Crybaby:
The Pedal
That Rocks
the World
Guard House Pictures
Crybaby: The Pedal that Rocks the World
tells the story of the most expressive pedal
guitarists step on—the wah-wah. The tale
starts in 1966 as Brad Plunkett—the wah-wah’s
inventor—describes how his bosses at
Thomas Organ asked him to design something
new so the Vox Super Beatle wouldn’t
require a Mid Range Boost switch—a feature
that cost Vox four dollars per unit. Plunkett
applied the MRB circuit to a potentiometer
and had a resident Vox guitarist test the
device playing some chords. To their amazement,
this sweepable EQ created vocal-like
tones and the wah was born.
In standard, talking-head fashion,
famous players—Eddie Van Halen, Slash,
Jerry Cantrell, Buddy Guy, Wah Wah
Watson, Dweezil Zappa, and more—reflect on their experiences discovering,
experimenting, and expressing emotions
with the foot-controlled effects device.
One highlight is when Eddie Kramer—recording engineer for Hendrix and
Zeppelin—retells the story of Hendrix’s
iconic wah-wah song, “Voodoo Chile.”
Kramer remembers waiting for Hendrix
at the Record Plant until 1 a.m., when he
briskly entered the studio with friends Steve
Winwood and Jack Casady, and cut the
entire song in one take—including his guitar
parts and vocals. Another cool moment
is when Jim Dunlop and Bob Bradshaw talk
about improving the Crybaby after Dunlop
bought the design from Thomas Organ in
1982. Some of the notable changes included
adding a 100-percent true-bypass circuit,
improving the input jack for durability, and
adding an AC adapter and onboard frequency
controls.
Currently, the documentary is only available
online at
youtube.com/crybabydoc or
crybabydoc.com.
But there are plans to offer a DVD release
in the near future, and hopefully in the
process the film will be fattened up with
more gearhead-goodness from the guitar
gods and engineers behind the various iterations
of the wah. There has to be a mountain
of footage of interest to guitarists and
tweakers, and the film could stand more in-depth
explanations about the evolution of
the pedal’s circuitry, the various capacitors
and inductors used, and personal mods that
change the pedal’s tone and sound.
If you have a wah in your current signal
chain or your ears perk up when you hear
the fast-paced wah-chk-wah theme from
Shaft, the opening notes that eerily ring
out during Zeppelin’s “No Quarter,” or
the dynamic squealing that’s the hallmark
of Dimebag Darrell’s Pantera solos, this
55-minute movie is worth watching. But fair
warning: After viewing
Crybaby, you may
experience an involuntary and irresistible
need to play your wah pedal.