Wampler Triple Wreck Distortion

Today we take a look at Wampler's Triple Wreck.

This is a high gain distortion pedal. It was designed to be bad ass, and that's exactly what it is.

Controls:
Volume: Controls Volume
Gain: Amount of distortion
Treble, Mids, Bass: EQ shaping

Toggle:
Vintage: Less high end and bite, more compression
Modern: Less Compression, more high end bite
Crunch/Cream: Controls the contour of the boost stage. Crunchy distortion vs creamy fuzz.

Even dialed down on tame settings you can get a decent overdrive sound. But quickly as you increase the gain, it saturates to pure distortion. I love having a 3 band EQ to shape my overall tone as well. As always, you can crank in WAY to much bass. Which is awesome, no complaints about losing the low end! This is also useful for thickening up strat/tele sounds.

The pedal also has TONS of volume, even cranking the EQ settings affects the volume. It can get very loud, real quick. This pedal sounds amazing. Easy to get good tones, lots of harmonic saturation, lots of distortion. But Brian took it a step further and added a boost switch.

Kicking this on allows you to blend in even more distortion, or you can crank on the thickest, most saturated and smooth fuzz you've probably ever heard and any blend between the two!

I admire Wampler for making pedals that sound amazing, but I also commend them for being inovators.

Pro's
True Bypass
9V Operation via battery or adapter
3 band EQ
Choice of Distortion shaping via Vintage/Modern toggle
Tons of volume
Anything from slightly overdriven to thick smooth fuzz
Remains articulate

Fulltone Plimsoul

The Plimsoul is the latest offering from Fulltone in the realm of Overdrive pedals. "Plim" means full.

The main idea behind it is to bridge the gap between Soft Clipped and Hard Clipped overdrives.

Soft clipped are typically found in lower gain overdrives, those that add a little grit, typically some compression, usually a smoother sound. To learn more about clipping you can go to the below links.

http://www.gmarts.org/index.php?go=217

http://www.tyquinn.com/2009/lead-tone-part-3-distortion/

Hard clipping is mostly found in distortion pedals.

This pedal offers 2 channels, one for each type of clipping. These can be controlled seperatly. But you also have the ability to combine these 2 types of distortion in any ratio you want. The Plimsoul offers symetrical Hard Clipping which gives a little more focused sound. The pedal offers all the other typical great characteristics of overdrive pedals. It cleans up on lower volumes and softer picking. It distorts as you play harder.

So lets get down to the controls.

Level: This controls the volume and there is a lot to be had with this pedal. Unless you are insane (which you may be) You wont even crank this up half way. I usually keep mine between 8 and 11 o'clock for an even/slightly boosted volume when the pedal is engaged.

Sustain: This controls the soft clipping portion of the pedal or "stage 1" This stage provides aysemetric clipping. This enriches harmonics and overtones which is great for lower gain overdrive. Even in stage 1, this pedal gets awfully dirty. I'd probably keep it definatley below 11 o'clock for a soft clipped overdrive sound. With the Stage 2 knob turned all the way counter clockwise, it isolates only this stage of distortion.

Hi-Cut: This controls the treble frequencies. Basically a tone control, but with less control on the bottom end. I can say, for my ears, this is all you need since the most you are usually looking to do is roll off the treble anyways.

Stage 2: This little knob controls the second stage of distortion, the hard clipped. This offers a tighter low end response. You can roll back the sustain knob counter clockwise all the way to isolate this channel. The Stage 2 LED shows how hard you are hitting the second stage of the distortion when you're blending the two, or even if your not.

Power: You can run this on a 9v or 18V adapter or 9V battery. I love this about all Fulltone pedals OD pedals as running either gives different dynamics.

This pedal offers a slight boost on the mid-range. Not overbearing, but it is noticeable. This increases the presence. There are several good demo's of this pedal online. However as I've found out. Nothing compares to live application.

