Guard House Pictures in association with Dunlop Manufacturing Inc. have put together an awesome documentary about the best-selling guitar pedal ever the Dunlop Cry Baby wah-wah. The documentary features a great group of musicians, engineers, and its creator Brad Plunkett, discussing their love for this iconic piece of gear and its identifiable sound.

Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World tells the story of the wah-wah effect pedal, from its invention in 1966 to the present day. Musicians, engineers, and historians discuss the impact of the pedal on popular music and demonstrate the various ways it has been used, as well as how its evolution has improved the ability of artists to express themselves musically. The film features interviews with Brad Plunkett, the inventor of the pedal, plus many other musical luminaries such as Ben Fong-Torres, Eddie Van Halen, Slash, Buddy Guy, Art Thompson, Eddie Kramer, Kirk Hammett, Dweezil Zappa, and Jim Dunlop. These professionals explain how a musical novelty transcended convention and has become timelessly woven into the fabric of modern pop-culture.

Produced by Joey Tosi
Directed by Joey Tosi & Max Baloian via Vimeo

The Jim Dunlop Cry Baby (also known as the Crybaby) is a highly popular wah-wah pedal, manufactured by Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc. It is the best selling guitar pedal of all time. The name Crybaby was from the original pedal from which it was copied, the Thomas Organ/Vox Cry Baby wah-wah. Thomas Organ/Vox failed to register the name as a trademark leaving it open for Dunlop. More recently, Dunlop had manufactured the Vox pedals under license, though this is no longer the case.

Models:

There are many different models of the Cry Baby manufactured by Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc, most are listed below:

  • GCB-95 Also known as the Cry Baby Original, it is based on the original Crybabies. Typically the lowest priced model.
  • GCB-95F Classic A Cry Baby with a Fasel (classic Italian-made) inductor and a Hot Potz 100KOhm potentiometer.
  • 95Q A Switchless Cry Baby with a Q control (which varies the intensity of the wah effect), a volume boost, and the auto-return function.
  • 535Q Features tone shifting abilities using the Q control, six different wah ranges, a volume boost, and can also be used as sustain pedal.
  • JH-1 Jimi Hendrix Signature The Jimi Hendrix Signature Cry Baby is an original 1960s design with modified circuitry to lower the pedal’s frequency range.
  • JH-1FW Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Wah A combination of the Jimi Hendrix Signature Wah and the Jimi Hendrix Fuzz. It can be used as a Wah Pedal, a Fuzz Pedal, or both at the same time.
  • DB-01 Dimebag Signature Dimebag Darrell’s Signature Cry Baby. Based on the 535Q, as he used one prior.
  • EW-95V Mister Crybaby Super Volume A Cry Baby that doubles as a wah pedal and a volume-boosting pedal. It can provide a volume boost of up to 16 decibels
  • ZW-45 Zakk Wylde Signature Zakk Wylde’s Signature Cry Baby.
  • 105Q Bass A Cry Baby for bass guitar that only affects the mid and high frequencies and features Q and Volume controls.
  • SW-95 Slash Signature Slash’s Signature Cry Baby with an added heavy distortion booster.
  • Limited Edition (1999) Purple, White, Red or Hammertone Gray
  • EVH Signature Eddie Van Halen’s Signature Cry Baby.
  • KH-95 Kirk Hammett Signature Kirk Hammett’s new Cry Baby
  • JC-95 Jerry Cantrell Signature Jerry Cantrell’s signature Cry Baby

Possibly with the exception of the 535Q and the EVH, the newer Cry Baby models use a single-pole switch instead of true bypass; using single-pole switching instead of true bypass adds significant impedance, which affects the tone.

via?Wikipedia