Morley Lerxst ATWAS Wah Volume | Review

For anyone who doesn't know, "Lerxst" is Alex Lifeson's long-running nickname, dating back to his earliest days in Rush, and it's the name he's used as a brand for his solo and collaborative gear ever since. This particular pedal is a joint effort between Alex and Morley, and it wears its heritage proudly: ATWAS stands for "All The World's a Stage," the title of Rush's 1976 live album — the one where you can hear Alex's Morley pedal work bleeding through the mix on nearly every track. So before you've even clipped it onto your board, there's a direct line running from this pedal back fifty years to a guitarist who helped define what a wah-volume combo could sound like on stage.

Design-wise, Morley has clearly thought about pedalboard real estate here, and that's the first thing that struck me. The ATWAS packs an Optical Wah and a full Volume pedal into a single footprint that's noticeably smaller than a lot of standalone units on the market — 6.85" x 4.5" x 3.75", to be precise. If you've ever tried to squeeze a wah AND a volume pedal onto a board that's already groaning under the weight of your drive and modulation pedals, you'll immediately understand why this is such a smart piece of engineering. Two functions, one footprint, and it's not so small that it feels cramped underfoot or so large that it eats your whole board. Morley have nailed the sizing sweet spot here.

The build quality is where you really feel the "boutique-meets-workhorse" ethos. It's housed in cold-rolled steel, which gives it real heft and the kind of road-ready durability you want from something that's going to live under your foot night after night. The treadle grip even glows in the dark, which is a small touch, but it's the sort of detail that tells you somebody actually thought about what happens when you're on a dim stage trying to find your pedal by feel. Little things like that add up, and this doesn't feel like a pedal that's going to rattle apart after a few tours.

Sonically, the Wah mode is where the ATWAS earns its keep. It's built around Morley's custom inductor and optical switching, so you get their trademark smooth, musical sweep rather than anything scratchy or brittle — and because it's optical, there's no mechanical pot to wear out or get noisy over time. But the feature that really sets this pedal apart, and the one I kept coming back to during testing, is the Boost knob. You can dial in up to 20dB of clean boost while you're in Wah mode, and the effect on your lead lines is genuinely useful rather than gimmicky. Wah pedals have a habit of sapping a bit of perceived volume and sustain as you sweep through the mid-scoop, especially on longer lead runs, and the Boost knob is there specifically to counteract that. Push it in and your lines keep singing and sustaining right through the wah sweep instead of dipping out — which is exactly what you want if you're using wah expressively through an extended solo rather than just for quick quacky accents.

Flip over to Volume mode and you get a genuinely smooth audio taper, whether you're using it for classic swells or just as a master volume control for quick dynamic changes. It's not flashy, but it does the job cleanly, and the buffer circuit underneath both modes means you're not losing top-end sparkle or signal strength anywhere in the chain — something that matters a lot once you've got this sitting in the middle of a long pedal chain.

Switching between wah and volume is silent, too, which is a small thing but a genuinely appreciated one; there's nothing worse than a pop or thump interrupting a performance because a pedal wasn't built with switching noise in mind.

Overall, the Lerxst ATWAS Wah Volume is a pedal that backs up its considerable pedigree with genuinely useful engineering. The compact footprint alone will appeal to anyone trying to be economical with board space, but it's the Boost function in Wah mode that elevates this from "nice combo pedal" to something with real creative use for lead players. Solid build, smart use of space, and a feature set that clearly comes from decades of stage experience. Alex Lifeson and Morley have made something here that both respects where it came from and genuinely earns its place on a modern board.

For more information, visit www.morleyproducts.com