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Dunlop 105Q Mini Wah - True bypass and delay trimpot?

A

Atombender

Guest
Jan 1, 2017
3
0
#1
I'm looking for a good wah pedal for bass and it seems the mini version of the 105Q Crybaby would suit me well due its praised characteristics and my limited pedal board space. I however have two questions which I've failed to find the answers to:

1. Does the Mini 105Q have true bypass?
I hear that some users of the full-size 105Q complain about getting muddy sound from the bypass but that the Mini version probably has true bypass (just like some other Dunlop Mini pedals). That would be great but I don't find a clear statement of this, not even on Dunlop's own product page for the Mini 105Q.

2. Does the Mini 105Q have the internal trimpot for setting the deactivation delay time?
I've read that newer versions of the full-size 105Q have a trimpot under the lid for setting (or entirely removing) the short time during which the wah effect is still active after you've moved the pedal to the off position. To me it sounds strange to have such a deactivation delay to begin with, and many others seem to think it makes the pedal feel unresponsive and difficult to use, so I'd probably like to switch it off on the Mini as well if possible.
 
#3
Excellent. Thank you, bassmonkeee!

Then it is only the true bypass that remains to be verified. One would think that such an improvement would be a good selling point to mention in the advertisment, but I don't find much information on it. I however find a few web stores that mention "True Hardwire Bypass" for this pedal, so unless this is false advertisment I guess they have indeed made this improvement on the Mini Crybaby.

Examples:
Dunlop Bass Mini Wah
Invalid Link Removed
 
#8
dannybuoy said:
Definitely not true bypass in my experience, but didn't notice any tone suck when bypassed. Plenty of tone suck when it was turned on though, get a Hotone Bass Press instead! :D
Click to expand...
I’m genuinely perplexed by your experience with the Mini Bass Wah; since it only engages when you start to rock the treadle forward, you’re already into Wah mode, meaning that your clean/ bypassed tone would be essentially done for anyway. Are you meaning to say you thought the Wah tone just sucked, or you expect some sort of tonal transparency out of a device that sweeps and accentuates frequencies as it’s used?

Anyway, I thought the Crybaby MBW was an amazing Wah while I owned it, and I’ll buy one again; this is even after the first one I got new on Reverb was defective.
 
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#9
Yeah, that was my roundabout way of saying I didn't like the sound of the pedal in general. The Hotone sounds more to me like a traditional guitar wah just without the low end loss, whereas the Dunlop is closer to the sound you might get from some envelope filters. I bought the Dunlop Mini to compare to the Bass Press but it didn't float my boat at all.
 
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#11
dannybuoy said:
Yeah, that was my roundabout way of saying I didn't like the sound of the pedal in general. The Hotone sounds more to me like a traditional guitar wah just without the low end loss, whereas the Dunlop is closer to the sound you might get from some envelope filters. I bought the Dunlop Mini to compare to the Bass Press but it didn't float my boat at all.
Click to expand...
OK, gotcha. There's just a particularly grounded meaning to the phrase "tone suck" so I just wanted to understand. To each their own, I personally love the filter sweep of the Dunlop, but when I'm rebuilding a big board I'll give the Hotone a try, probably A/B the two.
 
#12
This has driven me up the wall beyond belief. I’ve had this pedal for over a year, but only recently noticed some distortion in my signal path. I thought it was my new amp head, bad cable, some type of interference, power supply of my board, etc, etc.

It’s the only goddamn pedal I have that doesn’t have true bypass and I remember being concerned about this when I bought it. It’s really beyond me how effing Dunlop haven’t updated this model for such a basic thing. Gonna be leaving soon for my store to get some form of small switch to take it in and out of the chain. Goddamnit. The power jack is also super sensitive, no matter what connector you’re using. Grrrrrrrr.
 
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#13
That sounds like another horrible experience with Dunlop. Thanks for the heads up about the distortion, will pay attention to it (and overdriving it). I have no problems with power plug tho. Not yet.

Any ides what are the 2x3 header pins inside for? Calibration? Alternative sounds (bandpass, highpass)?
 
#14
I go back and forth with mine...

I bought a Valeton mini wah / volume but hated having to do the step hard to switch between both types and never used the volume so swapped back. Dunlop isn’t amazing but considering I use it to sweep with fuzz from drop B It does a nice enough of job and quick enough to transition from on and off.
I have a mix of buffered and true bypass pedals on my board and use an active bass... didn’t really notice a difference with it in the chain... YMMV
 

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