up) as a clean boost and a cocked wah as a
treble boost. With the Voyager in the line,
I didn’t need the wah or distortion at all.
Walrus Audio’s overdrive gave me more
than enough bite to cut through a dense
mix and the boost significantly improved
note articulation.
Just as revealing was the way it interacted
with an MXR Blue Box. My old Blue Box
can be tricky and chaotic—it’ll induce volume drops, track weirdly when picking too
hard, completely overwhelm my speakers
with low end, and lose upper harmonics.
With the Voyager following directly after
the Blue Box, it was like placing a studio
EQ and compressor in my signal chain. The
Blue Box/Voyager tandem cut through the
stage mix, the harmonics were enhanced,
the low end didn’t smother the output,
and the Blue Box took on an entirely new
dynamic dimension.
To test the Voyager in a stand-alone
environment, I used a Gibson Firebird
loaded with P-90s going through a Vox
AC4TV and the Fender Twin Reverb. At
low volumes, the Voyager made it easy to
get a more defined and cutting tone than
RATINGS
Pros: super-wide frequency range. Focused tones. top-quality build and components.
Cons: the almost-overbuilt quality level drives up the cost
of admission.
Tones
Versatility
Build
Value
with just the amp and guitar. But even with
a boost in treble and gain, the tone from
the P-90s remained balanced and concise
with plenty of harmonics spread throughout the frequency range.
By cranking the tone up to 5 o’clock,
I got to a punky snarl worthy of the
Buzzcocks. Turning the knob back to
its lowest reaches at 7 o’clock and then
cranking the gain took me into smooth-
but-raw, psychedelic Afro-beat territory.
When I moved between these extremes,
I realized how effectively I could switch
from rhythm to lead textures. And while
the pedal can easily be set up to occupy
either role, it’s remarkable how well
the Voyager happily occupies a middle
ground between searing and sedate—often
missing from more monochromatically
voiced pedals.
The Verdict
The Walrus Audio Voyager is a workhorse
with more than a touch of Renaissance man
wired into the circuit. It fills the relatively
unglamorous roles of treble shaper and
booster, clean boost, overdrive, and distortion—all with personality and a sonic and
dynamic range that can surprise. The build
quality is outstanding and it works exceedingly well with other pedals. There’s a lot
more going on than meets the eye with
the Voyager, including the ability to give
your existing rig voices you never knew it
had. And that’s what the search for tone is
about—on this world or any other.
• Three Iconic ‘60s Tremolo Circuit Algorithms • Three Classic Reverbs from the ‘60s, ’70s, & ‘80s • Tap Tempo Switch Input • True Bypass • Selectable TRS Stereo Input • Made in the USA
®
