NAMM 2025: In an industry so often driven by endless refinements of existing effect types, it’s rare that we credit a company with developing an entirely new pedal product category, but Walrus Audio has done just that with the Canvas Rehearsal.
The latest addition to the company’s Canvas utility range – which also includes power supplies and a tuner you can stick your face on – doesn’t want to improve or mangle your tone, like most pedals.
Instead, it’s aimed at improving your playing (yeah, we know most looper and drum machine pedals can be used for similar purposes, but hear us out.)
In essence, the Canvas Rehearsal takes several well-worn ideas and combines them in one convenient package. It’s a metronome, headphone amp and Bluetooth streamer in one. But the way Walrus has put the whole thing together is what really makes it count.
For starters, the metronome features tap tempo, with adjustable meter, tap division and accent beat, displayed on a clear – if quite small – OLED screen.
You can use the onboard footswitch to start or stop the click or as a tap tempo, as well as an option that combines both (you hold the footswitch to access the tap tempo).
But the real flexibility comes via MIDI: the Canvas Rehearsal can be fully programmed, so you could sync it up to your setlist’s tempos, for example.
Of course, you can just jam along to tracks, too. The Canvas Rehearsal is kitted out with Bluetooth streaming capability, but there’s an ⅛” aux jack on the face of the pedal, too.
The volumes of the Guitar, Click and Aux signals can be balanced via dedicated volume controls, and the whole lot can be sent to the ⅛” headphone jack, adjusted by its own volume knob. Stereo inputs and outputs pass guitar signal through as normal, while the whole thing is powered by a regular 9V PSU at 300mA.
Walrus is touting the pedal as “the perfect end-of-chain tool to help you perfect your sound before taking the stage”, so it’s clearly honing in on gigging guitar players, as well as at-home guitarists.
Our one concern is that there’s no mention of any built-in cab modeling on the headphone output – a bit of a missed opportunity when you compare the Canvas Rehearsal to similarly equipped mini amps and desktop amps.
But hey, this is the compact pedal that might just make metronomes cool. And that’s one heck of an achievement.
The Canvas Rehearsal is available now for $249 – check out Walrus Audio for more.
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