OD/BOOST/WHATEVER

[bucketshred]

After buying TwinFan's Carbon Copy delay and sorting myself out with a new power supply, my pedal board is almost, almost finished. However, I am seriously lacking in the boost/OD department.

Currently I'm running a Mule'd Les Paul into a JCM800 and whilst it has an awesome rock tone when battering away at powerchords, it just needs an extra little boost to really get the amp cooking and things singing. I'm also looking for some sort of extra boost feature to push the amp right over the edge for lead breaks, the Je ne sais pas of an amp that is well over cooking and on meltdown mode.

Luckily for me, my excellent young lady is offering to buy me a nice shiny new pedal for Christmas and we've got a trip down to London on the cards for mid-November. So far, I have been looking at...

HBE Power Screamer
Zvex Box of Rock
Zvex Super Hard-On

Anyone got any other ideas to throw in/add their two penneth? Or experience with the above mentioned?

Paddy

[blue]

Keeley Time Machine?  has both a 60's germanium and a modern boost, two seperate channels

[Sancho]

Maxon OD9.
A good graphic EQ can make one hell of a boost as well.

[Twinfan]

The SHO is very good, and if you have a word with our very own JuanSolo he might be able to cook you up one for a better price than Zvex.  Or combine it with something else for a nice unique pedal?

[gwEm]

almost any booster will sound good between Mules and a JCM800  :D

i would go for something quite subtle/transparent myself, but it depends on your tonal aims of course.

[Ratrod]

Mules Les Paul --> Box of Rock --> JCM800

That would rock quite nicely.

[Nephilim]

How about the Zakk Wylde Overdrive? or a Tube Screamer? I only use them to bnoost the amp rather than add distortion/overdrive, and it work fantastically

[Telerocker]

Maxon OD-9, TS-9, SHO, Box of Rock, Emma Stinkbug, Barber Ltd, they all will bring the necessary boost.

[Alex]

There are so many options, but if you only want a boost I would think the ZVEX ones are way over the top, given their price.

For boosting, the lowly Boss SD-1 or MXR ZW-44 work fine with Marshalls. I personally appreciate the Digitech Bad Monkey more though, as both the SD-1 and Zakk Wylde OD can sound somewhat artificially rather quickly.

The reommended Maxons and Tubescreamers are basically like the Bad Monkey btw, all Tubescreamer-based designs; there is not much difference tonally to be honest.

[marauder]

Klone

[Brow]

I have a HBE Power Screamer and have never been a fan of using it as a boost infront of an amp. I much prefer it on an amp with a nice clean tone and then use the pedal as a stand alone OD unit.

I also have a ZVex Super Duper (2 Super Hard-Ons in 1 pedal) and like it to kick an amp into massive drive. As said above though, it's not very transparent and certainly puts it's own stamp on your sound.

If you decide to go this route, I'd seriously suggest talking to John (JuanSolo) about 1 of his builds of the SHO; it'll be just as good as the ZVex but be alot cheaper.

Have you considered trying a Treblebooster of some sort? I use 1 with my JCM800 and really like it.

[llJasonll]

What about an MC-401, by MXR?  It is a pure volume boost, but does it very well and cleanly.

[Sancho]

In my experience, a clean boost works great with certain amps but not really well with others...

[HTH AMPS]

Any type of tube screamer works well in this situation - however you'll find that a real TS-9 rather than a SD-1 will retain more low end (which you may or may not want, I do).

I also use an MXR Dynacomp as a lead boost - works a treat in combination with the TS-9.

[Telerocker]

In my experience, a clean boost works great with certain amps but not really well with others...

My Toadworks Dual Boost starts messing with the bottomend as soon as I turn in a bit of fat (you can dial in clean and fat boost). I only use this one cleans and cruncy things. Not with a lot of ampdrive. I have the Emma Reezafratzitz for that.  :)