Dunlop DB-01 Dimebag Signature Crybaby

I gotta disagree with a lot of the reviewers here about the ease of use of this pedal. While it's definately not rocket science, and anyone with a rudimentary understanding of what all the knobs do will be able to figure it out in short order, it's just as easy to get a bad sound as from this thing as it is to get a good sound. I had to live with the pedal for a good few weeks before I was happy enough with the tone to add it to my pedalboard.

That said, the pedal is pretty simple to use once you've got it dialled in. The extra features unique to this model (skateboard griptape, etc) are all handy come gig time.

Once dialled in to suit my rig, the sound quality of this pedal is pretty awesome. I'm a big fan of Dime's, but don't play anything like him (our band plays everything from country to blues to rock and pop) and this pedal seems to suit most styles fine. It's not vintage sounding, but then it's not supposed to be.

Built like a tank, and designed to gig, and be gigged hard. I've certainly not taken it easy on the pedal, and it's shown no signs of failure. My only grip is the flimsy metal plate on the bottom - I had this pedal mounted to a pedalboard with velcro strips up the middle, and taking it off the board caused the plate to bend alarmingly. I've since stick velcro to the four rubber feet instead, but haven't had enough playing time with it to tell if this is a good solution yet.

Never had to, wouldn't expect much of them. If it breaks, I'll take it to the local store who'll fix it.

Great pedal, with more features than I really need. I'll probably get another wah down the line, either a Teese RMC2 or a Prescription Wah. Still, this thing is just so damn cool that I'll never sell it, it'll end up on display in my bar if I stop using it.

Really easy to use... Just follow the instructions on the underside of the pedal... Totally idiot-proof!!!!!!!!

Basicall i bought this pedal instead of the 535Q after reading the reviews here, and boy did i make the right decision... i use a Jackson performer series 2 and a Esp LTD ex-50 with EMg 81's pluged into the DB-01 , MT-2, GE-7 ,DD-6 and lastly throuhg a passive BOSS vol pedal... THE SOUND IS FRIGGIN" FANTASTIC... its gotta whole lotta range and if u play rock or metal like me, you're gonna love this pedal...

Built like a tank, definately something i'd gig with...

Don't think twice if u are a rocker, this pedal is a must have!!!!! i've played all the dunlop wahs and i love this the most, it barely even comes close to the 535Q.

its an easy pedal to figure out, on the bottom panel it tells you which knob does what. it was easy for me to find a great sound.

best wah i have ever played with. i used to have an original crybaby and a weeping demon, and also a morley power wah and bad horsie. this one beats them all. smooth sound with the help of the fasal. nice range and sweep. just the best.

built like a tank. if it can withstand abuse from dime, then u know it will hold up to whatever u throw at it.

out of all the crybaby's, this is the best. if it were stolen, well just pray your not that one who does. i would definately buy another one quick. riff in peace dime.

Mechanically speaking, this is a pretty simple unit to use. You step on the pedal hard enough to activate the switch, rock the pedal back and forth to manipulate the wah and step hard on it again to turn it off.
However, there are quite a few more knobs and switches here than you'll find on other wahs. There is a six position "Q" knob on the right of the pedal that changes the wah frequency. There is also a red button on the bottom right of the pedal that acts as a boost. On the left there are smaller knobs for Boost Volume, Adjustable "Q", and a fine tune adjustment.
I bought the unit used and had to download the manual off the Jim Dunlop website. Contrary to what most have said I thought the manual was quite helpful. There's a lot of shit to tweak on this thing so it helps to know what each feature is designed to do. After reading the manual working with the pedal made alot more sense, which is what a manual should do.

Right now I have two main guitars, an Epiphone Les Paul Custom and a Schecter C1+. Both are equipped with EMG pickups. An 81 in the bridge and an 85 in the Neck. My signal goes into a Boss TU-2 tuner---> Dunlop DB-01 CFH wah---> Robert Keeley Modified TS-9---> Boss Super Chorus---> Boss NS-2 Noise Supressor--->5150 Block Letter Head---> Marshall JCM 800 1960A Cabinet. Everything is connected with Monster 500 cable and Monster 1000 speaker cable.

