0:00 – Pedal off
0:10 – Bright boost on 50%
0:23 – Mid boost on 50%, 800Hz setting
0:35 – …then 1kHz setting
0:47 – Both boosts on, 50% each (Mid on 1 kHz setting)
1:06 – Friedman on Lead channel – boost off, then…
1:10 – Boost on (both Treble and Mid, 50% each)
RatingsPros:A surprisingly versatile yet simple boost pedal—great for both nudging your tube amp into overdrive and helping solos cut through an already sizzling lead channel. Cons: It’s designed to enhance specific frequencies, so players seeking a totally linear clean boost might look elsewhere. Street: $169
walrusaudio.com | Tones:  Ease of Use:  Build/Design: Value:  |
It’s amazing what varied forms the simple booster pedal can take. While many players just want to goose their amp’s front end in as uncolored a way as possible, many others have discovered that judicious goosing plus a little massaging of the sonic texture is often even more appealing.
That’s where Walrus Audio’s Emissary Parallel Boost pedal comes in. Rather than simply delivering traditional clean or linear boost that increases your guitar signal’s gain, the Emissary uses two differently flavored boost circuits in parallel, which you can dial in according to taste. The result is impressive versatility that belies the box’s two-knob simplicity.
Parallel Lines
The Emissary’s input splits your signal and sends it to two distinct, parallel booster paths. One is a clean, high-headroom JFET preamp voiced to emphasize high frequencies. The other is voiced to emphasize the midrange. A bright knob dials in the former, while a mid knob governs the latter. There’s also a mini-toggle that lets you select the band of midrange emphasis at 800 Hz or 1 kHz.
The on/off stomp switch is a soft-relay, non-latching type, which offers the bonus function of momentary operation so you can add a dose of boost for a quick passage and get back out without clicking twice. You just press and hold the switch to turn the pedal on, then release your foot to turn it off again. Normal stomp-on and stomp-off function is also available with a quick click of the switch.
The pedal runs on standard 9V DC power, and Walrus Audio recommends use of an isolated supply, rather than a daisy-chained power solution. The build quality is good, clean, and professional. The matte-black die-cast-aluminum box displays a graphic depicting some doctor-type chap viewing an X-ray of the inside of a patient’s head to view—a-ha!—the so-called “emissary veins” within the skull. I’m not sure we want to pummel those with boost too severely, but let’s plug in and find out.
Booster Club
Using a Gibson 1958 Les Paul reissue, a Novo Serus J with P-90s, a tweed Deluxe-style combo, and a Freidman Small Box head and 2x12 cab, the Emissary proved superb in several applications. It was entirely at home pushing the edge-of-breakup Deluxe into juicy solo mode. And the simple control set made it enjoyable for me to shape the frequency response of the output in the process. I enjoyed it even more as a solo sweetener with the Friedman’s hotter modified-plexi-like lead channel. It delivered superb lift and cutting clarity to lead lines, and felt and sounded natural as it drove the Friedman from beefy crunch to more saturated soloing mode.
The differently voiced parallel paths are an effective means of carving out boost tones in very specific ways. But while you can dial each of the boosts out entirely, I found myself less inclined to use one or the other individually. It’s most rewarding to find the sweet spot where the two channels coalesce into a perfect enhancement of the original signal. I can imagine occasions where the treble boost side alone could really liven up a dark guitar or amp, or where a notched midrange-only boost could chunk up a thin rig or add honk to solos or fat, ’70s-inspired rhythm parts. But Walrus Audio packed in two preamp paths for a reason, and the blend of the pair is where it’s at to my ears.
The Verdict
The Emissary offers exponentially greater voice crafting than traditional one-knob boosts. The extra EQ-shaping power is effective and thoughtfully applied while remaining dead easy to use. Rugged, with a low noise floor and excellent clarity and character all around, it’s definitely worth a listen if you’re shopping for a more versatile boost.
Watch the Review Demo:
LR Baggs HiFi Duet High-fidelity Pickup and Microphone Mixing System
"When a guitar is “the one,” you know it. It feels right in your hands and delivers the sounds you hear in your head. It becomes your faithful companion, musical soulmate, and muse. It helps you express your artistic vision. We designed the Les Paul Studio to be precisely the type of guitar: the perfect musical companion, the guitar you won’t be able to put down. The one guitar you’ll be able to rely on every time and will find yourself reaching for again and again. For years, the Les Paul Studio has been the choice of countless guitarists who appreciate the combination of the essential Les Paul features–humbucking pickups, a glued-in, set neck, and a mahogany body with a maple cap–at an accessible price and without some of the flashier and more costly cosmetic features of higher-end Les Paul models."
