Dunlop Crybaby 535Q

Actually USING the thing is easy, as all wah-wah pedals are ... finding your sound can take a little bit of tweaking, as is naturally the case when there are knobs involved ...

I play a Fender American Deluxe Strat (and occasionally an Epiphone Les Paul+) --> DOD Juice Box --> 535Q Crybaby --> BOSS TR-2 --> Marshall AVT100 ... often I only plug in one or two of those pedals at a time, though ...

This is a very versatile pedal, every tone is usable ... but to my ears there are only a couple of very good tones ... there's no excellent tones, no one super sound ... and, as is common with Crybaby wahs (excluding the Classic Fasel model, perhaps) it can get very nasal and thin ... of course, that's why the range shifting knob is there, but when you lower the range you tend to lose definition and clarity, and the effect is generally less noticable ...

I have had problems in this category ...

Firstly, the battery cover broke on this thing the first day I got it ... it's been held in place with blutack ever since, and falls off regularly, which is a real pain ... I haven't bothered to find a replacement cover, but might do so soon.

Secondly, I have problems with the switch every now and then ... a lot of the time, if the treadle touches the switch while you are using the wah, it can cause the signal to cut out completely. However, I think that this happens much less when the battery is fresh ... still, it means I virtually have to change the battery once every fortnight to avoid the signal drop, despite the fact I'm always careful to disconnect everything when I'm not playing ...

I play mostly blues, rock, alternative or anything that sounds cool ... I've been playing over 7 years and have had this pedal for about 3 years ... I'm getting rid of it soon because I haven't yet found a really excellent sound from it & I'm a bit fed up with the reliability issues too ... gonna get a Real McCoy Picture Wah probably ...

Anyways, the pedal is still pretty good, and exceptionally versatile ... so if you're looking for a lot of good, different sounds, this is probably your type of pedal.

Didn't get a chance to try it out... it broke first....

Didn't get a chance to try it out... it broke first....

The "Think it worked once." quote is even being generous... I hope I am having bad luck but when I got it it was broken... The little stick thing moves the potentiameter thing when you step on and off the pedal was broken when I recived the pedal.

Haven't used them.... am going through my local music store because I won't even have it 12 hours by the time they are open again and go to take it back.....

Well I don't want to trash this pedal because apparently it sounds great but I am just lettting you know that it can crap out on you very very very easily.

It is very easy to get a good sound out of this pedal! The variable Q knob is so handy, I can go from vintage vox-like wah to modern wah. The manual gives you some examples of how to recreate some famous tones,they are pretty accurate.

I am currently using a Squier Stratocaster and a Peavey Rage 158. I am also running a Zoom 505II before the wah. The wah is not really noisy in my opinion. The effects always sound really awsome with this wah. All the wah frequencies are great!

It's a Dunlop wah, it's made from die-cast steel. I sure can rely on this wah. I would definately use this wah without a backup!

I haven't dealt with Dunlop yet because they made such a strong, reliable wah pedal.

I play rock and metal stuff. This wah is perfect beacuse it has the Fasel inductor. The inductor gives it a nice tone with loads of distortion. I have been playing for about a year. If this were stolen or lost, I would definately purchase another one of these! I love the sweep and how good it sounds, the boost is also extremely useful for leads. I compared this to other wah pedals (Dimebag wah, Tremonti power wah, Classic crybaby) and the only one that compared was the Dime one. It was $100 more and this wah had all the same features! This wah inspires me to new levels of playing all the time. That's all for my review, I totally recommend this pedal for any level of musician

Easy, but you must master this thing to express yourself.

Good sounds, versatile all the way up. I like the Q very low to get volume-like swells. I would have liked a Faselinductor. I need a more vocal quality.--A little nasal, not so musical. I expected a Shaftier sound.Noisy when the boost in on. Not so tone sucking as I expected.I am looking forward the GiG-FX Master Wah. It seems pretty godd as well. I want to modify this thing with a Fasel Red inductor. I am sure it will get better anyway.

Very well built. Quality components, but hard to modify, as there are some surface mount tiny components.

I could never contact Dunlop, but I requested a catalog and they sent it to me. Great!, burt I have been able to clear my doubts.

Great but hard to modify, lacks the vocal quality I wanted. VERY VERSATILE. The six selections are well tuned. Quality selector. I would have liked metal knobs and quality pots for the Q and Volume Boost. I wanted to be brief. Thanks for reading.

