Dunlop Slash Cry Baby Wah

The Dunlop Slash Cry Baby Wah, model SW95, is Dunlop's signature wah pedal for Slash, and it is two effects in one housing: the Fasel-loaded Classic Cry Baby wah circuit plus a high-gain distortion circuit that can be switched in and out while you play¹. Dunlop describes it as "a searing high gain distortion coupled with the Fasel-loaded Classic circuit for instant lead tone"². The pedal carries Slash's hot rod metallic red finish² and lists at $209.99³.

The Fasel inductor is the component that gives the older Cry Baby circuits their character; the same part appears in the Dunlop Crybaby Classic. Guitar World noted in its 2007 review that the SW-95's high-gain distortion circuit and classic Fasel inductor mirror Slash's own custom-built wah pedal⁴.

Controls and LEDs

The pedal is controlled from the top surface as you would expect from a Cry Baby: rocking the treadle sweeps the wah, and a footswitch toggles the pedal on and off⁵. On top of that sit the distortion-specific controls.

Dunlop's buying guide describes the Gain and Volume controls as there "to dial in each effect"¹. Guitar World's reviewer found the distortion engagement straightforward: push in the red mushroom-shaped knob on the right side of the pedal near the heel, and red LED indicators glow⁴.

The LEDs cover both halves of the pedal. Dunlop's product page says convenient LEDs indicate distortion on/off and wah on/off modes², so on a dark stage you can see at a glance which effects are active.

How the distortion interacts with the wah

The distortion circuit is placed in front of the wah in the signal path, which Guitar World found "delivers a wider range of wah tone than if it were placed after" it⁴. That ordering has one side effect worth knowing before you buy: the reviewer noted that the volume drops dramatically at the full heel-down position with the distortion engaged, and that this happens with any distortion placed in front of a wah, not just this one⁴.

There is also a switching limitation. The distortion cannot work on its own; it can be turned on only when the wah is also on⁴. If you want a standalone distortion and a separate wah, this pedal does not split them.

Power: 18 volts or two batteries

The SW95 is one of the higher-voltage Cry Babies. It runs on 18 volts DC⁵, supplied either through an AC adapter jack such as the Dunlop ECB004/ECB004E or a DC Brick power supply⁵, or by two 9-volt batteries⁵. The batteries sit behind a convenient top-loading battery door⁵, so a swap does not mean unbolting the pedal from a board. Current draw is 18 mA⁵.

The Slash Cry Baby Classic: the distortion-free successor

Dunlop later released the Slash Cry Baby Classic, model SC95, which answers the SW95's main limitation by removing the distortion entirely. It is a straight wah with a custom-wound resonance inductor, a wide sweep, and LEDs to indicate effect status, listing at $189.99¹⁶. Where the SW95 needs 18 volts and two batteries, the SC95 runs on a single 9-volt battery accessed from the bottom of the pedal, a 9-volt adapter such as the Dunlop ECB003/ECB003EU, or a DC Brick supply⁷⁵.

MusicRadar's Simon Bradley reported that the change reflects how the pedal was actually used: "Gone is the superfluous onboard distortion that hardly anyone, least of all Slash, actually really made use of"⁸. He quotes Slash himself on the newer version: "Dunlop has made a new version that doesn't have the preamp in it and that's what I was using"⁸.

Where it sits in the Cry Baby line

The SW95 belongs to Dunlop's large family of signature Cry Babies, which spans players from Joe Bonamassa to Tom Morello and Kirk Hammett. Its closest cousins in concept are the wah-plus-gain models: the Dimebag Cry Baby Wah pairs its wah with a switchable boost and LEDs indicating wah and boost status, where the Slash model adds a full distortion circuit with its own Gain and Volume controls instead.

For players who want a simpler Slash wah without the extra circuitry, the Classic model covers that ground; for players who want the wah and the gain in one treadle-shaped box, the SW95 is the version that has both⁸¹².

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