What’s wrong with the standard Crybaby?
Everyone knows that classic wah sound from the days of Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. A couple of months ago I was itching to get some wah sounds at home so I started looking at Crybabys on Ebay. I soon noticed that the more customisable the pedal, the greater the price, and most of them were more than I was willing to pay.
After some searching I found a GCB95 (basic model) that was listed as Spares/Repairs because “it makes a horrible sound when I plug it into a wall socket”. I picked it up for £20 + P&P and it was a simple fix: the capacitor that smooths out the 9V DC had blown and replacing it fixed everything!
However I wasn’t happy with the sounds I was getting, the pedal sounded quite flat and is infamous for “tone suck” while in bypass mode. I was also missing those extra dials on the more expensive models to shape the sound more. There was also an annoying “dead spot” in the middle of the pedal’s travel where moving my foot wouldn’t change the tone. I needed to start modding.
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