stands alongside of me and looks at me with his glaring eyes saying I told you, you were going to be with me forever. That what the eyes told me. So Del, please get with it. I almost had a heart attack. Elvis is standing alongside with me. That was his meaning of I'm going to be with you forever in his film. He didn't do it just once. When you saw the film there were several shots where Elvis came back and was standing alongside of me.

Q - You wrote the theme song for Chico And The Man. How long did that take you?

A - Half a day.

Q - You wrote both the music and lyrics?

A - No. Now there's two things going on there. Jose Feliciano had the theme song. I became friends with the producer of Chico And The Man. Again, it was the guitar that everybody liked that I played. So, they said, "Why don't you appear in some scenes with Freddie Prinze, and so I was on the set many times. On his birthday I played the guitar for "Happy Birthday" in the series. So, the theme song was written by Jose Feliciano that played every week, but the unfortunate situation came when Freddie Prinze died and they did a one hour tribute to Freddie Prinze. They called on me to do the complete TV score of Chico And The Man. So that's where I did that. I had a full band playing and I recorded my Chico theme.

Q - How different would your career have been without Jimi Hendrix using the Wah-wah pedal? And did you ever meet Jimi Hendrix?

A - Well, we have to start at the beginning. Besides being enamored with playing guitar everyday I was very much enamored with inventions for the guitar and a new voice for the guitar.

Q - You came up with the design for the Wah-wah pedal, but it was actually the Vox engineering team that was able to build a prototype for you. Is that how it worked?

A - There's a lot of misinformation about who did what, where, and when. First of all, Vox amplifiers were used by The Beatles and they were tube amplifiers in England. The Thomas Organ Company in Sepulved, California that was sponsored by Whirlpool and several big corporations decided to take over the Vox name with the stipulation that the Vox tube amplifier could be all solid state transistors. Now, the Thomas Organ was the first organ that was transistorized. It was the beginning of what you might call synthesizers. So, their team was very much in tune with transistor circuitry. Vox wanted to start a band like Lawrence Welk. So they had the Vox Ampliphonic Big Band, of which I was a member, playing guitar with them. We were to do promotions and play the Vox amplifiers, and the intent was to be unique with every instrument in the Big Band, trumpet, the saxophone, having a pickup on their instrument so there'd be no P.A. system. Everybody would have their own amplifier. If you had a twenty piece band you'd have twenty amplifiers. That was their goal, which was maybe not well thought out, but that was their plan. So, the amplifiers were for every instrument having a pickup, including the guitar of course, and their engineering team was making these small, twenty watt amplifiers. They were made like into a bandstand where they could read the music and play through the amplifiers. So, can you imagine twenty amplifiers, amplified trumpets and saxophones?

Q - That would be loud!

A - Yes. And that's what they thought would be the answer to Lawrence Welk. We did a rehearsal every week. New amplifiers were transistorized and I saw the big amplifier for my guitar. I saw bass, treble, bass control, treble control, and I looked at tone control and said, "What a minute. There's bass and treble. Why do you have a tone control?" It didn't make sense to me. So, I started playing along with my guitar with the bass and treble control. Okay, that sounds good, but the tone control had a very steep, very sharp gap in it where it would simply hit the midrange real hard and then drop down. It was the same sound I remember the loud trumpet from Big Bands had in those days. What it was, was the midrange boost from the U.K. amplifiers. There was a three-way switch and the engineering team in Sepulved, California was told to eliminated that switch because there's three positions and just a make a tone control out of it. Nobody knew what that three position switch was. Are you familiar with that midrange boost the U.K. amplifiers was used for?

Q - I am not. It sounds like we're getting into tech talk here.

A - Well, not really. The problem with tube amplifiers; I don't want to say too much tech, is the problem with tube amplifiers in those days was nobody could play loud enough. The tubes only went up to thirty-five watts. So, Dick Denny came up with this idea of packing the midrange real sharp so it wasn't louder, but it seemed louder 'cause you're hearing was the most sensitive at that range. The tech people in Sepulved, California did not know what that was for. I knew what it was for. When I saw that tone control I said, "Oh, when you peak that midrange it isn't a tone control, it's a wah sound," not do-wah, but a wah. Definitely a wah, because it's in the hearing range. So, I asked to talk to Stan Cutler, the head of engineering at Vox, that that circuit was solid state and I knew that that little circuit board could be lifted with a nine volt battery. In order to make use of it I'd have to put it into a pedal. So, I told Stan to get me the guy who did the conversion from the U.K. midrange boost, who did a marvelous job, and his name was Brad Plunkett. He did the conversion for that three-way switch into just a tone control because the switch costs $1.65 and the tone control only costs ninety cents. So, that's how I saw a new voice for the guitar and the wah sound I knew would be a great feature.

Q - Do you receive, for lack of a better word, royalties on every Wah-wah pedal that is sold?

