UMI Wa Pedal

Offered for sale:

Vintage 60’s UMI Wa pedal.

This pedal is in fair condition. The pot is a little “scratchy”, but the tone is unique. This is not another Crybaby. It is sold As-Is

These pedals were made with the sweep being reverse from a normal wah pedal, where the treble end is on your heel instead of your toes. Powered with one 9-volt battery only, no adapter. This pedal is pretty rare with examples hardly ever coming up for sale.

Back story on UMI:

Company founded by Richard Soloway in Farmingdale, New York, around 1967.

Richard Soloway:

“I was in high school in the mid-1960s. It was cold installing garage door openers in unheated garages, so I wanted something I could do indoors. When a friend needed new drumsticks I went with him to Gracin’s Music in Freeport, N.Y. After looking at the electronic amplifiers I told the owner I could make a more powerful one that cost less. He told me that if I could do that, he’d order 100.

I converted the basement so I could manufacture these amplifiers and went to work. I knew where to get components because I had the data sheets. I also shopped in the area known as Radio Row in Manhattan, near the site that would become the World Trade Center. I ordered the boxes, and my dad did the cosmetic design. We chose Bird’s Nest Blue with black streaks for the casing.

I was hanging out on 48th Street in New York City, known as Music Row, at music stores like Manny’s, Sam Ash’s and Jimmy’s. I also went to clubs like Cafe Wha? and the Cheetah Club. You could mingle with the musicians back then. They’d hear I was an engineer and want to talk to me about equipment.

Jimi Hendrix was just getting his start. He asked me about coming up with a new sound for him. We went back to his hotel room and fooled with Channel 3 on the TV. I wanted to find something similar to the static sound of the snow on the screen. That gave me the idea for my first fuzz box, a device running from a guitar to an amplifier that provides controlled distortion. I built what’s called a wah-wah pedal along with it. Musicians would attach both devices to their equipment and alternate between them to get different sounds.

I started United Musical Industries with these two products and amplifiers and sold them to hundreds of music stores. During this time, I helped set up the equipment for the Doors at Fillmore East and other clubs. Eric Clapton also used U.M.I. equipment.”

*Please note: we do our best giving descriptions of used pieces.

We have found it difficult to describe (and sometimes impossible to photograph) every single mark/blemish/imperfection on an instrument or amp that we offer.

Also, what's important to you may not be important to someone else. For example, you may say, "I don't care what it looks like as long as it plays or sounds well." Another person may say, "Body cosmetics are very important to me so tell me about every scratch, nick and blemish."

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