Dunlop Crybaby 535Q

Easy enough to use; plug in and rock pedal back and forth with [one] foot. Mine came with the red Fasel inductor already installed and has several features that earlier 535Q's didn't have: Q and Volume controls are on the side of the unit instead of the bottom and there is a boost [toe] button to kick in whatever volume boost you've dialed in--very handy. The manual that came with mine is for the older design but the box that it came in had enough information printed on it to adequately describe the location of the controls. It runs on one 9V battery.

I'm using the 535Q in front of a Fender Twin/Marshall JTM running in stereo. I add a bit of delay and compression between the 535Q and amps. I use Strat, Paul, archtops, and others. The 535Q sounds great with all guitars; I upgraded from my old crybaby (sans Fasel) because I couldn't get vocal-like wah from humbuckers especially with distortion. The new 535Q does the job. No true bypass--why don't they make all pedal with true bypass?

The crybabys are very reliable; built like old buicks. However, the 535Q has a cheesy plastic battery compartment cover; should last a year or so before I break it and resort to duct tape. At least you don't have to take the whole bottom cover off to change the battery like the older ones!

Never had to deal with them.

The 535Q is ruggedly built and versatile; very musical and I find it truely inspiring. I play rock/jazz and this pedal gives me the classic wah sounds that I crave. Very cool! I'll replace it if anything happens to it!

The controls are many (more than most wha s) and, at least at the time, i was not particularly tone savvy, and therefor unsure of what they all did. But after a while i figured it out... So like all pedals, fiddling and patience gets you the best tones.

my setup has changed many times since using this pedal, but it has always produced a wide variety of quite pleasing sounds. It even stays pretty powerful right up untill the batteries died, so it was a rather unpleasant suprise. Non the less, it sounds great and is very versitile.

only a little while after i got it, the battery case (plastic, one of the only parts that is) broke and is now held on with duct tape. Also, as of late i have had trouble powering the pedal, fresh batteries haven't fixed the problem, but i havn't really fiddled long, it probebly just needs different batteries or a power supply (note, it is 18volt, not 9volt). Also, the thin metal base is bending out of shape. This is mostly cosmetic, so not a big deal. Everything else has held up superbly.

never used

It is versitile and sounds great, what more can you ask for. Reliability, thats what, and i havn't experianced consistant reliability from the pedal. But i kinda beat the tar out of it, so if you are interested, try it, if you like it, buy it and take care of it.

very easy to use, though you need time to play with it before you produce the sound quality you want.

i use an ibanez js1000 with a marshall amp and a multieefects and this 535q wah. it gives me the best tone i need. specially when i play joe satriani's songs. its an awesome wah pedal. it makes you feel that you have the exact wah tone as what he has in his album and concert acts.

its very dependable heavy duty wah pedal.

i never had a problem with it.

hey if your ready to play instrumentals or just trying to create your own sound, this is the best wah pedal for you.

Read the manual- it takes a bit more thought than your typical wah as you have to dial in your tone.

Classic wah tone that allows you to dial in more to your liking. The perfect compromise between the standard Crybaby/Vox/Thomas Organ/etc and the modern wahs like Morley, Digitech, etc.

My first unit didn't even work once, right out of the box. That was a major disappointment in Dunlop. I paid extra to get two day shipping from Zzounds and was so looking forward to my new toy and then to have it do... Nothing. :^(

Dunlop and Zzounds were both very friendly and answered the phone right away. However, I am giving Dunlop a low rating because they should take care of the returns instead of pawning that expense off to their resellers- this effect was fresh out of the box and didn't work at all. Dunlop should take care of the repair and offer free round-trip shipping. I give Zzounds a high grade- they do offer free shipping and a great return policy!

I play rock, a la Dandy Warhols/New Order/Low, etc. I've been playing for 12 years and play a Fender American Tele & a Guild Starfire through a Fender Twin Reverb. This pedal is the perfect match for my style of music- I like being able to dial in the parameters of the wah, but still having it sound organic and classic, unlike the Morley/Digitech offerings. I love this pedal, but hate Dunlop's manufacturing inconsistencies.

The most versatile and best wah pedal you can buy. It's simple to use, but just has a Q control (wah range), a volume control (boost), and a variable Q control (selective bandpass filter). Even with the extra controls, it is still a very easy pedal to use, it gives you more options on what you want your wah to sound like. If you are lost or don't know what one of the controls is for, the manual will help you out. Also, the manual has some sample settings to give you the wah sound that guys like Zappa, Hendrix, Marley, Page, Frusciante, and a few others, you can dial in settings to get the wah sound that they have. It's not as simple as a regular wah, it is more flexible/versatile which means more to it, but is still very easy to use.

