wampler

[herbychimp]

I am looking for a top notch overdrive / distortion pedal to put through the clean channel of my blackstar soloist. I dont mind the drive channel but often I find it too modern sounding. I particularly like the look of the Pinnacle but to be honest the whole range looks tasty! I am really wanting that plexi vibe although the plextortion looks cool too. Does anybody have any experienxe or care to comment? I have read great reviews but have heard some say that these are not ideal for hot humbuckers (usually I stick with my hard-tailed strat with HD and DiMarzios) so not sure whether this will work. Any and all opinions / alternatives greatly recieved.

[Telerocker]

No experience with Wampler.
I use the Emma Reezefritzatz (handmade in Denmark) often on the clean channel. It sounds very natural and is touchsensitive and dynamic. It's cleans up great. This box delivers plexisounds, but also can take the gain quite some further. The low settings are very convincing. This unit has a little treat: a biasknob that blends from Class AB to Class A-tones.
I can also recommend the Brunetti Mercury Box, that's in the same ballpark. Sounds very creamy and rich.

[JimmyMoorby]

I am looking for a top notch overdrive / distortion pedal to put through the clean channel of my blackstar soloist. I dont mind the drive channel but often I find it too modern sounding. I particularly like the look of the Pinnacle but to be honest the whole range looks tasty! I am really wanting that plexi vibe although the plextortion looks cool too. Does anybody have any experienxe or care to comment? I have read great reviews but have heard some say that these are not ideal for hot humbuckers (usually I stick with my hard-tailed strat with HD and DiMarzios) so not sure whether this will work. Any and all opinions / alternatives greatly recieved.

Hopefully I can be of help with this one as I own the Wampler Pinnacle!  You're right to read reviews and id say accept all the good ones and ignore the bad ones theres more to this box than meets the eye.

I own the Wampler Pinnacle and its fantastic 11/10 kind pedal.  I dont know how much detail you want to know about so ill just say this and you can ask questions if you want. I initially bought it as for gigging emergencies i.e in the unlikely event my amp broke and i could use this knowing i could instantly get a good tone.  It sounds great though any clean channel and this is supposedly its intended purpose HOWEVER I now use it to boost the overdrive channel of my Black HT-5 Practise amp.  The gain works well with it and sounds so much nicer!  My main gigging amp is also an orange rockerverb.  I max out the gain on the rockerverb and its got more than you need that said I experimented with the wampler pinnacle and found if you turn the gain down on the amp the pinnacle can make up for that and replicate it.  What I also found was its the best damned booster ive ever used.  Ive read people say thats not what it 'should' be used for but I disagree.  I use it at home to get a great tone at low volumes and use it for gigs as a boost pedal as it can add lots of volume and is really good for scooping mids and adding mids and treble very eq'able!

So id take this over ANY overdrive pedal ive heard of.  I think from what youd say youd prefer the vintage setting which will get you that early Van Halen sound (EVH is my idol) and like i say you can use it a superior boost (But ive never known any one else do that). I prefer the vintage setting to the modern setting, the modern will get you more gain and may even effect how eq'able it is but ive not dabbled with this as I think ive found my dream tones from it.


I feel the need to put it down is some way to be objective so the only criticism I can think of is it isnt the quiet pedal so be prepared to tweak the volumes, gain or get a good noise gate BUT i'm a super high gain kinda guy so that might be why.

I think the other wampler overdrives are meant to be good and so is the plexi one.  My gut tells me to steer clear of the rectifier ones and soldano ones though

Oh and as for the humbucker comment I barely want to dignify that with a response  :P

[FELINEGUITARS]

I dealt with Wampler once , and was very disappointed with my experience.
I ordered a pinnacle 2 having read the reviews and watched the clips

What arrived looked quite different to what was pictured although it was still labelled Pinnacle
It didn't sound particularly good and was rather unstable, and tended to tip over into self oscillation and squealing.

Peeking inside the back cover revealed quite a few components soldered onto the back of others and onto the legs of the IC rather than a sorted and well laid out circuit.
This led me to believe that they had run out of Pinnacle 2s at the time of my order and sent me an experimental one or a work in progress/developmental prototype that they had left over.