I have noticed in the past that wahs are, typically, pretty noisy effects anyway so comparitively I wouldn't say this is any more noisy than any other wah. . . .unless you have the boost activated on a clean amp setting, which is a pretty stupid thing to do anyway. Most wahs are going to add a bit of gain/boost to your signal when activated so in sense you're already boosting your signal just by turning the thing on! Kicking in the boost is just not smart on a clean setting. Now, I wouldn't know but I'm guessing that Dime didn't really have a clean and funky amp setting in mind when he was co-designing this monster. Although, with some tweaking, you can get a really nice and mild setting that works well with the clean.
Now on a dirty/lead setting this thing really comes alive. The boost is a great feature because it acts as an overdrive to add a little more gain and some thick sustain. This way I don't have to turn on the TS-9 in addition to the wah. It does it for me! I bought this wah to replace a Moreley Bad Horsie because I was looking something with more range and a wider sweep. This thing delivers not only that but also offers a tone so great that I can't belive I ever used the Morley. I can get some very vocal characteristics out of it and nail some of the same tones I hear Zakk, God Forbid, and Unearth pulling off on their leads. This is a great pedal to use as a filter to add subtle nuances to your lead parts. Part of making this thing sound good is not just rocking back and forth on it going wah wah wah wah on every down beat! The range on this thing is so wide that if I rock on the pedal slow enough I can make it sound like a phaser. I'm trying not to use it so much but in practice I can find a use for it in almost every song we do. One small tip: I pulled off the rubber feet from the pedal to give me just a little bit more of a peak in the toe down position. I learned it from something Zakk Wylde mentioned in an interview. It also helps so that you don't have to step down so hard to turn it on and off.

Dunlop doesn't fuck around. This thing could kill someone! If you threw it at someone and knocked their head off it would still work fine. It's built like a tank and it looks like one too. I do know that the type of knobs that dunlop used on the left side have a tendency to break if you mess with them too often. I've pretty much found the setting I liked and then put the sucker on my pedal board so that shouldn't be a problem.

I haven't had to deal with them yet but I love that I was able to download the manual off the website. That's just great.

I'm using this in a Metal setting and it fits perfectly. If you play extreme or heavy music I'd highly recommend this wah. I've been playing for 14 years and this is what I'd always hoped to find in a wah. Seriosly, if you can't dial in a good sound there's something wrong. I love how versatile it is, although I've already found the setting I'll be using most of the time. I think the tone is superior to anything I've used in the past. I don't like that the Input jack and the adapter jack are so close together. That's kind of a wacked design. I also don't like that they used cheap knob design for the left side. If you're a tweaker and you're using these things all the time they'll eventually break. The same thing happened with my GT-5 a few years ago so use extreme care with them and they should last a while. All that aside this is a great sounding pedal. I hope the review has been helpful. Feel free to email me with questions or comments.

This thing is INCREDIBLY easy to get the sound you want out of it! First of all, you've got a 5-way selector on the right side - each position gives you a disctinctly different Crybaby sound AND it is big enough that you can switch with your foot, if you are careful.

Once you've found the basic sound you want, you can fine tune it with the "Variable Q" knob (the second knob on the left side) which allows you to adjust where the and how the filter peak is shaped. Move it all the way clockwise (High Q) and you've got a bold, big wah sound. Move it all the way counterclockwise (Low Q) and it's a more subtle effect.

As if that wasn't enough, you can fine tune the high end of the wah sweep with the "Fine Tune" knob (the bottom knob on the left side). All the way clockwise brightens the tone, all the way clockwise darkens it.

Then there's the "Volume Control" (top knob on the left side). It kicks in when you kick the red "Boost" switch on the right side and lets you decide how loud the wah will be. Great, since so many wah pedals sound muffled by comparison.

Don't like the sweep? Adjust the torque with an Allen wrench. How simple is that?

I don't like to twiddle onstage, so I like that I can get a good variety of tone live just by using the pedal once I've set it up to what I like and moving the selector on the right if I really feel a need to change the sound.

The manual is a disappointment and loses a point in this category. Especially since they've given you so many ways to tweak the sound. Something more than a bland paragraph on each feature would have been nice. Then again, it forces you to play with the knobs and use your own ears to learn what you want & don't want.

Okay, first off, to the "it's only for metal" reviewers, you are full of it. And, frankly, if you wanted ONLY the Hendrix sound, you need to sell this one and buy the Hendrix Crybaby.

I play this with a variety of styles and it sounds great in all of them. In fact I waited to buy this particular pedal BECAUSE of all the control I could have with the tone.

How do I know it is not just for metal? Because I got it to play live, solo acoustic in addition to electric stuff I play in the studio and it sounds GREAT!!!

My current acoustic setup is: Taylor 410CE --> DB-01 --> Boss OC3 Super Octave --> Boss CH1 Super Chorus --> Danelectro Cool Cat --> Fishman Loudbox Performer. I can switch between the combinations of sounds to get the variety needed for each song without everything sounding like a cheap-ass electric guitar through bad cables & dying stompboxes. Instead, it all sounds great and, most importantly for me, doesn't call attention to itself. You hear the music instead of the effect.

