Dunlop Jerry Cantrell Firefly Cry Baby Wah vs MXR WA90
The Dunlop Jerry Cantrell Firefly Cry Baby Wah and the MXR WA90 are both pedals sharing mid-forward. The Dunlop Jerry Cantrell Firefly Cry Baby Wah leans dark and tight. The MXR WA90 leans full.
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Blended from circuit-archetype lineage, dynamic feel, tone-signal overlap and tone-vector distance — the tone vector itself is derived from editorial description text, not a measured acoustic signal, so this reflects how similarly the catalog copy describes the two, not a lab measurement. Shown only within a gear class, and only where there's enough evidence to be meaningful.48% — somewhat different
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Genres both listings are associated with.- Hard Rock
- Alternative Rock
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Derived from overlapping tonal signals across both listings.- mid-forward
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Citation/mention fame — how often this gear is cited across artist rigs and gear discussion.$199.99via Reverb
The Dunlop Jerry Cantrell Firefly Cry Baby Wah is a signature pedal custom-voiced around Alice in Chains frontman Jerry Cantrell's dark, punchy grunge aesthetic. The pedal features a custom inductor tuned specifically for tight, punchy heel-down tone and a side-control knob for fine-tuning toe-down frequency. Unlike brighter wah designs, the Firefly delivers a dark, moody, vocal character without intense high-treble quack, making it particularly effective in moderate to heavy overdrive and distortion contexts. The limited-edition Firefly features glow-in-the-dark artwork on the tread, front badge, and bottom plate—an aesthetic nod to Cantrell's 2021 solo album Brighten.
The MXR WA90 is an Eddie Van Halen signature wah pedal, modeled on Van Halen's own heavily used 'Holy Grail' Cry Baby, which he customized with a High-Q inductor and a wider frequency sweep than a standard wah. Its pot response is cloned from Van Halen's own worn-in original, giving it a more defined midrange and an increased low-end sweep compared to a stock Cry Baby. Van Halen used it sparingly but memorably, most notably on Poundcake. It suits rock players wanting the specific, wider-swept wah voicing behind one of Van Halen's less common but distinctive tonal signatures.
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Genres this gear is documented as being used in.- Grunge
- Blues
- Classic Rock
- Rock
- dark
- tight
- crunchy
- full