The Fundamental Drive by Walrus Audio offers three overdrive modes with different clipping modes for a wide range of customizable sounds through simple and effective controls.
Walrus Audio is a collective of artists, musicians, and engineers, who share the goal of finding a balance between art and performance in sound manipulation. Their range of guitar pedals offers versatile and functional sounds, ranging from soft fuzz to sharp overdrive. The essence of each pedal is captured through unique graphic art, created by the artist and musician Nathan Price, giving each product a visual appearance as captivating as its sonic features.
The Fundamentals series by Walrus Audio is a line of 8 different pedals with simplified controls and design, without compromising audio fidelity and build quality, to offer high-performance solutions that meet the needs of various situations. Each pedal features three sliders and a three-position selector to customize the sound and, unlike Walrus’s main series, the Fundamental series does not feature artwork and creative names, opting for simple names and designs to underline what the series represents: simplicity and sound.
Walrus Audio’s Fundamental Drive is an overdrive pedal that offers three distinct modes for a wide range of sounds: Smooth, Crunch, and Bright.
The Smooth mode is a classic silicon overdrive with soft clipping, producing a clean and smooth sound. The Crunch mode uses soft clipping with the addition of silicon diodes for hard clipping, and a slight boost in the low frequencies, producing a sharp and cutting sound. The Bright mode, on the other hand, uses both soft and hard silicon clipping from the Crunch mode with a cut in the pre-clipping low frequencies, creating a bright and glassy sound.
The Fundamental Drive features a simple yet effective interface. The Gain slider adjusts the amount of gain applied to the guitar signal passing through the overdrive circuit. The Tone slider controls the amount of high-frequency attenuation, while the Volume slider adjusts the pedal’s output volume.
The Drive features a sleek design with a textured black finish and details in red and creamy white matte ink. The jacks are mounted high to maximize space on the pedalboard, and the pedal uses a True Bypass design to preserve signal quality when not in use. The chassis measures 11.43 x 6.1 x 5.8 cm and requires a 9V DC 100mA power supply. An isolated power supply is recommended, but is not included in the package.