how to find the year a Dunlop Crybaby was made

I'd contact Dunlop customer service. They've been good to me.

 

It is mid- late 90. Pot date code corresponds with the general AA serial #. Should have on board jacks , possibly still in the 1/8 inch dc jack era. There was about a one year overlap with pcb mount in out jacks, but still with 1/8 jack. Some of these boards also had a two trans circ, just before the in buffer became standard ( 3 trans).

 

Pot code is 33rd week of 90. Pots were made quite close to wah build date.

 

^ Joe knows wah!

 

here is a (very) rough gcb95 guide.
dunlop seems to have bought the crybaby brand from whirlpool in 82. for a brief time, the internals looked like thomas, but the new ' wave ' crybaby logo was on front.

around 84 or 85 they switched to a term clip for the wires , and a header on the PCB to connect it. allen bradley or clarostat pot with short shaft. by 85 these pots were branded ' hotpotz1' and also marked ' dunlop mfg' on the side. wah gear pinned near bushing.

approx 87 or 88 they added a 1/8" power jack. inductor began to change from stack of dimes to a small POS inductor that sounded horrible(dark grey or sometimes with a turquoise wrap). still free standing in/out jacks, but the former US made were now flimsy japan made jacks. wires also got thinner.

sometime around 89 or 90 the modular PCB with board mount jacks appeared. at first a brown PCB ( rev ' E' ) with no buffer and 1/8" power jack, quickly followed by the familiar rev 'f' in around 90 - 91. pots still same ( marked 'hotpotz1' & 'dunlop mfg'), short shaft, but gear now glued on instead of pinned.

in this era, the intro of the small toroid inductor occurred. usually with a brass nut on top. PCBs now clear-ish green and clear plastic in/ out jacks.

around 93 - 94, some inductors marked 'N30' indicating magnet material, while construction looks same otherwise. N30 was supposedly specified by BUDDA, dunlop was the contract mfgr for these, it seems they went ahead and stuck some of the n30 inductors into the gcb95 while they were at it.

by mid 90s REV H showed up. only minor changes, but boards became an opaque tan. by mid 90s, the hotpotz1 was still basically a clarostat part ( some marked allen bradley but made on same production line , AB had sold their pot division to claro by late 80s). in this era the pot had a longer shaft and bushing, & the now familiar D shaft with E clip to retain wah gear. neutrik jacks.

clear jacks became black around 93.

94 or 95 saw the intro of the hotpotz2, made for dunlop to their specs. this was a new small black closed pot with turrets on rear of pot for hookup. this is a plastic element pot with much higher durability. taper was roughly the same as hotpotz1.

seems there was an overlap period around 94 - 96 where both hotpotz1 and 2 were used at same time. hotpotz1 phased out by approx 97 or 98 with service units still made til 2000 or so ( music store cardboard/shrink packaging).

approx 96, the black cylinder inductor comes into play. later gets a 'd' logo on top.

late 90s, the boards changed to green.

the wah pot replacement market fell off severely as the hotpotz2 last a very long time and since they have been in production for nearly 20 years, not too many wahs have worn out pots any more.

2000 - 2007, only minor changes, but wahs can usually be dated by their pot. same '2 digit year, 2 digit week' code applies. cheaper jacks, no longer neutrik marked. wire size and quality improved.

around 2007, REV I board comes along. inductor oriented 90 degrees rotated so that the fasel now looks symmetrical, unlike the rev h.

by 2013, red fasel is now standard. the common black cylinder dunlop inductor no longer made. switch is now dpdt, alpha made carling 316 'clone' with a 'D' logo on the side. wah is still not true bypass, the dpdt is wired with each pair of lugs redundant. in/ out jacks now also branded with a 'D" logo, improved quality.

enclosure notes: the wah shells themselves have gone through minor changes, most significantly the change to a slightly wider throw sometime in the 80s, possibly soon after dunlop bought company. during the bad 80s, the castings were thin and possibly poor alloy, it is common to see warpage in the tension spring nut areas. this was rectified by early 90s.

it should be noted that nearly all of the improvements in the gcb95 are the result of the mastermind, head engineer sam macrae. he started working at dunlop around 88 or 89, the wahs have steadily gotten better and better under his watchful eye.

 

@joe Gagen

Are you able to date this Wah? It's a JH-1s Jimi Hendrix Special
Serial AA-06G938