Dunlop 105Q Crybaby Bass Wah

Wahs are terribly easy to use, and this is as well. The only cchallenges to the intellect might be the "Q" and volume trim controls protruding from the side. Those familiar with the more complex Dunlop guitar wahs will have no problems. There is an input jack, output jack, wolume control (sorry, can't recall the dB boost), wah wave ("Q") control, and barrel-type (5.5mm outer/2.1mm pin) 9 volt adapter jack. The battery compartment, should you be using a battery, is, unlike my Crybaby, accessible without removing the whole bottom plate. Dunlop has provided a little plastic trap door. The switch is not mechanical, but activated by rocking the pedal forward, like Morley's stuff. From what I have gathered, this is the only Dunlop pedal that operates in this manner. The pedal returns to the "off" position via its own internal spring.

Used with a Rickenbacker 4003 (late '90's), Dunlop M88 bass octave, and mid-'90's SVT into a home made matching 4x12 cab., this thing gets the job done. It's not as dramatic as I thought it would be, because all the way forward and almost all the way back, the effect is diluted. In the middle areas, however, you will pull off some pleasant, if light, wacka-wackas. I think the lack of dramatic effect must have been a trade-off for the saving grace of this pedal--the lack of tone alteration. The 105Q is extremely transparent for a non-boutique effect.

C'mon...

I've always been treated well when plaguing them with incidental inquiries.

Use it where you want. I've played bass consisently for about a year, guitar for about eight. It's a fun effect, good for volume increases. It's not necessary to me, by far, but it could become integral eventually. I wouldn't have paid full retail for it, but eBay took care of that for me. I think, most of all, I liked the fact that, when activated, this starts at the constricted bass-end of the wah shape. It's not like those others that start in the high end as you click the switch.

It's a wah, dude. Put your foot on it and go! Easiest effect in the world, and one of the coolest.

I play a modified Epiphone Powerbass II with EMG pickups. My setup goes Bass-->Zoom 607 Bass Multi-Effects-->105Q Wah-->Amp. I play on a crapola little practice amp in my bedroom, and rent one of a variety of big-ass amps for any gigs/events I play at.

I play a pretty broad range of music, from Goth Rock to Metallica style metal to Stoner Rock to Psychadelic to all kinds of 60's-70's stuff. This wah rocks for all of em. Put fuzz in the chain BEFORE the wah and you can do the Rage Against The Machine "Calm Like A Bomb" thing, the Black Sabbath "Electric Funeral" thing, any number of 60's stoner jams, classic rock, etc. Turn off the distortion, play around with the multi-fx and you can get a Radiohead thing going on. Very cool.

The only complaint I have is that it's so much fun that it's easy to overuse it, and you sound lame doing it on every song!

Seems to be built like a brick. It's never let me down.

N/A- never dealt with them, hope I never have to :)

Kicks some serious ass, all over the spectrum of rock music. Allows you to get all kinds of awesome sounds, really simple but totally versatile. The best effect in my arsenal, not that my arsenal is that big...

I love the sounds I get out of this thing, especially in combination with other effects. It can do Goth, Metal, Psychadelic, Funky Stoner Sh*t, Classic Rock, and probably all kinds of stuff that I can't do. So that's pretty damn cool!

It's a WAH! For BASS! Plug it in and STEP ON IT! How easy is THAT? Toe forward for more, heel back for less. It came with a manual, but as always... didn't read it. Didn't need to!

It's a very quiet pedal. Shhhhhhhh... Did you here that? It has a nifty Q knob that determines how much wah you get. AND it has a volume knob. This IS the model with the spring and yes, there is that annoying delay that our friend has remedied. (Thanks, neighbor!) When I put the toe into it, it has that 70s "Superfly" pimp thing going. I sometimes use it with my Boss ODB-3 overdrive (cough, distortion) and CEB-3 chorus with my Squier P Bass Special. Man, talk about flying! Ethereal! Pure heaven! If you play any psychedelic shtuff, BUY THIS PEDAL!

I treat ALL my gear with kid gloves, but it SEEMS to be solid enough. Can't afford a "backup" wah, so...

Never dealt with 'em.

Been playing for a bit and this pedal fits right in there. I don't use it on EVERY song we do (ha, ha, ha), but when it's time to get FUNKY, this baby does tricks! If it was stolen, I would be really, really pissed as I'm ordering another one. For blues, funk or
psych-rock, this pedal CANNOT BE BEAT!

