Jim Dunlop Cry Baby Mini

The Jim Dunlop Cry Baby Mini (model CBM95) is a wah pedal from Dunlop that shrinks the classic Cry Baby to half the size of the standard pedal while keeping the full sweep range¹. Dunlop introduced it at NAMM in January 2015, pitching it at players with downsized travel boards and tight pedalboards where a full-size wah would not fit². Under the hood it carries the red Fasel inductor and three internally selectable voicings, so the smaller housing gives up little of the Cry Baby's tonal range¹.

A half-size wah with the full Cry Baby sweep

The core idea of the Mini is simple: keep the sweep, cut the footprint. Dunlop's product page describes the CBM95 as "a full sweep range" in a housing half the size of a standard Cry Baby pedal, "perfect wherever space comes at a premium, such as on a travel board"¹. The company's own history of the Cry Baby line notes that the Mini arrived with "a housing that's half the size of a standard Cry Baby pedal, though its full sweep is retained"⁵.

The question every player asks of a mini wah is whether the treadle still has enough travel to be usable. Reviewers found that it does. In MusicRadar's review, Michael Astley-Brown wrote⁶⁷:

He did note one trade-off: the heel position moves further back than on a regular wah's sweep⁶. MusicRadar's original NAMM 2015 coverage likewise called it "surprisingly easy to use still, given the footprint"².

The three internal voicings

Inside the CBM95 is a three-way switch that selects between three voicings: Low, Vintage and GCB95¹. Dunlop describes these as its three most popular frequency ranges³. There are no external controls for them; you open the pedal and set the switch to taste.

Guitar World's review grouped them as "three internally adjustable voicings (Low, Vintage and 'Modern' GCB95)"⁸. The GCB95 reference points to the standard modern Cry Baby circuit, whose inductor is a 500 mH part in the technical analysis of that pedal¹⁹. The Mini's own inductor is the red Fasel, which Dunlop credits with the pedal's frequency ranges³.

Premier Guitar's reviewer found the three voicings genuinely useful rather than a gimmick, listing "three versatile voicings" among the pedal's pros alongside its "fat sound and full sweep" and noting it "feels surprisingly natural for most applications"⁷.

Bypass and connections

The CBM95 uses true hardwire bypass switching, per both Dunlop's product page and the CBM95 manual¹⁴. The manual lists a single instrument input jack with an 800 kΩ input impedance⁴. With true bypass, your dry signal passes through untouched when the pedal is off, which matters if you run a long cable or a chain of other pedals.

How it compares with other Cry Babys

Dunlop's Cry Baby range now spans several sizes, and the Mini sits at the small end¹⁰¹¹.

The Junior was developed with Pedaltrain and aimed at players who found the full-size wah too big and the Mini too small¹⁰.

The Mini also has a more feature-rich sibling, the Cry Baby Mini 535Q. That pedal is also half the size of a standard wah but adds external Volume, Range and Q controls and a switchable boost for extra output, and uses the same red Fasel inductor as the full-size 535Q¹³¹⁴¹⁵. Guitar World's buying guide measured the Mini 535Q at 133 x 75 x 65 mm and listed it as true bypass with a 6.3mm mono jack input¹⁴. If you want set-and-forget simplicity, the CBM95's single internal switch is the simpler pedal; if you want to shape the wah's peak and level, the Mini 535Q gives you those controls.

Where it came from

Dunlop unveiled the Cry Baby Mini at NAMM 2015, on 22 January 2015, describing it as miniaturizing "possibly the most famous guitar effects pedal of all time"². At launch it carried the Fasel inductor, true-bypass switching and the three internal voicings, and was set to retail at under £90 in the UK². Guitar.com later noted that "since 2015, the four-inch Cry Baby Mini has been proving that you can operate a half-size wah with a full-size hoof"¹⁶.

What reviewers said

The CBM95 picked up strong press from the start. Guitar World's review by Paul Riario gave it a Gold Award in April 2015, writing that it "packs all the wacka-wacka-wacka wallop of its standard-sized counterpart in a more travel-friendly, compact housing"⁸.

Premier Guitar's 2023 quick-hit review summed up its verdict in the pros column: "Fat sound and full sweep. Three versatile voicings. Light and compact. Feels surprisingly natural for most applications"⁷.

MusicRadar's Michael Astley-Brown framed the pedal as Dunlop "chopping the Cry Baby in half, but without sacrificing spec," and noted its lineage runs through the GCB95, 535Q and CAE wahs, whose voicings the internal switch references⁶.

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