In the studio, I use a variety of setups, depending upon what the song needs: Guitars are a Fender 50th anniversary Strat; a Gibson LP Standard; a beloved 24-fret walnut Hamer and two great guitars (one a maple solidbody with two single coils & one humbucker, the other a semi-hollow with two Seymour Duncan humbuckers) made for me by a friend. Invariably, these are running through one of several Marshall amps and, again depending upon the song, through a variety of effects (we record both the FX sound and a clean one for later mixing options)

I've put this pedal through every variation I can think of in every style I can think of and pushed its parameters as far as I could, trying to MAKE it sound crappy and it is just not possible. No matter what the circumstance, it sounds terrific. I don't get the hum or noise or upper end drop off other people have talked about.

It's a Crybaby. It's built like a tank. And the skateboard tape on the top is a GREAT touch, much better than the rubber on all the other pedals I tried (which peels off easily). I could see that the jacks being soldered directly to the board would be a problem (so a point off for that), but I have a light foot & am enough of a geek to know my way around a soldering iron so I don't think it should be a problem for me.

I haven't had to deal with them, yet, so N/A

I lucked out and came across this one used for a steal. Yeah, I could gig without it, but if this one broke or were lost or stolen, I'd want to replace it to have the tone options in my arsenal.

Because my stuff is so eclectic, I'm all about having options & variety in tone to play with (i.e. the two different chorus pedals in my acoustic setup) and this fits the bill like no other pedal out there and, yes, I played all the wah pedals I could find before settling on this one. If you are looking for a SPECIFIC kind of wah tone (i.e. the vintage Hendrix or high end Steve Vai sounds) or don't like tweaking, this may not be the pedal for you.

I've been playing for over 30 years and chose this because I can rely on it, it's not going to crap out or break on me and I can get tone I want - not just when using it for the "wah" aspect, but also to put it in that "sweet spot" to get the guitar tone for a particular song that you just can't get any other way.

takes a while to find out what all the knobs do, and get em all working together nicely. Then again i got it used with no manual so ya.

I have an Agile V (left) to a Kustom II Lead...with a shatload of other effects... my other 2 wahs, are a Snarling Dogs Wonder Wah 2, and a Shin-ei Companion Fuzz Wah...Needless to say these 2 will be for sale shortly on ebay.

i have NOT noticed any background noise which is weird for a "metal" wah.

THE KNOBS!!!!

first theres the 5-position knob...its used to select a range...very nice feature...you can go from real bassy to real trebly and everything in between with this knob alone...

It has a volume boost as well which is an awesome feature for a wah, since theres usually a volume drop with wahs.

it has a volume knob for the volume booster...if the volume knob is set to 0, there is no boost, set to 1 a litle bit, set to 10 a lot of extra volume. yadda yadda, you get the picture.

then theres the Q knob...i really cant explain this one...adjusting it kinda makes it go from a "wha to a "wah" to a "whoa" to a "wow"..?!

the last knob is a treble boost... when you have your toe all the way down, and its set 10, theres a LOT of extra treble



with no distortion it sounds amazing...with a lot of distortion it sounds amazing...however it shines with distortion, especially when you bend or use a whammy. this pedal is so versatile..its probably about as far away from a one-trick pony for a wah. i enjoy it for clean just as much as i do for metal.. definately one of those pedals that you can "find new sounds on" long after the first day. also, it actually wahs the high e string unlike my other 2 pedals.



NOW...for all the people that give this AMAZING PEDAL a 0 because "oh it doesnt give that HENDRIX TONE," get your face out of your ass... IT IS A DIMEBAG DARYL ABBOTT SIGNATURE WAH PEDAL, TITLED CRYBABY FROM HELL!!!!!!dimebag didnt do hendrix covers...he played heavy metal. I wouldnt buy a Willy Neslon Wah pedal, and expect to play Cannibal Corpse on it.. thats just lack of common sense really. personally i think even though its a "metal wah," i could get a very good hendrix tone...maybe its you're setup!?!?

the only thing i found odd is that there is no built in distortion...if you wanna hear it distorted, put a metal zone in front of it...

Overall for sound quality i give this baby a perfect 10!

when i was building my garage, i couldnt find the hammer, so i used my dime wah...theres a few small paint scratches, but otherwise its fine...