READ THIS ONE IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW TO GET RID OF THE ON/OFF DELAY!!!
Step on it?not that hard. This is the model with the spring in it?when you lift your foot; it automatically goes back to the heel-down position. If you want to keep the same tone for a while, just keep your foot on the pedal. Unless you?re an extreme full-body headbanger, this shouldn?t present much of a challenge.
When the pedal is not at all depressed, it is bypassed (normal bass tone). Press the pedal down, even a little bit, and it switches on. I like this better, because generally I like to start by sliding into the treble setting, which you can?t on a regular bass wah (for those who don?t know, you have to press it all the way down on other models).
This model includes a volume control (this does not affect the bypass volume) and a Q-control (how much it wahs). The Q can be adjusted to anything from a slight variation to the point where it sounds like some kind of synth when you rock the pedal back and forth quickly.
The only thing which can get very annoying about this pedal is the automatic on-off mechanism. Dunlop wanted to make sure that if we happened to put this pedal all the way back in the middle of a lick, it wouldn?t cut out and switch to by-pass. Their solution was to put a delay on the switch, so that it will only switch back after half a second of so of being in the full-back position. The problem with this is obvious: if you go straight from a wahed lick into a riff, the first note of you riff will come out very low. This happening every time (unless you end all your wahed parts a second early) every time is in my opinion, much worse that risking it switching to by-pass every once in a while during lead when you take it all the way back. Luckily, this is very easy to change. Here?s how to do it:
At the very heel of the pedal, there is a switch pointing up on the base. When the pedal is in full back, this switch is depressed. Otherwise, it is not.
There is a delay circuit connected to the switch. As soon as the switch is pressed in, current flows through it, through a resistor, and begins to charge up a capacitor. Once that capacitor is charged (about half a second), the wah switches off and the pedal is by-passed.
Note that when the switch is open (the pedal is presses, you start using the wah) there is no delay. As some of you may know (or remember from physics class), if you reduce the value of the resistor, more current will go through it. And the more current, the faster the capacitor charges up (and the sooner by-pass kicks in).
So what we want to do is reduce the resistance of the resistor. (We could change the capacitor to a smaller one, but for this pedal, the resistor change is easier.)
Take off the panel on the bottom of the wah. Also unscrew the nuts which hold on the input and output jacks. Take out the 2 big screws holding the circuit board, and unplug the cables (just pull) which connect the circuit board to the potentiometer (the round thing with gears and with all the grease slimed over it). You might want to notice which way it was connected?the wires come out of the plug pointing toward the bottom of the pedal?I think (I?ve since put it back together).
Now that you?re holding the circuit board, look at the switch (on the opposite side as everything else). Press that, you?re in bypass mode. Turn it over again. To the left of the switch (looking from the side with all the components except the switch) is a diode. To the right, you will see two resistors (blue things with colored rings on them.) The top one (the one closest to the edge, for you idiots holding it upside down) is the one we?re concerned with. If you count up the value of the rings, you get 2 megaohms (I think, I?m lazy, so I used a multimeter.) Either chop this resistor off and solder a new one in it?s place, or just go ahead and stick another one on top of it (run them in parallel). Just make sure the new value of the resistor is a lot smaller. I cut

This is a great bass wah, sound quality wise. The variable Q lets you adjust the scope of the effect. Very high, you get a really cool synth tone while you?re moving the pedal. Holding it constant, you get just the kind of affect you?d expect from a wah. Fully pressed down gives you lots of treble (especially on a high Q setting), and full back gives you lots of bass, kinda muffeled sounding, but in a good way (like wahs are supposed to make it sound.) When the by-pass mode switches on or off, there is no click or anything, and the fact that it starts on the low part of the spectrum makes it even smoother to switch from wah to by-pass (unlike any other wah, where you start at the high, trebley part of the spectrum, often with a nasty click of the switch).

The last year I?ve been playing with a psychedelic punk band (hard to describe?think old school-punk (Ramones) mixed with happy David Bowie style stuff?we?re weird)
I generally don?t run to many effects in my loop, but I?m starting to build a bigger arsenal. I don't like using picks, I prefer fingering. My primary bass is a Danelectro DC-2, which I love. It?s great for our style music (hollow body, lipstick pickups). I run that into a ToneWorks Korg AX1B multi-effects processor, sometimes from that into a cheap crappy DOD Supra Distortion (helps take the digitalness out of the Korg?s distortions), from that, it goes into my Wah, then my amp. My amp head is a Peavey Mach VI 400-watt bass head, and into cabinet I made myself, (acoustic suspension style, two 15? pyle-drivers rated 350 watts RMS each.) By the way, if you think electronic circuitry is difficult, just try some acoustical engineering?way more math.)

