The Wampler Ego Compressor Pedal - A Review

I have had 3 versions of this pedal by Brian Wampler. It is based on his design ,building a compressor for himself years ago, though he has tweaked the design. Very versatile,this compressor has 5 knobs to adjust your compression from full blown chicken pickin' to a much more subtle compression or to a separate clean boost channel.
    It is not parallel compression ,like The Barber Tone Press, It is more like 2 pedals in one, a clean boost and a Ross like compressor. Wampler uses only top grade parts in his compressor, and it is a very well built pedal. The blend knob gives you the choice of how much of each channel you want to use, boost or compression. The attack knob goes into action when the pedal has the blend knob on compression only, Honestly I have not found a setting of this compressor that I do not like. There is included in the compressor box, a very complete set of instructions.
    Finally, Wampler has a tone knob which can give you some bass to treble changes, going to clockwise. This was a request of customers, not the tone knob, it has been there, some customers wanted it's action to change in how it interacts with tone and presence and it is a little different than just a plain tone knob. All in all, it is a very good product at a fair price. I truly love it myself ,recently I turned on one of Philly's best guitarists, Jim Fogarty to it and He said it took his Pedalworx Squeeze Factor off his pedal board for the Wampler.  Listen to Brian's Demo on his website.                   www.wamplerpedals.com

Some Music News

Well, Hello Folks, hope everyone is doing well and has good health.  Just going to catch up on a couple of new music items,that I have come across recently. The first one is on my CD player right now. It is a new CD by the Group called The Boxcars. They are a form of a bluegrass supergroup with Adam Steffey and Ron Stewart who play mandolin and banjo respectively. They had been in Dan Tyminski's Band while AKUS was on sabbatical and Alison Krauss was singing with Robert Plant. They had enjoyed playing together with the others in the Band ,backing up Dan Tyminski.
   The CD is called "All In" and it has a very traditional type sound. Some great high lonesome harmonies and Bluegrass music. There are some really nice gospel songs too.

    Next up is the latest guitar effect pedal from Wampler's Pedals. He has a line of at least 15 pedals before this. His pedals are used by artists like Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Johnny Hiland and me(LOL). This pedal has created alot of interest and attention on the internet and amongst guitarists. Brian Wampler has been working on this pedal for about a year. It is made to approximate the sound of the late 50s tweed amps made by Fender.  It is called the "Tweed 57", and it does give you that vibe, but more than that, the pedal is a great overdrive pedal on it's own merit.There are several tones and drive effects that you can do using this pedal besides just giving an imitation of the Fender Tweed amp. You can get sounds from ZZ Top to Joe Walsh to some incredible blues tones. A feature that I really like is you can clean up the tone with the guitar volume knobs. You can hear many videos of the pedal on youtube, by doing a search or just going to Brian's new website www.wamplerpedals.com .  I am happy for Brian, He has been doing this for a number of years and I am happy that his pedals are catching on very well. He also does a video himself which is very interesting, because He is a very skilled guitarist, He really brings out the sweet spots on the pedal and the type of songs that it sounds well with.

   Very happy to report that Carrie Hassler has made the Billboard Bluegrass Chart with the song "The Distance" from her latest CD. Well, hope to have some more for you soon. I do have a new CD just in.

                               Brian Wampler