I believe all the newer 535Q wahs are now sold with the Fasel Inductor, which gives you the tone of the original crybaby sounds. This pedal covers a huge range of wah sounds, anywher from a high range to the lowest range wah sound, and there is plenty different sounds inbetween them. The volume control is a good idea, but I barely use it, it only gives you a volume boost when the pedal itself is turned on. You can boost your signal up to +16 dB, or just leave it at 0 dB, which is your regular signal. This is the most tweakable wah I've ever used, and the best I've ever used. First, you can select your wah range with the big chrome knob on the right side of the pedal. It has 6 positions it can be in, you can get any range you want or even think of with this pedal. On top of that, you can tweak the wah even more by using the variable Q control, the small black control on the left side, you can adjust the sharpness of the bandpass. With the Q control turned up you get a high selective bandpass filter. With the Q control turned down, you get a broad bandpass filter that sounds somewhat like a volume pedal. You can get your own wah sound, or get the sound of any one of your favorite guitarists wah sound. I have tried most of the known wah pedals, and nothing can come close to how good this wah is. I had a Boss V-Wah, didn't like it, it's a digital wah pedal that emulates Dunlop, Vox, and Morley wah sounds, but sounds nothing like any of them, probably one of the worst wahs you can buy, and very overpriced. I sold my Boss V-wah to buy my 535Q wah. I have a Morley wah, but it's been sitting with all the other pedals I don't use, along with a Vox wah, and my Dunlop GCB-95, I replaced the GCB-95 with the 535Q. If you are looking for a wah, don't go with any of the crappy digital wahs or any of those Digitech multi-effect pedals with all the different distortions, effects, and wahs. The best wahs are Dunlop, Vox are good, but nothing compares to Dunlop, check out this pedal, nobody can be disappointed with one. I never thought I'd give any wah pedal a 10 because I could never find one with the exact sound I wanted, but the 535Q proved me wrong and will always be on my pedalboard, the price for it is amazing, and the pedal is amazing.

It's built with a very solid, sturdy body, the pedal is very tough, all Dunlop wahs are tough. The only thing I don't like is the little knobs for the volume control and the Q control, they are very small and close together, they should at least be bigger. But, I can deal with it.

I was waiting for the music store by me to get this pedal in, made sure they held one for me once they got them in. You aren't going to get more versatility like the 535Q on any other wah pedal, it's the best wah anyone can have. Trust me, the guys at the music store by you might make that crappy Boss V-wah sound great with it's onboard distortions, voice mode, uni-v, and the different wah sounds, but, the pedal is absolute garbage. The distortions are a joke, the wahs are very weak and digital, so they do not sound like real a real wah pedal should, they are simulations, and the voice mode is unuseable because it only works with the onboard distortions, if not then it just sounds like something is wrong with you amp if you use it with your own distortion, and the uni-v is a classic ruined by Boss. I bought the V-wah thinking it would be pretty good, but I was wrong, I made sure I sold it and bought the 535Q which is 10 times better than your average wah pedal and 10 times better than any wah that is out. I just about never give out 10's for a review, but this pedal deserves it more than any pedal I have, or at least is one of the best pedals out of the huge lot I have.

More set-up than I was used to, but fiddle with it you'll land a sound.

Manual was pretty helpful and nicely written.

I know a number of guys who have had issues with picking up radio stations etc with this pedal. I'll have to say that I've never had anything but the signal I wanted come from this thing both with battery and wall power. I'll have to attribute that to my sexy cables. Allesandro's cables are where it's at. Check 'em out.

Anyway, the wah does exactly what I need, it gives me a little more dirt for some nasty distortion and some squeel for big solos. I can't complain. The pedal doesn't color my tone at all when off... which is nice.

I don't gig with a backup and I've had this thing out weekly for 2 years. I do depend on it.

n/a

Although the pedal has never failed I don't like the build quality. The knobs and boost switch feel cheap to me. Also, the entire bottom plate of my pedal is pulling off. Not cool, but the thing still sounds good. A LED that tells you that the pedal is "on" would be nice.

If it were stolen I'd get a new one for sure.

Wahs are pretty easy to use. Duh. It just takes a while to find the perfect sound you want.

It ahas an awsome sound. I play mostly thrash metal Like Metallica, Pantera, and Megadeth. It serves its purpose. I love the sound I get when i bust out on a solo. It deserves a 10!

It is very dependabel. Moreso than a lot of my other stompboxes that have taken a beating in the past. I STOMP on my stompboxes. The wah has yet to fail me. If it gets lost or broken I would definately replace it. It gets a 9.

Never needed it yet.

As I already said, I play thrash metal and it does a good job. I would recomend it to others who wih to play this style. The only way you can get any better is a rackmount wah.

Easy to use but since it has different setting it's not just simply "plug in and go". But all settings sound fine and have their use, so you can't really go wrong.

