Ecstasy:

Years ago, I did a session in New York and had the pleasure of plugging into a Dumble Overdrive Special. I was absolutely floored by the tones emanating from the unassuming head. To this day that classic and boutique overdrive tone is a “white elephant” for many guitarists. Brian Wampler brings to the table an affordable and very authentic sounding approximation of that amazing tone. The Ecstasy pedal oozes mojo and attitude to the point where many people who heard me playing with thought that I had plugged into some new wild and wacky boutique amp. The pedal is a true bypass design with Wampler’s tough-as-nails construction that boasts a gain, level, tone and bass control with a two-way mode switch. In the “Dum” mode the amp oozes a Carlos Santana/Eric Johnson style overdrive that beckons one to unleash some of their modal styling. Paired with a delay pedal, I was able to dupe the amazing “Cliffs Of Dover” tone to a “T”. In the “Ecs” mode, the pedal takes on more of a Bogner tonality, as the name would imply. Yes this is a distortion pedal, but it takes the concept to another level. Brian Wampler has managed to take some amazing boutique sounds and stuff them into a under $300 pedal package that rages like an amp wanting to be wound up.

Clean Buffer:

What is a buffer? This is a question that sparks all sorts of heated debates with guitarists. A buffer, in a nutshell is essentially a uncolored pre-amp boost that converts high impedance signals to low impedance signals and then gives it the extra “juice” to run long lengths of cables and chains of true bypass pedals. If you’re a guitarist that uses 3 or more true bypass pedals in conjunction with a long cable, you should be using a buffer or at the very least a BOSS pedal in the chain to put back the signal loss. The whole “True Bypass” idea/craze has become a buzzword for fly-by-night wannabe pedal gurus and misinformed critics. The simple fact of the matter is, the more true bypass or non true bypass pedals you add to your chain, the more load will be conversely added. Brian Wampler has created a discreet little buffer that works great before or after pedals and is as cute as a button…the buffer pedal that is. We have gone ahead and ordered them with a true bypass switch for those buffer-phobics and old school pessimists. Its a great little discreet package guaranteed to please any audiophile. Now if it can only help us “buff” out for the summer season at the beach, we would be selling these by the truckload. What do you think Brian? Some sort of pedal that will simulate hulking muscles would be awesome, eh?