George Dennis GD-030

I got one of these as a dent and scratch model. When it arrived I was really underwhelmed. It looked perfect, but it sounded very lame. Limited sweep and minimal tone change throughout the range. So, I took the bottom off to have a look inside to see if something was wrong - wah pedals DON'T sound that way normally (and it WAS a dent and scratch model, so I thought there might be some problem.) Anyway, inside I found a tone adjustment pot - the little flat ones with a slot for a small screw driver - near the pedal plate that comes down to cover the photo cell. The pot was set all the way clockwise. I tried turning it all the way the other direction - FANTASTIC difference. The sweep was there and the tone was great. So, if your pedal sounds lame, this may be a quick fix. My guess is that this was not set correctly at the factory and the guy who bought it wasn't happy with the lame tone - understandably.
Anyway, assuming you get one that is PROPERLY set up, it is a great pedal. Easy to use and the bypass is clean and works well. Getting a good sound out of it is really easy. The whole range is musical. The highs are not screechy and shrill. Very warm and good tonal quality. If you are into really harsh trebly stuff this may not be what you want. It's not going to give you that nails on a chalkboard sound. I give it an 8 here because having to adjust the pot isn't really user friendly out of the box...

I play several guitars. I am favoring a Switch Innovo Midi these days. I don't use the midi much, but I like the sound that the Switch has. I sometimes use a vintage '83 custom Gibson V. The GD 30 is next in line and goes directly into a Hughes & Kettner Tubeman Plus. This goes into a TC Electronics M-One which goes to a Tube Works 4001 DI box then into a Roland SRV 3030 and into the mixer and out to Klipsch speakers. With a lot of gain there can be hiss, but overall this gives a great sound. The GD30 sounds good on all settings - clean or dirty.
One of the reviewers was complaining about it not working well near the top of the fretboard - that's the nature of a Wah pedal. It's a filter, so the more harmonics you have, the more pronounced the effect will be. Up near the pickups you're getting all the treble and very little of the bass and mids, so the sweep seems less. It's not a fixable problem unless you add harmonics somehow before the wah pedal - but that would sound different - maybe something for a clever electronics whiz to come up with. You can still hear it, but it won't be like the lower and mid notes.

After having a look inside I'd say it was very well made. Clean work inside and sturdy design. Real metal case. Should hold up well I think. No moving parts in the electronics, so nothing to wear out. Unless you beat the hell out of it I'd think it will last for years with no trouble. I haven't had it that long, though, so can't say for sure. Comes with a 2 year warranty from the factory, though. Better than most. I seriously doubt I will need another wah pedal any time soon.

Had no need to deal with the company.

I play my own stuff and do some recording in a home studio. I've been playing for about 30 years. I'm real picky about sound quality. I also have a collection of synths and outboard gear. I'm very impressed with this wah. I'd buy it again if it got lost. I bought this one mostly on the reviews I had read. I was looking at the Budda pedal, but it is made by Dunlop, same as the Crybaby I definitely DIDN'T like, so I was a bit leary of it. I don't like the scratchy pot phenomenon in wah pedals and the optical made sense to me. And it works great. I wish when you turn the wah off the pedal would work like a volume control pedal. That would be nice. Very musical wah. I can enthusiastically recommend this pedal. Huge improvement over the Crybaby. I will probably buy some other George Dennis gear. Definitely pro grade stuff.

Its really very easy to use, well just a wah really step on, step off. Just a bit harder to flick the switch when sat down.

Setup:Les Paul copy (very good quality)-George dennis wah wah-Roland micro cube. This sounds good but not Brill. But i tried a bigger amp and it had that waca waca sound which i want. So the answer is the LOUDER the BETTER.

This beast is built like a tank and is solid!!! You DONT need a backup on gigs but you could use a original crybaby.

Great for chillis and stuff like that but you can only get the waca waca hendrix sound with a loud amp. Ive been playing 5 years and play joe satriani chillis and guns n roses and other bands with slash in, it sounds great for most songs. If i lost it i would think about getting another one but get a crybaby i think. The only thing i wish it had (although i like the bright orange metal) i would like it in camoflauge like the crybaby from hell!. BRILL Have fun with this wah.

Just a stock bright orange gd 030, step on it and it goes WAH!

I use it with Strats, Teles and a 335 through either a Hiwatt Custom 100, Roland JC120 or a little Sessionette depending on the gig.
My signal chain goes > BOSS CS2 COMPRESSOR > GD 030 > BARBER DIRECT DRIVE > LINE 6 DELAY MODELER > AMP.
This is the best wah I've ever had in 30 years of playing / recording / gigging.It has a really smooth musical sweep and I can notch it really easily when I'm wailin' with overdrive. It demolishes a Morley. Until I got this I was using an 80s Crybaby that I had modded for true bypass and a high quality pot fitted, the George Dennis blows that out of the water.