I used to sometimes run my bass into two different amps?a clean, direct signal to a bass amp, and my effects into a guitar amp (with the low frequencies turned down so I wouldn?t blow the speaker.) I haven?t done that since I got the Wah, though.

The way sounds great with my current set-up?I?d be very curious to see how differently it sounds through different cabinet, such as a 4X8? or something?although I do get all the treble I need through my two 15?s

I got this used off e-Bay (Where I get most of my musical stuff). I've never had any problems with it, and works even though I've been poking around in it with a soldering iron...which is more than I can say for some of the stuff I've tried to improve. All the rubber feet are still on, as is the battery cover (I've never really understood how so many people seem to loose these items...I've never lost them off any of my pedals. They seem quite well attached.)

I've had this wah pedal for about 6 months now. I don't use it that much when reheasing, more when gigging. I don't think that I've changed the battery yet. Pretty impressed with that. I don't know how that compares to other Wahs, but it's certainly a lot better than most of my other pedals.

No need to get in contact with them...And if I did, I somehow get the feeling that my little modification of the delay might not please them....damn...I didn't think about that until just now...Oh well, it was an eBay buy, so I didn't have a warrenty anyway.

It's a great wah, especially now that it has no delay. I can't think of anything bad about it, and while I don't usually like to give all 10s, I have no reason not to for this one. I can get any wah tone I need from a subtle swooshing to a full Cliff Burton "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth" (Metallica) blast for those special notes you really want to emphasize.
At $45 off ebay, it's a great deal for us starving artists. If it were lost or stolen (And I didn't think my guitarist stole it like he does my picks) I can't think of anything else I'd rather buy than this. It certainly sounds a lot better than the Danelectro Grilled Cheese Distortion pedal that I took apart and tried to make into a wah (take out the resonace potentiometer, and connect...oh never mind. If you're interested, I might post a review of that sometime...)

Plenty easy: step on it, rock your foot, get wah! The trick is knowing what portion of the range is actually usefull.

Worked great for the first month, now the damn thing cuts my volume in half.

Hell no! The first one I had lasted three months and I snapped the on/off shaft. The second one lasted a month and now it cuts the volume.

I consider it horrible, since I e-mailed their customer service site over a week ago and haven't heard a word since. I have gigs coming up and need answers NOW!

I play very heavy stoner rock and the wah is an integral part of my sound, so having two break in four months is rediculous.

What can I say? Plug in and step on it!

This thing has about the best sound I've ever heard in a bass wah! I really think that this is the best quality bass wah out there.

Very reliable. It seems to be very well constructed, and the electronics look very good.

Never dealt with them.

This is an excellent wah. It works real well with funk bassists and the jazz and blues bassists. It really depends on how you use the thing. There are many different ways for different styles. I would buy another one if I lost this one. The only thing that I would like it to have is to have a control so you can control the amount of time it takes for the wah to go off. Other than that, I really like it.

How much easier can it get? Only a mental midget couldn't figure out a wah. The only other feature that sets this wah apart are the volume and Q controls on the left side which are pretty intuitive as well. I sort of agree with previous reviewers that the spring supported as opposed to standard feature is a blessing and a curse, although I wouldn't go so far as to call it a curse. In a perfect world, it would be cool to have the option of both, but that would be a bit of of overkill and make the pedal twice as expensive I'm sure. The only drawback is that you can't leave the pedal in one position and take your foot off. But this isn't enough a drawback for me to lower my 10 rating because my feet aren't that busy while I'm playing anyway (they shouldn't be unless you have an extensive pedal array - and if you do, what the hell are you thinking? You're a bass player moron - simplify!) and the fact that there's no horrible clicking noise when you turn this pedal on and off more than makes up for any reservations I might have. You just take your foot off - and it's OFF - f@#*ing GENIUS!! This wah leaves all others I have played (guitar and bass) in the dust, especially for the price!

