The Walrus Audio Messner X is an overdrive pedal aimed at players who want added grit without losing the character of their guitar and amp. In a Sweetwater review video, Dhan Kaur described it as "a low to medium gain boost overdrive pedal" that is "really articulate" with "enough flexibility to work" in a range of settings1. It sits in the boost-to-overdrive territory rather than high gain, and it relates to the earlier Walrus Audio Messner in the company's overdrive line alongside pedals like the Warhorn, Ages and Voyager.
What it does
The Messner X is designed around tonal transparency. As Sweetwater's Dhan Kaur put it, "Designed for tonal transparency, the Walrus Audio Messner X overdrive pedal allows you to dial in just the right amount" of saturation, adding harmonic saturation without altering the core tone1. For a player, that means the pedal is meant to thicken and push a signal rather than reshape it, which is the appeal of transparent overdrives compared with more colored circuits like a Tube Screamer style mid hump (see Boss SD-1 vs Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer for how that approach differs).
The pedal's two modes change how it clips:
- Open mode: no clipping diodes are added, so the pedal behaves "more boost like," pushing the front end of an amp without diode compression1
- Closed mode: clipping diodes are added, giving a more conventional overdrive saturation1
That open-versus-closed choice is what gives the pedal its flexibility: a player can use it as a clean-ish boost into a driven amp in open mode, or engage the diodes for a fuller overdrive voice in closed mode1.
Controls
The demo showed a Volume control, and Kaur noted there is "plenty of gain to really drive the front end of an amp if you need to," with the Volume set roughly just past unity gain in the demonstration1.
Where it sits in Walrus Audio's overdrive range
Walrus Audio's overdrive lineup spans several approaches, from the transparent boost-overdrive idea of the Messner X to the mid-focused Warhorn Mid-Range Overdrive, the five-state Ages Five-State Overdrive, the Klon-inspired Voyager Preamp/Overdrive and the amp-style Walrus Audio 385. The Messner X covers the low gain, transparency-first end of that range. For more on the category, see Overdrive Pedals and Boost Pedals1.
Videos
Sweetwater
walrusaudioeffects
Reverb
Sources (1)
- Walrus Audio Messner X Transparent Overdrive Pedal Review, Sweetwater, 2018-08-31