Official Site

http://www.fulltone.com/plimsoul.asp

gearmandude

demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCwA0Ho8Tvw

gr8bluesgtr

demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3zGMagIS48

Some Other Online Reviews
http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2010/Oct/Fulltone_PlimSoul_Pedal_Review.aspx

I really love the fact that every Fulltone OD/Distortion pedal I've bought all sound natural and works with my guitar. It sounds like a very natural distortion as oposed to just using a distortion pedal to click on and off. I love all of the Fulltone OD pedals I've bought, so I wont be stating this is any better than the others. But I will say, if you're looking for a gainier pedal, this is the one I'd suggest going with if you are debating between the others.

The variations of Soft and Hard clipped distortion is very fun to mess around with. I'm typically a guy that likes harder clipped type distortions, with more gain. So having this ability is pretty priceless to me.

Sample Settings:

Fulltone OCD - Obsessive Compulsive Drive

This was my first overdrive pedal, so I didn't know how it would react with my amp. The first concern I had when buying the Fulltone OCD was how well it would work with my Peavy Vypyr. Typically overdrive pedals are made to take tube amps and push them into overdrive.

You can learn more about transtube technology at the below link.
http://www.peavey.com/support/technotes/hartley/chapter_3.pdf

Given the rave reviews of the pedal. I decided to give it a shot. I'd watched a couple demo's on youtube and the thing seemed to have pretty good sound.

Anyways, here are the controls.

Controls:Volume: yea...
Tone: Shapes your tone, treble vs bass.
Drive: Amount of distortion, you can roll it all the way down for a clean boost.

Toggle:
High Peak: This mode gives you Vox/Marshall type sounds. Increased bottom end to give a "British" feel.
Low Peak: More vintage sounding, very transparent. Less volume.

This pedal is awesome. Thick rich creamy overdrive. Just like the paint job ;) This thing has the ability to be very very subtle, as well as in your face. I'd read reviews that it was thin? I haven't seen this at all. I also haven't been able to dial in an un-usable sound on it. It is very transparent on both the guitar and amp tone. Had my Vypyr emulating a Fender Twin on the clean channel, and this pedal just made my amp its bitch.

The first cool thing about this pedal is that you can run it on any adapter up to 18V. Apparently doing so gives this pedal even more tones and possibilities. Running it a higher voltage gives it more "head room" IE different dynamics when rolling back the volume, more clean sounding etc...

You can roll back the volume and your sound cleans up. The pedal also works with your playing dynamics. If you play harder, the more signal your pumping into the pedal, the more distorted the tone will become. If you back off the volume, it cleans up.

With overdrive no longer is distortion just on and off, now it adjusts. So its like an orgy of tone between your guitar, the pedal, and the amp.

This pedal is also small, about the size of a smart phone which is a definite plus. It is also True Bypass.

It's simple. You can plug and play, I haven't found an un-usable setting yet. I literally sat down for 2 hours and just got lost in playing with this thing. Absolutely love it.

I stacked this up with a Fulltone Catalyst on both fuzz settings and clean boost settings, and man does this sucker sing. I typically dislike the Catalyst for the most part, but teamed with this pedal is a winning combination. It adds just that little extra umph to give you TONS of harmonic saturation and sustain.

Pros
It cleans up well with the volume knob, and it responds to your playing dynamics very well.
Runs on 9V Battery or Adapter
Can run at 18V with adapter
Small footprint
True bypass
2 Modes of operation: High Peak/Low Peak
Can be used as a clean boost.

ConsNONE!

Ibanez TS-9 Tubescreamer - Keeley Modded Franken Screamer

I was lucky enough to find one of these. Keeley had a limited run of these pedals. This pedal contains both the "Mod Plus" and "Baked Mod" in one pedal. You can switch back and forth between the two with the toggle switch. The only other Keeley Mod to offer this is the TS9DX 4X12 Flex Mod. I've also owned that pedal, and lets just say it doesn't hold a candle to this pedal. Again, a rehash of what is offered with these 2 mods.

Mod Plus

1. They replace the T9 circuit with the TI RC4558P, this is the same circuit that was in the old vintage TS-808's. I believe the 808 sales for more than double the price of a tube screamer, and even more for a vintage one. So the fact your getting the vintage circuit in here at the price is a steal. Not to mention it sounds like the same circuit is in the stock 808's as is in the TS-9. So why are you paying double again?

