When in Doubt, Step on the Wah-War Pedal

Third in a series

By Yas Mamemachi
Tokyo, Japan

Onodera steps on and off the wah-wah pedal along the melody line. (Photo provided by Tsuyoshi. O)

n any given cold winter evening I wait for another “wah-wah person” in Kawasaki Lazona, a large shopping mall with a wide open plaza located in the city of Kawasaki,

The city used to be the heart of the concentrated industrial zone closest to Tokyo, not to mention the noxious air pollution that made Kawasaki infamous nationwide in the 1960s and 70s.

It seems to me that the city is still struggling to escape that negative legacy. Nowadays, however, many parts of the greater city area are dominated by popular high rise apartments and condos.

In summer, many young couples enjoy talking in the open spaces under the night sky, but it is a different story when the chilly wind bites. There are a few people walking briskly across the plaza, while lazy jazz vocals reverberate through the air. Sometimes I wonder if the tune is merely the vibration of the wind.

In this no man’s land I start wondering if he will really show up at the time and place I designated, something I always do before interviews with people I have never met before.

Then, he appeared out of left field with his customized guitar and wah-wah pedal in their cases.

His name is Tsuyoshi Onodera, or Tsuyoshi. O, which is his stage name. He is one of the best rock and fusion guitarists in Tokyo, born in 1969. That was the year of Woodstock and, you might say, the year of rock music. “I’m pretty proud of being born in that year,” says Onodera.

“Chaos,” his first solo album, released in 2007 internationally, demonstrates the guitarist’s energy and emotion, and his wah-wah pedal resounds throughout.

Some of his friends have told him that he uses his wah-wah pedal too much. “I said, that can’t be helped,” he says with smile.

He says that the wah-wah pedal is a simple sound effects device and can be used by anybody. When you step on the pedal, the wah-wah sound kicks out and sustains. When you step off of it, no wah-wah sound remains. Stepping on and stepping off: The simple movement helps electric guitars create a colorful sound on stage and in the studio.

“The first step of the wah-wah pedal is to step on the pedal to the rhythm of the rap. When you get used to it, you may try to step on it on the offbeat. When you are going crazy with the wah-wah sound, it might be time to start stepping on and off along the phrase of song,” he continues.

“And if you can say you were out of your house with your wah-wah pedal and guitar when a big earthquake hits, well, congratulations, you are my kind of people. You should try to step on it as if you were talking, or singing a song.”

Onodera adds that the wah-wah pedal is really a better partner for the electric guitar.

“I think most electric guitars have their characteristic sounds in both high and low ranges. However, as for standard rock bands, since the middle range is dominated by a vocalist or vocalists, the weakness of the guitar may not be significant.”

“But once vocals are out and the guitar solo is in, the band may not keep its dignified style as they would when the vocals are featured, because of the weakness in the middle range of their created sound.”

“That’s because of the wah-wah pedal. No equipment but the wah-wah pedal can cover such weaknesses.”

Living with the wah-wah pedal.(Photo by Yas Mamemachi)

Onodera uses a limited edition VOX (one of the original brands) wah-wah pedal, which was sold in the year 2000.

Though the wah-wah pedal helps create a colorful sound, it has a downside, which is that the electric guitar sound becomes weaker when one of the multiple plugs extend among the guitar, the wah-wah pedal, and the amplifier, compared to a single plug that does the same between the guitar and the amplifier. This means that any guitarist may be bothered by a weaker sound even when he or she steps off as long as the pedal is plugged into his or her guitar and amplifier.

According to Onodera, his VOX 2000 has a bypass retrofitted into the circuit of the pedal so that the electricity travels straight through between his guitar and his amplifier when he steps off of the pedal.

“So the sound is less weak,” he says.

Moreover, his VOX pedal is remodeled to create the sound of wah-wah from extreme high to low ranges.

“There are two prototype models of the wah-wah pedal: VOX and Cry Baby. The VOX has a character to create the sound of wah-wah in the low range and Cry Baby focuses on the high range. My VOX covers both ranges,” he says.

“After all, the wah-wah pedal is emotionally connected to how I feel at a particular moment on stage, and it’s carried out with my guitar and my amplifier electrically.”

