Pinnacle II Distortion pedal Wampler pedals Eddie Van Halen Brown sound
September 282009
pinnacle 2 by Brian Wampler
This pedal is said to give you that “plexi brown sound” that eddie van halen is known for.
Here is what 12th fret guitar shop in toronto, Canada had to say about the pedal:
Guitarists are always after the proverbial Holy Grail of pedals that are going to get them that elusive high gain mucho chunga sound. Weve seen our fair share of amazing products come through our doors and into your hands. With the Wampler Pinnacle, I am suffering from another Here-I-go-again syndrome.
Just when I though I had heard it all, I came across Brian Wamplers amazing products. Brian Wamplers pedal mods and custom pedals have become legendary in the pro circles. Guitarists are always looking for distortion pedals that yield amp-like tones and have the dynamic overtones that only an amp and 4X12 cab can achieve. I stand corrected. The Pinnacle is a high gain overdrive/distortion that is voiced towards the Hot rodded Marshall/Bogner Ecstacy/Peavey 5150/ Soldano SLO100/ Mesa Engineering sound. In fact, its the pedal that gets the closest to the EVH Brown sound!
Its masterfully made up of J-fet circuits peppered with high grade metal film resistors and diodes. Its true bypass design keeps everything neutral in the signal chain and is remarkably quiet even at gainiac level of distortion. Remarkably dynamic, the Pinnacle responds to the subtlest of volume knob adjustments and cleans up very nicely. It consists of Volume, Tone (high frequency roll off), Vintage/Modern switch, Contour (sweepable mid control), Gain (duh!!!), On/Off switch and a boost switch for solo boost or adding more snarl to the equation.
Not only does this pedal sound amazing but it looks incredibly sexy as well. I can pretty much plug this sucker into any amp and get my sound from the cheesiest of transistor amps to the clean channel of my Koch Powertone and VHT Pitbull. With minor adjustments I was even able to get my trademark Gainiac/Captain Crunch approved tone and everything in between. Amazingly enough, there is a lot of gain on tapa lot even for me. There is enough gain here to choke a hungry Great White Shark. Yet in making such a fire breathing pedal, creator/alchemist boy Brian Wampler has managed to keep all the subtleties of the guitar and the dynamics of a tube amp while still keeping some amazing headroom levels. As we dont have any stock at the moment, delivery time is about 2-3 weeks on Wampler pedalstake it from a self-confessed pedal addict/gainiac, its totally worth the wait.
***Gainiac: definition Crunch monger, One who prefers excessive gain and volume levels associated with high performance amps like Soldano, Koch, Mesa, Bogner and Egnater amps. Known to strike fear in other less aggressive guitarists, Gainiacs thrive on a steady musical diet of Heavy Metal, Hard Rock, Death Metal, Thrash Metal and Shred/guitar instrumental music. They are often very picky about tone and are often not intimidated by Floyd Rose equipped instruments***
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September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
wow great tone how …
wow great tone how much is this pedal ive been trying to chase the brown sound myself where can i buy it help me out thanks
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
ok?
ok?
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Eddie doesn’t have …
Eddie doesn’t have tone. He just turns everything all the way up… Or at least that’s what it sounds like. :/
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
as everyone one …
as everyone one knows, eddies tone is in his fingers! some o the top players in the world have played through eddies setup and said, ” it sounds like me”, maybe they were expecting it to sound like eddy? some people who have the licks down and all the little nuances, maybe they could come close, but i’m sure eddy could coax terrific tone out of the worst amp in the world thru his personal touch of the”fingers”
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Nice tone man, its …
Nice tone man, its funny how more than half the comments on here are douches arguing over van halen’s gear….
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
yep…like i said. …
yep…like i said. bought the body cheap…im pretty sure boogie bodies was wayne charvel…Like he said “copy of a strat”. eddie has also changed his stories many times regarding his gear…point being it was, for all intents, a fender….bolt maple neck with fenders scale length..just had a gibson pickup.
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Guitar World (Circa …
Guitar World (Circa 78): Tell us about your guitar.
EVH: My guitar? Which one? I got like three of them that are kind of tripped out. The first one is a copy of a Strat. It’s not a Fender. It’s by a company called Charvel. You know, I bought a body from them for 50 bucks and a neck for 80 bucks, slapped it together, put an old Gibson pickup in it, and it’s my main guitar. Painted it up, you know, with stripes and stuff. I guess that’s my thing.
And everyone knows that he had the Frankie first
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
eddie went to …
eddie went to Boogie Bodies and bought a “second ” body out of the junk pile because he had no money. Had nothing to do with fenders use of alder. Yes he basically played a fender..same scale length and bolt on neck. just used a PAF pickup from a 335
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
i said basicly
i said basicly
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
a fender that was …
a fender that was very modified
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
At 1:34 just roll …
At 1:34 just roll off the guitar volume knob. Nice playing. Something in that rig is making it sound too dark and it’s missing the Marshall midrange honk..
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Totally not true! …
Totally not true! Fender was using alder back in ‘74 thats why Eddie went to Charvel.
Eddie also used Gibson pups..
The shape of the body was a little bit different as well.
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
dude van halen …
dude van halen basicly played a fender.
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
thanks
thanks
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Look at the wampler …
Look at the wampler homepage and then Dealers, then you can find some dealers here in europe!
I think it’s 220 €
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
where can i buy it? …
where can i buy it? and how much € does it cost?
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
This was a version …
This was a version that was made for a short time. It was just a mids knob in place of the mid boost switch. It has some problems with excess noise so they went back to the other version with 4 knobs and 2 switches. Sounds the same though. Best VH sounding pedal I have ever heard. I bought an extra for backup.
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
most things have a …
most things have a patch or sound thats meant to be an (shit) attempt at getting eddies tone…..nothing comes as close as this pedal
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
yeah what is the …
yeah what is the difference and where do you get one of these?
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
how much is this? …
how much is this? its very badass
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
so wats the …
so wats the difference between the pedal with 4 knobs and the pedal with 5? wat does the 5th knob do?
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
I’m a country …
I’m a country picker but S***! I gotta have one of these!!
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
holy i did not …
holy i did not know a fender could sound so bad ass
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
the line 6 has a …
the line 6 has a built in brownsound thing
September 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
were can I buy …
were can I buy these?