Jim Dunlop 105q Crybaby Bass wah

[bobbass4k]

After reviewing my shiny new cherry pop fuzz, i got an itch to review this thing, the only other pedal i have at the moment. Don't worry, this should be a lot shorter than the cherry pop review.

I bought this new about 3 years ago, as the pics at the bottom show, it's a little worse for wear. Paid about £95 for it.

Ease of use: 7

On paper it's very simple, you step on it and it goes, rock forward for treble sweep, backward for bass sweep, right? Yes, but there's more. There are 2 controls, volume and Q control, which is essentially a filter, but that's for the sound section. These are controlled by 2 of the smallest knobs I have ever seen, in one of the most inconvenient locations I have ever seen. They're on the same side as the output jack and 9v jack, at the top of the rather large pedal. To be honest though it's just an inconvenience, there are only 2 of them, and you have to adjust them by ear anyway. But the size of the knobs can be annoying, you often find yourself adjusting the other one by accident because they're so close together. There's also an extra control, a trim pot on the inside of the pedal, that adujsts the delay between the bypass switch been pressed (rocking the pedal fully back) and the wah disenganing. I can say why they put it on the inside, because it's the type of thing you set to your preference and leave there, but it's fairly inaccesible, and is directly on the pcb, so adjusting it involves poking your fingers or a screwdriver around rather sensitive electronics. I don't mind this, but obviously a lot of people might.Battery access is via a cover on the back plate, the battery fits into a cut hole in the pcb, which again is proably not the best idea. It's also got a 9v boss type power jack

Sound Quality: 9

In design it's your average rip off bass specific pedal. They take the regular guitar pedal, extend the frequency range down to the lows, call it the bass version and double the price. But it does it well. If you want the classic crybay guitar tone on bass, then you've got it, lovely classic wah. As mentioned it's only got two(three really, but i'll get to that) controls, volume is your regular output control, eitheir set it to equal with your clean singal, or set it higher for a volume boost. The Q control essentially controls the wah intensity, it's a sort of fiilter, it controls which frequency the effect is applied to, left for mids, right for highs. Yup, the wah can't be applied to the lows, which is how it delivers on it's promise of an intact low end, because the low end is effectively unprocessed, bit of a cheat, don't you think? Not really, I didn't buy it with the intent of using it for low end, i bought it for solos, mid punch, and interesting effects, which it delivers, And even if you play in the low C range, you still get a bit of wah. Having the q control high qives you a really singing, very vocal sounding wah. Rolling the q back, the highs are still effected, but they don't sing as much. With the pedal rocked back, you get a booming mid range, if you've got a steady foot (or something to wedge it), you can use it to provide a boomy, punching mid boost on any range, as you only get the wah sound by rocking it back and forth. And here im (for me at any rate) lies it's brilliance, i use it more often as a faux flanger, phaser, chorus, and even a tremolo, than as a wah. The wah sounds great, but on bass, it only really fits in funk, or in solos and lead lines. If however you're of a more experimental mind (as i like to think i am), you can get some truly unique sounds out of this. With the Q about 3/4 turned, and my cherry pop fuzz before it i can get a wall of noise, then slowly push the pedal closed, and get a great kinda synth filter effect on the dissonance, very atmospheric. As mentioned there's a trim pot to adjust the delay between the bypass witch been pressed (rocking the pedal full back) and the wah disenganing, personally I have this set to zero, but you can vary it from zero to about a second. To be honest, I'm not sure if it's true bypass or not, none of the dunlop litearture i got with it, or found, mentions it being so, but i haven't noticed any loss of clean tone at all, if someone told me it was, i'd believe them.

Reliability: 8

As the pictures show, mines suffered some serious cosmetic damage. The clip on the battery cover broke off about 6 months after i got it, so i taped over it, when i ripped the tape off, it took the black matte paint with it, it scratches off without any effort, considering it's on the bottom, this isn't good. The white paint on the rest of it is a lot better, after 3 years of punsihment, there's only a few scratches, and small chips under the actual moving pedal part where it recieves the most hammer, the top and the bypass switch at the bottom. This is all cosmetic though, the thing itself is very solid steel, it's designed to be stepped on. As mentioned before though, you have to poke around in the innards to change the battery or adjust the delay pot, which is the case with a lot of pedals, but in most pedals the area you open up isnt near the pcb, in my old russian muff, the battery cover opend up to empty space. There're also 2 cut holes at the top, for the rotary mechanism, which open up to the innards, some stray sweat, water or beer (a regular experience of my gigging) could cause a lot of damage here. There's also the actualy rotarty mechanism itself, it's a kind of cog and teeth thing, this takes all the weight you put on the pedal, and is plastic, compared to the rugged metal of every other part. When i got it i was quite wary of this, but after 3 years it' still intact, so it must be tougher than it looks. The pedal ships with this mechanism greased, the grease has a low melting point, so it melds under friction (i.e when you use the pedal) and then resolidifys. This is a great idea, but mine wore of rather quickly, i just use a regular small dollop of nonconductive grease and it's fine.

Customer Support: N/A

Never had to use them , but i've heard good things

Overall:

I love this thing, nice classic wah tones, or experimental weirdness, it's good for both. As i mentioned in my cherry pop review, i tried the fuzz and wah together for anesthesia (bass solo using fuzz and wahby original metallica bassist cliff burton, check it out if you've never heard it) and it blew my mind
i tried it with my old guitarists phase 90 and giga delay, and almost wet myself, the noise was indescribable. And that for me is also it's uniqueness, the different sounds come from how you use it, it's a just a pedal, with only one tone control. I haven't tried any of the competition, like a morley dual wah, or a digitech synth wah, so i can't compare it to those. It's a classic wah, you have to rock it back or forwards to get a sound, which might put a lot of people off who prefer an auto wah, but i personally like the full control, it takes some time figuring out which movements give good sounds, but if you just rock on the beat you can't wrong. It's pricey, but as i said, as bass players, it's an evil we've become accustomed too. If you want crybaby tone on bass you'be got it.

Thanks again, turned out to be waffley and ranty again, oh well. Pics below:

[lemmywinks]

I bought one of these for £50 in new condition. Review says it all really, not quite the massive low end sweep i was looking for but still a keeper!
Anybody know of a bass (or other instrument) wah that can handle real low end?

Edited September 3, 2008 by lemmywinks

[Kev]

that metal one, cant remember the name, Toasted used to own one....

might have earth in the there somewhere

[lemmywinks]

[quote name='BassManKev' post='276323' date='Sep 3 2008, 03:26 PM']that metal one, cant remember the name, Toasted used to own one....

might have earth in the there somewhere[/quote]

MSD i think? Never seen one for sale so not holding my breath! Look awesome though, if they sound half as good as they look i'll have to purchase one!