Effects Bay

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

There’s a certain mystique and excitement in finding a new effects builder: not just someone whose boxes are rare sights on pedalboards, but someone developing something beyond clones of the same old tired, overdone circuits. So on the first snowy day of 2012, I made my way up to Joppa, Maryland, to talk with Luke Orsie of Luck Duck Pedals and demo a few of his creations. Luck Duck Pedals are made in Orsie’s home, where he hand-builds each pedal, right down to the etched circuit boards.

Here’s his creation process is in a nutshell:

He then passes the box to Brittany Howard to add unique artwork. I wanted to add a special note about the art, because it’s what first brought these pedals to my attention. I’m a bit of a sucker for both hand-painted stompboxes and cartoons. Although some people don’t care what the pedal looks like, when a small builder is just starting out, eye-catching visuals help set them apart. Making each box a one-of-a-kind collectable doesn’t hurt, either. Here’s Britanny Howard talking about her process:

Though he has dabbled in cloning some well-known time-based and tremolo effects for custom orders, Orsie managed to find some of the creative space left in the dirt pedal market with his bread and butter pedal, the Luck Duck Overdrive. The LDO puts two common clipping modes (LED and MOSFET) into the same enclosure with a familiar 3-knob control layout. Orsie gigs regularly with his band, and the 2.0 version of the LDO reflects the tweaks he made after frequent live use.

The pedal matched excellently with a Vox AC30, with a more assertive character of its own compared to other open overdrives like the OCD.

Here’s what it sounds like [Disclaimer: I am a writer, not a videographer! I kept the demos as simple as possible]:

We used a Fender American Standard Telecaster and Vox AC30 (amp settings here) for all demos.

The “Wah”ddle is a wah with a toggle to switch between extreme sweeps on the wah/whoa continuum. The defaults are very close to Vox (“wah”) and the Crybaby (“whoa”). Internal trim pots can give you more control over the sweeps. Although some other builders (e.g. Area 51) are making multi-flavor wah pedals, the simplicity of being able to go between the two most classic voices with a single toggle switch is appealing. An optional improved buffer makes the wah play nicer with dirt pedals. Somewhat rare for a wah, it also has true bypass switching.

Usually I prefer a Vox’s wah to a Crybaby, but this one surprised me. The “whoa” side was a great match with the AC30 and LDO. The pedal sweep was smooth all the way through without any obvious bumps.

Here’s a demo, first clean, then with the LDO:

The Comrade Duck is a limited edition pedal, a somewhat unusual silicon-germanium hybrid based on the Electra distortion. It has asymmetric clipping (meant to mimic power tube distortion) and a bright switch. It has a much raunchier character than the LDO.

I had fairly high hopes for this pedal, but it did not match up with an AC30 as perfectly as the LDO. The lack of a tone knob on an already fairly bright pedal meant overemphasizing the AC30′s chime without filling out the sound. And like most asymmetric clipping pedals, the harmonics created make chords unpleasant. But it fared much better on single-note lead work—producing a thick, complex sound. I’d like an opportunity to try the pedal with a Fender or Marshall, or with a cranked lower-wattage Vox-style amp, before passing final judgement.

Here’s the video:

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tour of this small but promising pedal builder. You can find Luck Duck Pedals on Facebook. Be sure to check out the photos of their work for extended descriptions of the pedals. Luke Orsie can be contacted at luckducksboxhotmailcom. Additionally visit them on Etsy and Flickr.

About the author: Jon Patton is a writer, musician, and (unfortunately) day job schlub in Baltimore, Maryland. He writes music reviews for Driftwoodmagazine.com and makes guitar noises in the band Midway Fair.

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Here is a great video by MusicRadar.com featuring Bryan Kehoe talking about some upcoming pedals from Dunlop. A few of them have been talked about for a while (ie: Joe Bonamassa Cry Baby and the re-issue of the Way Huge Red Llama), but one caught my ear.  That was for the Eric Johnson Fuzz Face. I remember hearing various stories (could be legend and/or tales passed down from nerd guitarist to nerd guitarist) where Eric would have people find the classic Red Fuzz Face. He was always in search of a particular sound found in a few batches of germanium transistor fuzz faces.

For those of you not too familiar with germanium transistors, transistor were used to replace tubes back in the day. Now germanium is less efficient and consistent than silicon transistors made in the late 60s/70s. So one pair of germanium transistors can sound very different than another pair with the same value.  So a run of Fuzz Faces can have slightly different tonal characteristics.

I’m sure Eric Johnson has a mean collection of Fuzz Faces by now, so having him working with Dunlop for 6 years to develop his signature Fuzz Face is pretty cool. After doing some more research, I was surprised that they’re using BC183 silicon transistors in there. I know NOS germaniums are hard to come by, and I’m wondering for ‘production’ that was the deciding factor? Or it could be that silicon offers a more stable transistor for consistency.. but they definitely sound different. Curious what you think!

