Wampler Pedals Capsule Collection

Controls - Bass, Mid, Treble, Volume, Voicing : Smooth / Edge, Gain.

A signature pedal made for 'Animals as Leader' frontman Tosin Abasi. An interesting smooth / tight and sort of 'dry-sounding' high gain distortion - with a pretty unique character. Not quite as full on as some of the other high gain flavours - and it has a very distinctive character and timbre - I still rather like it - while it has somewhat more specialist applications for me!

Controls -  Gain, Gain Structure : ↑ Distortion / Overdrive ↓, Volume, Bass, Mids (Active), Treble.

A fabulous signature 3-Band EQ / Dual-Voiced take on my favourite Boss BD-2 Blues Driver Overdrive. My most favoured overdrive is the Keeley-Modded Phreak Fuzz / Phat Edition of BD-2 - and this is an exceptional enhancement of the core pedal's output - really nicely done!

Controls - Treble, Mids, Bass, Volume, Gain.

A cool signature Orange Rockerverb pedal made for the now defunct Dutch Pedal Store 'Crush The Button'. I think only around a couple of hundred were made. A really cool find for me at the time!

Controls - Volume, Chime (3-Way Brightness & Harmonics : Up is Bright / Middle is Dark / Down is Stock), Fuzz / Gain, Tone (High End), Tight / Bass Response : Up is Bass-heavy / Middle is Tight / Down is Stock, Character : Bias / Sputter.

A quite wonderful vintage-leaning fuzz with modern appointments - albeit it needs to be at the front of your chain. Brian has come up with the perfect complement of controls - to deliver exciting and authentic classic Tone Bender, Fuzz Face, and Big Muff voicings - all on the same pedal. A really clever feat of engineering - and one of his very best creations - so smart! Truly one of my very favourite fuzzes!

Controls - Bass, Mid, Treble, Volume, Voicing : Open / Tight, Gain.

This one was an ode to Ola Englund's chug sound - way before the official Solar Gutiars Chug Distortion. Brian had become accustomed to listening to Ola's SWOLA show and accompanying riffing - and thought he should do a tribute to that phenomenon. It's not entirely spot on - but regardless a very decent high gain pedal on its own merits - not quite as full-blooded as Ola's own Chug, and other similar more modern High Gain takes - but a very decent distinct sounding one nonetheless!

Controls - Tone, Bass, Mode : Smooth / Open / Crunch, Volume, Gain.

This was my second ever Wampler, and second Dumble Drive - which took over the slot from the Mad Professor Simble, before yielding to the Demon Pedals Kondo-Shifuku. A great Dumble Drive with 3 different modes of Playback - varying the texture / smoothness of the output. Beautifully balanced in every way - and to this date many a players favourite Dumble Drive still! Note that you need to start with the Bass control - all the way back - Bass ramps up very quickly!

Controls - Blend, Sustain, Tone : Darker > Brighter, Volume, Attack : Slower > Faster.

I believe this was one of the earliest Wamplers for me - and it took over the slot from the Alchemy Audio Modified Xotic SP Compressor. The Mini Ego is the same type - Ross-style OTA - while it has a little more granularity and control over its output versus the Xotic one - both really competent mini Compressors - while I dare say the Becos FX CompIQ Mini Pro is the most capable of all mini Compressors - that being a Blackmer VCA type. That said - the Wampler Mini Ego was in place on my board for quite a while!

Controls - Bass, Mids, Treble, Level, Texture : Stock Silicon / MOSFET, Gain.

This is one of the newer ones - Brian's take on the Ibanez Mostortion - with an additional and unique MOSFET Clipping option - which sounds particularly zingy! I think I prefer the Nordland Electronics Mosland a little more - while the Mofetta is definitely a distinct and worthy Mostortion evolution.

Controls - Bass, Treble, Presence, Volume, Gain Level ±, Overdrive Voice ±, Gain.

I still believe I achieved my best ever BluesBreaker tones with the Pantheon - which is a somewhat outlier for that category - with really pretty massive amounts of gain and intensity on tap - it will do those mellow BluesBreaker tones brilliantly too - while you do need to be clever on the dial-in. I have no shortage of great BluesBreakers in the collection - but I still hold this one as one of the greats!

Controls - Tone, Mid Contour, Volume, Mode : Modern / Vintage, Boost : Boost / Gain, Gain.

I'm not sure this one ever particularly had a chance - I have so many brilliant Brown Sound devices - including all my Sinverteks and my much loved Colombo Eruption, MI Effects Super Crunch Box V2 and Tsakalis AudioWorks Roon #40 - which all leave the Pinnacle a little in the shade. It is still a decent take on that genre - but is somewhat outmuscled by a number of other pedals in my reference collection!

Controls - Volume, Mode : Vintage / Modern, Gain, Treble, Mids, Bass.

I believe this was one of the many forerunners to the Pinnacle - there was also a Super Plextoriton at some stage - all with slightly different character - the Plextotion has more gain and more punch typically than the somewhat looser Pinnacle - I like both - but have other more potent varieties in the collection!

Controls - Volume, Distortion, Gain ±, Filter, Voice ±.

One of the really great modded Rats - with additional voicings. It doesn't quite compete with the very best of my compacts - but is a formidable mini proposition. It's quite a distinct sounding Rat - definitely worth considering - albeit not necessarily 'canon' for that genre!

Controls - Volume, Mid Contour, Tone, Mode : Modern / Vintage, Boost : Boost / Gain, Gain.

This is one of the great unsung Wampler pedals - a somewhat Marshall-y sounding versatile Distortion - that you can turn to many a purposes. Every time I wheel it out I'm surprised at how poised and well defined it sounds - a secret weapon for sure!

Controls - Mode : Auto-Wah / Envelope Filter / Flanger / Phaser / Uni-Vibe / Rotary / Swell / Amplitude Tremolo / Harmonic Tremolo / Chorus / Dimension Chorus, Rate, Depth, Blend, Variable, Volume, Bypass Footswitch, Preset/Save Button, Tap Tempo Footswitch.

One of my favourite all-time Multi-Modulators - with the perfect selection and balance of algorithms - Brian really knocked this one out of the park - while it was a somewhat difficult 'birth' making a launch appearance at no less than 3 NAMM's in a row. It's all about the final result though - and this one is pretty perfect - mission accomplished!

Controls - Volume, Voicing : Hard / Brutal, Gain, Boost Contour, Treble, Mids, Bass.

One of the early great Mesa Rectifier Distortions. There are neater and more powerful modern varieties now - but this was and still remains pretty decent. I do feel that Brian has a better Rectifier in him than this one - needs a little tweaking to be perfect!

Controls - Bass, Mids, Treble, Volume, Voicing : Normal / Hot, Gain.

The Germanium variety has a very distinct character to it - which many prefer. It has both more textural grit - and more clarity and articulation weirdly in some ways. Some even prefer the Germanium Mini Tumnus to this - all the different variants / iterations here sound slightly different somehow! As most of my Klones have Germanium Diodes - I wasn't sure I needed the Mini Germanium one - particularly because of Decibelics - and my affinity for the Golden Horse. But I've decided a little late in the day - that I actually would quite like to add a Germanium mini variety too - I just need to wait for the second-hand prices to calm down somewhat!