Tom Quayle Dual Fusion Overdrive Pedal Review

Great sound - super versatile!

Like many guitarists, I've tried and owned a seemingly endless string of distortion and overdrive pedals starting with an MXR Distortion + back in 1976! They have all had their strengths and weaknesses but generally seem to do one thing well at the expense of most everything else. My playing style is somewhat unusual in that I play fingerstyle/single coils for every genre of music… read more but still need to get good singing lead tones in addition to 'edge of breakup' sounds for different songs when gigging. So far I am tremendously pleased with the Dual Fusion v2. It's individual channel sound are great on their own but with the internal jumper you essentially have three different sounds in one pedal without touching anything but the super smooth footswitches. Channel 1 for anything from clean boost to "D" amp-like warmth, Channel 2 for a more aggressive 'modern' overdriven sound, and CH1 into CH2 (or the other way around) for some tremendous overdriven singing lead tones and heavier crunch. Super versatile, great tones, well built. I do want to mention that this is a bright pedal but the individual tone controls are fully capable of taming it.

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My favorite now

I have owned a lot of Wampler pedals and this has become one of my favorites. It is now my main drive stacking at the end of od chain: Tumnus, Pantheon, Dual Fusion. I personally love channel 1 through channel 2 but only using channel 1. One of the cleanest drive tones I have ever had. Responsive to pick attack as well. This replaced a hot wired.

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Exactly as the demo video describes

I’m tweaking a Wampler Fusion for a pop variety band that requires half dozen quickly accessible and wildly varied dirt settings. Using humbuckers for the most part, (Gibson, D’Angelico), with an occasional Strat HSS. Depending on venue I might plug the Wampler into a digital modeler through a QSC K12, or go analog into one of several Fender tube amps. I find the right channel… read more transparent and somewhat dry, more like a low gain amp distortion than a tube screamer. Stays bright but doesn’t get brittle. I’ve gotten in the habit of leaving it on sixty percent of the time - it’s nicely touch responsive and adds some sparkle when the volume pot is low, turns into a righteous classic rock-blues sound cranked. The left channel is dark, remaining tight with ample gain - no rumble, no fizz. It really shines for me in series after channel one, giving it bite, clarity and super sustain at solo levels without sounding like an electric kazoo. (For the occasional grunge tune I feed that combined signal into an external digital distortion and get a wall of white noise suitable to derail nearby train cars.) The plug and switching options produce a lot of useful variations, but liking a tighter and slightly compressed sound I’ve settled on setup 1-2, throaty and smooth. The box itself is what I expected for the price - solid, good hardware, clean switches, pot shafts are tight. Though I’m on humbuckers and Tom Quayle is on single coils I would describe the sounds exactly as he does in the demo - tight, refined. Works exceptionally well for the commercial bands I’m with and brings out my happy smile playing smooth jazz or bop-fusion. Minor variations in response from digital modeler to tube, but kicks major butt both ways. I’m very pleased with this purchase.

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Dual Fusion

I've been playing guitar a very long time, although I don't shred any where close to Tom. However, what I have learned over the past 30 years is manipulating tone through pick positioning as well as handling the fret board. That said, I've never been able to find pedals that react the way this pedal does. It reacts just as Tom outlines in his Dual Fusion demo videos, "it reacts… read more like an amp would". This was mind blowing for me. The last pedal I bought was an MXR 5150 and while it's good at what it does, I would not say that it's "amp like" in feel. If all Wampler pedals feel like the DF, I just became a Wampler pedal fan boy.. I'll be trying more soon! Cool part is I bought this to play with the worship team at church, up until now I was using my own amp (TC50) for gain, and an assortment of effects. Now, I just walk in with the DF on the pedal board and use the clean channel of a Dual Rec that belongs to the church! Life simplified! Thanks Wampler! Another side bar, I'm a metal guy but have many appreciations for multiple styles, and this pedal just simply rocks!!

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Sounds like a tube amp

I don't buy alot of pedals, especially overdive/distortion pedals, but the Tom Quayle videos really made me want to try this one, because I've tried to listen to as many overdrive boxes as could before deciding which one to buy. I've bought and sold many amps and even had an early Mesa/Boogie Mark 1 bought in '74 so I usually just overdrive the preamp/poweramp tubes for sustain… read more and distortion tones. But you have to crank the amp to get a really nice sound. But the Dual Fusion is really getting good at getting that cranked-up tube sound. Channel One sounds ALOT like that old MARK 1, really tubey and open. Channel Two is a more modern sound, darker. Chaining them gives a really overdriven, saturated sound that sustains forever It never sounds harsh either, just really fat, and the switches let you choose from Smooth/Fat on Ch. 1 and Throaty/Natural on Ch. 2. Lots of options, combinations. Will be using this for a long time!

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