Brian Wampler Delivers 2 more Killer Mini Drive Pedals - the Belle Overdrive Mini and Plexi-Drive Mini
It’s nice to see that the Wampler Tumnus Mini has some company now. Brian further underlines his ’King of Drive’ credentials with 2 further smart diminutive derivations. The Belle Overdrive is yet another of his takes on the Nobels ODR Natural Overdrive. His very first derivation was the Underdog, a take on the ODR-S 3-Band EQ variety, which was developed for Brad Paisley - and after a 100 pedal limited run became the right-hand side of the Signature Dual-Channel Wampler Paisley Deluxe.
Wile the Plexi-Drive Mini is of course the 3rd variant within that family - alongside the Standard Compact and Deluxe Plexi-Drives. It will likely provide some healthy competition to my incumbent favourite Mini-Plexi - the Xotic Effects SL-Drive.
There were some rumours too circulating about a Mini Pantheon - and while that did not materialise on this occasion it undoubtedly will at some stage. The Tumnus, Belle and Plexi Drive are all excellent for stacking - and I can well imagine many a rig and pedalboard which contain just those 3 minis for their drive section.
There are of course alternatives available for each of these, while with Brian Wampler you are always guaranteed the highest degree of attention to detail and quality - so I can’t imagine anyone would really be disappointed with any of these. I of course have a number of Mini Plexis - including the Xotic SL Drive and OneControl Purple Plexifier - while I don’t have any Nobels ODR variant or derivative yet - so that is most likely the more immediately appealing choice for me!
Belle Overdrive Mini - $150/£150
As mentioned in the above intro - this is another of Brian's takes on the Nobels ODR - in this instance the ODR-1 variety - but with added Bass control. This is the exact same pedal as the recent Alex Clay - Claymore tribute limited pedal. The difference is solely in the styling of the enclosure artwork. The 'Clipping' push button on the side of the pedal adds compression and clipping for a little more punch. Otherwise you sort of have the classic controls of the ODR-1 - Level, Gain and Colour (Spectrum per ODR-1).
Obviously Nobels also has its ODR-mini pedal, but I fancy the Wampler derivation has a little more to it - for more inherent flexibility and versatility. I will be doing a separate listing later on Nobels ODR Natural Overdrive options and alternatives - which include its new V2 ODR-1 with bass-cut switch, the 3-Band EQ ODR-S Overdrive Special, and of course the aforementioned ODR-mini. There's a few varieties I've been eyeing up recently - but I feel that the Belle may already be the forerunner for me.
Plexi-Drive Mini - $150/£150
Not officially launched yet, but on some of the more forward blog sites is Wampler's forthcoming Mini Plexi. This obviously has strong provenance within the existing family of Standard Compact Plexi-Drive and the BB-sized Plexi-Drive Deluxe. In fact the Plexi-Drive is one of the few Wampler drive pedals of note that I don't yet own - so this may be a good point for me to jump in as it were.
At the core we have Gain, Volume and Tone controls, but then in similar configuration to the Mini Ego Compressor we have 2 additional toggle-switches - essentially for Bass Less/More and Mids Less/More so cut and boost of those key frequency groups. I'm a huge fan of my Alchemy Audio modded Xotic SL Drive pedal in particular - while I feel that the additional tone controls on the Mini Plexi-Drive could come rather in handy on occasion too. I have probably more than a dozen varieties of Plexi pedals overall, so I don't really need any particular additions, but I'm still intrigued here.
Final Thoughts
I actually really like the look and sound of both these pedals - while the Belle is more of an instant hit for me as I don't have any Nobels type pedals in the collection, but have plenty of options for Plexi.
I'm in no imminent rush to add either of these to the collection - I will likely get both eventually - with my snagging a Belle edition first. Before I draw any fully definitive conclusions I will go back and review all my Plexi options - and review the data set for the forthcoming piece on Nobels ODR and alternatives.
These already appear to have been very well received by the Wampler community and I expect both to do pretty well. Do you like the look of either of these?
