Walrus AudioFundamental Series Distortion

I recently bought the Wampler Fundamental Fuzz, excited by the (relatively) affordable price tag and unique control layout. All-in-all, I find it to be a versatile fuzz, with one slight caveat related to the "Gate" mode.BUILD QUALITY/ENCLOSURE:All of the pedals in the new "Fundamental" series share the same build: a sturdy metal box (similar to a compact MXR pedal in size) with three horizontal sliders (!) instead of knobs, a 3-way mod switch, and a soft press bypass switch. It's solidly-built and the sliders felt nicer and more durable than I expected. It is a weird experience at first making adjustments on a linear slider versus a rotary knob, but not in a way that impairs your ability to dial (slide?) in your tone. Strangely, the sliders have a center (50%) notch position, though I guess this is just a tactile equivalent of "setting everything to noon". In terms of longevity, however, I'm definitely going to have to be more careful with storing the pedal. Rotary knobs on a potentiometer shaft aren't invincible, either, but I do feel like the sliders would be more likely to bend or break if other things were thrown on top of the pedal or rammed into it.SOUND QUALITY & MODES:The "Classic" mode is thick and chunky, and it's just an excellent all-around fuzz for chord/rhythm work. It's actually Muff-like, which was a pleasant surprise. There's a nice bassy presence to it, but the Tone knob also allows you to open it up a bit.The "Mid+" mode sounds like basically the same fuzz circuit, but with a dramatic EQ shift that puts it forward in the mix. Volume doesn't go up dramatically between Classic and Mid+, but the latter is going to be perceived as louder because you're pushing those mid frequencies. Both modes excel for both rhythm work and single note leads, and there's a ton of saturated gain on tap. There was a great demo of this video done by The Studio Rats that "sold" me on the pedal, and the guy there got an almost "Eric Johnson" solo tone using one of these modes on a lower tone setting. So, at $99, I think we're already worth the price of admission on those two modes, alone. It doesn't really clean up with the guitar volume knob, though, even with single coils.The "Gate" mode, IMO, is disappointing. I'm not a fuzz expert, but I have played several fuzzes that either feature velcro/gating, or can be set to achieve that effect. These include the DOD Carcosa, EQD Dirt Transmitter, and (recently) the Fender Hammertone Fuzz. All of those do that splatty, gated fuzz effect in a more musical manner than the Gate mode on the Fundamental Fuzz. Walrus acknowledges in their instruction card that there is a volume drop in Gate mode, but it really is quite an extreme volume drop. But the bigger issue I had is that there is no Bias control (and changing the Gain doesn't seem to affect things much). So I was finding that entire notes were disappearing unless you hit them VERY hard, and this was with both single coils and humbuckers. Yes, you can set up a Carcosa or other gated fuzz to behave in the same way, but there's a gray area between "niche musicality" and "unplayable noisemaker", and the Walrus just drifted closer to the latter on Gate mode, in my experience.That issue, aside, the other two fuzz modes are great, and the tone control is excellent! It feels like there's more than just a treble roll-off going on there. The character of the fuzz also changes on lower-half versus upper-half settings, and I could imagine dialing it into a wide variety of amps. It's a great all-around fuzz that doesn't necessarily reinvent the wheel, but may offer a different flavor of that doomy, saturated fuzz sound you know from other classic pedals.

Awesome sounding fuzz.3 modes all very useful. And the price..you can't go wrong..love it

Tried Cloudburst, worked well but with my board I would have also needed to upgrade power supply. Tried Fundamental Ambient, gave similar feel at half the price. Used it last Sunday, worked very well. Practiced Monday night, sounded great. Went to play Tuesday before rehearsal and it was dead. Every time I switched to fx loop, signal died. Something rattling on the inside. Send form submission WA website, was contacted in less than 5 minutes. Told them the situation, mailed me a new one that arrived two days later in time for next performance. Shipping broken pedal back to company. All done at no add’l cost. Well done WA, you have a repeat customer now.

the three modes are great and are able to replicate almost any chorus sound. great pedal!!!

Quality "always on" pedal. My other reverbs are more ambient oriented. This allows for me to add a good classic sounding reverb to my drives without super ambience.

Good basic tremolo with a slightly unusual jack placement. Signal in/out on top with power on the left side. The sliders provide a wide range of tonal possibilities from almost imperceptible to otherworldly. There is a switch to control waveform. Sine and square are straightforward - the random setting produces some weird sounds. Not really for me, but I'm sure someone out there will find a use for it. The pedal is part of a line of effects pedals (Fundamental), each having a similar set of controls (three sliders and a mode switch). They are a good place to start, but I suspect as you become more experienced, you'll venture out to try the myriad of pedals out there.

Fun little distortion pedal. Sounds great. Solidly built. Sliders look cool as heck.

I like this pedal - I have another "main" reverb that I'm mostly using for surf-y tones, this one is more of what I think of as a "classic" reverb tone. I like the sliders, more fun to play with than knobs. Jack arrangement is weird - hard to fit on my "travel" 1/2 size pedalboard, but made it work. Quality seems great, no complaints.

A mí gusto el efecto fuzz es muy bueno, un pedal exelente, pero eso es de gustos, lo que si recomiendo es el vendedor, envía lo que es, en buen tiempo y forma, y en perfecto estado. Recomendado.

Walrus makes high quality stuff and the Fundamentals line is no exception. This drive is absolutely stellar in every sense.