It's not often that guitarists wax poetic at the mention of a trumpet player, but Clyde McCoy is the exception. McCoy is known by guitarists not for his prowess blowing into brass tubes but rather for having his name on the very first production wah pedals.
The original Clyde McCoy wah enjoys hallowed status for its throaty, voice-like tones, which have been heard on numerous recordings by artists like Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix in the Sixties and discriminating tone connoisseurs of today.
The new Dunlop Clyde McCoy Cry Baby Wah Wah resurrects this esteemed pedal by duplicating the original Cry Baby sound to the nth degree, while improving the design with modern features and performance.
The secret is Dunlop's HI01 Halo inductor, which produces the incredibly expressive midrange of the original, but without its microphonic problems. The pedal is also much more durable and roadworthy and features premium-quality input and output jacks, a heavy-duty footswitch and the added convenience of a nine-volt adapter jack.
Wah connoisseurs will rejoice when they hear the new Clyde’s dead-on reproduction of the vintage version’s sound, which has been elusive all these years as pros and deep-pocketed collectors have hoarded the original Clyde wahs like gold.
List Price: $285.70 Manufacturer: Dunlop Manufacturing, jimdunlop.com
Chris is the co-author of Eruption - Conversations with Eddie Van Halen. He is a 40-year music industry veteran who started at Boardwalk Entertainment (Joan Jett, Night Ranger) and Roland US before becoming a guitar journalist in 1991. He has interviewed more than 600 artists, written more than 1,400 product reviews and contributed to Jeff Beck’s Beck 01: Hot Rods and Rock & Roll and Eric Clapton’s Six String Stories.
