Walrus Audio Messner Overdrive Guitar Pedal

There are many ways these days for guitarists to approach dirt and grit to take them to their personal tonal nirvana. Some like the simplicity of their guitar into their favorite amplifier with nothing but a cable between them. Many like a drive, fuzz, or distortion pedal between their ax and amp. Still others layer gain to their liking with several different stompboxes in stages, keeping a few options at their feet. For those that enjoy the last method, the “stage-one” overdrive is meant to accentuate your guitar’s attack and the sound of your pickups, with as little coloring as possible. Walrus Audio has accomplished this with their new Messner stage-one overdrive.

Named after famed mountaineer Reinhold Messner and featuring his portrait, the Messner pedal makes the light approach to adding dirt an easy task. For control pots there is output, colour , and gain. There is also a toggle switch for adding the clipping diodes from the open to the closed position, resulting in a more compressed sound.

I tested the Messner out with a rosewood fretboard American Telecaster through a Marshall DSL40C, and recorded with a Telefunken M80 into an Audient iD14 interface into Pro Tools for the samples below. The gain up about three-quarters with the colour dialed a little over half way up brought me a pleasant but not overbearing bite to playing jazzy funk chords and lines, letting Tele’s bridge pickup retain its natural spanky sound without being drastically changed. Cranking the gain and dialing the colour control back to just over a quarter of the way up smoothed over leads on the neck pickup with the diodes in closed position. This setting made me want to play blues and R&B riffs all afternoon. When trying it out for heavier playing, with both colour and gain boosted, I saw the potential of using the Messner as a booster for solos in front of your amp. The colour dialed towards the bright side and the gain maxed out pushing the front of the Marshall brought out articulated leads.

Those who enjoy the milder side of overdrives could have lots of fun with just the Messner and their amp. I could see this pedal being popular with funk, R&B, and country guitarists looking for just a little push as well as gain freaks who want to start off their gain chains with transparent boost. If you are looking for a one-pedal solution for heavy tones, I would be looking elsewhere.

For fun I also tried the Messner with a maple fretboard Music Man Stingray bass through a Mesa/Boogie Subway D-800 bass head and 2×10 cab. With treble boosted on the colour knob and gain almost cranked I got a punchy tone with articulated dirt that allowed power chords on bass to cut through the mix. Bassists who like me are into trebly punchy tones should definitely try the Messner out.

At the end of the day I am impressed with the Messner’s potential. Whether using it as a boost , the first pedal in a stage of gains, or as a stand-alone light overdrive, it does the trick while keeping the natural sound of your guitar and its pickups intact.

- Eric Lucero, Pitbull Audio Product Specialist