Dunlop Cry Baby Q Zone

The Dunlop Cry Baby Q Zone is a fixed wah: it produces the sound of a Cry Baby wah held in one position, but in a standard pedal box with knobs instead of a rocker treadle. Dunlop describes it as delivering "the rich, resonant vocality of a fixed-position Cry Baby Wah in a standard pedal box," so a player can dial in that parked, vocal filter sound and leave it there, with no rocking motion and no need to find and hold a sweet spot by ear¹.

Dunlop positions it plainly: "With this reissue of the Cry Baby Q Zone Fixed Wah, there's no need to mess around with the rocker and try to listen for" the right position¹. The pedal is a legacy product and no longer in production¹. It was reissued in 2020 at a recommended price of $149.99², and Guitar World's Trevor Curwen reviewed the QZ1 version in 2026 at a UK street price of £159³.

A Cry Baby wah fixed in place, with no rocker

A wah pedal normally works by rocking a treadle back and forth, sweeping a resonant filter across the frequency range. The Q Zone takes the same kind of filter and locks it in place. Gearnews introduced it at NAMM 2020 in exactly those terms: "If you like that 'cocked' wah sound but don't get on with wah pedals, then the Cry Baby Q Zone could be for you"².

The "cocked wah" is a long-standing technique: a player leaves a wah treadle parked partway down and plays through it, getting a resonant, honking filter tone without moving the pedal. Guitar World's reviewer describes the Q Zone as mimicking "a 'cocked [wah]' - the sound of a wah pedal held in a fixed position, a favored technique of many players," typically a resonant treble boost that enhances harmonic content³.

Dunlop says the reissue came about because players asked for it. At the pedal's launch, Bryan Kehoe of Dunlop Manufacturing demonstrated it for Sweetwater and explained the reasoning: "the market said something and we answered we said what they say we want a fixed wall [wah]"⁶. In the same demo he walked through the three knobs and their jobs⁶.

The controls: Volume, Q Zone and Peak

The Q Zone has a simple three-knob layout controlling volume, bandpass shape and frequency center². Dunlop's own buying guide describes the interface as allowing "adjustment of boost, bandpass shape, and frequency center"⁷.

The Peak control is the heart of the pedal. Dunlop says it "acts like the rocker pot of a wah pedal, setting the frequency center of the effect exactly where you w[ant it]"¹, and Guitar World's reviewer agrees: it "has the same function as the rocker pot of a wah pedal, setting the centre frequency and essentially mimicking the treadle position"³. Its range runs from 380 Hz to 2000 Hz⁴.

The Q Zone knob shapes how sharp that peak is. Guitar World's reviewer found it "sets the bandpass shape (broad or narrow) and effectively dials in the intensity for more throatiness or quack"³. In the Sweetwater demo, Kehoe put it more colorfully: the Q control "makes the peak frequency less or more the more it is the more quacky ER and wall like it is," and less of it sounds more mellow⁶.

The Volume knob is effectively a boost. Guitar World's reviewer found it "has plenty extra to drive your amp if you want to incorporate a boost"³, and Kehoe described it as "a volume that's like a boost"⁶. The manual gives a maximum gain at the center frequency of +16 dBV with the Q Zone control fully clockwise, a volume range of 0 dBV to 20 dBV, and a noise floor of -91 dBV A-weighted with all controls at mid⁴.

Dunlop notes the circuit lineage: "Like the Cry Baby 95Q Wah, this pedal allows you to boost your effect signal and adjust the bandpass shape from wide to narrow"¹. The Cry Baby 95Q is a rocking wah with a variable Q knob and an adjustable boost of up to +15 dB⁸⁹, so the Q Zone can be read as the 95Q's filter and boost controls with the treadle replaced by the Peak knob.

Power and connections

The QZ1 runs on 9 volts DC⁴. Power options are one 9-volt battery, installed by removing the bottom plate, an AC adapter such as the Dunlop ECB003 or ECB003EU, or the DC Brick and Iso-Brick power supplies¹⁴. Dunlop's product page adds the Mini Iso-Brick to the compatible list¹. The adapter and power supplies are not included⁴.

Hookup is straightforward: an instrument cable from the guitar into the QZ1's INSTRUMENT jack, and another from the QZ1's AMPLIFIER jack into the amplifier's input⁴. The manual lists an input impedance of 1 MΩ and an output impedance of less than 2.2 KΩ⁴.

Versions, history and what reviewers said

The Q Zone has a small family tree. Guitar World's review notes the current QZ1 is "Back in original three-knob guise after the four-knob CSP030 Custom Shop version"³. The 2020 reissue was announced at NAMM alongside other Dunlop gear².

Reviewer opinions were mixed. Gearnews' writer was skeptical on value: "Personally, I think this is a really expensive way of getting a 'Cocked Wah' tone. I get that not everyone wants a wah p[edal]"². Guitar World's review took the pedal on its own terms, detailing the Peak and Q Zone controls and the boost-capable Volume knob³.

In Sweetwater's launch demo, Kehoe showed the pedal's sounds and its three controls, closing with the price: "that my friends is the crybaby Qzone 1 $49.99"⁶.

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Replacement parts

Although the Q Zone is out of production, Dunlop still offers electronic replacement parts for the QZ1 through its parts listings⁵. The parts are sold with the qualified technician in mind, and Dunlop advises that "If you do not have experience installing electronic parts, please have your installation or repair performed by a qualif[ied technician]"⁵.

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