Wampler Pinnacle Deluxe (v1)

The Pinnacle Deluxe v1 is a high-gain overdrive and distortion pedal from Wampler Pedals, built in the USA. It was produced from about 2011 to 2016, before the redesigned v2. It is aimed squarely at the “brown sound” of British-flavored hard rock, in the spirit of Eddie Van Halen’s early-1980s tones. It covers a lot of ground, from a nuanced overdrive up to a gain-heavy lead with singing sustain. The Deluxe is the same circuit as the standard Pinnacle. The main differences are that the gain boost is switched by a footswitch (instead of a toggle), so you can kick it in mid-song, and there is an extra internal volume adjustment for more output headroom. **Controls** Gain: Sets the amount of distortion. Volume: Sets the output level. Tone: Shapes the overall brightness. Contour: Shapes the midrange response, from a flat or scooped sound to more mid-forward voicings. The tone controls are deliberately interactive, so some experimenting is needed. Vintage/Modern toggle: Switches between two basic voicings, a classic vintage character and a tighter, more modern one. Boost footswitch: Adds a gain boost on demand for solos. I dialed in some settings from the manual, from YouTube reviews as well as my own taste and captured each with boost on and off. They're sorted based on increasing gain setting from top to bottom. At higher gain the pedal tends to be quite noisy though. You can get an impression of its character by watching Brett Papa's YouTube video (see below).