I gig this 3 times a week at least and it never lets me down, I don't bother with a backup but I am going to buy another one anyway.

I emailed them 3 months ago to try and get a spare battery cover but their inbox was full, email returned????Maybe they've gone bust!!!

It's everything I need in a Wah, If it were stolen or lost, I'd replace it within the hour if possible

its a friggin wah wah, how easy can it get?
even a dead parrot can use it.

thought you need to learn how to work with it not just do thw wah wah...
with time you learn to be more smooth and so.

my setup: gibson flying v => geroge dennis wah wah=> george dennis gd 200 distortion => vox pathfinder 15r.
simply sweet.
its got the sweetness of a vox and the sweep of the old crybabies.
i would be objective though cause the other reviews ook like these guys are going to marry this pedal.
yes it is good for the price but no its not the best wah out there.
in clean mode it rules deffinetley a 10.
on distortion od overdrive its ok to but the sweet gets kind of a crybaby charechter it has a sebsitive breakpoiny which means that it doesnt have the wide sweep it had on clean mode, and like any other wah ive trying at the upper frets its kind of weak, but i guess it fixable and again with tme you learn to use it better.

but ! if you learn it, again, and be gentle with it you learn to get that distorted wah sound beacause it is a very good wah.
not noisy at all you cannot tell when i put it on and the optical trugger is just perfect.
overall this unit is very good compared to vox and crybabies.
very versatile with all sorts of different sounds

would deffinetly depend on it
would gig without backup
it can survive a suicide bomber attack its plain metal

george dennis are very nice and helped me a lot with my distortion pedal.

i play everything from hendrix pink flyod to metallica.
ive been playing for 4 years and compared to any other vox or crybaby it rulls.
my style is more slash like.
it nails it.
but still you have to learn how to use it.
to be gentale.
i chose this one because i loved the distortion i have by george dennis the distorted mind rock.
this company has very good quality products.
wish it had more of a sweer on distortion mode...
but bassically we play most of our solos on overdrive so its ok.

a god pedal indeed.

A very user-friendly wah-wah. Applying a bit of pressure with the pedal all the way forward clicks it 'ON', and the same process turns it 'OFF'. The sweep is nice and gradual, without any annoying jumps or discontinuities like the Dunlop crybaby, and the pedal has a nice stiffness which makes it especially good for slow sweeps and finding that sweet spot !

I use this pedal first in my FX chain, so the signal from my Ibanez SA360 goes as dry as possible into the wah. After that I have a Boss Blues Driver, ZVex Fuzz Factory, Boss Flanger, MXR Phase 100, Ibanez digital delay and finally a Boss EQ. My amp is a Marshall Valvestate 200W. Clean, this wah can only be described as SWEET. It has a lovely, funky vibe to it, and isn't harsh or scratchy like Crybabies. This is probably thanks to the electro-optical control, which you don't see often on wah-wahs, although I have no idea why that is.
With my fuzz factory turned on, the wah is just Godlike ! I am not a fan of that fast-wahing you sometimes hear people do (Jimmy Page), its like over-egging the pudding, if you know what I mean. So I love to kick the wah into action, put my foot in place and just control the madness that the fuzz factory creates. Another thing that is great about this pedal is the fact that using it as a filter (i.e. just keeping it in the bass or treble position) also sounds very good. Being a fan of Muse and Rage Against The Machine, I love making a riff sound ultra powerful by putting the wah into treble and playing the same riff as my bass guitarist. Awesome aggression!

This thing is built like the proverbial brick s**thouse. It is heavy and solid, and thanks to the optical control I can't see anything ever going wrong with it.

Have not ever needed it, so can't comment.

I swapped my Dunlop crybaby with a friend for this pedal. I have to see, crybabies have nothing on this baby! This is a sturdier, sweeter and more reliable pedal. I love the LED which lights up in the 'ON' state and even flashes when the battery is about to go ! This is a nice touch. I play very modern rock music (Muse, Rage, Tool, mars volta, deftones, SOAD etc.) and I can't see me ever using a different wah, this one just nails it all for me.
I do have one slight criticism...I am a fan of feedbacking, and my fuzz factory allows me to alter the feedback pitch and generate some squeeling "solos" ! However, with this wah in the chain the feedback from the fuzz factory sounds squashed and rumbling. I don't know why this is, but I would guess that this wah isn't a true bypass. However, this is a small niggle because I doubt I would ever feedback on stage, and I wanted a wah I could rely on for gigging and the George Dennis is that wah.