Hands down my favourite overdrive

Almost a year after I got this pedal, and after experimenting lot's of different circuits (Tubescreamer and many variations, Blues Breaker, Timmy, etc) I'm happy to say this is my favourite overdrive pedal. I love it, kinda feels like playing a Class A amp, super quick attack, super responsive to pick/fingerstyle dynamics, very rich harmonics. I wouldn't say it is "transparent", only if you have the drive knob all the way down, when you start going up on the gain those mids start warming up, not adding anything on top of your sound, just making it warmer like on the verge of breakup, stacks wonderfully before or after some distortion and makes valve amps sing. Sounds really cohesive and genuine, instead of multi layered or "parallel" like a TS where your dry signal feels like it's sitting under the overdriven signal (great for some applications but not what I was looking for). It really makes you "dig in" and play with pick dynamics. Sometimes at higher gain settings I wish I could take out some of those mids since it gets really pronounced, but anyway I just embrace it or dial a bit back the mids on my amp.

It's not meant to be a 100% exact copy of a Klon/KTR, although it is very similar. it employs silicon diodes instead of the "mythical" germanium ones, which is a sensible decision in my opinion. I never tried a germanium klon clone, but from what I hear the difference is that silicon has more gain available, "harsher" clipping, more pronounced low end for a chewier sound, and simply allows more consistency during production and less prone to temperature changes. Maybe someday when I try an Archer or other germanium clone I will change my mind, or maybe not.

Overall compared to the Tube Screamer (which I owned) I would say the Tumnus is way more open and dynamic, whereas the TS is more articulate and compressed. Gain knob is way more responsive on the Tumnus, it's a dual gang potentiometer that adjusts gain and signal summing (not really traditional blend), progressively increasing dirt dynamics and warmth. Full on gain sounds absolutely rock n'roll! Oh and the tone knob is perfect, it's an active high pass shelving filter, very usable throughout its entire range. Thanks to this it can be used as an efective treble booster (kind of).

Brian Wampler confirmed in an Instagram post that the circuit on the V2 is exactly the same as in the V1, just newer graphics to avoid copyright conflicts with CS Louis I recon. Looks really cool... Some kind of watchmaking signs going on. I really recommend it to any guitarist, jazz, fusion, country, sludge, rock n'roll... It just delivers, it's simple and small, hard not to fall in love. BTW it sounds great through my little Roland Jazz Chorus (which has no valves to push).

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