Very smooth I'd say. Possibly the best sounding wah I've tried so far, and I have owned a Budda (which I thought was very smooth at the time). I'm giving it a 10 cause I have yet to hear something better.

Haven't had it long enough to know. Should be alright though.

No idea.

I don't use wah a lot but when I use it it's in conjunction with a clena tone and slide, so the wah needs to be smooth.

It's cool when a wahwah pedal can adjust to the custom tone and response you want. I cannot imagine any use for the thinner, "whicka-whicka" sounding settings, but at the opposite end of the spectrum I found some sweet, satisfying sounds when the pedal actually said "Wah." Nice! So why a lukewarm rating of 5 in this category? Because, set up as-is from the factory, the switching button under the toe of the rocker is too low, requiring a concerted shift of body weight to mash it far enough down to switch on/off, especially on anything softer than a hard tile floor. True, it's an easy adjustment to make with a small wrench, but Jim Dunlop or someone in his employ should maybe take care of that so it operates like a wahwah pedal when it leaves the factory. One of the rubber cushions has already fallen off, probably from all the force needed to switch the device on and off. For $129 retail I dislike having to "guess and test" to see if my stomp was hard enough, or not.

My gear (Fender, Gibson, various tube amps, etc.), and music (classic rock and blues) are irrelevant since my gripes would remain if I played polkas on an electric zither. As stated above, the tones are sweet and musical once you experiment around and dial in the sound you want, IF you can overlook loud unshielded radio noise. I compared with different guitars, cables, amps and my trusty old Crybaby GCB-95 (circa 1985 or so). Tried wall and 9v battery power as well - same noise. The brand new Crybaby 535Q was the only thing causing that problem. It's not too bad with the wah off, or backed off to the bass end of the throw. But pushing down to the treble end raised the volume of the radio interference noticeably. It ruins anything good the pedal might otherwise do. It would sound like a 9 if the obnoxious interference didn't knock it down to 1, so I'll split the difference and call it a generous 5.

So at practice last night, back from a drain/fill break (guitar volume off - amp on to stay hot), the rig was silent. I checked the guitar, the amp, the knobs, the pickups, cords all the way in - swapped everything out - nothing! Finally, it occurred that I should cycle the crappy new pedal once, and I was back on! I don't recall anything in the directions saying the pedal has a secret silent function until you wag it around in desperation after nothing else works. I'd be FURIOUS if that lame shit happened on stage! It's hard to rate this numerically on a one-time failure (so far), so I won't.

I've had no dealings with Dunlop. But you can bet this turd and the receipt are headed right back to "Guitarget" before 30 days are up! THEY can settle it with Dunlop (if they don't just trot it back out onto the sales floor).

I'm really disappointed with this pedal. My other Crybaby has been reliable for nearly 20 years with a rebuild a few years ago to replace a worn, scratchy pot (typical when they get old). But it had no DC plug and it buzzed when I tried to power it that way, so I bought this new one to add to a transformer powered pedal board. It does THAT, but the noisy operation, surprise failure, and ridiculous effort to turn it on and off (maybe), render it useless for playing live music. Verdict? I'll just keep feeding the occasional battery to my old one and maybe take a shot at "upgrading" again in 20 more years with a thorough 29-day test drive. I'm sad it didn't work.

Q knob, volume, sweep and boost button. Oh, yeah, the foot-sized switch itself. It definitely takes a little fiddling around with this pedal to get a sound you like, but it is worth it. I don't use mine much when I play, mostly just for vaguely psychadelic sounds or quacking or rhythmic, percussive slashing. I sometime leave it on in stationary positon too. A wah is a little different from other effects in that you do have to practise with it a little to get it to sound good. A good wah player is a little rare. But I digress, very easy to use in general. I do wish it had an LED though.

Sounds fine to me. As I said before, I mostly use it to make myself sound more spacey, or to make my funk a little more rhythmic. I also sometimes leave it on in stationary, but not much. Anyway, this thing can do all kinds of different sounds, from Cantrell to Hendrix to Hammet to Funky stuff. I like it. I used to have an original Crybaby, but it had almost no sound, no sweep and caused much hiss. Chief Big Kookamunga no like. But I don't have any such problem with this puppy. Plus, it doesn't suck your tone like an unmodded vox wah does, not quite as sweet as the vox though.

Never had a problem with it. My old wah, an original Crybaby was a POS, it never worked this thing is a tank, and the battery is easy to change too.

Never dealt with them.

A very good versatile wah wah. Oh yeah, BTW my rig is MIJ 89' std strat w/EMG DG-20 -> Boss DD-2 -> Johnson 50's tremolo -> 535q -> Trace elliot super tramp w/ BBE 362 sonic maximizer in the effects loop. A decent college budget rig, suitable for jamming with friends and recording, in other words, me. Anyway, I like this thing, it suits my needs, even though they are not many. I would definitely recommend it.