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@mojosarmy sent me a tweet letting me know he posted a video where he modified his Dunlop GCB-95 Cry Baby to be true bypass. This is a great 2 part modification that I did to my wah a couple of years ago (I also changed the inductor, changed the pot to an ICAR taper pot and added a LED).

For those of you interested in tweaking pedals, this is a great project that covers a lot of the fundamentals and something that will definitely get your hands dirty. The first part of the modification is to replace the footswitch with a 3PDT footswitch. That will get your switching ready for the true bypass, but you must follow that up with the PCB mod. Changing the footswitch alone will NOT make this true bypass. That is because the signal is buffered in the circuit after the input signal. The goal is to route the input signal to the footswitch then back to the circuit. That is the second mod. The second modification involves cutting a trace on the board and hard wiring a lead from the board to the footswitch.

Mojo did a great job showing all the steps as well as explaining what all needs to be done. For further information, especially if you’re PCB board in the wah doesn’t look like Mojo’s, check out this GREAT page – True bypass for the Dunlop GCB-95 Crybaby That pages shows the trace cut on various revisions of the board (Rev F, G, H & I). Thanks Mojo for letting me know about your vid!

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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.

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Early on in my guitar youth, I always had a chip on my shoulder about Stevie. Not sure why, because I never really listened to him, etc.  I was young and had a narrow opinion of music and styles. When I began to actually ‘study’ guitar a little bit and wanted to improve myself and learn, that is when my eyes and ears opened. I began to respect quality of play regardless of styles or genre of music. I started to *hear* tone and marvel at effortless play, that was truly inspirational. Stevie Ray Vaughan definitely captures that, but the point that blew me away was watching an episode of Austin City Limits with some old live footage. I was absolutely blown away by how he played. His aggression with the guitar, but how clean it was sounding. How effortless it appeared for him to lay down some serious licks. At that point… I said… “I get it now.. yeah, I get it”. He was amazing guitarist on multiple levels.

I was excited to see a pedal board of Stevie Ray Vaughan the other day. His set up is very basic, tube screamer, vox wah and a couple of Fender amps. The tone definitely goes beyond the Strat and the gear. His hands and gnarly thick strings help. But you need the soul. Over the years his pedal board changed in configuration, and I’ll include the description that talks about the set up. The full article and other shots of gear can be found here at Premiere Guitar.

Ibanez Tube Screamer: Stevie upgraded as new versions came out – TS-808, TS-9, TS-10 Classic. A fan reports that the chip in Stevie’s pedals was probably the RC4558 chip for clean boost.

Wah-wah: Vox wahs from the ’60s. Occasionally connected two together.

The usual setup in the later years was Ibanez Tube Screamer TS-10, Vox wah, vintage Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face, and Tycobrache Octavia. For a brief time he used a Univibe. Roger Mayer Octavias were used prior to the Tycobraches. Cesar Diaz installed matching germanium transistors in the Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face body to increase transistor life.

Loop Selector – Stevie had several MXR loop selectors in the early ’80s, one of which is in the author’s collection.

The splitter box which later replaced the loop selectors was one input and six outputs to the amps. No preamp, but resistors to cut down the noise. With the Vibratone he used a Variac AC power regulator.

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A while back I put together a poll about the best delay under $200, and I wanted to do another one for today. This poll is for the best wah on the market today. The wah pedal is a very personal tool, and people are very particular of the wah sounds they’re going for. Some like the funk snap, others like a very dark sweep, while others like a very bright wah sweep. Going beyond the tone, everyone has a preference of how it feels below them. What the sweep range is, how to activate the effect and how the foot feels on the pedal itself. Lots of factors.. and lots of wahs out there. So let’s start the poll. If you know of a wah that is available today, but is not on the list, please contact me or comment below. Also, love to hear your own personal feelings about the wah you chose below in the comments as well.

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A friend of mine just let me know the crybabydoc.com has four 15 minute sections (not sure if it’s the entire movie or not) available. I just got done watching all four parts, and they were great. The official release date is 3/11, but if you have some time, head over to crybabydoc.com and check out the parts. I thought it was very interesting and cool to hear some of the stories related to the wah.

I started using a wah about a year ago (never liked it before.. and never had much interest in it). I started playing a Fulltone Clyde Standard Wah (white) and later got a Dunlop GCB-95 Crybaby off of eBay (DOA) which I wanted to breathe life into and have fun with mods. I added a ICAR Taper pot, made it true bypass, added a LED and a Red Fasel inductor in there. I think it sounds great and I’m definitely interested in other wahs now (ie: Teese picture wah, Dunlop 535Q, Fulltone Clyde Deluxe, etc).

I pretty much use wah for lead stuff, but also for creating some nasty sounds. What wahs are you guys using? How are you using them, etc? Comment below!

