Sovereign Distortion

The Wampler Sovereign is an extremely versatile overdrive-distortion pedal. As we have seen, it also has some good surprises in store for us!
Cosmetically, the pedal has a pretty gray color. On the front we find the following controls: Volume, Tone, Gain, Mid Control and 2 toggle switches which allow you to go from a Vintage to Modern mode and from a classic Gain mode to a Boost mode.

Connected to a clean sound with a Super-Strat Tom Anderson, SSH type configuration, we attack with everything at 12:00 and the 2 toggle switches down. With this configuration, we obtain a round, warm overdrive with a thick midrange and good density. The Mid control associated with the Tone allows you to truly sculpt your tailor-made sound. The dynamics are very good and we have a nice articulation with well-detached highs. By activating Modern mode, we recover brilliance and tighter bass. This will bring snap to single microphones and precision with doubles. By pushing the gain to 15:00 we obtain a fluid overdrive, with a binder ideal for Blues-Rock registers.
But it's by activating Boost mode that we get down to business. Indeed, the Sovereign then transforms into a war machine capable of delivering massive and aggressive high-gain sounds. It is in this configuration that the Mid control comes into its own. Indeed, this will allow you to deepen the V-shaped mids to obtain typically Metal sounds. By turning it in the other direction, we lighten the mids and put them more forward to gain fluidity during solos. The Tone knob adds brilliance and precision. Associated with a guitar that sends, it works very very well in the strongest registers.

The Wampler Sovereign is a surprising pedal due to its great versatility. It allows you to play almost everything from blues to metal, without having to add anything else. The Overdrive is of good quality, but we have a big preference for its high-gain rendering which is really excellent. A nice Swiss army knife!