Overdrive pedal help - Digitech Bad Monkey?

[99_not_out]

I need a bit of a boost in front of my new amp (a Roth 15W Valve affair). Having poked around here and the internet in general I was considering getting a Digitech Bad Monkey, as for the price they seem to be very highly rated. I had previously been looking at the Fulltone Full-Drive 2 Mosfet which is a good £100 more expensive!

Basically, I'm after something to drive the gain channel on my amp a bit harder - it already nearly reaches '80s metal but only with hard picking and my Warpigged SG. Would like to get more gain out of it with my stock PRS SE singlecut (which maybe will become a BKP'd PRS soon ...) for classic metal riffing, and also to generally drive the amp for blues/rock riffage and twiddling.

I prefer a warm sound in general - even for metal I like to keep the mids in there (think Rust In Peace Megadeth sound). Ideally I would get a pedal which gave me good clean sustain sounds and also gave the amp that bit more of a push for full on metal ...

I'm a bit of a pedal Noob - had a Boss MT2 ages ago and never really got on with it, then owned a modelling amp for years which had all the effects on board. Now I have a Valve amp I would like something to push it a bit.

So, would the Bad Monkey meet my needs? I read they don't provide a huge amount of shove ... so also considered a "Bad Monkey --> Boss SD-1"? Read a few people use that. Any opinions appreciated!

[Twinfan]

If you like mids, and plenty of shove, then the Rothwell F1 Boost is a belter.

[gwEm]

i know the bad monkey is a tube-screamer type design, though have never tried it myself. seems quite good though, with a 2 band EQ.

some pedals are better for boosting just leads, and some work always on for a nice rhythm sound. it sounds like you might prefer an 'always on' type of pedal.

i actually like the stock sd-1, but it robs your bass - i like this aspect of it ;) but i can see why people don't prefer this, it is a cheap option though.

i also have a tubescreamer, which is perfect for a certain kind of lead sound. though i wouldn't have it on all the time.

agree with twinfan that a clean boost type pedal seems appropriate, especially as you like the basic sound but want more drive. i'm sure his suggestion of the rothwell F1 is a good one. i like to have a bit more control of my EQ when boosting, so use a RC booster or a modded boss EQ for my clean boost.

the problem is if your doing a pure clean boost, you might notice at some stage that hugely overdriving the input stage of your amp has an undesirable effect on some frequencies - like the bass might become muddy, or the highs might get piercing. with a nice EQ control, you can remedy this, and keep boosting more.

if you have a pedal which does a bit of distorting itself, like a distortion or overdrive pedal with a diode clip or whatever, you can spread the drive over an extra gain stage in the pedal, rather than just throwing everything you have at the V1 of your amp. if the pedals well designed, you can get more 'nice' drive - if you see what i mean.

[99_not_out]

Thanks for the replies chaps! :)
The Rothwell F1 Boost sounds tasty ... one of my problems is that there is so many options to choose from. Am tempted to get the Bad Monkey becasue its relatively cheap and see how I get on with it. As a noob to the whole pedals-and-valve-amp thing I probably need to experiment a bit to find what I like!

[Twinfan]

In that case try the Bad Monkey.  If it doesn't do what you want, come back and explain why and we'll suggest something else :)

[99_not_out]

Got the Bad Monkey home from Xmas today ... it truly rocks! Even straight from the pedal into a stereo it sounds pretty darned good, in front of my valve amp it adds a whole other dimension to my set up ... the separate Bass and High controls make the sound very tweakable, am getting some very cool sounds out of it from crunchy rhythms to very nice bass laden lead tones ... for £30 its just amazing quality ... can't recommend it enough :-)

No need for distortion in my set up now :p

[Alex]

Got the Bad Monkey home from Xmas today ... it truly rocks! Even straight from the pedal into a stereo it sounds pretty darned good, in front of my valve amp it adds a whole other dimension to my set up ... the separate Bass and High controls make the sound very tweakable, am getting some very cool sounds out of it from crunchy rhythms to very nice bass laden lead tones ... for £30 its just amazing quality ... can't recommend it enough :-)

No need for distortion in my set up now :p

Glad you got that. I was too late to recommend, but I use my Bad Monkey a lot. In that price range it is virtually without competitors in terms of tone and IMO it can also go head to head with some more expensive pedals.

[JustBecos]

I'm also looking for a good value i.e  cheap OD. At the moment it is between the bad monkey and a Danelcto Cool Cat CTO-1 . Has anyone tried the Cool Cat, like the bad monkey it has got very good reviews for the money and is true bypass. Just got no where to try one locally I can get either for under £30 just not sure want to get.