WEll maybe not really, but i would because i am sure this pedal would hold up...

dunno

i am rarely fully amazed by a guitar pedal, but this one meets every one of my standards...i love it...if it were lost or stolen,i would probably shoot myself...or buy another one(depends how im feeling that day i guess)

Noteworthy Additional Features
You can tighten the screw under the pedal to make more resistance, meaning you have to push your toe harder to rock the wah...

the battery compartment can be opened with no screwdriver, and the battery attacher(i dont know what its called. the part that the 9 volt clips onto) is a full piece of plastic not wires with a cheap, flimsy cover.

you can take off the back 4 screws by twisting the rubber feet instead of using a screwdriver

input and output both on the same side(or you can use the traditional opposite end way if you want)

grip tape instead of rubber ontop of the rocker

CAMO FINISH!


my gripes are that the 3 knobs on the side are a little close together, and they are labelled on the bottom of the pedal, and not the side...and its batteries last shorter than my other wah pedals. other than that, its a perfect find for ALSMOST ANY player.

well i think that covers anything...if i offended anybody with the hendrix comment, im sorry, but come on, what did you expect. anyways, thats about it

It's pretty easy to use...you just gotta know what each little knob does. and you dont have to twiddle with it for that long to find your personal "sweet spot" it only took me about 15 minutes.

My Setup Goes: H/S/S Strat or H/H SG --> CFH Dime Wah --> Boss PH-2 Phaser --> Boss DS-1 Distortion --> Zoom PD-01 Power Drive --> '66 Blackface Fender Bassman or Fender M-80 Halfstack.

My Rig is fairly simple,So there's not much that can go wrong.

If you want the clean wah sound to be the best of quality, then put all your other effects after it.

Having said that, i noticed that this one was pretty good as far as an organic tone went..probobly thanks to the fasel inductor. only issue is that it adds a little bit of fuzz to it...without the boost on...thats not a big issue for me though.. i like a bit of fuzz...
the boost is a good feature, it has the same effect as if you took a MXR Distortion + and turned all the level up, and all the gain down.

Everything looks and feels rock solid.

the camo finish looks indestructable, as do the knobs and everything else...

the only problem i had was that i cranked the torque screw too much and broke the adjuster.... but the customer support was great..

after i broke the torque adjuster inside the wah, i e-mailed the repair shop and told them i just wanted the part and that i didnt want to send my wah off to them for 2-3 weeks for such a small thing..

while he advised me against it, saying it would void my warranty, he did send me the part for free and it arrived promptly

I play a lot of stlyes, and i making great use of the wah sound in all of them.. with this wah, you can get any wah sound immagineable.. plus, it has preset sounds of diffrent dunlop wahs adjustable via the big 6 position knob...plus there's a volume knob for the boost, a "Q" knob for the range, and a Fine Tune knob... basically, its got everything you need, nothing you don't need, and its built like a tank. what more can you ask for??

I won't describe the knobs and everything again. You can setup quite a lot of different wah sounds which is THE GREATEST THING about this pedal (see below why). Other than that, it has two outputs (which can be setup differently if you prefer), a very cool feature actually. At the moment I use one the other output for a tuner (to shorten my signal path), but you could theoretically run a setup with two amps.

The one thing I felt was really annoying was the manual. A better and more thorough explanation but - most of all - some typical sample setups would be great and no big problem at all. It would help find certain sounds much faster at the beginning.
I subtract two points for the manual because I think this is a rather annoying and unnecessary shortcoming.

First off, you get the classic Crybaby sound out of this thing. Let me get one thing straight, most of the highend Wahpedals in this price category are good pedals, they differ in their typical sound. There is really no better pedal (Morley Vai/Tremonti, McCoys, Vox) but only different sounding ones and this one gives you the aggressive Crybaby sound.

It sounds - properly tweaked - good on clean. The distorted sounds are quite strong and cut through fairly well, though the more distortion you use the less pronounced the Wah effect will be - no pedal can counter this. You can use the volume boost to increase the presence and/or distortion while playing; you'll have to tinker around with this in a live environment to get the best setting with your amp. I think this works better with a tube amp actually.

I have three normal guitars (with different tunings) and a baritone. The ability to change the sweep range is great because you can make the Wah fit to your guitar. If you ever tried to use a normal vintage Wah on a baritone you will have found the usable pedal range rather short. The Dimebag lets you counter this. You can also select totally different wah sounds if you like.
All in all, this pedal provides a vast amount of great Wah sounds suitable for Classic Rock to Metal.

It's built sturdily and has easy battery access (no screwdriver needed). It doesn't slip much on a level floor.
So far, no problems.

A good pedal. Buy this if you want an aggressive Crybaby sound with all the options and a cool look. If you don't care for the options, get the cheaper Dimebag custom.