Pretty easy to use and offers a lot of wah options.

Sound quality is good as far as using the wah goes. However, when bypassed this pedal sucks the tone right out of your guitar and amp (I use a '79 Strat and Marshall JCM 900). Maybe I just have a bum pedal, but a quality true bypass switch and wiring is needed. I've read other reviews stating this pedal has a true bypass, but I couldn't find that claim on the Dunlop web site, and that's a major selling point. All the endorsements by superstars for this peadal are nice, but I'd bet those endorsers have modifications done to replace cheap components.

The Boost is pretty much worthless unless you like hissing and noise. Oh, it is near impossible to engage with your foot (logical limb a person would use based on where it's placed).

I won't use it for my performances because of the "tone suck" going on. I could probably buy a true bypass switching pedal and eliminate the wah pedal when not engaged, but why bother? I'll just buy a better wah and pawn off this one on ebay.

I like MXR and Dunlop and hope to never have to call them for tech support.

If you are in the market for a wah I'd find something else. When engaged the wah it's nice, but when not engaged--look out. Do yourself a favor and listen closely when shopping, especially if you are buying from a large music store. Some of the "department store" guitar/music places are nerve wrecking just walking in the door so you may not be able to detect what's really going on with all the blairing music, noise, and guitar slingers impressing themselves. Pay a few extra bucks to get quality!

I decided to try the 535Q after being dissatisfied with the Ibanez WD7. I think the 535Q is better than the WD7 for the following reasons: I don't have to worry about the 535Q switching off when the pedal is in the up position. My tone is cleaner when the pedal is used with the clean channel on my amp. It doesn't add as much distortion as the WD7. The WD7 is too bulky, the 535Q is more compact.

The biggest imperfection of the 535Q is that there are no markings on the wah to indicate the low/high knob positions. You have to turn the knobs all the way in both directions in order to get a reference point. The sample settings in the manual have markings (although the manual doesn't indicate low and high positions for the range knob) so why doesn't the wah itself? It would make adjustments alot easier. I plan on drawing some dots on the case for this reason.

Other than that, the 535Q is very straightforward and easy to use.

My setup: Carvin DC135C -> 535Q -> Yamaha DG130HA w/ Digitech VGS2120 in the effects loop. The sound quality is very good. It has the signature CryBaby sound. It adds some noise to the signal but nothing substantial.

It seems like a well built pedal. I haven't had it long enough to know how durable or reliable it is.

I emailed Dunlop with some questions about the 535Q before I bought it. The response was helpful.

Other than the WD7, I've tried the RMC2, RMC3 and the Boss PW10. The 535Q is the best wah that I've tried so far. The RMC3 might be better but I didn't like it because the controls are internal.

I would definitely recommend the 535Q unless you just don't like the CryBaby sound. The main reason I wanted a wah like the 535Q was so I could get a wide range of wah sounds. I was able to replicate the wah sounds of many different guitarists such as Zappa, Hendrix, SRV, Page, Satriani and Clapton. I can also get some very nice clean funk sounds.

Not quite as easy as a "non controlable" because you have to spend some time tweaking to get your sound and feel out of it.

I am very happy with the unit. I was originally using a Tesse RMC 1 and after a couple of years with it I decided that I would like a wah with a different feel in the sweep. The 535Q allows me to get the smooth feel I need and sounds great doing it. I especially wanted the a large hollowed out section in the sweep and it does it better than the RMC 1.

strat w/ Lindys -> 535Q -> Fulldrive -> ChoralFlange -> MXR AutoWah
-> Line 6 DL4 -> 67 Deluxe Reverb w/ Weber California speaker

I have had it for about 4 months and the switch is a little suspect at times. I get an intermitant cut out between some switching operations. I am an electrical engineer and I cant find the problem, It may be new switch time.

