LunaStone Wise Guy review

A real wise guy

  • £209
  • €241
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MusicRadar Verdict

A naturally touch-sensitive overdrive and boost that will get your amp cooking.

Pros

  • +

    Superb tonal options.

Cons

  • -

    Not many to speak of.

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With an identical control layout to the Big Fella, the Wise Guy’s circuitry is based around the JRC4558D op-amp that’s closely associated with the Tube Screamer genre of overdrives. 

Where the Big Fella has plenty of bottom-end, here it is rolled off in favour of an upper midrange emphasis, TS-style, that can tease out singing sustain. This goes beyond a mere clone, though. 

While it does offer that classic TS mid-boosted overdrive tone, there’s much more gain available if you need it, with a very natural touch sensitivity going on that responds well to playing nuances. 

The boost part of the pedal comes post-drive (as on the Big Fella) and, as such, offers up to 15dB to take the overall volume up or drive your amp harder: get it set just right in conjunction with the drive side of the pedal and you have great options for progressively adding more dirt to your natural amp sound. 

A naturally touch-sensitive overdrive and boost that will get your amp cooking. 

Trevor Curwen

Trevor Curwen has played guitar for several decades – he's also mimed it on the UK's Top of the Pops. Much of his working life, though, has been spent behind the mixing desk, during which time he has built up a solid collection of the guitars, amps and pedals needed to cover just about any studio session. He writes pedal reviews for Guitarist and has contributed to Total Guitar, MusicRadar and Future Music among others.