Wampler Pinnacle vs Dirty Deed Pedal

[JimmyO]

Hi folks,

I currently use a Wampler Pinnacle Deluxe for my distortion tones. For blues and classic rock I use my JTM45 clone cranked up or Mesa Lonestar overdrive channel, but for more rocking styles I'll use the Wampler though the amps set clean. I've been looking for a delay and overdrive to complete the pedal setup, and have pretty much settled on the vapor trail and 805 pedals. I live in Ventura county so the 805 is a must (along with Firestone Walker 805 beer). Also I can't help but notice that in some vapor trail clips and various pickup demos the dirty deed pedal sounds pretty damn good. Have any of you had a chance to play both the dirty deed and pinnacle pedals? I like the sound of the pinnacle but also like the dirty deed demos I've heard.

I guess I am thinking about putting a little pedalboard together of overdrive, distortion and delay. I am wondering if getting the three seymour Duncan pedals would complement each other, or if the pinnacle would already cover similar sonic space as the dirty deed and to just get the delay and overdrive. Decisions decisions.

[zenmindbeginner]

Re: Wampler Pinnacle vs Dirty Deed Pedal

You want to know if there is sonic overlap between the Pinnacle and the Dirty Deed? I just played them side by side for a little while.

Okay... let me first provide a caveat that the Pinnacle is a much more expensive pedal than the Dirty Deed, almost twice the price.

I could not dial them in to sound similar to save my life. The Pinnacle has a bright top end that can't be removed no matter what... you can set the controls so that the upper mids are cut (vintage non boost mode) but the Pinnacle still has this bright almost brittle top end if you hone in on it long enough. The Pinnacle has weird "tone" and "contour" controls which sort of cryptically shift the mids around while varying the onslaught of highs from a slight fizzy crunch all the way to a swarm of bees.

The Dirty Deed has a "bass" and "treble" knob. They aren't bass and treble knobs at all. They are "low mid" and "upper mid" controls.

In fact, the Dirty Deed is entirely midrange focused... the highs have to come from the amp or an EQ in the chain. Well, that's not entirely true because as you increase the "drive" control... the harmonics are increased. With lower gain settings, the Dirty Deed is entirely midrange focused... as you increase the gain, more highs and bass are introduced. This is more or less how tube amps operate.

IMHO, The Pinnacle is sort of a mess... the "vintage" setting is too dark... the "modern" setting is a little too bright and the "boost" isn't all that useful as a boost. I have my Pinnacle set like below. It's in boost mode with low gain settings which seems to enhance the mids a bit and give it a less brittle top end. The contour knob sometimes just gets set in the middle, in fact I moved it to the middle after I took that pic and I like it there a bit better than I thought I did.



So... does the Dirty Deed sound at all like it's worth half of what the Pinnacle is? Hell no, absolutely not. It's a great pedal. It is warmer and more midrange focused than the Pinnacle... they both clean-up with the volume knob quite well. Since the Pinnacle is brighter, it retains more sparkle with volume knob clean-up but... I dunno, I sort of stopped playing my Dirty Deed last year because people were such d**ks about the demo I did and I was just bummed out about it... I didn't even want to look at the pedal (the demo I did has a gazillion thumbs down and SD basically doesn't want me anywhere near their other pedals).

But putting it side by side with the Pinnacle just shows how good of a pedal the Dirty Deed is. You never know how good a pedal is until you do a Shnobel style comparison and the Dirty Deed came out very well with being super warm. We had a member here complain about how "fizzy" the pedal sounded and I no lie sort of bought into that. If he thought the Dirty Deed was fizzy, then he would think the Pinnacle was a treble booster. lolz!

Very brown... browner and more JTM than the Pinnacle which sounds like a Marshall 3203 Artist to my ears.

[JimmyO]

Re: Wampler Pinnacle vs Dirty Deed Pedal

Thanks for the detailed comparison of both pedals. It sounds like the Dirty Deed may add some different distortion tones to the setup. I agree that the pinnacle can get pretty bright in the modern setting, but depending on the amp and guitar combination I'm usually able to get either the modern or vintage setting dialed in. I find the tone and contour controls are pretty powerful and this can get you into some bright and dark settings as well as a more usable range. I also found in a band situation you need less gain and a bit more mids than you think and this helps balance the tone. It does sound like the dirty deed is a bit more straight forward and i like the description. I'll be checking it out soon.

