Dunlop 95Q Cry Baby

The Dunlop 95Q Cry Baby is a wah pedal from Dunlop, built on the same circuit as the GCB95 Cry Baby Standard and fitted with three of Dunlop's most popular upgrades: a Q control, an adjustable boost, and auto-return switching¹². Dunlop describes it as the original Cry Baby Wah with those three additions, so a player who knows the standard Cry Baby can think of the 95Q as that pedal with its two most requested controls and a different way of switching¹.

A wah pedal sweeps a bandpass filter across the frequency range as you rock the treadle, and the 95Q's filter sweeps from 390 Hz to 2 kHz³. What sets the 95Q apart from the basic GCB95 is that the shape of that filter is adjustable, and the pedal can push the effect forward in the mix with a built-in boost.

A GCB95-based wah with Q and boost

Dunlop's Cry Baby buying guide places the 95Q in the lineup as based on the GCB95, the standard Cry Baby wah that Dunlop gives an aggressive modern sound⁴. The 95Q keeps that character and adds the two controls players most often mod into a Cry Baby: a Q control and a boost.

The Q control matters because it changes how pronounced the wah sounds. Dunlop's buying guide describes it as shaping the effect response from sharp to smooth⁴, and the product page explains that it works by adjusting the effect's bandpass shape¹. Set one way the wah is narrow and vocal, set the other it is wide and subtle. The same idea appears across the Cry Baby range, from the 535Q Multi-Wah to the 105Q Bass Wah, and Dunlop also used the 95Q's aggressive sound as the starting point for the Geezer Butler signature wah⁴.

The boost is the second upgrade. Dunlop's buying guide calls it an adjustable boost of up to +16dB⁴, and the manual gives the detail: the BOOST switch increases output as set by the VOLUME knob, with a boost range of 0.1 dB to 15 dB and a maximum gain of 17 dB³. In practice this is a level control for the effect, letting the wah cut through a band rather than getting buried.

The controls

The 95Q has three controls on the pedal itself, plus the treadle:

The manual describes the VARIABLE Q control as letting you adjust the frequency width of the effect³, which is the same sharp-to-smooth behavior Dunlop's buying guide summarizes⁴. The VOLUME knob and BOOST switch work together: set the knob for how much push you want, then use the switch to bring it in.

Auto-return switching

The 95Q's most distinctive feature is how it switches. Instead of a separate bypass footswitch beside the treadle, the pedal uses what Dunlop calls auto-return switching: the Auto-Return function automatically engages the effect when you place your foot on the pedal¹.

The manual gives the operating detail:

1. To turn the effect on, press the toe of the pedal down with your foot³.
2. Rock the treadle as you play, as with any wah.
3. When you take your foot off, silent auto-off switching puts the pedal into bypass mode³.

Dunlop's buying guide frames the benefit plainly: convenient auto-return switching so you can step in and out of the effect⁴. For a player who uses wah in short bursts, a solo accent or a rhythm figure, there is no click to hunt for at the side of the pedal. The same switching appears elsewhere in the Cry Baby line, including the Cry Baby Q Mini 535Q Auto-Return Wah and the Cry Baby Rack Foot Controller⁵⁶⁴.

One thing to know about the bypass itself: the 95Q is buffered, not true bypass³. When the effect is off, the signal passes through the pedal's buffer. Players who want a hardwired signal path when bypassed can find true bypass or hardwire bypass elsewhere in the Cry Baby range, for example the GCB95F Cry Baby Classic, which the manual lists as true bypass⁷.

Power and connections

Setting the 95Q up is straightforward. Run an instrument cable from your guitar to the 95Q's Instrument jack, then another from the Amplifier jack into your amplifier's input³.

Power options³¹:

• One 9-volt battery, accessed via the bottom of the pedal
• A Dunlop ECB003 or ECB003E 9-volt adapter
• A DC Brick power supply; the product page also lists compatibility with the Iso-Brick and Mini Iso-Brick, not included

At 1.8 mA of current draw³, the 95Q is light on a power supply, and the 9-volt battery option means it can run standalone on a small board. The manual also lists the pedal's noise floor as -98 dBV heel down and -90 dBV toe down, A-weighted³, figures that sit alongside the 1 MΩ input impedance in the specifications³.

The 95Q next to the GCB95

The GCB95 Cry Baby Standard is the reference point for the whole line, listed by Dunlop at $99.99². The 95Q is that circuit plus the Q control, the boost, and auto-return switching¹⁴. A player choosing between them is choosing between the simplest version of the Cry Baby and one with the two most common mods already installed, at the cost of a buffered bypass rather than the true bypass switch GuitarPCB's technical analysis attributes to the GCB-95⁸.

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