A - Well, here was a couple of roadblocks I ran into: The roadblock was I was consultant for Vox. I wasn't an employee. I was playing in the band and consulting and telling them this guitar sounds good and that guitar sounds good. But I was not an employee. Their engineering team of course were employees. In order to avoid any kind of royalties, they did not tell me they were going to patent this idea, but rather they told Brad Plunkett, who did the conversion. He didn't come up with the Wah pedal idea, I did, but he did the conversion so we're going to award you as inventor of the Wah pedal, here's $50 as a bonus. If you read Brad Plunkett's stories about how he came up with the Wah pedal they're inconsistent. I'm the one who invented the idea of using that circuit in a pedal for guitar players, but they didn't want me to participate in any kind of royalties with it, so they named Brad as the inventor.

Q - Would it be fair to say that you were cheated out of royalties?

A - I thought Stan Cutler, who was the main engineer for the whole team there, would be ethical and honest. When I told him about the idea and I wanted to get this board put into a pedal, he never bothered to tell Brad Plunkett that Del Casher is asking this to be done. Brad didn't really know who I was. So there was a little bit of conflict of everything. At one point, even Stan Cutler wanted to claim he was the inventor of the Wah pedal. (laughs) He absolutely was not. He had no clue and neither did Brad.

Q - I've been calling it the Wah-wah pedal. I noticed you've been calling it the Wah pedal. Is it Wah pedal or Wah Wah pedal?

A - The word Wah-wah comes from 1927 when George Gershwin wrote the music of "Rhapsody In Blue". There was a part in there where you have a Wah-wah trumpet and that is repeated with a wah-wah trombone and a do-wah, do-wah sound with Glenn Miller's band that was around for years and years. So, the word Wah-wah you can't say belongs to a particular kind of music. It just made the wah sound. Yes, I feel I was not treated properly with the Vox management. They told me that the wah idea when I played it for them, didn't feel it was useful for the guitar, but felt it was going to be great for Wah-wah trumpets. I was disappointed with them saying that. So I said, "Would you let me make a wah demo box guitar record," which they did. I made that wah record for the guitar. At the same time they said it was for the trumpet. So I said, "If it's going to be for the trumpet, why don't you call Clyde McCoy?", who had the trumpet from the 1930s. I thought he was dead, but no, he was still alive. They called him up and said, "We'll give you $500 if we can use your name." So, I made the mistake of saying why don't you call it Clyde McCoy. The Clyde McCoy name became synonymous with the Wah-wah pedal.

Q - But, back to Jimi Hendrix. Did you ever meet him?

A - No. I did not meet Jimi. Before the discovery of the wah pedal I was working with Frank Zappa. He came to my garage studio. We did a recording of "Space Boy" and used my Ecco-Fonics and tape delay and it made some very spacey sounds. He wanted me to play in his band around town and play at the Shrine Auditorium. So, when I came up with the wah pedal, nobody liked it. That's hard for people to understand. Nobody like the wah pedal guitar. They said it was too loud, not musical and on and on. So they set up a cocktail party with all the companies of Hollywood for me to demonstrate the wah pedal. So, I'm demonstrating and playing it and everybody literally ignored me except one guy. He came up and said, "I want your phone number. Universal Pictures is going to call you tomorrow. We want to use that sound in their movies." So, I thought that was the typical come-on, like well, I feel bad. But I give him my phone number and he said, "They're going to be calling you tomorrow." I said, "Okay, fine." Well, sure enough that guy was Vic Mizzy, who wrote "Green Acres" and "The Adams Family". He told Universal Pictures to hire me on all of his films using the wah pedal. So, we did the first movie with Phyllis Diller. I'm the first person to record the Wah-wah pedal professionally in the world. Nobody else had the prototype. So we used it films for Traveling Saleslady, The Ghost And Mr. Chicken with Don Knotts, a Tony Curtis movie, Don't Make Waves, The Shakiest Gun In The West with Don Knotts. So, I recorded about four or five movies in 1967, long before "White Room" (Eric Clapton) was ever recorded. So, in the middle of the year I called up Frank Zappa and said, "Frank, I'm gonna get you a wha pedal. If you get a chance to see Jimi Hendrix, tell him he should check into what a wah pedal is," which Frank did when he went to New York. By the time Jimi Hendrix started using the wah pedal in 1969, I'd already given up on the idea of getting people to use the pedal and then when Jimi Hendrix played Woodstock, (1969) that's when everybody took notice of the wah pedal. Before that time I couldn't get people to really take notice of the wah pedal.

Q - Jimi Hendrix was the greatest guitar player ever.

A - He was very revolutionary. Very, very talented guy. What was amazing was he played the guitar upside down and so it gave him a new sound in the guitar alone. So, I always had the intent to want to meet up with Jimi, but unfortunately he passed on too early.

Q - How many Wah-wah pedals have been sold? Do you know?

A - Infinity, because there's so many knock-offs of the wah pedal. Unfortunately Vox made a mistake by not giving me the rights to the pedal or naming me as inventor of the wah pedal. The other thing was they didn't protect their patent because the Japanese infringed on it and they (Vox) tried to protect the patent but it was already lost. So, it was one of those mistake of the century where there was no claim to anybody having the wah pedal patent, and so it was free to anybody making the circuit.

Official Website: www.DelCasher.com

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