A good pedal. I play in a 9 peice funk band so I use it often. It does what I want for the most part with a little bit of fuss with the switch.

easy, just unwrappit plug it in and rock the pedal. everyone says its hard to work because youve got to set your own tone, but just read the instruction manual!

i use a fender jagstang and a fender 1969 strat 9 (or sumthing) with a line6 spider 2 amp. and it sounds great!! the good thing is you can shape your wah, and if ya can't be bothered doin that then just read the manual, it tells you how to match the wahs of jimi hendrix, jimi page, john frusciante, tom morrello etc.
i originally had a korg multi effects pedal, and it had a built in vox wah that sucked, it barely made a wah impact, im not sure if the real things like this. i tryed out a boss v-wah and it was absoulute crap, it was more of a multi effects than a wah.

i haven't had it for long so i don't know

again, i haven't had it for long, but i haven't had to deal with them yet.

i play funk/punk/rock plus tons of other shit, this is a great match for me and even if you don't play those styles youll probably find a wah sound to soot your liking. iv been playing for about 4 years now and this is my first actaul single effect, if it was stolen would i replace it? does a bear shit in the woods? my opinion is try out this pedal first and try out as many wahs as you can.

plug and play. after you plug it in and play some, you can adjust the sound if you don't like. that's why those knobs are there, right?

i love the fact that the 535Q is true bypass. that alone is worth the price of admission. it's got a decent sweep on it and it stays in the position i want it to. awesome.

i've had it for almost 6 years now and have never had any problems with it. i even dropped it once and i bent up the bottom plate pretty good. i just bent it back and it works fine.

hopefully, i won't have to deal with these guys.

i've played on a few different wahs in my 11 years of playing and i have to say that i like this one the best so far. i've played on the vox, the morley (mark tremonti model), and the standard morley.

the vox sucks tone like no other. i couldn't believe that a pedal could suck so much tone. i stayed away from wahs for a while because of this. i was told that it was the top of the line back then (8 years ago), so i figured any other wah would suck worse (no pun intended). wrong. i hated the vox.

both morley's sounded harsh and artificial to me. the tremonti model was a little better than the standard, but i didn't like the delay when switching on and off. the tremonti model only stays in the "up" position, which sucks because sometimes players want that all the way down or middle tone to help color up some rhythm or lead work. didn't like it.

i primarily play rock and blues. any bluesman/rocker will tell you a wah is essential for their arsenal. it's a tool for better expression.

definitely would replace if it got jacked or out of my own stupidity, lost.

i wish it came with about $17k to pay off my school loans. haha.

Three knobs,and one button on the side make this the most complicated Dunlop wah. However, the buttons are really only needed once, so that you can tune your wah to whatever settings you want. After that, just toe down and whacka whacka away. The two little knobs on the left of the pedal are hard to reach/turn when you're trying to fine tune your wah sound. However, the fact that they're sort of recessed and out of the way keeps your final settings from changing, so it's definately worth the (slight) aggrevation. The manual has some very good presets for sounds to start tweaking with.

I usually run an Epiphone Dot (with '59 neck and Seth Lover bridge and strung with .11s) -> Boss PSM-5 Power Supply & Master Switch -> Boss BD-2 Blues Driver -> Dunlop 535Q -> Boss PS-3 Pitch Shifter/Delay. My signal goes into a traynor Reverb Mate 40. The PSM-5 powers everything from a single Boss power adapter. This wah adds no noise to my setup when not engaged!
Personally, I like the sound of having my wah after distortion (I think that I'm in the minority on this matter . . ., but don't discount my opinion just because of that!). I have been able to find settings that emulate Hendrix (Voodoo Chile), Zeppelin (Dazed and Confused), Bob Marley (Burnin' and Lootin'), Slash (Sweet Child O' Mine) and Curtis Mayfield (Ghetto Child). I usually set it similarly to the Zeppelin preset in the manual, as this is the sound that I like the best (combine it with a little delay, reverb, and a pinch of chorus). Really, if you like a wah sound you'll be able to get it from this pedal.
The only thing that I never use on this pedal is the red button for solo boosts . . . I have noticed a little click when I initially turn the wah on, but this isn't very loud and doesn't happen everytime that I step on the pedal. No real complaints from me.

This is a very solid pedal. Maybe not indestructible, (I wouldn't want to see what a hammer could do to the knob on the side . . . ) but why would you try to destroy your gear? It has never failed me in more than a year of home use / occasional jam session.

This is an awesome pedal for rock, classic rock, reggae, funk . . . you name it. I've been playing for more than five years now, and am slowly buying musical equipment to suit my style of playing and the sounds that I like. I don't use a wah in every song, but I love playing with them . . . This was the best sounding wah in the guitar store that I tried. (I played with a budda wah, boss v-wah, some kind of morley wah, vox wah, and a dunlop jimi hendrix wah before I made the descision to buy this.)