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Wampler Tumnus Pedal Review – The BEST K**n Circuit Clone?
Introduction
This is going to be another amazing review for you all! I am taking a look at the very popular Wampler Tumnus Overdrive! This pedal has a huge following and is loved and used by many. This is a classic overdrive but with a few changes to make it better and simpler! If you watch a lot of other YouTube videos, you will often see the Wampler Tumnus come out on top as a favourite!
As always, we will go through the controls and features, then we will check out the sounds that you can expect from this pedal! Lastly, I will give you my thoughts and what I think of this pedal! Being so popular, I am very excited to see if it lives up to all the hype! So let us dive right into the hype!
The Wampler Tumnus Pedal
It isn’t any secret that the Wampler Tumnus is replicating and heavily inspired by the Classic Gold and Silver Klon! All the components inside the pedal are carefully picked by the Wampler experts to help get to that classic tone without having to spend a massive amount of money!
What controls does the Wampler Tumnus have? Well, being inspired by the Klon, it is a very simple and effective control layout! Let us take a look!
- Gain: How much clipping and saturation you get out of the pedal.
- Volume: Adjusts the overall output of the pedal.
- Treble: This knob allows you to cut or boost the Treble frequencies.
The Tumnus has a buffered bypass, meaning you will maintain your tone when you start to roll the volume off to clean up the sound. It also helps if you are running long cables and big stages!
The Klon-style pedals are used in a variety of ways, mainly as a clean boost or a gentle push of your amps! However, you can also use them to give you a high-gain classic rock sound. Or stack it with another overdrive pedal for even more tonal options!
More on the Wampler Tumnus
The Tumnus has side-mounted inputs with the input on the right and the output on the left. On the top, you will find the 9v power input. The pedal is a mini pedal. This means it is in a miniature (or tiny) pedal enclosure. It will take up less space on your pedalboard; however, it cannot run on a battery.
The Wampler Tumnus can be bought for around £135 online from most retailers. However, you might find them online for second hand, but they don’t tend to come up often. There are also a few different varieties of the Wampler Tumnus; they have put different diodes and slightly different circuits in them to change the sound slightly. These all come at different prices.
The Sounds
For the sound samples, I kept it fairly simple. I was just running the Wampler Tumnus into the front end of the Nano Cortex (Review Here). Set to a clean and then to a crunch. I run through all the controls and sounds you will be able to get out of this pedal! Allowing you to hear what each control does. All you are hearing is the Wampler Tumnus into the Nano Cortex; there is a small amount of delay in the Nano Cortex; however, no post-processing has been done.
For the demo songs, I pretty much did the same thing; however, I added some delay and reverb in post. For the first demo song, I had the Tumnus set pretty high. The gain was almost at max, I think. Whereas the second demo song, I had the Tumnus set as a clean boost. Just boosting a clean amp in the Neural Nano Cortex.
If you like what you hear and want to hear more sound samples and demos, then please check out our other reviews or head over to our YouTube channel! We have loads of demos and videos to check out, covering all kinds of pedals, with plenty more to come! If you like what you see, feel free to hit subscribe; it helps massively!
What are my thoughts?
The Design
The design is amazing! Love the colour with the black screen printing! Some nice subtle details in the design! The box and packaging are also very nice. The pedal comes with some stickers, a manual and a soft little pedal bag! Does anyone actually use these?
I love how they haven’t tried to make it look like a Klon pedal. When companies do a Klon circuit-type pedal, they tend to veer towards the Klon design! Wampler haven’t done this! In fact, if you didn’t know what it was based on, then you wouldn’t guess. The only similarity is the colour! It is gold!
Big fan of the mini pedal format as well! I have always loved the mini pedal format! I know you lose the ability to use the pedal on a battery; however, I don’t use batteries in my pedals that much. 95% of the time, I run all my pedals on a power supply. Having a smaller pedal saves space and weight! A win-win in my eyes!
"Using the Tumnus as a proper overdrive pedal works amazingly!"
The Sounds
How does it sound? Well, like you would expect! Like a Klon! If you love the Klon sound, then you will love this pedal; however, if you hate the Klon sound, then I don’t think this pedal will change your mind! This is great for anything from a nice, clean boost to a high-gain overdrive!
The Wampler Tumnus has a lot more volume than I remember Klon’s having! When comparing it to my other overdrives, you can really push the volume! This is what people love about the Klon circuit, and why they tend to lend themselves to a clean boost! It’s wild how good the Klon circuit is just to push your amp and alter and sculpt your tone!
Speaking of clean boost, as we mentioned, the Tumnus is a wonderful clean boost! However, bring the gain up and it sounds amazing! There is plenty of lovely overdrive on tap inside this pedal! Using the Tumnus as a proper overdrive pedal works amazingly! I found the treble control was a lot more functional when I brought the gain up a bit more!
The Drawbacks
Oh my lord, the font is small! Seriously, I understand that it is a mini pedal; however, was there any need to make the font that small? They could have changed the labels to a “V”, “G”, and a “T” and made them bigger! It’s not hard to see when stood up; it is impossible to see! Of course, once you remember where the controls are, then it won’t matter! However, if you are like me and chop and change pedals frequently, then having easy-to-read labels is a must!
There is no getting past the price! £135 for a mini pedal is fairly expensive! I am not saying that it isn’t worth it, but there are other Klon pedals for less money! However, are they built to the level this pedal is? My thoughts would be, if you love the Klon circuit and would use it all the time, then it would be worth it; however, if you need a simple boost pedal for infrequent use, then maybe there are some other options!
"If you don’t love the Klon and don’t like the Klon sound, then you won’t get on with this pedal."
Final Thoughts
As I said above, if you love the Klon sound, then you will love this pedal, but if you don’t love the Klon and don’t like the Klon sound, then you won’t get on with this pedal. It does have a slightly different sound to other Klon pedals I have tried, but not enough to win over a Klon hater!
Saying that, if you do love Klon’s and want a good-quality, small, and lightweight Klon pedal, then I believe this is the one you should go for! I am not the only person to say this! This wins most Klon shoot-out videos!
If you do end up getting one (or have one already), then I urge you to try it using some gain! Set the gain high and allow that circuit to shine! It sounds so good as a medium to high-gain pedal and often gets overlooked and used as a clean boost!
Conclusion
Thank you for checking out my review of the Wampler Tumnus! I have really enjoyed giving another Klon-style pedal a go! Did you like it? Do you use the Tumnus? Do you like Klon-style pedals? Drop us a comment or email and let us know your thoughts! These kinds of pedals always have mixed opinions. I am slowly becoming a Klon circuit fan! It isn’t my favourite overdrive sound; however, used with another overdrive pedal, they can be amazing! The Wampler Tumnus lives up to this!
If you want to check the pedal out more or purchase one for yourself, you can pick one up for yourselves at the links below. They are affiliate links, so if you do purchase something, we get a small commission at no extra cost to you! A great way to support the website.
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Wampler Tumnus Pedal Links:
- Wampler Tumnus Website
- Wampler Tumnus (Thomann Affiliate)
- Wampler Tumnus (Andertons Affiliate)
- Andertons Affiliate Link
- Thomann Affiliate Link
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