Despite what some Tone Report readers might suspect , Walrus Audio ’ s new Red highgain distortion is not affiliated with Taylor Swift , nor her hit album , Red . No , Walrus ’ s pedal celebrates another type of artist from the early ‘ 90s . This type of guitarist favored thick , saturated distortion . He or she played in shoegaze , grunge , or even pop-punk bands . In any case , the Red will provide the oomph and saturation for a variety of heavy guitar styles that became popular over the last twenty or so years .
The Red provides more than enough gain for any aspiring Kevin Shields in the world . Even at low gain levels , the Red produces a lot of distortion , and it ’ s easy to obtain the supersaturated ‘ 90s-rock tone of Siamese Dream-era Smashing Pumpkins without dialing the gain knob past noon . It puts out enough gain at the lowest setting for tasty blues-style soloing or down-and-dirty palmmuted power chording . These more subdued gain settings reminded me of those troubled
days of grunge , in which guitarists such as Mike McCready of Pearl Jam and Jerry Cantrell Alice in Chains brought to life tone poems of desperation and solitude , ennui and despair .
The active EQ knobs — bass , mid , and treb [ le ]— allow for a satisfyingly broad tonal palette . I felt that these EQ controls were more powerful than most , simply because spinning them one way or another produced dramatic changes in the pedal ’ s tone . Sonic sculptors take heed , because the Red ’ s
GEAR SPOTLIGHT
WALRUS AUDIO
RED
REVIEW BY DAVID A . EVANS STREET PRICE $ 219.00
Despite what some Tone Report readers might suspect , Walrus Audio ’ s new Red highgain distortion is not affiliated with Taylor Swift , nor her hit album , Red . No , Walrus ’ s pedal celebrates another type of artist from the early ‘ 90s . This type of guitarist favored thick , saturated distortion . He or she played in shoegaze , grunge , or even pop-punk bands . In any case , the Red will provide the oomph and saturation for a variety of heavy guitar styles that became popular over the last twenty or so years .
The Red provides more than enough gain for any aspiring Kevin Shields in the world . Even at low gain levels , the Red produces a lot of distortion , and it ’ s easy to obtain the supersaturated ‘ 90s-rock tone of Siamese Dream-era Smashing Pumpkins without dialing the gain knob past noon . It puts out enough gain at the lowest setting for tasty blues-style soloing or down-and-dirty palmmuted power chording . These more subdued gain settings reminded me of those troubled
days of grunge , in which guitarists such as Mike McCready of Pearl Jam and Jerry Cantrell Alice in Chains brought to life tone poems of desperation and solitude , ennui and despair .
The active EQ knobs — bass , mid , and treb [ le ]— allow for a satisfyingly broad tonal palette . I felt that these EQ controls were more powerful than most , simply because spinning them one way or another produced dramatic changes in the pedal ’ s tone . Sonic sculptors take heed , because the Red ’ s
50 TONE GEAR SPOTLIGHT TALK // How // To Walrus Master Audio Your Red Jazzmaster