Dunlop EVH-95 Eddie Van Halen Signature Wah Wah

The Dunlop EVH-95 Eddie Van Halen Signature Wah Wah is a wah pedal from Dunlop's Cry Baby line, developed in what Dunlop describes as "intensive design collaboration with the legendary guitarist, Eddie Van Halen"¹². Rather than a stock Cry Baby circuit, it is modeled on Eddie's own "Holy Grail" Cry Baby, a standard Cry Baby he had customized in the early Nineties with a more vocal-like, high Q inductor and a wider frequency sweep².

Dunlop says the pedal reproduces the original through clones of the worn-in pot and hand-selected inductor from Eddie's pedal, giving the EVH-95 what the company calls the same "Holy Grail" feel and tone¹². Dunlop's buying guide characterizes the result as a wide sweep with aggressive midrange³.

The Holy Grail Cry Baby

The starting point for the EVH-95 is a single pedal. Dunlop's account of the development says that early in the process, Eddie handed over his "Holy Grail" Cry Baby, a standard Cry Baby customized in the early Nineties¹². The manual adds the detail that matters to players: the customization was a more vocal-like, high Q inductor and a wider frequency sweep². A high Q inductor makes the wah's peak more pronounced, which is what players mean when they describe a wah as vocal.

Dunlop's approach was to copy the parts that gave that pedal its character. The manual states¹²:

The worn-in pot matters because a wah's treadle sweeps a potentiometer, and an older, worn pot can feel and respond differently from a new one. Cloning it, along with the hand-selected inductor, is how the EVH-95 carries over the original's behavior¹².

Controls, connections and power

The EVH-95 is operated like a traditional Cry Baby. Per the manual, you turn it on and off by pushing the toe of the pedal down until you feel a click, and an illuminated blue LED indicates the pedal is on². Dunlop's product page describes dual bright blue bypass LEDs¹, and the buying guide lists two on/off status LEDs among the pedal's features³.

Setup is straightforward: a shielded instrument cable runs from the guitar to the EVH-95's Instrument jack, and another shielded cable runs from the Amplifier jack to the amplifier input².

Power comes from one 9-volt battery accessed through the bottom of the pedal, a Dunlop ECB-003 AC adapter (the ECB-003E in Europe), or a Dunlop DCB-10 DC Brick power supply². Dunlop's product page also lists the Iso-Brick and Mini Iso-Brick supplies as compatible¹. The adapter input is 9V DC, center negative, with a current draw of 2mA⁴².

Filter range and gain

The manual's specifications describe the sweep in terms of the filter's adjustable range and the gain the pedal adds at each end of the treadle's travel².

The gain figures show that the EVH-95 is not a flat filter: it boosts the frequencies it emphasizes, by about 20dB at the low end of the sweep and 21dB at the top². That boost, combined with the wide sweep Dunlop describes, is part of why the buying guide calls out aggressive midrange³.

How it differs from a standard Cry Baby

Against a stock Cry Baby such as the GCB95, the differences are the circuit's origin and its dress. The EVH-95 is built around the cloned pot and inductor from Eddie's customized pedal rather than standard Cry Baby parts, with an extra wide frequency sweep¹². It carries true hardwire bypass¹², dual blue on/off LEDs¹³, and graphics based on the black and yellow-striped guitar featured on Van Halen II¹.

Dunlop's buying guide places it in the signature tier of the Cry Baby range, alongside models such as the 95Q, the Kirk Hammett Cry Baby and the Joe Bonamassa Cry Baby, each voiced to its player's own pedal³.

Where it came from

The EVH-95 followed Eddie Van Halen's earlier signature pedals with Dunlop. MusicRadar reported in 2008 that the wah came after his signature Phase 90 and Flanger pedals from Dunlop's MXR stable, calling it "the latest piece of gear to bear the guitarist's name"⁵. EVH is a registered trademark of E.L.V.H., Inc., used under license².

The pedal has since been used in the family: in Premier Guitar's rig rundown of Mammoth WVH, the Dunlop EVH95 Eddie Van Halen Signature EVH Cry Baby is worked out for the solo of "You'll Be the One," standing in for the recorded talk box solo⁶.

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