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Pros:
- Transparent
- Various setting
- Easy to use
Cons:
- Takes time to adjust
- Can get muddy easily with wrong settings
No matter how many times I think about the innovation in music, it still leaves me mesmerized and awed. I look back in time and remember how much effort was put into every single step towards the development and my heart gets filled with motivation. I recall the earlier times when even the smallest sonic change required big adjustments, and I cannot help but wonder about the limits of our possibilities. And it was in such times when Dumble amplifiers were born.
The secret behind their overdrive and circuitry in general still remains insoluble. But their cost is too high to be gathered by ordinary musicians, which leaves us dreaming and fantasizing about those sounds. Luckily, brands such as Wampler are kind enough to create the units that provide us with access to expensive treasures. Their Euphoria overdrive pedal is reminiscent of the Dumble sounds and promises to take us to that growly fairytale.
Features
If you ask me, when you promise the customers the characteristics of Dumble, you have to equip your unit with meticulous and well-thought-out features. And Wampler did exactly that. Euphoria is shelled with green metallic chassis that sports white knobs and writings. It is quite compact, so you do not have to worry about it occupying your whole pedalboard. The build quality of this relatively expensive pedal is amazing since everything here is composed of top-notch material.
The circuitry is true bypass, guaranteeing to maintain the sonic nature of your signal when the pedal is inactive. It does not swallow any qualities and bypasses your sound without interference. Euphoria has four main controls and a toggle switch that offers three different types of signal clipping. The latter changes the nature of gain itself and provides you with the ability to choose between Smooth, Open, or Crunch modes.
Keep in mind that these voicings have jumped in volume, so you will have to set the volume knob accordingly. Nevertheless, they provide you with extreme possibilities, since each of them has a unique character to it. The most distinctive feature of Euphoria is probably its pre-gain bass and post-gain treble controls. They target your tone either before or after all the changes occur and add depth that ordinary EQ cannot cover. This pedal can be powered with batteries or a power supply, offering convenience and flexibility. And of course, it has an input, an output and an AC adapter jack that allows you to connect it to the chain or a power source.
Controls
Moving on to the controls, Euphoria comes with sturdy knobs that do not feel cheap or flimsy. They are well-made and modify the parameters of your sound with ease. They are easily configurable as well and can be adjusted to perfection in a blink of an eye. Such simplicity will be equally appreciated by novices and professionals since everybody loves units that do not take hours to understand. So let’s cut to the chase and figure out the functionalities of each encoder.
The control section starts with the Tone control, which intensifies the presence and trebles in your sound and shapes it after the overdrive occurs. This way you can balance out the characteristics of the overall tone and be even more precise. Then we have Bass, which accentuates the low-end response pre-gain and thickens your sound in the most accurate way. The volume knob is a typical level control, which will be very helpful to even out the jumps in volume caused by voicings. The last encoder here is Gain, which modifies the amount of overdrive. Last but not least, we have the toggle switch that changes the pathway of gain and allows you to choose between Smooth, Open and Crunch modes. All the controls are interactive here, and setting one to a certain position might require tweaking another. Regardless, Euphoria is still extremely user-friendly.
Wampler Euphoria Sound
As I have already mentioned, the main aim of Euphoria is to replicate the sound of Dumble. And it succeeds at that quite a bit. Is it an exact replica? No, but how could it be at such price point? If you are looking for Dumble sounds in a pedal, I believe Euphoria is as close as it can get. The main constituents of those legendary tones are of course voicings.
Smooth is a subtler overdrive that has a lot of presence and amazing response. Open provides you with a volume boost and does not have as much drive as the other two. And Crunch has the most gain and creates organic and natural overdrive. These change the fundamental parameters of your sound, which means you will have to mess around with the controls to nail everything to your taste and preferences.
The EQ does truly make your sound thicker and fuller, adding depth and richness. Gain and Volume work like partners and create the most saturated overdrive. Let’s not forget that Euphoria is renowned for its transparency, meaning that it does not color your tone too much or make it artificial. The pedal cleans up perfectly as you roll off your guitar volume knob resembling the tube amps. This bad boy has its own character that might not be everybody’s cup of tea. But if you get into it, you will have a hard time finding your way out!
Conclusion
To round everything up, Wampler Euphoria is a bit expensive treat that is worth every penny. It has a long-lasting chassis and quality materials, as well as ethereal sounds. It is diverse and offers numerous sounds to play around with. The best thing is – it does not add effect on top of your sound. It simply modifies its characteristics and emits natural tones. It opens up ways to access Dumble sounds, it that’s what you are looking for. Try Euphoria out and see yourself, if it is your soulmate or just a piece of crap. The final verdict is yours. Good luck!