It's pretty easy to get a sound out of this. Plug it in and step on it and do whacka-whacka. To get a GOOD sound, it's a bit harder. It depends on your music style, of course. I have found four favourites that I use:
-Classic metal lead wah: Range 3rd highest, Q at about 70 %
-Vocal, deep lead wah: Range same as above, Q maxed
-Vocal wah: Range lowest possible and Q maxed
-Clean funky: Range highest and Q 50%
At first I didn't use it clean, because it had too much highs. Then I turned guitars tone control down. It didn't sound like a guitar that had its tone set low, it sounded more like a vintage wah.
Manual was pretty good, it explained all the functions. No example sound settings, though.

I'm using this with an ESP guitar and Orange amp, and effects I use are: Ibanez Smashbox, Chorus/Flanger and Delay/echo, and a Fuzz Face. This thing usually cuts through very well, and if it doesn't I check the battery. Of course, low Q doesn't cut through as well as high. It's really versatile, and I can copy wah sound of almost any metal guitarist, funk guitarists and Jimi Hendrix. It's not noisy, except when the boost is used. I don't use it a lot, though.

I've had it for six months, and it seems to be very reliable. No problems so far. The knobs for Q, volume boost and range fine tune are REALLY small, but seem sturdy enough.

Never dealt with Dunlop.

Definitely a ten. I've been playing metal and guitar instrumental rock for five years, and it suits my style perfectly. I'm pretty critical usually, but I just can't find anything against it. Except that the pedal gets loose easily, but that's easy to fix. I just love the variable Q and selectable range and large sweep, that's adjustable also. I was thinking about getting a 535Q, but this was in sale, and was cheaper than 535, and so I bought this.

Its pretty easy to use, but finding a good sound out of it takes a bit of tweaking with the volume (distortion), Q, fine tune and the wah selector knob. Basically, just mix and match with all the knobs and find the tone you want. I opened it up as soon as I got it and saw Dunlop put a (red) fasel inductor in it. I think they just started doing this for a lot of their pedals.

The manual that comes with the pedal isnt very useful if you are dont know much about pedals. Although I doubt I would need it, they should have had some settings in the manual to get some people started.

I use this with a Schecter Omen 6 through a Peavey Bandit 112 II.

Generally, its a pretty quiet pedal, although if you have the fine tune, distortion on almost full/full and have a trebly position on the wah knob, then it can get pretty noisy, particularly in the toe position. To get rid of the buzz , you can just have it in the up position, though.

This pedal sounds great. You can't get the same Jimi Hendrix wah tone (all the time) but you pretty much have Kirk Hammett to Steve Vai to John Petrucci's wah tone covered. With the boost, you can get that extra punch at the end. The sweep (Q knob) is adjustable and can be pretty huge when its on full.

My previous wah pedal was the BOSS PW-10 and compared to that, the DB-01 is a lot better. It is a lot more versitile and sounds better. The toe position on this wah sounds great too.

Although the pedal sounds good overall, the "wah" in the higher frets is not the best. You can basically hear the wah pretty much to the 22nd fret (with the distortion channel), but it isnt a full sounding wah. But then again, Im not going to spend a few hundred dollars on a Dunlop rack wah. This is more of a 9.5/10.

I would depend on it, but I havent owned it long enough to actually know how much or little it can take.
Im 15, so I dont think I can afford a backup pedal now, anyway, since I dont have a job (yet). But when I do get one, I would probably get a fairly decent wah pedal (maybe the new cry baby classic w/ fasel, or a modded one off ebay) to play with and to use as a backup. Or if I like it better, use the Dime wah as a backup instead. Anyway, I think the warranty for this is a year, but I highly doubt anything will happen in a year. I treat my gear pretty well.

N/A

I play rock/hard rock/metal. I have been playing electric for a bit over a year.
If it was lost/stolen I would probably try something else instead.

I love the versitility of this pedal, and how much control I have over the tone. Compared to the PW-10, again, this wah is a lot more versitile. You can do a LOT more things with the PW-10, but the distortion on the PW-10 sounds pretty crappy, and the wah models sound VERY similar.

I wish it had low, mid and high (well, high is sort of like fine tune) knobs, but I think that is asking for too much.

Wah pedals have helped me make music. Coincidentally, when I got this pedal, I had just started writing my own riffs and solos.

I dont hate anything, but one thing I REALLY dislike is the damn jacks. They scratch the cord every time you put it in and take it out. Being the slow person I am, it took me a while to realize this, so by the time I did realize it, the cord was pretty scratched. Now I just leave both cords in the pedal pretty much all the time (unless I take it out of the house). Instead of using a battery, I use an adapter now too (because I leavethe cords in all the time).