I wrote to them to say that I wasn't happy with what they had sent and was effectively told "Tough luck - you'll have to live with it".

BAD MOVE!

Sometimes things like that can leave such a bad taste in your mouth that the experience transcends the passage of time - this was over 5 years ago and the bad feelings haven't subsided.
The pedal has long since gone - I traded it with a friend who seems to like it.
Subsequent batches of Pinnacle 2s look the same as the one I wanted to order and they seem to be good.
Other new releases from Wampler have looked very interesting and have made me tempted to buy.

BUT that one bad experience of customer service trying to cover up their decision to try and palm me off with something substandard that I didn't order has left me reluctant to deal with them again.

Yes I know it's not the first time I've ranted over this, but I've never had any redress over this from Wampler.

[JimmyMoorby]

I dealt with Wampler once , and was very disappointed with my experience.
I ordered a pinnacle 2 having read the reviews and watched the clips

What arrived looked quite different to what was pictured although it was still labelled Pinnacle
It didn't sound particularly good and was rather unstable, and tended to tip over into self oscillation and squealing.

Peeking inside the back cover revealed quite a few components soldered onto the back of others and onto the legs of the IC rather than a sorted and well laid out circuit.
This led me to believe that they had run out of Pinnacle 2s at the time of my order and sent me an experimental one or a work in progress/developmental prototype that they had left over.

I wrote to them to say that I wasn't happy with what they had sent and was effectively told "Tough luck - you'll have to live with it".

BAD MOVE!

Sometimes things like that can leave such a bad taste in your mouth that the experience transcends the passage of time - this was over 5 years ago and the bad feelings haven't subsided.
The pedal has long since gone - I traded it with a friend who seems to like it.
Subsequent batches of Pinnacle 2s look the same as the one I wanted to order and they seem to be good.
Other new releases from Wampler have looked very interesting and have made me tempted to buy.

BUT that one bad experience of customer service trying to cover up their decision to try and palm me off with something substandard that I didn't order has left me reluctant to deal with them again.

Yes I know it's not the first time I've ranted over this, but I've never had any redress over this from Wampler.

That's awful.  Can't comment on their customer service but I do rate the pedal.

Think we can all have different takes on things.  I've read reviews of the hughes and kettner coreblade and some people have called it the best metal amp ever.

The first one I had broke in half an hour........so i sent it back even though DV247and they tried to blame but me im well up on my consumer rights and cant see how any one could break a top notch amp in 30 minutes without being an absolute idiot.

The second one lasted a week!  I sent it back and DV247 tried to tell me that it wasnt faulty and it was because I didnt turn the volume up?!?!?!  

Needless to say got my refund though.  I blame DV247 but I do wonder how hughes and kettner can justify the 1500 price tag based on my experiences

[herbychimp]

I have also been re-considering a Carl Martin plexitone. I very nearly bought one from a gent on this very forum but decided against it at the last minute (on account of it not fitting on an already crowded board) i felt bad about changinng my mind, especially as it seemed such an organic sounding piece of kit. Any idea how they compare to the Wamplers? Both Plexitone and Pinnacle delux have a boost function.

[TheyCallMeVolume]

Haven't dealt with Wampler personally, but I know that their Paisley Drive is hailed as one of the best OD's you can buy AFAIK.

The CM Plexitone is also a great pedal, can't go wrong with CM's or Wampler. I'm happy with my Way Huge Green Rhino though!

[hunter]

I've tried a few ODs and never found one that I was satisfied with over the dirt channel on a good amp. I only use pedals to boost amps that are set already quite dirty.

With OD Pedals, I don't think there is THE pedal which is THE best. There are many good out there, and a lot depends on your clean tone base and what you are looking for.

But in my opinion there is still a huge difference if you use real tubes. Therefore I would recommend a pedal from Kingsleyamps. I have their Squire to use as a clean channel on my Cornford Mk50H (Pedal into loop, switched by a GSC-3). The Kingsleys also have internal transformers to get from 9V to 250V for real tube operation and not fake with just 18V like most other pedals, where the tube merely operates as a light bulb.

