Best Boosts

[JD01]

Most of us seem to use some sort of boost going into the front of our amps. Just wondering what your favourite is and, more importantly, why you like it. Also are there any boosts that you think you'd like to try.

I use an SD1 as a boost which I really like, but its not too dramatic with the level maxed out and also works well on my clean channel to take it to the edge of breakup. The gain layers over the top of my gain channel really nicely too, so is pretty good for adding a bit of extra gain on top. It just a bit "boring" it doesn't colour the sound very much or in an interesting way (I realise this is more my amps fault than the pedal!)

I also sometimes use an OCD as a boost - this isn't as versatile. It adds way too much level on the clean channel (my Blackstar must have loads of clean headroom) which renders it almost useless as an "always on pedal". Using it as a boost on the dirt channel is good though, colours the sound in a really nice way, has a nice gain tone that layers over the amp gain well, has more gain than you'd ever sensibly need.. it does hi-pass a little too aggressively though so things end up sounding a bit thin (really thin on single coils) if you use it a lot for rhythm. Its good for lead.

Most of you probably know how I feel about these two. But I think I might get another one! Even though I already have a load of drive pedals, they're really the only pedals I use significantly when I'm recording.

Everytime I hear a demo I really like how TubeScreamers sound as a boost and think it could be a good alternative to the pedals I have and might sit nicely alongside one of them in a mix on one one of my rhythm guitars.

I've heard a few demos of an Echoplex boost - this sounds fucking great to me, seems to be a great example of an "always on, make everything sound better" pedal. But I don't know anything else about it really so if anyone has any direct experience I'd like to hear about it.

[Greg_L]

I've never heard an OD, any OD, that I like better than just the natural sound of the amp....when using an appropriate amp for the task at hand. For recording, for me, they're basically useless.

I do sometimes like them live though. It just depends on the gig, the sound, and what mood I'm in. I have a Tube Screamer, Boss SD-1, Fulltone Fat Boost, and a ProCo Rat. The Rat is virtually useless. It's not even on the pedal board. The other three get used sparingly. These days I like the Tube Screamer and Fat Boost the best depending on the situation. None of them get used as "always on" pedals. Never. I find the SD-1 to be the most transparent if I were to just leave one on. But I'd never do that.

Other OD pedals I don't own but have intimate first-hand experience with are the OCD, Green Rhino, Plimsoul, TC Spark, EP Boost, EVH 5150, BE-100, Maxon OD9, JRAD Archer, BB Preamp. Maybe a few others I'm forgetting.
OCD - You already have this one
Green Rhino - Very good IMO. Adds nice texture even over an already overdriving amp
Plimsoul - meh. Little harsh to me
TC Spark - awesome simple boost
EP Boost - like a mini mid-hump boost
EVH 5150 - Basically useless unless over a clean channel
BE-100 - same as EVH
Maxon OD9 - a Tube Screamer
JRAD Archer - pretty nice Klon clone
BB Preamp - kind of like a Tube Screamer, SD-1, and clean boost all-in-one. Pretty versatile, lots of boost potential, a little too compressed

[JD01]

Cheers Greg - that's handy, you've used most things I'd be interested in other than the Echoplex.

Would be great to not need a boost... I'm never gonna be cranking >50W Marshalls though so I probably always will!

[Greg_L]

Cheers Greg - that's handy, you've used most things I'd be interested in other than the Echoplex.

Would be great to not need a boost... I'm never gonna be cranking >50W Marshalls though so I probably always will!

For me it's not because I get to crank Marshalls. Sure, that's always fucking awesome, but that's not why I don't want to use pedals. I just don't like the way pedals flatten and compress the guitar signal before it hits the amp. They're all an unnatrual solid state clipping device. I often like the sound of a little help from an overdrive pedal, but then I turn it off and like it better. Lol. Since more gain and drive isn't really a concern for me, most OD pedals don't do a whole lot for me. My amps already have more gain than I ever want to use. To me pedals take away more than add. But I think they're good for live leads. That flattened compression can help punch through a little in a live mix without having to actually be louder than everyone else.

And I think you really need to be careful about what you pick. Some pedals are best used over a very clean channel. Many so-called overdrive pedals are really more like an amp-in-a-box. They sound great over a clean platform, or an amp just barely breaking up. No problem there. But over an already dirty channel they sound like ass.

