First there was the ‘Tape Echo’. Then ‘Tremolo’. Then ‘Reverb’. Then ‘Fuzz’.
Then came the “Wah Wah’ pedal.
Think ‘porn’. No don’t. Think ‘Tales Of Brave Ulysses’, White Room’, ‘All Along The Watchtower’.
Art Thompson (Guitar Payer magazine), Brad Plunkett, Del Casher, Dweezil Zappa, Eddie Kramer, Dennis Coffey, Wah-Wah Watson, Charles “Skip” Pitts, Buddy Guy, Paul Gilbert, and many more share their tales about the Cry Baby wah pedal created by Jim Dunlop in 1966.
I bought one then. That was way cool.
September 30, 2011 at 10:33 pm
This is a great vid. Thomas Organ! Who woulda thought? This is actually a ground breaker for me because I have heard of the “cry baby” name and seen it in guitar magazine ads but until watching this vid, I did not know what it was or did. I just figured it was some high dollar effect brand name or something. Now that I know what it sounds like from this video, I recognize it as being the fuel behind some of the neatest solos I have heard and it answers my question of “how in the world did they do that?!?” Also learned about the neat tie in with vox and their 60′s & 70′s keyboards (vox continental dual manual and such). I had no idea they were into guitar effects too. Never made the connection that it was the same VOX company that makes the keyboards and guitar amps and spinoffs of the crybaby also. Thanks for posting this. Very informative and definitely tied some things together for me as far as how some solos I like were accomplished in terms of tone and sound.
A crybaby pedal is now on my wish list.