2. They replace the old saggy red LED with a bright blind you blue LED.

3. They change the "IC" Apparently better than the "JRC" No idea what that means :)

4. Change the output resistors from carbon comp to metal film which make the circuit less noisy. Also offers a more consistent sound from pedal to pedal.

5. They increase the bass response which is a typical complaint on any stock Tubes Screamer.

6. They improved the bypass circuitry so it sounds better when bypassed. This obviously refers to those they don't modify for true bypass.

7. Improved the tone circuitry a bit taking a page from the "Sparkle Drive" again don't know what this means.

8. They made the cleans cleaner and gave it 2 X the gain.

Baked Mod - In addition to the above minus step 8.

1. Use of high quality sockets with gold inserts.

2. The drive circuit is further pushed by lowering the resistance a notch.

3. All metal film resistors and capacitors. (Makes the pedal less noisy)

4. Raise in one resister to affect the impedance a slight bit. (Up from 510k to 610k)

5. Change of input transistor to MPSA18 for lower noise.

6. Drive range shifted from 0 - 10 on a stock TS-9 to 4 - 14. (More dirty)

This in and of itself makes this the absolute best Tube Screamer to own. You can have your clean and dirty OD all in one box. But, they went even further with this one.

Say it with me kids...extra features...

1. True bypass switching.

2. They added a BOOST circuit. The normal footswitch, rather than being dead now acts as the switch for boosting the volume.

3. They added a knob on the side to control the amount of volume boost. Yessir, you can control how much boost you get! The boost adds some second order harmonic distortion which makes it sing to!

4. They also added an LED which allows you to tell if the boost is on or off. Like you needed an LED to tell you that!

5. They modified the pedal to run at 18V internally giving it greater dynamics and better character. You can still run it off the standard 9V adapter or battery.

Just absolutely pure magic to this sucker. You really need to play it to truely appreciated it. I've owned every Keeley Mod for the TS-9. This one by far exceeds all of them. Unfortunatley you'll probably never get your hands on one.
http://www.watfordvalves.com/product_detail.asp?id=1754

Wampler Leviathan Fuzz Pedal

Before I go into my speal about what I think, lets get to the controls

Treble: Controls the treble

Bass: Controls the bass
Volume: Controls the volume
Gain: Amount of grit

Toggle:
Roar: Less Compressed, a bit less gain, More open sounding, more cut. This mode uses germanium diodes.

Rumble: More compressed, gainier. This mode uses silicon diodes.

This is a new fuzz pedal by Brian Wampler. He spent a month designing and tweaking this pedal. He created it to be the meanest fuzz out there. (Good try, but nothing will ever beat the Fuzz Factory, its plain and simply as insane as anyone is gonna want to get.) However this pedal has a lot more useable and practical tones than the Fuzz Factory. He was going for a big thick rich sound like you hear on Smashing Pumpkins "Geek USA" Brian is quickly emerging as my favorite pedal designer. Every pedal I've tried of his has been golden. Also aparently Leviathan is a sea monster. Which is where the pedal got its name.

This is just about everything you could want in a fuzz pedal. Most of the controls are pretty standard. Except for the toggle switch. This allows you to do something I've never seen in another fuzz pedal. That is to switch between Germanium and Silicon diodes. Typically you buy fuzz pedals based on this. This pedal allows you to switch on the fly. Germanium is more open sounding, has more high end, and cuts through the mix a bit better. It also sounds a bit raspier to me. Silicone has more gain, is more compressed, sounds a bit smoother and thicker.

The EQ controls are very useable, although I would have liked to see a mid range control. It has tons of bass, like most wampler pedals. You can take it into ridicioulous territory.

Barely cranking the gain in rumble (Silicone) mode, you have nice thick gain. This is what I love, I tend to not like fuzz pedals that offer "low gain" fuzz. That's not what fuzz is about in my opinion. It's about being over the top. This is the reason I like EHX's Big Muff. And also the reason I love this pedal. You want thick? You can get it easily.

But, this thing somehow retains clarity of the notes. And it just sounds absolutely awesome. Dime it, keep it subdued. Either way you're gonna be happy.

Germanium gives you more cut so you can stand out in the mix. Its more open and "Throaty" Sounds more raspy to me as well.