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I haven’t checked out DunlopTV lately so I thought I’d take a look this morning. I came a cross a episode where they interview Moby who is Zakk Wylde‘s guitar tech and they go over Zakk’s gear from pedals to amps to guitars.  If you’re into BLS and Zakk, this is a nice clip of his gear. This video was posted one month ago by jimdunlopusa, but it’s from the vaults (’07).

Pedals on his board at the time of this video:

Zakk Wylde Crybaby Wah
Dunlop Rotovibe
MXR EVH Phase 90
MXR Wylde Overdrive
MXR Stereo Chorus

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About a year ago I converted a Dunlop GCB-95 Crybaby to be true-bypass and included a new Fasel inductor and ICAR taper pot. I really liked how it turned out. There is a large amount of talk about fasel and non-fasel out there. Some wahs have the fasel inductor stock, but a large portion do not. I get asked often.. what’s the deal.. and what’s the difference.

The fasel inductor is found in the ‘classic’ styles of wahs. Vox wahs  and the builders that want the older Vox tones (id: Fulltone Clyde, Teese, etc). I would like to note – Additionally the ICAR taper pot is another big piece of the classic puzzle. To me, the the fasel gives it a little bit more bite and sizzle than non-fasel inductors. I definitely prefer the fasel inductor wahs over the others. The others (again to me) sound a bit muddy and less aggressive, but this comes down to what you want the wah to do. I pretty much use the wah for leads only, so I really want it in your face when I’m engaging it.

I found two great comparison videos by gearmanndude where he compares a Original/Standard CryBaby vs. the Classic CryBaby. The Classic has the fasel inductor, which the Original does not. The two videos illustrate gained amp and clean (the clean video has a scratchy pot… which is super annoying to me, but you can pick up the jist of it).

Here is the video of the clean comparison:

So which one did you prefer? Why? Comment below!

You can pick up the Dunlop Crybaby Classic with Fasel Inductor at Amazon for $99.99
or
You can pick up the Dunlop Original Crybaby at Amazon for $68.26

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A few weeks ago I did a post about Kylesa’s Laura Pleasants Pedalboard. On one shot of her board while on tour, I spotted a MXR MC404 Crybaby Dual Inductor Wah on board. Normally she plays a Teese or Budda, so I wanted to see what was up with Dunlop/MXR teaming up with CAE (Custom Audio Electronics) to make this wah. My quick overview… I was impressed. It’s a dual-Fasel wah. It uses both the yellow and red fasel and has a footswitch to toggle between them. There is also switchable boost, which uses the MC401 Boost/LineDriver that is built into the wah. Additionally there are some pots (single outside adjustable and two internal trim pots) to adjust the Q control. Wah is also true-bypass.

Here is the official description:

Bob Bradshaw of Custom Audio Electronics designed the MXR MC-404 CAE Crybaby Dual Inductor Wah Pedal with the Crybaby design team to create a highly versatile wah-wah with top-grade components. The MC404 CAE Crybaby features dual Fasel inductors with 2 distinct voices (high-end emphasis or low-to-mid resonance), and a built-in MXR MC-401 Boost/LineDriver that adds even more flexibility.

Choose between inductors and turn the boost on or off with the side-mounted kickswitches. Bright LEDs on each side of the wah indicate operation status. The MC404 Crybaby wah boasts true hardwire bypass, a long-life CTS potentiometer, and internal pots for the Q control—which varies the intensity of the wah effect—and gain adjustments. You get the high performance and quality that you expect from Dunlop, the world leader in wah-wah technology.

Bob Bradshaw has been one of the world’s foremost designers of custom guitar pedalboards and effects systems for many of rock’s most influential guitarists for 3 decades. And for just as long, MXR and Crybaby have been synonymous with the effects pedal innovations that have shaped the tone of modern electric guitar playing. So it was only natural for them all to join forces to create a dynamic line of pedals offering the ultimate in tone, functionality and road-worthy dependability. Since 1980, CAE’s groundbreaking pedal designs were made in limited quantities only for a select clientele of world-class guitarists. But now these very same devices and circuits are available to all.

MXR MC404 CAE Crybaby Dual Inductor Wah Guitar Effects Pedal Features:

* Select between a Yellow or Red Fasel Inductor for two distinct tones
* Features a custom designed CTS extended life low noise potentiometer
* User selectable gain output stage with kick switch and LED indicator
* Designed with low noise class ‘A’ operational amplifiers
* Bright LEDs indicate effect status, inductor mode, and boost on or off mode
* True bypass
* For power, insert a 9-volt battery, plug in an ECB-003 power adapter, or plug into a Dunlop DC Brick multi-power supply 9-volt output

I found yet another great video by Burgerman666 that goes into all of what the MXR MC404 CAE Crybaby Dual Inductor Wah can do.

The MXR MC404 CAE Crybaby Dual Inductor Wah is currently on sale at Musician’s Friend. It’s available for $157.56 with Free shipping in the lower 48 states.

Remember, if you like reading about these pedals and seeing videos reviews from others, please subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified via email when there are new postings!

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