Walrus Audio, Red Panda + more: our top five gear releases of the week
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28.01.2021

Walrus Audio, Red Panda + more: our top five gear releases of the week

Words by Will Brewster

Our guide to the biggest drops in the gear world this week.

Been off the gear grid? No stress – we’ve got you. This week, we’re compiling some of the coolest new releases that might’ve flown under your post-NAMM radar, with this week including some sweet gear from Walrus Audio, Red Panda, Pro Co, Ernie Ball and Dunlop.

This week’s top picks:

  • Walrus Audio Mako ACS1 Amp/Cab Simulator
  • Red Panda Bitmap 2 Bit-Crusher
  • Pro Co Lil Rat
  • Ernie Ball Volts Power Supply
  • Dunlop Custom Badass Cry Baby Wah

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Walrus Audio Mako ACS1

Following last week’s launch of the Mako R1 Reverb, Walrus Audio have now showcased the third entry into their recent Mako line with the ACS1 Amp and Cabinet Simulator. Featuring a similar chassis design to the R1 Reverb and D1 Delay, the ACS1 features six control knobs for Volume, Gain, Bass, Mid, Treble and Room, plus three toggle switches to unlock a huge array of amp and cab tones.

Players can choose from three classic Fender, Marshall and Vox amp models, while a further six cabinet impulse responses can be accessed via the pedal’s mini toggle switches. You can also load in your own impulse responses through the pedal’s USB port, with the toggle switch also being used to flick between mono and stereo blends.

Elsewhere, the pedal features room for three presets with a further 128 presets available via MIDI, while footswitches for Boost and Bypass top the unit off.

Red Panda Bitmap 2

Bit-crushers are definitely a bit of a niche effect, but who doesn’t love to make their guitar sound like a SNES? If video game sounds are right up your alley, you’ll froth the latest take on the Bitmap from Red Panda, with the brand giving their appraised bit-crusher a fitting sequel to carry into a new generation of pedal heads.

With controls for Mix, Crush, Frequency, Filter, Rate and Depth, the Bitmap 2 presents players with a blank canvas to contort their signal, and man, can you cause some damage with this bad boy. Players can degrade their signal from 24-bit down to 1-bit, with a 4-pole low-pass filter helping to shape your tone and tame any spiky frequencies. An envelope with three waveforms can be assigned to Frequency and Mix, and there’s also a drive control and room for four presets.

Pro Co Lil Rat

Everyone’s favourite rodent-themed distortion is back, and it’s smaller than ever before! The Pro Co Lil Rat, which is slated to arrive later in the year, packs all the tones and components of the legendary Rat 2 into a mouse-sized chassis to suit all kinds of boards.

As you’d expect, the Lil Rat retains the Distortion, Filter and Volume controls of its larger brethren, letting you tap into everything from a subtle overdrive through to warm distortion and gnarly fuzz. Hear how it sounds in action below, and stay tuned to find out more about when these rodents will make their way down under.

Ernie Ball Volt Power Supply

Accessory kings Ernie Ball have unleashed the Volt, a miniature power supply that measures in smaller than a pack of strings. It features four isolated 9v outputs with the potential to provide up to 300mA of current, and also boasts a power-through output jack for chaining multiple Volts together for larger setups.

As an added creature comfort, the Volt’s provided AC adapter is universal to make sure you can plug it into any plug around the world, while thermal protection ensures that it’ll never blow up – ever.

 

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A post shared by Ernie Ball (@ernieball)

Dunlop Custom Badass Cry Baby Wah

You know it, you love it – now, the Cry Baby is just funky as ever. This limited edition Badass model is loaded with two inductors – a Fasel and Halo Inductor – to provide two funky voices in one pedal, with the former emulating the old school Jen Italian wahs and the latter offering a tried-and-true Cry Baby tone.

Players can flick between each Fasel mode with a red switch near the foot of the pedal, while two frequency knobs let you adjust the sweep reach of each mode.

Hungry for more product news? Head over here.