Mad Professor's 1 pedal is a stroke of genius. It starts
with a spectacular distortion circuit that comes as
close to a cranked Marshall Super Lead as any pedal
ever will, and combines it with plate reverb, that often
overlooked—but no less important—element of
Eddie's distinctive tone on the first Van Halen records.
Of course, this reverb was not originally generated
by a pedal; it was created in the studio with an EMT
140 plate reverb unit, which is made from a sheet of
reverberating metal mounted in a wooden box—
it’s a contraption big enough to take up one wall
of a modest-sized bedroom. Obviously, you're not
getting one of these on your pedalboard, but the 1
comes really close. Its Marshall-flavored dirt tones are
excellent as well, and the Brown and Presence controls
offer a wide range of tweakability for getting the
pedal perfectly matched to your guitar and amp. The
Mad Professor 1 is absolutely brilliant sounding when
plugged straight into any clean amplifier.
Mr. Van Halen's former guitar tech, Zeke Clark, has
proclaimed the Wampler Pinnacle to be the ultimate
brown sound pedal. This seems like a rather ringing
endorsement that is deserving of extra weight and
consideration when one is shopping for an EVH-style
distortion. The Pinnacle has long been at the front
of the brown-sound-in-a-pedal pack, and even with
all of the current competition in the field, it holds its
own very well. It has a wide range of gain levels, and
its super useful Contour control gives you complete
power over the mid-range content, whether you
want something scooped out, or warm and articulate.
The Vintage/Modern switch boosts or cuts high-end,
great for matching it to different pickups, or switching
between a browner tone and a more modern crunch.
The Pinnacle also has a Boost toggle switch, which is
especially useful for getting dimed Marshall sounds at
very low volumes for recording or practicing.
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