Crybaby Junior Review

smudge_lad

This will be a wee review on the form/new features of the pedal, rather than the sound. It sounds great, in all 3 of the available settings. 

I was fairly excited when this pedal was announced, as I always felt my full size wah was too big, and the mini was a bit too small for me and my big size 12 feet. Took delivery of this yesterday, and today I got it on my board to have a play around and compare to my other wah’s and my Dunlop Mini Volume pedal, for size.

The size of the treadle is much more comfortable underfoot than the mini wah, as it’s not too far off the same size as the bigger wah, but I still did not find it overly comfortable to use. I’ll come back to that in a minute. I know the main selling point of this wah is that it fits into the Metro series of Pedaltrain boards - which I have, and will come to later. But, I wanted to make the point of showing the size of the wah once you consider the patch cables as well. There’s not much in it. With the space you save on the sides, you’re not really gaining much space length wise. On my main, PT2 there’s still not enough room for another pedal to sit above or below the wah, as you can see below

 

Another thing with the PT2 size and spacing of the gaps, even if I place the pedal above horizontally, I’ve not gained any real estate at all

Now, I think the reason I found this wah uncomfy, and similar feeling to the mini wah, lies in the travel of the heel section. As you can see here, the gap for the heel section to travel is smallest on the largest wah

This means that the angle my leg/ankle/foot ends up at, while in the heel down position, is a lot more acute on the smaller units and not very comfy. I tried adjusting my overall foot position, and even tried moving the wah’s towards the top of my board to open the angle further but this didn’t really make much difference. For full disclosure, my PT2 has larger back feet in order to give me more room underneath the board for my junction box. This won’t be helping. However, my conclusion as to why I don’t get along well with the mini units, is due to the larger travel required to get to heel down.

Now as I mentioned earlier, the main selling point being pushed by Dunlop is that these units were designed to fit exactly onto the Metro series of Pedaltrain boards. Which it does - bang on. However, your patch cables and power cable are now going to overshoot the edges of the board. I personally don’t like how this looks, and I avoid doing it if I can. That’s obviously just a personal preference.

This also becomes problematic when storing the board if you have a hard case. Unless you are using low profile patch cables, the overall length of the unit plus the jack’s is too long to bloody fit comfortably in the case!

I had to force the board/wah down into the case. You can see that the heel section has been forced back a few mm. If I had the wah lined up with the board and secured with velcro, there would be no movement, and therefore putting unwanted pressure on the patch cables on at the top.

If you’ve got a soft-case it might be little more forgiving.

Lastly, the addition of the status LED is welcomed, however its in pretty daft place. How are you supposed to see it when you’ve got your leg and foot over the wah? Surely adding it to the side of the wah, like my CAE, is the most logical option?

So, in summary, I’m not impressed at all with the wah pedal and it’ll be returned to the shop. I don’t feel that it’s giving me enough advantages or reasons to keep it over my CAE. I don’t feel I’m gaining much real estate, which was my main hope.

I would much prefer to have top-mounted jacks on my mini wah, as that would mean the cables would fall perfectly through the gaps on my PT2, and still give me full use of the top two sections for another pedal, fitting comfortably on the board.

I also wonder, since the key design feature was fitting to the Metro boards, if Dunlop could have made the Junior pedal just an inch (maybe not even as much as an inch) shorter to allow for “generic” sized patch cables to be used, which would allow the board to fit into the case better than it does at the moment. Not everyone - and I think most people - don’t have or can’t afford some of the nicer, low profile patch cables that I’d say are a necessity for this wah on a Metro board. 

I also then wonder if leaving the jacks on the sides and lining them up with the gaps on the Metro board would have been another consideration. Most people have their wah first in the chain on the right side of their board, so it would only really be the output jack taking up any unnecessary space, as the right hand side of the pedal can be lined up with the edge of the board without any obstructions.

I realise that a lot of my review is down to personal preference and board choice, and also that pedal designers can’t account for all of the vast variances that is players have in their boards and setups.  I’m having a custom board built (but it’s been delayed due to Covid) so perhaps the Junior will line up better with the gaps on this one. Time will tell. 

soma1975

Have to say every demo I have heard of it sounds awful which is weird. No idea why that might be. 

But your notes on the ergonomics make it utterly pointless. 

smudge_lad

It sounds just like the mini, but not as good as my CAE. I think I’ve got the trim pot inside moved around which is probably why it sounds better. 

And yes, utterly pointless is pretty accurate 

AntonHunter

Excellent review, thanks for the detail!

handsomerik

Brilliant in depth review. Thanks. 

smudge_lad

Cheers guys, happy to oblige.

I'd say the Xotic wah is the way to go at the moment, for anyone looking at something in between the mini and full size. 

EricTheWeary

Clear review but I got 'almost pointless' from the second photo.