Walrus Audio Melee | Instant Shoegaze Pedal
Two weeks into 2023 and I've already found my favorite pedal of the year. The Walrus Audio Melee: Wall of Noise is exactly what it says it is. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.
In this episode the Walrus Audio Melee takes center stage — featuring the Baum Guitars Wingman into the Benson Amps Monarch and Benson 2x12" cabinet with Celestion G12H speakers via the Boss Waza Tube Amp Expander.
The Melee gives you two of the most powerful effects in guitar — high-gain distortion and reverb — and lets you decide not just how much of each, but in what order they hit each other, and in real time. That's the whole concept.
The joystick is the primary control. Moving it up increases distortion intensity. Moving it left-to-right adjusts the reverb wet/dry mix. Every position between center and the four cardinal points is a unique combination of gain and space — from almost dry and barely distorted, to fully dimed distortion with a completely wet reverb signal. Slam it all the way right and the dry signal disappears into pure ambient wash with distortion running through it. It plays like a video game and sounds like shoegaze.
A toggle switch controls the signal order: Distortion into Reverb (traditional — lush, singing leads with reverb trailing the distortion) or Reverb into Distortion (experimental — the reverb trail itself gets saturated, creating an impenetrable wall of processed atmospheric noise). Three reverb programs: Ambient (lush trails, soaring sustain), Octave Down (low-octave doubling in the reverb trail — similar to the Slö's Dark mode), and Reverse Reverb with Feedback (reversed trails that accumulate and cascade on themselves). Three-position Tone toggle (Dark/Medium/Bright) and three-position Decay toggle. Modulation added via the bypass + decay toggle combination.
The Sustain footswitch is the performance secret — momentary hold ramps up reverb trails, release tapers them off. Latch it for sustained pad underneath continued playing.
🎛️ Walrus Audio Melee: https://www.walrusaudio.com/products/melee-wall-of-noise
🎸 Baum Guitars Wingman: https://baumguitars.com/en-us/collections/wingman
🔊 Benson Amps: https://www.bensonamps.com/guitar-amplifiers
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🎸 Baum Guitars Wingman | Goldsound Jabmaster Pickups
🎛️ Walrus Audio Melee: Wall of Noise | Distortion + Reverb | 3 Reverb Modes | Joystick | Order Switch
🔊 Benson Amps Monarch | Celestion G12H 2x12" | Boss Waza TAE
Recording: Universal Audio Apollo x4 | Royer R10 & R121 + SM57 + Sennheiser E906 | Ableton Live 11
