The Walrus Audio Mako Series MKII: ACS1 Amp and Cab Simulator Pedal is an amplifier and speaker cab simulator delivering the sound and feel of world class amplifiers with complimentary speaker cabinet IRs created by Tone Factor and York Audio.

With the ACS1, you'll have expansive options to deliver great tone on stage, in the studio, or practicing at home. Simple controls, stereo in and out, onboard presets, and MIDI support make the ACS1 a great tool to have as the bedrock of your sound, or simply to use as a consistent and supremely transportable backline amp alternative. The sleek Mako series shark graphic is shown on the front of the pedal, swimming just below your feet as you play.

You can load in your own IRs and update the firmware though their website, giving this pedal excellent future development potential. Physical knobs let you control settings, while an OLED screen helps show your selections, even in low light scenarios. With its controllable room size setting, you'll be able to adjust your sound per venue or room size/style. The pedal allows you to mix and match stereo amp and cab combinations; a luxury not afforded to most guitar players. For example, you could run an AC30 style amp on the left and an Orange style amp on the right. With the available mixing options, you’ll easily be able to dial in completely unique guitar tones to give you an edge over the competition. The cab IRs, as well as amp models, can be bypassed, making it more flexible for ampless rigs that still use physical cabs, or if you want to use a head but not use a physical cab. Unlike physical gear, the amps can be mixed and matched with no phase/polarity issues.

Containing six amplifier models based on the most popular guitar amps and twelve cab IRs (impulse responses) designed by world class designers, it gives you the best tonal representation possible for your guitar whether on the move or in the studio. The pedal allows you to try out and experiment with the sounds of a collection of amps that would ordinarily cost many thousands of pounds and take up a huge amount of space. This could be an excellent tool to help you find an amp tone that works best for you and your ensemble. The stock IRs for the included Fullerton, London, and Dartford amp models were custom engineered by David Hislop and Kenyon Reed at Tone Factor, while the stock IRs for the Red, Citrus, and Tread amp models were designed by Justin York at York Audio.

Three Vintage Amp Models:

• Fullerton, classically bright and clear Fender Deluxe Reverb sounds. Crisp clean tones with loads of headroom that players have come to love over the years
• London, sounds like a 1962 Marshall Bluesbreaker with a harmonically rich, valve driven breakup and an articulate and sensitive response
• Dartford, legendary jangly high end tones of a 1960s Vox AC30, with all the bite and chime of the British Invasion

Three High Gain Amp Models:

• Red, the distinctively raw and punchy Peavey 5150 tone, producing heavy, aggressive modern metal and hard rock sounds. Powerful and saturated with a tight low end, strong midrange and a bright, cutting high end
• Citrus, inspired by the warm, rich, and harmonically complex Orange Rockerverb. Classic British gain with a creamy midrange and punchy lows. Maintains clarity and definition across its entire tonal spectrum, even at high gain settings.
• Tread, sounds like the world famous Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier with massive amounts of gain. Versatile enough to be favoured by guitarists in genres from hard rock, punk, metal, and more, it offers plenty of saturation that’s heavy and ready to cut through the mix.

A boost switch enables you to add up to 4 dB of boost to any setting used and you can select the specific amount of boost desired. A noise gate can be applied and adjusted within the navigation menu, which can be especially helpful when playing with the high gain amp models. Boasting pre-set modes, you can save up to three presets onboard by dialling in your favourite sound entirely using your feet (allowing you to trial and save new settings as you play). Cycle through your saves by pressing and releasing bypass and boost simultaneously. Additional banks and presets can be accessed in the global sound menu by pressing down the Left and Middle encoders simultaneously. When power is removed from the pedal, it will boot up in the last used setting, allowing you to resume play quickly. Using MIDI, up to 128 settings can be saved and recalled, giving you an expansive control of tweaks. Any preset can be copied and placed into another preset slot.

The ACS1 also has three different types of included reverb effects:

• Room, simulates the size of the room that your amp and cabinet are in. At zero, it would resemble tracking your amp in an isolated environment with no reverb. At max would emulate a natural sounding, large studio environment
• Hall, emulates the acoustics of a large, live sound space
• Spring, simulates the spring reverb tanks found in tube amps

A global preferences menu enables you to set parameters like the display brightness option, firmware version and bypass modes, while a global sound preference menu lets you select preset slots and banks, etc. With a huge number of parameters to tweak, a factory reset mode gives you the option to swiftly return to factory default settings, allowing you to compare available possibilities. For more information on this fantastic pedal, head to the Walrus Audio website where you can download the full manual (which explains all the functions in detail) and features a video demo.

With its classy anodized gold finish enclosure, the Walrus Audio Mako Series MKII is a versatile pedalboard tool for ensuring your guitar sounds amazing on recordings or while playing live, even when you don't have or don’t want the option of using a physical guitar amp/cab.

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