[JD01]

I mainly seem to use them to tighten up my tone a bit. My amp can be pretty flubby without one in front of it. At the moment I'm tending to set my drive channel to where it is at the slightly crunchy just breaking up point and then hit it with a boost.. My drive channel is pretty clean when I turn the boost off and use a split coil.

[rayc]

I didn't own any decent pedals when I started to record a more "rock" sound. I bought I few in the quest for "rock" guitar tone - the GFS Brownie Classic came closest but I couldn't get it to work well with the Marshall Bass amp nor did the Boss overdrive. Then I bought my little 5 watt Kustom Defender and managed some OK sounds from that for a while but pedals certainly don't work with and it went off after a while. A change in preamp tube has made the amp a little better sounding but it still goes from clean to destroyed in the 1st 2 volume notches which isn't very useful. Before that sequence I didn't use high gain sounds at all - I usually used a clean tone from my single coil. Sometimes I'd use a Big Muff clone for variation or thickness but almost everything on my "album" is relatively clean tone sometimes with massive noise construction, (shoegazing), settings from a multi effects unit that may have had a tiny bit of digital distortion in it. I was trying out the pignose today - it's more about speaker distortion than anything else. Cleanish it has a nice nasal 1/2 cocked wah tone but I don't play leads and that tone gets lost even in simple chords like 5ths. This Friday I hope to delivery my Marshall Superbass to the tech for a) the mod to super lead and b) the inclusion of a PPIMV the combination of which should render some decent tone without, quite, ripping my face off. My latest recording has been clean with the guitar through the Kustom at low, low volume and Mel9 stuff all over the place to try and take me away from the "rock" sound until I can do it better. I still have the 2nd guitar to redo in my most recent rock track - the one James played lead solo on, and am waiting for the vocal to be done - Passenger Airbag/Adam is doing that for me - well at least he was but I've not heard from him for a fortnight. Hopefully the Marshall will be back soonish & I can get the 2nd guitar done without a pedal or other treatments. At the moment the only pedals I have that I use are the Mel9 and the compressor in front of that. I tried to sell some old pedals - GDI21 and Blues Overdrive, (both Behringer), at $50 for the pair but no sale! Not even a nibble of interest. Everyone seems engrossed in boutique pedals and paying almost new prices for used gear. Strangely I keep looking at pedal videos mainly here...[BBvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/user/EytschPi42[/BBvideo] but this forum and Johan Segeborn remind me easily & often enough that the pedal isn't the answer.

[JD01]

Ray, did I ever write that solo out for it so you can play it yourself? Also when you're finalising the song I don't mind having another few punts at it, maybe changing it if you want me to or trying out a few different tones.

Don't think I'm up to doing vocals on that and my time for tracking vocals is limited enough as it is.

[Tadpui]

The closest thing to a boost that I use is an old Boss CS-3. I keep the level and sustain pretty close to cranked. It's like the "chaos button" on my pedalboard. Solos, sustained chords, or any time I need barely-controlled feedback, I'll step on that pedal.

[JD01]

The closest thing to a boost that I use is an old Boss CS-3. I keep the level and sustain pretty close to cranked. It's like the "chaos button" on my pedalboard. Solos, sustained chords, or any time I need barely-controlled feedback, I'll step on that pedal.

That sounds pretty interesting. I really like boosting. The first time I experiemented with boost was with a Mooer Compressor... called a Yellow Comp I think

[Lt. Bob]

I use a Zoom Power Drive PD-01 with the gain all the way off as an always-on boost.
Good luck finding one of those.

It's from their early days when they made analog pedals.

[Minerman]

I have one od pedal, the Boss SD-1...I bought it a few years ago along with the Egnater Tweaker because I knew that amp wouldn't get me into the gain territory I like to be in...I used it with the Tweaker, then through the clean channel of my DSL's (both the 1w & the 100w), but it's collecting dust in my closet now...The EVH amp I have has more gain than I'd ever need, even after I went through all the pre-amp tubes a couple days ago to find the static/noisy culprit, then put a 12AU7 in V2 & V5 to tame it down even more than before...

