Dunlop Leo Nocentelli Cry Baby Mardi Gras Wah

The Dunlop Leo Nocentelli Cry Baby Mardi Gras Wah is a signature wah pedal from Dunlop, built with the guitarist who defined funk rhythm playing with The Meters. Its distinguishing feature is a lowered frequency range: Dunlop says it "serves up the warm vocalic wah tones that Leo has conjured up his entire career"¹. Where a standard Cry Baby sweeps through a higher band, this one sits lower, which suits the syrupy, percussive rhythm parts Nocentelli is known for.

Dunlop now lists it as a legacy product, no longer in production¹. It was announced in early 2022 and sold for $199.99².

A Cry Baby wah with a lowered frequency range

The core of this pedal is the revoiced sweep. Dunlop's product page describes it plainly: "With a lowered frequency range, it serves up the warm vocalic wah tones that Leo has conjured up his entire career"¹. Premier Guitar's news item listed the same feature as a "lowered frequency range for warm, vocalic vibes"², and Gearnews called it "a revoiced wah sweep" aimed at funk tones⁵.

The manual gives the one hard figure behind that description: the heel-down center frequency sits at 290 Hz to 310 Hz⁴. For a player, that means the sweep starts lower than a stock Cry Baby, so the whole vowel-shaping range of the pedal is shifted down toward the warmer, rounder end. Dunlop's own description of the pedal's sound is the "vocal, expressive tones that the Cry Baby Wah is famous for"⁴, with the Mardi Gras version pushing those vowels into a lower register.

Dunlop has used a similar voicing approach on other signature models. The Gary Clark Jr. Cry Baby Wah is likewise "modified for a lower frequency range and a tighter sweep," in Dunlop's words⁶, so players comparing lowered-range Cry Babies will find these two voiced in the same spirit, each tuned to its artist's playing.

How it is controlled and powered

The LN95 is a standard Cry Baby in operation: you rock your foot back and forth on the treadle to sweep the filter, as the manual puts it, to "hear the vocal, expressive tones that the Cry Baby Wah is famous for"⁴.

Power comes from three routes, all listed in the manual⁴:

• One 9-volt battery, accessible via the bottom of the pedal
• The Dunlop ECB003 9-volt adapter
• A Dunlop Brick Series power supply

The power supply is 9 volts DC⁴, with the jack center negative per the retailer listing³, and the current draw is a very low 0.9mA (listed as 900 μA in the manual)⁴³. That draw is low enough that a battery lasts a long time and a shared supply is not a concern.

The look: Mardi Gras colors

The enclosure is where this pedal gets its name. Dunlop dresses it "in deep purple, flashy gold, and cash-money green with a custom fleur-de-lis tread"¹. The interview on Dunlop's Lifestyle site adds detail: the pedal carries a golden fleur-de-lis on the tread, a custom Cry Baby logo at the front, and what Nocentelli called a classy bottom plate⁷.

The colors were the point of the project. In Nocentelli's own words:

Leo Nocentelli and the Cry Baby

Leo Nocentelli is the guitarist of The Meters, the New Orleans funk band, and the pedal pays tribute to what Dunlop calls "a master of funk, the magical city he was born and raised in"¹. His connection to the Cry Baby is long-standing: as Premier Guitar put it, "He used the iconic Cry Baby Wah to sling slick, syrupy grooves on classics such as 'I Just Kissed My Baby'"². RockBoard's listing for the LN95 carries the same account³.

The signature model came together with Jimmy Dunlop himself. Nocentelli approached him about a Mardi Gras wah, and Dunlop developed the colors for the enclosure⁷. Gearnews framed the release as Dunlop honoring "funk guitar legend Leo Nocentelli with his own Cry Baby Wah"⁵.

Price and availability

At announcement in February 2022, Gearnews listed the recommended retail price as to be confirmed⁵. Premier Guitar reported shortly after that it was "available for $199.99 from retailers worldwide"². Dunlop has since retired the pedal: the product page now carries the legacy designation, so it is no longer in production¹. Players wanting a lowered-range Cry Baby from the current lineup can look at the Gary Clark Jr. model, which Dunlop describes as tuned with a lower frequency range and a tighter sweep⁶.

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