Father Christmas left me a new pedal under the tree!
What do I think of it? Here are my very first impressions.
What Did You Get?
I got Wampler’s new tcd Distortion Pedal. It is a Christmas present from Kristi.
- “Wampler” is the brand name.
- “tcd” is the name of the pedal (short for “The Compulsion Drive”)
It’s Brian Wampler’s take on the legendary Fulltone OCD circuit.
In true Brian fashion, it’s not an outright clone of the OCD. Here’s Brian himself, talking about what he’s done:
Kristi bought this from Thomann, as they had stock at the time.
Why Did You Get It?
Partly because I’m still looking for a great alternative to the original pedal, and partly because Brian Wampler has a knack for tweaking circuits to make them more powerful / useful (see the Wampler Tumnus Deluxe and the Wampler Pantheon pedals).
Back in 2020, Fulltone’s owner made disparaging remarks that led to Fulltone pedals being dropped by many leading guitar retailers. These days, Fulltone pedals are manufactured by Jackson Audio, and most retailers have reversed their ban.
If you can hold your nose for long enough, you can buy a brand new Fulltone OCD today from the likes of Sweetwater, Andertons and Thomann. (If that statement offends you, this isn’t the blog for you.)
Why is there still demand for these pedals? There’s no denying it: Fulltone’s pedals are amongst the very best ever designed. And there are some players who feel the ethical thing to do is to support original pedal designers, rather than spend their money on the knock-offs.
Speaking of the knock-offs … I’ve yet to play any pedal that’s based on the OCD that I’d consider an accurate reproduction. Warm Audio’s ODD Box is arguably more practical, and Fender’s Full Moon offers a great American-voiced flavour of the OCD (if, like me, you consider the OCD more British-voiced).
But a drop-in, like-for-like replacement? I haven’t found one so far.
In the video above, Brian does say “the stock tone … is available in here … across all versions” of the OCD. That is something I’ll explore in a dedicated blog post. It’s been a couple of years since I last used an original Fulltone OCD; I will need to refresh my memory before I can talk about how they do / don’t compare.
Today, I’m far more interested in treating Wampler’s tcd as its own thing.
No Audio Demos Today
It’s Christmas Day, and I’ve only got the time it takes for our turkey to cook. I’m definitely on the clock here.
I’m also waiting for a new Axe-FX 3 firmware release.
At the time of writing, the amp modelling in the Axe-FX 3 is in a bit of transition phase. Fractal have recently pushed out some improvements to how the amp models take pedals. Unfortunately, the new firmware has also introduced some new unwanted distortion, which is affecting clean amp presets like mine. The distortion comes and goes randomly.
I don’t want to roll back to an older firmware that doesn’t have this bug, because I’d also (temporarily) lose the improvements that have been made to the Tweed Deluxe amp model. I’d much rather enjoy the Tweed Deluxe over Christmas!
Plus, did I mention it’s Christmas? Hopefully the Fractal Audio team are taking a well-earned break. That’s far more important.
Once the fixed firmware is out, I also need to go through and re-voice my pedal platform presets. The new amp modelling comes with some changes to default values for the amp models that I use. I need a bit of time to audition the changes, and figure out what further tweaks (if any) I want to make.
I will come back and do a follow up post with audio demos at some point in the future.
My Rig Today
I’m trying a few different things today:
- I’m running Wampler’s tcd into my new Tweed Champ pedal platform preset.
- I’m running Wampler’s tcd into my new Tweed Deluxe reference tone preset.
- And I’m running Wampler’s tcd into a couple of my pedal platform presets.
Unless stated otherwise, I’m running Wampler’s tcd with the toggle switch in the down position. I believe this is meant to be the original OCD clipping circuit? It’s not 100% clear from the included booklet (nor from Brian’s demo video).
And I’m running Wampler’s tcd at 9v throughout. (It can support 18v, which I’ll try another day.)