Now, the Les Paul Studio has been reimagined. It features an Ultra-Modern weight-relieved mahogany body, making it lighter and more comfortable to play, no matter how long the gig or jam session runs. The carved, plain maple cap adds brightness and definition to the overall tone and combines perfectly with the warmth and midrange punch from the mahogany body for that legendary Les Paul sound that has been featured on countless hit recordings and on concert stages worldwide. The glued-in mahogany neck provides rock-solid coupling between the neck and body for increased resonance and sustain. The neck features a traditional heel and a fast-playing SlimTaper profile, and it is capped with an abound rosewood fretboard that is equipped with acrylic trapezoid inlays and 22 medium jumbo frets. The 12” fretboard radius makes both rhythm chording and lead string bending equally effortless, andyou’re going to love how this instrument feels in your hands. The Vintage Deluxe tuners with Keystone buttons add to the guitar’s classic visual appeal, and together with the fully adjustable aluminum Nashville Tune-O-Matic bridge, lightweight aluminum Stop Bar tailpiece, andGraph Tech® nut, help to keep the tuning stability nice and solid so you can spend more time playing and less time tuning. The Gibson Les Paul Studio is offered in an Ebony, BlueberryBurst, Wine Red, and CherrySunburst gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finishes and arrives with an included soft-shell guitar case.
It packs a pair of Gibson’s Burstbucker Pro pickups and a three-way pickup selector switch that allows you to use either pickup individually or run them together. Each of the two pickups is wired to its own volume control, so you can blend the sound from the pickups together in any amount you choose. Each volume control is equipped with a push/pull switch for coil tapping, giving you two different sounds from each pickup, and each pickup also has its own individual tone control for even more sonic options. The endless tonal possibilities, exceptional sustain, resonance, and comfortable playability make the Les Paul Studio the one guitar you can rely on for any musical genre or scenario.
For more information, please visit gibson.com.
Introducing the Reimagined Gibson Les Paul Studio - YouTube
Phat Machine
The Phat Machine
The Phat Machine is designed to deliver the tone and responsiveness of a vintage germanium fuzz with improved temperature stability with no weird powering issues. Loaded with both a germanium and a silicon transistor, the Phat Machine offers the warmth and cleanup of a germanium fuzz but with the bite of a silicon pedal. It utilizes classic Volume and Fuzz control knobs, as well as a four-position Thickness control to dial-in any guitar and amp combo. Also included is a Bias trim pot and a Kill switch that allows battery lovers to shut off the battery without pulling the input cord.
Silk Worm Deluxe Overdrive
The Silk Worm Deluxe -- along with its standard Volume/Gain/Tone controls -- has a Bottom trim pot to dial in "just the right amount of thud with no mud at all: it’s felt more than heard." It also offers a Studio/Stage diode switch that allows you to select three levels of compression.
Both pedals offer the following features:
- 9-volt operation via standard DC external supply or internal battery compartment
- True bypass switching with LED indicator
- Pedalboard-friendly top mount jacks
- Rugged, tour-ready construction and super durable powder coated finish
- Made in the USA
Static Effectors’ Street Series pedals carry a street price of $149 each. They are available at select retailers and can also be purchased directly from the Static Effectors online store at www.staticeffectors.com.
This outing of Dipped In Tone kicks off with an exciting update from Zach Broyles’ camp: He’s opening a brick-and-mortar guitar shop in Nashville, called High Voltage Guitars. Opening on October 8, the store will carry gear from Two-Rock, Divided By 13, Dr. Z, Castedosa, Fano, Novo, and of course Mythos Pedals. Zach hints that there might be some handwired JHS pedals from Josh Scott himself, too, and Rhett reveals that he plans to consign some of his guitars at the shop.
The business side of Zach’s new venture brings them to a key piece of today’s episode: Rhett and Zach aren’t running charities. They do what they do to make money; guitars, gear, podcasting, and content creation are their literal jobs. And they’re not as glamorous and breezy as most armchair commentators might guess.
Want to do what Rhett and Zach do? Welcome to the club. The guitar-influencer field is what one might call “oversaturated” at the moment, and it’s difficult to break out—but not impossible. As our hosts explain, it requires putting in 60-hour work weeks, a diverse skillset, a knack for catching people’s attention, and a certain level of genuineness. Rhett knows this path well, and he has hard-earned advice for staying true to oneself while building a following in the gear world.
Tune in to learn why Rhett thinks Fretboard Summit, a three-day guitar festival organized by Fretboard Journal, blows NAMM out of the water and builds legitimate connections between guitarists, and catch the duo dipping a Dick Dale-inspired, all-Fender rig.