I wont bore you with technical jargain. However, I will also mention that they made this pedal to stack with other effects. Some fuzzes you cannot do this with due to the impedances.

The only thing this thing doesn't do that I wish it did, is get that nice breakup on the tale end of notes. If only they'd added a control to starve the voltage, this could have been my perfect fuzz pedal.

Pro's

True Bypass

Stacks well with Wah's and other pedals

Choice of Germanium or Silicon diode operation

Thick and Rich

Very useable EQ
9V Operation via battery or standard power connection

Great sound all around!

Con's

No control for fuzzy breakup

Honestly the best place to check out demo's is right from Wampler's site.

http://www.wamplerpedals.com/fuzz/leviathan.html

There are plenty of demo's on youtube. Most good ones are linked there.

Rockbox Boiling Point Overdrive

This pedal pretty much demands respect from the start.  You can tell because it comes with a nice velvet bag to put it in ;) The Hugh Hefner of pedals.

I'm never one to believe hype. But given Andy from PGS (who I've seen demo more pedals than I can shake a stick at) said this is the "Holy Grail" of overdrives. My interest was peaked. First lets look at the controls.

First, every single one of these is hand made by people in America. Winning. They are also put through vigerous quality control testing. Yes, these pedals are expensive, but in my opinion, this one is worth it.

Each one comes with it's own swirl pattern. No 2 are alike. There are a lot cooler looking ones than this on PGS, however I didn't know they sold them individually, so I picked the first one I saw cause they had it in stock :) It still looks bitchen.

Volume: Output volume.
Tone: Bass vs trebble.
Gain: Amount of grit

Yup... pretty standard stuff. The below controls differentiate from most other overdrives.

Toggle Left: Bass Boost

Toggle Right: Clipping Mode
Asymetrical Clipping
Clean Boost
Symetrical Clipping

A few other overdrives have had toggles as well. I love the concept. Being able to choose the type of clipping you want? Hell yes!

The clipping mode toggle definatley puts the pedal over the top. All modes sound absolutely beautiful. Even the clean boost section had something other pedals don't have. And that is SH$% loads of volume. Unity gain on this mode is barely pushing the volume knob. AND it has lots of grit in that mode as well, should you want it. Or you can have crystal clear volume boost.

Gain: This is more of a click knob, with stages rather than just turn the dial and see where you land. I like this concept. I haven't seen it executed on any other pedal. But the only reason it works here is due to the versatility of exactly how much gain they have on tap.You seriously have anything from clean boost up to metal.

Clarity - I've heard other transparent OD's. What sets this apart is that even at higher gain settings. Everything is clear. I can hear all notes. I can play chords. They sound like chords. I can pick, I can articulate. Even on my lower strings. It avoids muddyness more than any distortion pedal I've ever heard.

Bass Boost: This thickens up the bottom end for those using brighter style guitars (Tele's and Strat's)

As a previous review mentioned: "this thing was in a shootout with among the top Overdrives ever made, Landgraff, Klon, Fulltone, Lovepedal, Way Huge, Analog Man, and Paul Cochrane, the Boiling Point™ was consistently named the "Best of Class" by all the players who participated. "

The only other OD I've heard come close to this is the Wampler Ecstacy. And the only drawback of that pedal I could find is that the bass increase gets Muddy and you can't hear articulation on the lower strings.

I'm not dogging other OD's. They are all great. But in a sea of OD's this one stands out. Absolutely amazing. Con's? It's not cheap. Thats it.

Pro's
Hand built, numbered and signed by the builder
3 selectable positions: Plexi, Asymetric Overdrive, and Clean Boost
True bypass switching
Bass Contour switch for humbucker & single coil operation
Better input impedance matching
Improved tone section for more control
High Overdrive output while cleaning up nicely for the volume knob player
High visibility indicator Blue LED
Best quality 11-detent drive potentiometer
1% audiophile metal film resistors in most locations (with vintage carbon composition in signal path)
Switchcraft jacks
Panasonic audiophile capacitors
Socketed chip for tonal experimentation
9v to 18v operation
2-year manufacturer's warranty
Clarity
Sounds great with chords
Tight

Con's
Not cheap