Jim Dunlop The Original Crybaby Pedal GCB 95

Very sturdy, well built and reliable pedal.

I was um-ing and ah-ing which wah pedal to buy for several days. Yes there were cheaper options on the market, but I had a clear image of the sound I was looking for and it was what my early rock music brain had heard with countless guitarists, all of whom used this pedal.The package arrived the next day and I was absolutely delighted with my choice. The quality of manufacture is obvious by the sheer weight in the unit, which inspires confidence. I plugged it in to the power supply on my pedal board, stomped on the front of the pedal to turn it on and there all it's glory was THAT wah sound.So, do you want a wah pedal? If so, then buying this is a no-brainer.

Well, I'll start with the design. Simple, looks good and feels idiot proof. There is quite honestly only one thing I can say is bad or could be better anout this, and that is that it could do with being shipped with a 12v adaptor as it is not and a long supply of batteries is needed (unless you have an adapter already). Easy and quick to set up, btw as a heads up TWO Jack to Jack's are needed! as one is fed into the amplifier input and the other into your instrument. Now for the sound, the sound is very prominent in any setting you can get out of your electric, from a warm clean sound to a heavy distortion which is mostly why it is one of the best and most used pedals around. The pedal is NOT spring loaded so your heel has to do a bit of work. Either way it was worth the buy with very quick delivery and protective packaging. Get It!

It's the original and the best. What's not to love about this iconic pedal?

Great price for a classic sound

It's a WAH pedal for a guitar. I doubt there's a degree course in understanding how it works or how it fits into the fabric of modern civilisation. So, should you be considering this as an addition to your pedal board, then it does what it says on the tin - it Wahs. But be prepared to press down on the toe end of the pedal and activate it as otherwise it won't Wah. Besides the necessity to use 2 leads (one from your guitar into the Wah and one out of the Wah and into your Amplifier). Other than that, the world is your oyster and, albeit that it's a very old effect, there is still a place for it in 'modern' music. Be warned: overuse can cause repetitive strain injury on your ankle.

There seem to be a lot of special effects available, but if you want to buy just one I would recommend a decent wah pedal, and this seems to fit the bill. I play sometimes with a friend into Cubase on 2 channels, and although there are special effects on Cubase 4, which is what I use however there isn't a wah. I also use a Roland Cube which has a lot of amplifier simulations built in as well as delay, chorus etc and the wah complements them nicely. If you play at home which I do a power supply adaptor is very useful. Like Hendrix? Like Slash? Buy this one, does the job nicely.

Sound quality - four stars. Build - five stars. Delivery speed - five stars. Price - five stars. So why only three stars overall?Because there is a big sticker on the box saying that this is an Amazon Warehouse Deal.The Spanish and French text on the sticker translates to 'reconditioned offers'. According to Amazon "Amazon Warehouse Deals is a trading name of Amazon EU Sarl, and is part of the Amazon.com group. It specialises in offering great deals on returned, warehouse-damaged, used, or refurbished products that are in good condition but do not meet Amazon.co.uk rigorous standards as "new", with all the benefits of Amazon.co.uk fulfillment and customer service. We also offer products in new and open-box condition."So, what have I got? A used one? A refurbished one? A returned one? The box was in mint condition so it presumably wasn't open box or damaged packaging. But have I bought a second hand pedal? No idea. There's no way of telling.In itself, I wouldn't have deducted any stars, because the pedal is great and the price was really great - but (at time of writing) there is absolutely nothing on the product description page that suggests this is anything other than brand new. Very naughty, Amazon. At the excellent price (£69.99) I would have bought it even if I knew it was used or refurbished. But you should make it abundantly clear that this is what I am buying.Anyway, on to my review of the pedal itself. This is my first wah pedal, and in fact the first pedal of any kind that I have owned since the mid 1980s. I had a break from making music until the mid 90s and since then have pretty much used software for all distortion, eqing, reverb, etc, in particular the excellent Guitar Rig from Native Instruments. More recently, though, I decided I needed an outboard compressor to improve the quality of vocal recordings. This got me back into using outboard and I ended up buying a multiFX unit, an EQ and a decent mixing desk. And then I turned to my guitar effects! First on the list was something I have always wanted - a wah pedal (second up will be a distortion pedal, although that will be for 'comfort distortion' only while recording. I prefer to add (and tinker with) that kind of effect non-destructively after the event.I did a fair bit of research and decided that as a first foray into wah pedals the inexpensive Cry Baby Original was a good place to start. When I have had a bit more experience with it, and decided what my priorities are, I can then look at other models if I want.The Cry Baby Original is built like a tank, solid and heavy and it feels like it will take a real beating. Mine will only be used in a project studio and not gigged. Unimportant I know, but it comes in a nice retro design box with a Cry Baby sticker and some brief documentation. The Quick Guide that comes in the box is just that, a VERY quick guide, with just one page of English text and one page of graphics squeezed into a 4" x 5" booklet. That single page only really contains generic information for all Dunlop products but there is another equally brief folded card with specs and a couple more setup instructions specific to the Cry Baby. To be fair, there's not really a lot of instructing to be done so the lack of detail didn't bother me.Sound-wise it's great. I need to do a lot more fiddling around with other things in my audio chain as there is a bit too much noise when the pedal is in the fully down position. I'm not sure yet whether this is to be expected but it's not so harsh that I am concerned by it. My first attempts at 1970s porn guitar were very rewarding (it was that or a Hendrix impersonation - I thought the former was probably easier). I'm not a very technically accomplished guitarist but I can create and play well enough to record and produce interesting songs. The Cry Baby will certainly add another dimension and I'm going back over some older material to see if I can drop a bit of wah in here and there. It does alter the tone of the guitar quite significantly and I will have to work on that further down my audio signal chain. Using the pedal is relatively easy. I haven't yet got beyond operating it in time with the beat, which is fine to start with, but with practice I hope I'll develop a decent technique.Overall, I absolutely recommend the pedal for any first time wah-er. Just be aware that you might not be getting a brand new one.