Brian Wampler One-Ups The Competition with his New Collective Line of Budget Extended Range Pedals
The Catalyst to all this I believe - which is a category I’m calling ’Boutique Budget’ - was the launch of EarthQuaker Devices’ Plumes Overdrive back in July of 2019. That was the very first boutique brand deliberate mainline $99 pedal as far as I’m aware. EarthQuaker are kind of releasing their $99 pedals 1-by-1 with a long time between the Plumes and the recent Special Cranker.
JHS’s Josh Scott then kind of upped the stakes further with his own budget $99 3-Series of very utilitarian and minimalist looking pedals - a whole range no less. Next you’ve had Fender with its Hammertone line, Gibson with Maestro, and sort of Catalinbread with its Elements Series ($149 though) - all purporting to be budget lines really.
In each case we have previously had somewhat regulation pedals with relatively few controls - while Brian has thrown down the gauntlet here with full 3-Band EQ and 2-Way voicing selectors on each of his new Line of Collective Series Pedal. Brian is certainly giving you more bang for your buck and both the Triumph Overdrive and Phenom Distortion are really solid and appealing releases. I would imagine more use of SMT parts here - and also the Wampler logo has been moved off the front facia onto the leading edge of said pedals.
I’ve long been a fan of Brian’s and I’m quietly impressed with these two new releases - which sort of fall into the Tube Screamer Adjacent and MIAB Adjacent categories. I have a large number of Brian’s Gain Pedals in particular and I like most of his circuits. The Triumph obviously overlaps a touch with Clarksdale and Paisley Overdrives, and the Phenom surely overlaps a touch with the Pinnacle and Plexi Drive.
The Demos sound really decent and for sure these will sell very well!
Collective Series Triumph Overdrive (≈ DigiTech Bad Monkey & Boss DS-1) - $99.97
You all now the saga of the Tube Screamer by now - where Maxon originally were trying to replicate Boss's OD-1, but because of Roland Group's Patent on Asymmetrical Clipping - had to go with the smoother Asymmetrical Clipping - which then became a runaway success - prompting Boss in turn to soften its OD-1 more towards the TS808 - via the SD-1.
So one side of this pedal is kind of adjacent to that smooth symmetrical TS808 clipping - where DigiTech's Bad Monkey was a now discontinue but really well loved take on the TS808. The other side of course being based on the slightly punchier asymmetrical clipping of the SD-1.
Here you get 3-Band EQ, Volume, Gain and a 2-way Monkey / SD-1 voicing switch. All pretty great really and nothing to quibble at - certainly not at the $99 level!
Collective Series Phenom Distortion (≈ MIAB / Peavey / EVH 5150) - $99.97
I could hear from the first demos that familiar Marshally midsy bark - so the fact that this is sort of based on the 5150 sound makes perfect sense really - as does the 2-way voicing switch of Bright & Classic. The Phenom has the exact same topology as the Triump - a solid 3-Band EQ, Volume and Gain.
I have a number of Brian's Marshall-leaning pedals - the Pinnacle, Plexi-Drive, Plextortion and Sovereign among them - I would still quite like to add this Phenom to the Wampler Capsule Collection. I've fallen a little behind with that recently - with a number of Brian's recent Mini's still on my wishlist.
These are handily $99 / £99 and in wide distribution already. I will probably look to pick them up early next year - as I'm sort of on hiatus on pedal acquisitions for December - as I'm on Christmas duties by now, and mostly working on the end-of-year reviews.
I will of course still continue to highlight key releases - but I'm not really looking to add anything in December - beyond a couple of commitments already made!
