WAMPLER PEDALS
TUMNUS
REVIEW BY DAVID A. EVANS
STREET PRICE $179.97
It’s probably not
unreasonable to say that
in the world of boutique
effects, we’re experiencing
a modern-day gold rush.
It’s as if pedal makers have
struck a mother lode up in
the sonic Yukon territory,
and they’re hard at work
mining, dredging, and
assaying their finds.
Wampler is the latest outfit
to come down from the
mountains, and it bears a
small gold bar called the
Tumnus, which has been
sourced near the cascading
waters of the Klondike.
Although other miners
have borne legendary, yet
rarely seen bars from that
same source, they have
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GEAR REVIEW
//
demanded outrageous
prices for their troubles.
Wampler’s Tumnus, on the
other hand, is 24 carats of
pure, golden, overdriven
tone, and is available for a
very reasonable price.
However, tone miners can
be a skeptical lot, so they
will have questions. “It just
looks like those gold bricks
with that funny-lookin’
centaur on ‘em. Yeah, I
heard about ‘em down at
the assayers. Say, what’s this
Wampler outfit tryin’ to pull
here?” Fear not, because
the Wampler outfit has
the average tone miner’s
interests in mind. The
Tumnus arguably improves
upon the gold bar of legend
Wampler Pedals Tumnus
because it’s both cheaper
and physically smaller
than its tony predecessor.
It’s as if an old-timey
Wayne Szalinski not only
kloned—ahem, cloned—the
legendary pedal, but also
shrank the price and the
housing. Trust me, fool’s
gold this ain’t.
The Tumnus will add just
a bit of a golden edge to
the signal if that’s what’s
needed, but it’ll also
produce a wonderfully
balanced distortion when
pushed hard. Let’s be clear
here: this isn’t going to
have any sort of “insane”
overdrive setting, nor will
it be the pedal that ultrafuzz rockers must seek out.