I'm using a late 90's American Standard Jazz Bass through whatever amps happen to be supplied to me at rehearsal studios throughout LA. Usually El Crapo Crate or Gaelen Krueger heads and cabs. Also through my baby - a workingman's 15 combo. This pedal sounds fantastic through all of them. This puppy is quiet as hell both on and off. The Q and volume controls really allow you to get versatile tones from this pedal. I've been using it after a big muff (until I get my BOSS bass dist. - big muffs rock but they devour your low end) and it sounds amazing for specific parts. I'm not a funk/slapper or a metal head so I use this for more experimental out there distorted stuff and this pedal couldn't be better for this application. I've only scratched the surface of what this pedal can do and I'm exciting to hear what other sounds I can coax out of it. I'm reluctant to get to effects heavy because I don't think that's what a bass plyer is for, but my fellow band mated loved the way this pedal sounded when used in the right places. I'd give this an eleven if I could especially because it's so hard to find bass pedals that don't completely pull the low end out from under you.

Seems to be tank like in construction. Haven't gigged with it yet but I don't have any reservations so far. Only gets a nine due to my lack of experience with it live.

No idea.

I play a genreless music somewhere between Sonic Youth and Wire with a little Pixies thrown in perhaps. This pedal is very useful for my needs. It compliments fuzz/distortion very well. I've been playing guitar/bass for about 5 years. I think this pedal tops any other in its price range and perhaps beyond, I haven't bothered trying any super expensive pedals, because I don't have the capital. Buy this pedal! Or better yet, don't and let me try to sound like an original!

I love the sounds it can produce.. the variable Q is awsome to work with and really gets the sound you are looking for from anything to subtle background to a really intense soloing. The volume controls also bring up the intensity if you are one of those musicians who goes for the heavy funk. anyone who has 1/2 hr and a brain can manage this pedal..but don't back off too far on the pedal when playing cuts out...sucks

.i went to a show where this one bassist in this metallica-heavy punk mixture band was using the crybaby bass wah and the effects sounded like the tone was just DRIPPING all over the music ..it was beautiful..really beautiful..as for when i use it i like a flange affect w/ it to smooth it over

ALWAYS!! its made of die cast steel...only way to really brake it unless you are a real hard stomping fat mo fo' or you like to throw your pedal at brick walls..which neither is me.

N/A

wish every bassist owned one ...could revolutionize funk as we know it..damn right i'd buy it again..the dripping wah is music to my ears..i played with a friends before i bought mine...i loved the sound ..it was all i could talk about for like 4 days!i like the ay you can incorporate it into music but it can smother the bass if you use it too much..be nice with it and it will be nice back

You turn the knobs, you put your foot down, rock the pedal and of you wah!!

Er... well, I use it for guitar. I put it behind my distortion pedals and before my Bigg Muff and the rest of my pedals and rack systems. My guitars are an Epi Flying V with Duncans, a stock Washburn N2 and an old mysterious Cimar guitar ( does anyone have info on Cimar guitars? contact me.)
My amp is a Marshall JCM 900slx set to a mildly crunchy sound through a small Crate 4x12 that sounds really focused and tight.
Well what's to say, it's a unique and funky wah sound for guitar. I guess if people didn't see the Bass sticker on it they would recognize this is a great wah.
A little trick I discovered: push the pedal down very slowly with max Q, it sounds like a DJ turning up his resonance pot.

Still WahWahing like a loon

Does what it is supposed to do like a charm

Real easy to use. The only variable is the volume and 'Q' settings which are knobs located on the bottom of the pedal. Once you play with these a bit you can leave it alone. The rest isn't rocket science.....just step on it to get the juices flowing.

I love this pedal for the way it sounds. I do not have much to compare it to since I have not used another wah. I have used an auto wah and t-wah, and even the Q-tron, but I prefer this one over then all. The best thing about it is you can control the sound. Depending on the 'Q' setting you can go from subtle to complete funk factory!! I find myself stompling on it constantly. The sound is crisp and clear and it is quiet. Even when it is off there is no drop in volume or noise. The only criticism I can give is that you can mistakenly turn the wah off if you lean back on it too much. It has a spring that automatically turns it on and off whn stepped on. Just be careful and you'll be rockin'!

I have not had one single problem with this yet. I have had it for over a year with no issues, and I am not too light on my feet.....

Bought this off of e-bay used and have not had to contact the company for any reason.

A++ I would recomend this to any bassist that likes to dick around with effects. I added this to my arsenal and it has not left yet. This is one of about 20 different effects that I have tried and it has come to be a big part of my sound. While I don't write it into many songs I can really groove out and hang on a wicked solo. My band plays alot of funky jazz influenced rock so I get a little freadom to experiment with my effects. If you get this pedal fool around with it and mix in some delay for some nasty spaced out sh*t.