First Impressions, In No Particular Order
Input / Output Jacks Are Quite Tight
I had to use quite a bit of force to get my cables plugged into the pedal. No danger of them accidentally falling out!
I’m a little concerned that they won’t hold up to being unplugged / plugged back in, just because of the effort required to insert and remove the audio cables. I’m worried that the extra force will end up damaging the jacks over time.
Hopefully, this concern will prove to be unfounded.
(Mostly) Love The Included Booklet
I haven’t had a brand new full-size Wampler pedal in years, so I don’t know if Wampler’s tcd comes with a new style of booklet, or whether this has been standard for some time.
Either way, I really like it. Nice layout, great font choice for readability (especially for older folks like me who struggle with smaller text), and some interesting recommended settings that I’m going to come back and try at some point.
My only complaint is that the booklet doesn’t make it clear how to set the pedal up to get the stock OCD tones.
- It doesn’t mention that the Treble control is the same as the OCD’s Tone control. (Brian does mention this in his demo video.)
- It doesn’t mention which way to put the Mode switch to get the OCD’s original clipping circuit. (Brian doesn’t make this clear in his demo video either.)
- It doesn’t mention how to set the internal DIP switches to mimic specific OCD versions (in his demo video, Brian says that’s what they’re for, but he doesn’t explain which DIP switch combinations map onto which OCD versions either.)
Are they important omissions? Depends on why you’re buying the pedal, I guess. If you’re buying it to be an OCD replacement / alternative, it’s information that would be handy to have.
The Amount Of Dirt Is Very Guitar-Dependent
With my Telecasters, I found that I need to crank the Gain control on Wampler’s tcd up above 1 o’clock, both to get some dirt and to make the pedal come alive.
With my Les Paul, a completely different story. With the Gain at noon, I found myself turning down the volume control on my Les Paul to reduce the amount of overdrive.
Very Easy To Get An Open-Sounding Drive Tone
With the big caveat that it’s been a couple of years since I last tried a Fulltone OCD … I don’t remember getting an open-sounding drive tone from the original pedal. I always associate it with this thick, massive drive tone. Arguably too thick, but that’s a discussion for another day.
With Wampler’s tcd, I’m not hearing that massive tone (so far). What I am getting is a lovely, open-sounding drive tone that is an absolute joy to play.
And that has another benefit …
Sounds Great Into My Tweed Amp Presets
That open-sounding drive tone is working really well into my two tweed amp presets, with Telecasters and Les Paul alike.
This is something that’s very new to me.
- Both presets are so new, I haven’t blogged them yet.
- I’m still completely new to the Tweed Champ tone (only started experimenting with it earlier this month.)
- I’m not in the habit of using these particular tweed amps with drive pedals. I’ve no idea how well (or badly) other drive pedals work with these amp presets (yet!)
All I can say is that I really like what I’m hearing, and it makes me want to come back when I’ve got more time just to explore what I can get out of Wampler’s tcd into a Tweed Deluxe.
Still Figuring Out The EQ Controls
I’ve picked the Tweed Champ amp preset because it’s got a lot more natural mids than my other presets. (It also doesn’t take a lot of low-end input that well.)
Here, the extra EQ controls on Wampler’s tcd are very handy. I can turn both the bass and mids control down to shape the overall tone to suit the Tweed Champ. Very nice.
I haven’t quite figured out the mids control yet, though. To my ears, the mids control sounds best when it matches the bass control. If I turn the mids up or down on its own, it sounds a bit weird to me.
I wonder if the mids control is on quite a narrow Q? That could explain what I’m hearing.
Equally, I probably just need more time with it, through my regular pedal platform setup.
Final Thoughts
My first impressions are really positive.
I’m especially intrigued by the possibilities to be had from running this into my Tweed Deluxe rig. That wasn’t on my mind at all when I asked for this as a Christmas present. I only tried it because I’m in the process of finishing off a new Tweed Deluxe preset. Very serendipitous!
Merry Christmas everyone.