Dunlop cry baby Q zone fixed wah

Cocked and loaded

The trusty wah pedal has many uses, from the percussion of clean mutes to full on expressive wailing distortion with your foot rocking. But, despite its versatility, there will come a time where you discover your wah pedal also sounds great ‘parked’ in a fixed position. Think the intro from Money fornothing, and you’ll understand what it’s doing. Essentially, it turns your expressive wah pedal into a highly resonant filter, allowing you to really home in on certain parts of your guitar’s frequency in the same way as an EQ, but more pinpointed.

That’s what the Q-zone is all about. It comes equipped with three controls: Volume, Q Zone and Peak. Volume is simple – it’s obviously the output level of the pedal, but what about the other two? Well, the Peak control sets the centre frequency of the effect, much like rocking your toe on a wah pedal does. All the way to the left and you’re accenting the bass frequencies, then it moves across the spectrum as you turn it clockwise. Meanwhile, the Q Zone control decides what happens to the frequencies either side of the Peak setting (aka ‘Q’). To the left you’ll get the widest Q – that is, the effect is less pointed and works on a wider set of frequencies outside the bracket you’ve set the Peak control to focus on. Crank it up though and it narrows, effecting a tighter range. It’s on this setting where the effect is at its most noticeable, perfect for achieving greater isolation of your guitar in a cluttered mix.

Sweeping the Peak control is the easiest way to set it: with a note or chord ringing out you’ll quickly find the sweet spot for your guitar’s pickups with an audible ‘biting point’.

It’s the type of effect that is slightly ‘Marmite’, and even if you do love it, it’s unlikely to see action on every song you play. But, it is a sound in its own right, and once you’ve set it, you can bring it in and out without having to find your sweet spot each time. It’s a worthwhile solution to getting a distinctive sound. At this price, we’d like to see the option of an expression pedal connection to make it better value.

Stuart Williams