Wampler Dracarys

T
he promise of the metal
distortion pedal has
always been to
transform any amp into
a high-gain beast. Now, if you’re
sticking an Amptweaker in front
of a Marshall stack, you might be
able to squint and feel like it’s
actually a Mesa or 5150, but
more often than not these
pedals have been bought by
teenagers to run into cheap
practice amps, and the eff ect is,
frankly, underwhelming. That’s
the tip of the iceberg, however,
and the options for fantastic
high-gain pedals have never
been better. Even Boss’s
much-maligned Metal Zone,
every guitarist’s fi rst high-gain
stompbox, has had a minor
reassessment, and it remains
popular enough that Boss have
even issued a high-spec Waza
Craft version. That’ll show the
haters – as will the rest of these
high-octane stompboxes…
METAL DISTORTION ROUND-UP
104
W
ith a full, three-band EQ, it’s easy to
dial in a punchy distortion sound.
Pushing the mids and treble, with the
voicing switch set to ‘open’, we’re reminded
of the Marshall Shredmaster, albeit with a
more intuitive mids control and a better
output volume. With hotter Les Paul pickups,
there’s a bit of fi zz to tame at the higher-end
of the gain knob, and while the ‘tight’ voicing
is useful to tame rumble, some adjustment to
the EQ, gain and volume controls is needed to
achieve unity volume with the pedal in ‘open’
mode. It shines for chord work and lead lines,
but is less at home with palm-muted styles.
F
ender aren’t messing about with their
new series of compact pedals, and like its
sister pedal the Santa Ana, the Full Moon
is a versatile beast. It’s not as full in the bass
as some other off erings, but the fl ipside is
that it doesn’t get fl abby until we switch to a
seven-string. We couldn’t fi nd a sweet spot
with a low ‘A’, but for six-string guitars it has
a Rat-like distortion. Having a three-band EQ
and a High Treble knob to bring in extra
overtones makes it easy to get consistent
tones when switching guitars, and the boost
circuit is the icing on the cake, turning it from
a mean drive to a high-gain monster.
Wampler
Dracarys
MOTHER OF DISTORTIONS
Fender
Full Moon
BAD MOON RISING
£135
TH
E G
AS
S
T
A
T
I
O
N
FEATURES
SOUND QUALITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
BUILD QUALITY
USABILITY
OVERALL RATING
SUMMARY
FEATURES
SOUND QUALITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
BUILD QUALITY
USABILITY
OVERALL RATING
SUMMARY
£189
TOTAL GUITAR JANUARY 2019
TGR314.gear_pedals.indd 104 06/12/2018 17:50