If you are considering sending us pictures of your communicator prop - because you think or know it to be genuinely Wah-built - awesome!  Here's how best to do this... and what then follows.

If you have a (potential) original prop:

1) By sending us photos, you are allowing us to both distribute them internally high within our organization for review and to contact you privately with our thoughts and opinions.  Please indicate up front in your email that we are looking at a (potential) original.  If we do conclude it to be authentic, we would like to eventually make at least a few of your pictures public on our site to announce the good news, though we will dialog with you further before proceeding to that magnificent last step.  However, if we decide we cannot add yours to our Master Tracking List, be assured your name and photos will never be posted here or anywhere else, allowing you to seek unfettered opinions elsewhere.

2) Start please with just one hi-rez open "beauty" shot (half-way up at a mid-way angle), that will look like this:

With just a single such image, we'll know 99.999% of the time exactly what you've got.  (Note - the above prop is a replica.)

3) Should we suspect yours might be the real deal, moving forward we propose a two-step process.  Remember the more you give us the more certain we will be in our call - and the better we can defend the authenticity of your prop against any possible naysayers.  At this point we'll request nine photos that show off the key details.  Those photos are:  1) top, straight down, open antenna 2) bottom, straight down; 3) top, front-left low angle, open antenna; 4) top, back-right low angle, open antenna 5) top, front-right low angle, closed antenna; 6) top, left-back low angle, closed antenna; 7) control well details, straight down; 8) bottom, Velcro details low angle; and 9) antenna inside, straight down.  Samples of these nine ideal photos are shown below:

4)  Please send the photos as mega-pixel as you can get, and as sharp as possible.  To minimize lens "fish-eye" distortion, move the camera back as far as possible while still capturing everything with clarity.

5)  Should your prop open up by the removal of the four screws from the bottom shell, then also please include an inside photo of both top and bottom shells, showing off the inner surface texture of the plastic:

6)  If we're still enthusiastic after all that, we're going to then move into Round Three and ask you for additional shots, to learn all the tiny aspects of your prop.  It is a very high bar we must clear to opine with full confidence a prop to be an original Wah, and with the better information out there on building accurate replicas, we need to take ever more care.  We trust you can appreciate our caution and efforts to get it right, both for your benefit and ours.  Basically, every angle needs to be hit, which does add up to quite a few photos.  Use the two following galleries as a guide.  The four edge shots in the second grouping below on the right have the prop raised so that the midplate is at the same level as the camera lens, for a more revealing straight-on perspective:

And if you and we have made it to this point together, then... may the celebrations begin.   And THANK YOU!!!

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