Brian Wampler - King of Drive!

I have considered Brian's Tube Screamer clone on numerous occasions - its 3-band EQ and voicing toggle helping to raise it well above its original root limitations. Yet I went first for the Foxpedal In The City V2 - which has similar range plus a second boost footswitch, and then I acquired the excellent all-rounder that is the JHS Bonzai - I do still intend to get a Clarksdale at some stage, it's just nowhere near the priority list currently.

This equally superbly versatile Dumble-esque pedal replaced my Mad Professor Simble in that same slot - I currently have no proper Dumble clones in the chain, but a couple of the current pedals sort of broach that territory and I have further Dumble-style pedals in reserve. Nevertheless this one does get fairly regular rotation in the chain even though there is no longer a dedicated 'Dumble' slot. It took me a while to figure out the 'Bass' dial - which is entirely additive - meaning that most will want it turned significantly anti-clockwise - 12 o'clock is definitely not '0' it's just a question of how much Bass you want to add into your signal - and for most guitars it really does not sound good in the centre position!

Brian's new pedal is a thing of genius and I predict it will probably even exceed the enormous popularity of the Tumnus - so well voiced is this new Bluesbreaker style drive. It kind of takes the best bits of Analog.Man's Prince of Tone and Marshall's original Bluesbreaker circuit - and then runs with it somewhat - giving you everything from smooth to pretty crunchy hairy distortion. It features a really clever mix of controls - with 2 x 3-way voicing switches for ultimate versatility. The Presence dial is entirely additive - like the Bass dial on the Euphoria and in the same way you should start with it set full anti-clockwise.

Widely accepted as one of the best sounding Plexi clones out there - I feel that the new Origin Effects RevivalDrive somewhat outguns it nowadays, but that's 3 times the price. For many, the Plexi-Drive gives you the perfect balance of control and contour. I'm always keen on Marshall-style drives and always have several such pedals in my sights - including this one, and the various PedalPal ones from Venezuela. The advantage of the Deluxe pedals is that you get a separate footswitchable boost.

Most agree that the 2 best Eddie Van Halen Brown Sound style pedals on the market are the official MXR EVH 5150 OD and this Pinnacle Deluxe version. While I go a slightly different route with my MI Effects Super Crunch Box - which features most of the same controls in a compact enclosure. I long weighed up the 5150, Pinnacle, Super Crunch, JHS Andy Timmons and JHS Angry Charlie - before I settled on the Super Crunch Box - but I probably still would like most of those others eventually for occasional rotation.

Most describe this as a crunchy, dense and rich 6L6 Power Amp style Distortion with a really broad range of gain and tone. I've come across it several times and have been on the cusp of acquiring it when some other priority arose and diverted my attentions. This is probably next in line for acquisition after the Pantheon - it's a really versatile medium to high-gain pedal.

This Ola Englund-inspired Chug / Djent pedal does what it was intended to do really well - while I found the Empress Heavy and MI Effects Megalith Delta which replaced it just a bit more versatile and useful overall - the former has dual channels, and the latter has separate boost - meaning multiple voicings on each. While the Dracarys is a single format pedal with relatively limited scope comparatively - but still great sounding at what it does and it does get in on the rotation every now and again.

Based on a MESA/Boogie Triple Rectifier Amp sound - this is one of the ultimate extreme gain pedals - for that really tight and percussive dark metal sound. This has been on my wishlist for the longest time. Heading for 3 years now - it was one of the earliest pedals I intended to get, but others have somehow conspired to take precedence - this is really great at what it delivers and would make a good sometime rotation alternative for both my Empress Heavy and MI Megalith Delta primary pedals.

The following additional 9 are all that same excellent quality as the ones above, they just don't appeal to me quite as much:

• cataPulp = Orange Amp Distortion
• Dual Fusion = Tom Quayle Signature Pedal, the perfect Jazz/Rock Fusion pedal - consisting of Euphoria + Paisley Drive - where you can change the order of which half drives the other
• Hot Wired = Brent Mason Signature Pedal, perfect Nashville country-style pedal, consisting of Clarksdale + Plexi-Drive - and you can change the order of which pedal / half drives the other
• Paisley Drive = Brad Paisley's Signature Pedal is an evolution of the Clarksdale circuit (TS808) but very much honed towards Brad's core Telecaster tone
• Paisley Drive Deluxe (per above demo) = Brad Paisley's Signature Pedal adds the discontinued Underdog circuit (Nobels ODR-S) to the heavily modified Clarksdale circuit - again with a toggle to set order of drives
• Pinnacle Standard = this is the compact version of the Pinnacle pedal - minus separate boost switch and dial
• Plexi-Drive Standard = same as for the Pinnacle Standard - i.e. minus separate boost and dial
• Thirty Something = classic Vox AC30 + Boost sound - probably the best all-rounder of that type currently available - does both the sparkly cleans and Brian May style distortion brilliantly
• Tumnus Mini = Brian's original Low-end-enhanced Klon(e) pedal - probably his current bestseller - excellent as a neutral / transparent drive and as a boost

It's ironic that there has been a recent rise in enthusiasm for Tweed-style pedals, as Wampler had one of the best a few years back. I also really like the sound of the discontinued SLOstortion pedal- and may just pick up one of those on Reverb.com:

• Black '65 = this is modelled on a classic clean and sparkle Black-Face Fender Amp
• Tweed '57 = modelled on the classic original Rock'n'Roll sound of those Fender Tweed Amps
• Plextortion = Plexi/JCM800 style with plenty of sizzle and bark - comes with handy 3-band EQ - just picked one of these up recently!
• SLOstortion (per above demo) = superb American high gain distortion based on the Soldano SLO-100 Amp
• Underdog OD = another Brad Paisley favourite - modelled on the Nobels ODR-S pedal

To my knowledge there have only been two Wampler fuzzes - both pretty unique circuits which though not really modelled on specific Big Muff circuits are closer to that kind of circuit than say a Fuzz Face or Tone Bender. I have considered both of these fuzzes, the former of which is discontinued now. The Leviathan is somewhat rougher and rawer with elements of Rat OpAmp distortion quite heavily in the mix - while the Velvet Fuzz is somewhat smoother, but still very much in Fuzzy-Drive territory - I can't decide which one of these I should have or if I need both!:

• Leviathan Fuzz (discontinued, per above demo) = unique fuzz circuit which occupies sort of Big Muff/OpAmp/Rat -style territory - with more in-your-face spikey fuzzstortion
• Velvet Fuzz = unique fuzz circuit which is closer to traditional Big Muff territory - not as raw as its predecessor

Brian doesn't just make exceptional drive pedals, he has 11 further excellent pedals in the range which cover time-based and ambient effects along with superior Compressors and a cool new Semi-Parametric EQ (per above demo):

• dB+ Boost and Independent Buffer
• The Doctor LoFi Ambient Delay
• Ego Compressor
• Ego Mini Compressor
• Ethereal Reverb and Delay
• EQuator Advanced Audio Equaliser
• Faux Spring Mini Reverb
• Faux Tape Echo V2
• Latitude Deluxe Tremolo
• Latitude Standard Tremolo
• Reflection Reverb