Bumpy career

After “Chaos” was released, he calls his music “psychedelic rock” with pride and he has been playing opposite a variety of musicians with drive and energy. But before the album his professional career was not an easy one. He has been wandering around the local music scene and was often disappointed.

Onodera, a native of Japan’s big northern island, Hokkaido, started his career in music by winning a nationally prestigious amateur pop music contest sponsored by YAMAHA in 1989, when he was still in college.

However, he was the only member of his band who turned his back on a promising road to pop stardom. “I wanted to play rock music,” he says.

He moved to Tokyo and looked for chances to play the music he wanted to play. There weren’t many. He has since made his living as a backup studio guitarist for about a decade. As a professional rock musician he had to make his living with his guitar. No other choice had been given to him by the Japanese music industry.

Since 1995, he has been financially stable as a session musician, thus allowing him to play his music: blues-based rock. Back then, he worked at a music club in Roppongi, the international area of Tokyo. He played his music there as long as time allowed. However, he says he has never been satisfied with the situation.

In 1999, Onodera felt depressed and went to Los Angeles in the United States, wondering if he might find psychological salvation in a fresh environment. He knew in his mind, however, “That’s not what would happen.”

He got the chance to play with local musicians at clubs in Santa Monica. But his blues rock received no more than “standard courtesy” there.

“One evening I wore jinbei, some traditional Japanese summertime casual wear that I bought in Little Tokyo (in Los Angeles), on stage and did some samurai action with a Flying V guitar. The local customers erupted into cheers and applause,” says the guitarist.

“I seriously wondered if this was the only way I could receive recognition here, and while I really appreciated it, it gave me a complicated feeling.”

Onodera plays hard wherever he has the chance to play his guitar. (Photo provided by Tsuyoshi. O)

After returning to Tokyo after his three-month experience in L.A., he realized that Japan had been basking in the afterglow of the so-called Bubble Economy of the 80’s and people had looked away from the tough reality to come.

With support from a big player in Japanese show business, Onodera got a chance to become a guitarist in a new rock band for the 100-year anniversary of Harley-Davidson motorbike, which was 2001.

“We went to the US to record the band’s first CD, including a Born-To-Be-Wild style of so-called American rock tunes, which was released through a major music label in Japan and our promotion video was shot on famous Route 66. The band members rode on Harley-Davidson motorbikes down the famous road,” says Onodera.

“I also had a chance to play the guitar at a famous live house in LA, the Whiskey-A-Go-Go. I remember it was great fun. But, still, I wondered if that was the music I really wanted to play.”

Onodera was out of the band by 2003, and has set his mind to playing the music he wants to play.

His own label for the future

These days Onodera has been working on two projects. One is to play with his new fusion rock trio, Psychedelic Rose.

“We try to create `fusion` music like jazz and funk meets rock, R&B and Japanese pops, which I think is rarely done in Japan,” says Onodera. “We plan to make the first album this summer.”

Onodera in a recording session. So far, his label has supported two young musicians, one of them a Jazz fusion pianist and the other a saxophonist. (Photo provided by Tsuyoshi. O)

The other is to produce young musicians and help release their albums on his label Gemstone Music.

“As for my label, like Sylvester Stallone who produced and made the movie ‘Rocky’ by himself based on his own script, which was rather unpopular in Hollywood, I established Gemstone Music to produce and release my first album ‘Chaos’,” says Onodera.

“At the same time I wonder if I can support young musicians, producing some events for them and releasing their albums through the label.”

He says that he has “grown up” and developed as a professional musician in the Japanese music industry probably because the industry was lucrative during the country’s Bubble Economy of 1980’s.

“Today the economic situation in Japan is completely different, and, as a result, young musicians hardly have a chance to enjoy similarly productive experiences like I did when I was young,” he continues. “So I hope I can help them live as professional musicians.”

On any given evening in February, Onodera was on stage in Tokyo as the guitarist of the supporting band for a young blues singer. He stepped on the wah-wah pedal over and over again during almost all the songs, once his guitar solo started.

He had no doubt and wore no ‘ginbei’ under the spotlight. With the sound of the wah-wah pedal he really enjoyed his music. The story of the wah-wah pedal continues.

*LINK: Tsuyoshi.O/Gemstone Music