With five flavors in one housing, Walrus Audio serves up a fuzz pedal to unite the silicon and germanium tribes, with its super-versatile and compact format another winner from its Five States dirt pedal series.
Pros
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One pedal with five fuzz options.
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Compact size.
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Powerful active boost/cut tone controls.
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Variable voltage.
Cons
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None really, unless beige-coloured boxes aren’t your thing.
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Third in the series of Walrus Audio’s Five-State pedals, the Eons fuzz pedal follows the Ages overdrive and the Era distortion, which offer five different gain states and five distortion modes respectively.
Adopting the same basic format, a five-way mode switch gives you distinct variations on the fuzz effect, which can be tweaked with an array of five knobs. Volume, Gain, Bass and Treble controls may be standard kit in a dirt pedal, but the secret weapon here is the fifth knob, which can adjust the pedal’s operating voltage, starving the circuit from 18 volts down to a ‘battery-on-its-last-legs’ three volts.
Mode 1 delivers a traditional silicon fuzz that can be smooth and sustain-y, and features plenty of leeway for focusing the overall sound via the two tone knobs, plus loads more via the voltage knob. Lowering it moves things from the wide‑open sound to extreme spitty and gated but with plenty of subtle variation to be explored along the way.
Mode II features a bass boost at the front-end of the circuit, offering a quite different take on silicon fuzz, with loads of extra girth if you need it. The tonal territory covered here makes this a viable substitute for situations where you’d reach for a Big Muff.
(Image credit: Future / Phil Barker)
We also get a lovely dynamic germanium fuzz in Mode III, and a slightly darker LED clipping from Mode IV, both of which add drive/distortion utility to the sound palette. But it’s the last mode, V, that’s the most raucous of all on offer here. Its combination of hard clipping (silicon transistors) and soft clipping (LED and silicon diodes) is mightily impressive.
This is a fuzz for all seasons, with great texture to it, that can be nicely tailored with the active boost/cut tone controls to deliver ripping fuzz with a raspy edge, further enhanced by just rolling the voltage back a touch.
Verdict
Walrus has created a go-to source for a wide range of fuzz sounds. If you want to experiment with a varied range of tones and textures, there’s plenty here to keep you occupied.
Or if you’ve yet to invest in a fuzz box and are undecided which to go for, this may be your ideal single-box solution. What’s more, if you already have a particular favourite fuzz flavour that you stick to, rest assured you’ll find something here to complement it.
(Image credit: Future / Phil Barker)
Specs
PRICE: $229 / £235
ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Fuzz pedal
FEATURES: True bypass, 5 modes, adjustable voltage, active EQ
CONTROLS: Volume, Gain, Bass, Treble, Voltage, Mode switch, Bypass footswitch
Trevor Curwen has played guitar for several decades – he's also mimed it on the UK's Top of the Pops. Much of his working life, though, has been spent behind the mixing desk, during which time he has built up a solid collection of the guitars, amps and pedals needed to cover just about any studio session. He writes pedal reviews for Guitarist and has contributed to Total Guitar, MusicRadar and Future Music among others.
