Walter Becker / Steely Dan & John Neff / Maui Recorders Studio owned Thomas Organ Cry Baby Wah

Walter Becker (Steely Dan) & John Neff / Maui Recorders Studio owned Thomas Organ Cry Baby Wah - Model 95-910511

This is a genuine piece of studio history: a Thomas Organ Co. "Cry Baby" wah, Model 95-910511, built in Sepulveda, California during the mid-to-late 1970s Patents Pending era — the period collectors chase for the TDK "stack of dimes" style cube inductor still fitted here, widely regarded as the tonal heart of the vintage Cry Baby sweep.

But the real story is on the back plate: this pedal has MAUI RECORDERS studio sticker, with an underlying "PROPERTY OF NEFTUNES" label that John put on after Maui Recorders closed.

Maui Recorders was the studio built in the 1980's on Maui by Walter Becker, co-founder of Steely Dan, and audio engineer John Neff. Neff had already spent the 1970s and 80s as a Detroit session guitarist backing names like Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes, then relocated to Maui in 1979 where he ran a small studio and record label before Becker approached him to build something bigger on the mountain. Maui Recorders became a serious working studio — Neff engineered there on Donald Fagen's Kamakiriad and Becker's own solo album 11 Tracks of Whack, and the room was outfitted gear-for-gear the way you'd expect from two guys who'd spent decades chasing tone in professional studios.

Neff went on to a long career after Maui — engineering for David Lynch (including co-writing/recording Lynch's BlueBOB album), mixing Journey's Revelation, and eventually running his own studio, The Lab, in Portland. He retired around 2021 and passed away in December 2022. I bought this pedal directly from John in 2021 as part of his retirement sale, along with a handful of other pieces out of his personal and studio collection — gear that had literally been on hand at Maui Recorders during the Becker/Neff years.

So what you're getting isn't just a good-sounding vintage wah with the desirable early inductor — it's a pedal with direct, documented provenance to a working Steely Dan-affiliated studio, co-owned and used by Walter Becker and John Neff themselves.