The Kingsley Jouster can do Plexi type light breakup and on Ch2 the full monty. Another big advantage with a tube pedal is that you can still boost it like a real amp using another pedal up front.

Clips of the Kingsley sound great, and the company is great to deal with. That Squire was here from Canada in no time.

http://www.kingsleyamplifiers.com/pedals/jouster/
http://www.kingsleyamplifiers.com/media/audio/

[juansolo]

I have also been re-considering a Carl Martin plexitone. I very nearly bought one from a gent on this very forum but decided against it at the last minute (on account of it not fitting on an already crowded board) i felt bad about changinng my mind, especially as it seemed such an organic sounding piece of kit. Any idea how they compare to the Wamplers? Both Plexitone and Pinnacle delux have a boost function.

Not tried a Pinnacle, but I've made a Plexitone and I would say that the high gain and boost stomps aren't really needed. They just allow you to use slightly different settings to the unit's main sound. High gain just swaps in a higher value gain pot so backing off the high gain gets you all the regular tones anyhow and the boost ain't that great. Indeed the one I built next was a one stomp, 3 knob job (which incidentally CM now do also) and I'll be modding the other I built at some point with a SHO instead of it's boost. It is however an exceptional sounding distortion.

[gwEm]

check out an mi audio crunch box

[djl]

I've been on the same quest - into a fender deluxe type amp.

I've had the Zvex box of rock, the carl martin plexitone and ended up with..... a wampler pinnacle and a wampler plexidrive. Can't speak highly enough of them. Never had to deal with them regarding customer service, but for my rig they are perfect.

The plexidrive is v amp like - not really any od at all until the gain is about 2 o clock, but then a brilliant plexi impression. I use it all the time. The pinnacle is also v organic sounding, but is much more high gain- doesn't clean up at all, it's gain and more gain. Very Van Halen sounding, to my ears it's awesome but not as flexible as the plexidrive.

[FELINEGUITARS]

I suspect my experience was not typical, and that the products are generally really good.

It's just that I was fobbed off with a pedal that greatly differed to what i ordered and my unhappiness with that situation was not and still has not been addressed.

I'll let it go now as it was long ago.......and life's too short

Happy Xmas

Been looking around the web and looks like there was a very limited range of pinnacles that did exist that had 5 knobs rather than the version shown. This variant wasn't popular and was never shown on the Wampler site.
Here's something from The gear page on it:
That was actually a limited run of them; it does have a 3-band EQ, but they both have full EQ. Well, they both have complex and functional tone shaping, to be more precise. The circuits are about 95% similar, some users liked the changes, others didn't, but the two-knob/1-switch tonal adjustment configuration on the Pinnacle/Pinnacle Deluxe seems to be the ticket for most people. I know I personally find it very effective, the Vint./Modern switch is a "broad strokes" control which dramatically alters the overall voice to be brighter or darker, then the Contour knob gives a huge range of adjustment in the whole "shape" of the pedal's sound, capped off by the Tone knob that lets you dial your highs in with precision.

But ultimately, even though they are so much the same electronically, they're pretty different sounding in practice. It and the 3-band EQ version don't sound identical and they have areas where the tone doesn't really overlap at all. 5% can be a pretty substantial change when we're talking tone stack configurations!

[Pete24v]

I have a Paisley Drive, and it's a beautiful thing. Lives in both the overdrive world, and distortion. Lots of sounds in it.

[dave_mc]

I suspect my experience was not typical, and that the products are generally really good.

It's just that I was fobbed off with a pedal that greatly differed to what i ordered and my unhappiness with that situation was not and still has not been addressed.

I'll let it go now as it was long ago.......and life's too short

I wouldn't let anyone tell you you're making a fuss if you were treated as poorly as you were. As you said, those things stay with you.

I'm not saying you should stay bitter if you don't want to, or anything like that, but if you do want to, you have every right to, kind of thing. It would annoy me. :)

[Mr. Air]

Like telerocker I'm the happy owner of an Emma reezafratzits which is a great and versatile pedal. The Carl Martin plexitone is great as well. I haven't tried any if the wampler pedals unfortunately