Guest Post: Which is the right Cry Baby for you?

The following is a guest post by Steven Williams. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

My name is Steve I work for a music shop and am a massive guitar enthusiast. I enjoy writing about guitars and accessories. I enjoy learning new things about instruments and pedals and sharing information to anyone that wants to hear it.

Are you a Cry Baby? But just need a little advice, well I will be reviewing the different types of Jim Dunlop Cry Baby pedals to give you a bit more information about them and help you choose the correct one for you’re style of playing. The Cry Baby pedal is already an iconic figure in the guitar world thanks to users such as Slash, Eddie Van Halen and most famously Jimi Hendrix. The pedals are capable of performing a wide variety of various effects from the ‘wokka-chokka’ sounds to a cutting lead tone. From then Jim Dunlop has gone on to make a large variety of different models but are they really different?

But before we start comparing the different models we must clarify exactly what they are and how they work. Basically the Cry Baby takes the middle and upper frequencies and then filters and emphasizes them. The pedal then controls the frequency at which it is operating and allows the guitarist to play through the frequencies giving the famous ‘wah’ sound from which the Cry Baby gets its name. Then from here a few elements can be altered to change the characteristic of the sound, the amount of emphasis (or the Q) can be changed as well as the range of frequencies being let through. In addition to these the analogue circuit within the pedals can be altered to have different characteristics and effects and we will look at the 3 most popular varieties.

The Jim Dunlop Cry Baby Classic: This model is identical to the original one used way back at the birth of Rock and Roll with. However the components used haven’t been used in decades thanks to unavailability. So for the older generation of players looking for the warm vintage sound then the Cry Baby classic is ideal. In fact the only differing factor from the pedals used by Hendrix is a hard-wired bypass and a Fasel inductor, which means its even better.

The Jim Dunlop Cry Baby Original: This model is based on the original design but with a few minor enhancements to boost performance and reliability. Infamous due to its fixed Q tone and frequency range, which means the classic ‘wah’ tone in abundance.

The Jim Dunlop Cry Baby Q: Pretty self-explanatory what this is going to offer you, of course a ‘Q’ control. This means the emphasis on the effect can be increased or decreased along with a volume boost. You also receive an ‘auto-engage’ feature which conveniently activates the pedal when you place you’re foot on it.

These are just the 3 of the main models of Cry Baby’s, there are many more models each offering you different features and characteristics. The best way to find out which is the right one for you is to do you’re research and simply hear them for yourself.