Author Topic: Pickup Booster (Read 3608 times)

Elliot · « **on:** November 06, 2005, 10:16:19 AM »

At the moment I am using my Bad Monkey with everything off (i.e gain at 0 and bass and treble at 12 o clock) except level which is at max. It seems to work well - doesn't colour the sound and only cost £30.

What would a more expensive PU Booster like an SD1 do differently?

steve · « **Reply #1 on:** November 06, 2005, 11:03:42 AM »

The Bad Monkey is superb,much better than a unmodded Boss SD-1.
Its like a tube screamer but without the annoying mid range hump and more gain.Digitech have made a great pedal in the Bad Monkey,i have one on my pedal board.

The amazing Phil · « **Reply #2 on:** November 06, 2005, 11:06:12 AM »

Sounds worth checking out, I was hunting around for an SPF Ego Booster the other day, but I'll keep my eyes skinned for this as well.

Skybone · « **Reply #3 on:** November 06, 2005, 03:28:06 PM »

The Marshall BluesBreaker II (BB-2) is around £40-45 and is a 2 function pedal, you can use it as a bluesy OD pedal, or use it as a booster. Selecting the boost function bypasses the gain and tone controls, and only the level pot works, providing around 25dB ish of gain to the front end of your amp. One of the great things about this pedal is it's cheap, another great thing is that it's a tough little pedal, that should withstand some battering about!

I've recently replaced my BB-2 with an MXR Micro Amp, somewhat more expensive (good deals on eBay though), it has a gain knob, and provides about 30dB of gain. It's pretty transparent as well, but there's just something about it I can't put my finger on, that I'm not sure about.

willo · « **Reply #4 on:** November 06, 2005, 03:34:05 PM »

I chose the Catalinbread Super Chili Picoso over the MicroAmp, you get 35db of completely clean boost on it, plus two outputs, buffered and non-buffered, in case you want to use it as a line driver. It sounded great fattening up tones on my line 6, but since i got my JCM800 i havent used it as much, mostly just a Catalinbread Fuzz and a modded SD1. Anyway, the SCP's go for about £85 but are nigh on impossible to get in this country. Still, a great pedal!