I did have a Bogner Red pedal for a while, & it was ok through a clean amp IMO, but it wasn't really made to be used as a boost into a dirty-ish amp...That pedal did have a clean gain boost which would've been great for live use, you could set how much louder the boost would be via a separate volume knob...I always wanted to try the Bogner Blue, which was supposed to be lower-gain than the Red, but at $300 a pop new, I just couldn't throw that kind of $$$ toward a pedal...

I've been pondering on the idea of buying a Marshall DSL15H, throwing low-gain tubes in it like the EVH, & using the clean channel as a pedal platform...That would probably work pretty good, but it'd throw my plan for the Ceriatone 2202 off for a while longer...

[liv_rong]

I like my EP Booster. Before hat I was using a Soul Food with the volume up and gain way down, was ok but not great. I found I didn’t really like too much pushing on the Blackstar and assumed it was from the solid state gain stage section built into the amp somewhere. I’m not an expert, I do t know. But I do know the EP booster is almost always on for me for clean to mid gain tones.

This is something I just did for some friends on Sunday. They just needed to get some rough songs to a drummer so he could listen to them. Anyways, the guitar is his American Tele on my amp on the fat clean channel with lower gain settings and the master way down being pushed with the ep booster. I think it sounds good. No processing except a limiter on the master.

https://doc-04-ak-docs.googleuserconten ... 496s3bm2v2

[Lt. Bob]

access to that clip was denied to me but I have no doubt the EP is a great boost and is very likely on my 'to-buy' lists.
I have their SP comp and it's killer.

[rayc]

Google drive asked for log in etc & there didn't seem to be anything around it to click to bypass it.

[Lt. Bob]

mine didn't even ask for log in .... it just said I was unauthorized and go away

[JD01]

Was either and EP boost or a TC Spark that Greg posted a while back and I didn't like it that much, he posted a whole load of boosts - I seem to remember my favourite was the TubeScreamer.

[JD01]

I've just come across these cheapo things - gonna try and get one for under a tenner:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Soundtank-Tub ... SwCMFZ61OB

[Greg_L]

Was either and EP boost or a TC Spark that Greg posted a while back and I didn't like it that much, he posted a whole load of boosts - I seem to remember my favourite was the TubeScreamer.

It was the TC Spark mini. And it was awesome. I still wanna get the full-size version of my own. I've been thinking about getting something a little different for an OD/Boost. The TS and SD-1 are fine, but I use them so infrequently I don't worry about it too much.

You have an EQ pedal right? Instead of using it in the loop to shelf off all of your low end, use it in front as a boost. Turn up the mids and level on the EQ and bam, de facto Tube Screamer.

[JD01]

Yeah - I have tried that with the EQ and its fine but I use it for a really specific purpose and that's only to remove a few db at 400hz. Aside from this tiny notch the EQ is usually flat (although I do sometimes add a tiny bit about 3.2k to try and add a bit of sparkle) With the notch at 400hz I find my amp works pretty close to how I want it, the knobs do what I want them do to and I'm not using everything in a fruitless quest to remove mud. The EQ is just always on in the loop - it basically sets my amp at what I consider to be my basic platform for building on, its so obvious to do this I can't believe Blackstar didn't make this adjustment to the tonestack themselves. They'd got a lot less shit for the meh, muddy sound of their amps if they did.

When I've used it out front with the level turned up it works fine, but I couldn't get a balance of shelving off the lows, removing my 400hz mud and giving the push I wanted. I suppose I could get an EQ with more bands on it than my current 7. Maybe some of the pedals I like also colour the tone in a way that I like too, I don't know. Maybe I just haven't persevered enough with the EQ in the front.

Yeah - the TC Spark Mini. I remember it now, it sounded good - pretty much all your tones sound good when you're not taking the piss - but I found in comparison to some of the other boosts it sounded a bit dark and didn't have the bite that the TS had. I'm definitely going to try and get one of them cheapo plastic 1990's TubeScreamers. I'm not rough with my gear so I can't imagine I'll break it.

[Greg_L]

Lol. I do seem to "take the piss" a lot. I have as much or more fun turning everything to 10 as I do when I try to be for real.

Is your amp still mud-city with the new cab? I've always thought Blackstars are dark, but I attributed the boxy mud in you tones to the tiny terrible combo cab it sits in. I know that the bigger Blackstar heads don't necessarily sound muddy, they're just dark-ish.