[Red_Label]

Re: Wampler Pinnacle vs Dirty Deed Pedal

[snip]

IMHO, The Pinnacle is sort of a mess... the "vintage" setting is too dark... the "modern" setting is a little too bright and the "boost" isn't all that useful as a boost.

Could not agree more. I bought one over the summer, because I'd always wanted to try one and heard such great things about it. I was very disappointed in it. Sounded like complete MUSH compared to my Carl Martin Plexitone (V1). I just didn't jive with it at all and sold it after a week. Went back to thinking that there was NO competition for the Plexitone. That changed early this week. Will be posting up a thread about the pedal that so impressed me shortly.

[Demanic]

Re: Wampler Pinnacle vs Dirty Deed Pedal

I'd probably be the dumbass who would buy both and run them together. Luckily, I don't have the cake to spare at the moment. I'd probably even go so far as to throw an 805 in front of the whole thing. If the Pinnacle is too bright, just dial back the treble on your amp. Or run it straight channel instead of bright. Or something like that.

[JimmyO]

Re: Wampler Pinnacle vs Dirty Deed Pedal

yes, this is more what I was thinking. I do like the pinnacle and, although it can get bright through some setups, it has that spank and sizzle of early VH (not sure if those are the best descriptors but to me early Ed tone has almost a single coil edge to it combined with humbucker power). I was actually thinking of adding the dirty deed and 805 and vapor trail in addition to the pinnacle so I can cover my favorite styles of blues, straight up rock and then VH type 80s stuff. It sounds like the dirty deed and Pinnacle are different enough animals. Would be interested to hear if anyone has paired the various seymour Duncan pedals together.

[Rafito]

Re: Wampler Pinnacle vs Dirty Deed Pedal

Heres a little demo I made of my Pinnacle Deluxe:

[papersoul]

Re: Wampler Pinnacle vs Dirty Deed Pedal

The Dirty Deed is fantastic. Run it at 12 volts which is simple and it is one of my favorite Marshall in a box pedals. It easily kicked a Fulltone OCD and even an Xotic BB off the board. I have all of the Bogner pedals but I still hold onto the DD. It beats any of the Wamplers I have played for sure! The DD remains tight and articulate!

On a side note, I am not a fan of the 805 and not a tube screamer fan.

[Chickenwings]

Re: Wampler Pinnacle vs Dirty Deed Pedal

Heres a little demo I made of my Pinnacle Deluxe:

nice work man!
Fantastic.

[James Rock]

Re: Wampler Pinnacle vs Dirty Deed Pedal

Granted I have an older Pinnacle Deluxe (when it was called the Pinnacle II), I do like the pedal but I've always found it needs certain settings to sound good, mainly the gain needs to be up pretty high if not full and the tone pretty high and the amp can't have too much upper treble (I play VOX style amps so its usually more upper midrange/lower treble in spades). That said it doesnt really conjur a marshally tone for me and I feel im missing something with that marshall chuncky midrange.

[Chickenwings]

Re: Wampler Pinnacle vs Dirty Deed Pedal

that's probably cos you are using a vox.
The whole "amp in a box" thing is a gimmick to sell dirtboxes.
Ill bet you can get a killer vox tone tho.

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Wampler Pinnacle vs Dirty Deed Pedal

+1 ^ It is.....a pedal can not escape the amp it is linked to....

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Wampler Pinnacle vs Dirty Deed Pedal

+1 ^ It is.....a pedal can not escape the amp it is linked to....

And considering your resume I will take this as very sage advice.

[Archer250]

Re: Wampler Pinnacle vs Dirty Deed Pedal

+1 ^ It is.....a pedal can not escape the amp it is linked to....

+2

This should have been common sense already.

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Wampler Pinnacle vs Dirty Deed Pedal

+2

This should have been common sense already.

Common sense is exceedingly uncommon... Especially in tone chaser circles