About Wampler
Wampler Pedals is a boutique effects builder based in Martinsville, Indiana, founded by Brian Wampler in 2007. Wampler got his start the way a lot of the best pedal builders do: as a self-taught hobbyist modding and designing circuits in the DIYstompboxes.com community before turning the hobby into a company, and he later wrote a series of pedal-design books credited with helping launch other boutique builders' careers too.
Pedals carrying the official "Wampler — Built in USA" mark are custom-designed and assembled in the US from globally sourced components chosen for tone and reliability, and every pedal ships with Wampler's 5-year limited warranty — an unusually long guarantee for the category. Premier Guitar has reviewed multiple Wampler pedals favorably over the years, praising the amp-inspired approach behind drives like the SLOstortion and the aggressive voicing of fuzzes like the Leviathan.
Brand website: wamplerpedals.com
What Wampler makes
Wampler's catalog runs wider than the gear we review. The lines we know best from our own testing are marked with a star:
Overdrive & distortion
Tumnus, Plexi Drive, Pantheon, Ratsbane, and Mofetta — the core of the lineup — featured on House of Octave
Fuzz
Leviathan and other high-gain fuzz circuits
Compression
Ego Compressor, Ego 76, and the compact Mini Ego
Delay & reverb
Catacombs, Metaverse multi-delay, and Faux Tape Echo / Faux Spring Reverb
Modulation
Terraform multi-modulation pedal
EQ
EQuator advanced audio equalizer pedal
Why we recognized Wampler
The House of Octave Top Brand recognition isn't paid for and can't be applied for. We award it to the brands whose gear consistently stands out in our player-tested category guides. Wampler earned it on the strength of the products below, judged the same way every product on this site is: assessed on build, tone, and playability, weighed against what players actually report over years of use, and ranked on merit.
Wampler gear we rated highly
Wampler Ratsbane Distortion Pedal
The widest genuinely usable gain range of any distortion we tested, from an amp-pushing crunch to saturated modern metal, with a full three-band EQ and Voice switch that gives real, surgical control over the low end and midrange. Boutique-grade components and relay-based true bypass mean it holds up on a working pedalboard for years.
Read the 10 Best Distortion Pedals of 2026 guide →
Wampler Tumnus V2 Overdrive & Boost Pedal
A transparent Klon-style circuit that amplifies your amp's own character rather than stamping a new voice on it, hand-built to boutique standards with internal DIP switches that let you fine-tune bass response and clipping. It's small enough for a crowded board and doubles as an always-on clean boost or a stacking overdrive.
Read the 11 Best Guitar Pedals of 2026 guide →What earned Wampler the recognition
- Two separate House of Octave honors across distinct categories: the Ratsbane is one of the distortion pedals we rated highest, and the Tumnus V2 is one of our top picks among guitar pedals generally
- Every pedal is custom-designed and hand-assembled in the USA under the official 'Wampler — Built in USA' standard
- Backed by an industry-leading 5-year limited warranty, well beyond the 1-2 year norm for boutique effects
- Founder Brian Wampler's background as a self-taught, community-trained pedal designer gives the brand real technical credibility, reinforced by favorable Premier Guitar reviews across multiple product lines
- The Ratsbane and Tumnus V2 both earned that recognition on independently tested merit, not brand reputation alone: full three-band EQ control on the Ratsbane and a transparent, amp-flattering circuit on the Tumnus V2 stood out against mass-market competition from BOSS, MXR, and Ibanez