Are the Sex Drive and EP Booster basically the same ?

Watched this in another thread and the description of it by Brent Mason made it sound pretty much like the Durham Sex Drive, which I have. Your thoughts ?

mdux79tGh_Q

GET the Sex Drive. Seriously it is a box of magic.

I have both.... The Sex Drive stays on all the time on my pedal board. It sounds like a big MORE knob. It sounds great. It just adds presence and makes the guitar sound better. It has a built-in compressor. The EP Booster is great as well but it sounds to me like a mild overdrive to my ears. It sounds great though.

Johnny Isaacs

Both are excellent but do different things. Mainstays on my board are a SD into a Tim into and EP. That gets me through plenty.

The EP Booster is great as well but it sounds to me like a mild overdrive to my ears.

The EP Booster uses a discrete transistor design of a jFET into what is similar to the output buffer in a Tube Screamer. Long story short is that it clips a lot more than one might realize.

I have seen pics of a SD with enough of the epoxy removed to reveal an op amp chip, but not sure of what else is in there.

...But, just knowing that, EP Booster = mild OD (or dirty boost) is spot on.

The SD with using an op amp can be designed to not clip so much, and if used to simulate some compression, the clipping will tend to be a little more masked, since differing signal levels are all "homogenized" a bit.

The entire EP circuit is known, the SD is not. It could be very very mild clipping like a fraction of the RC Booster's range, or it might incorporate elements of something like an Orange Squeezer. For instance, the Crazy Horse has what is kind of like a TS front end into a pair of Silicon Fuzz Faces, with the TS drive and one of the FF circuits being adjustable.

IOW, the EP is kind of an orthodox design, but I doubt the SD is. Different horses for different courses.

Mr. Mason could no doubt make any drive box sound fantastic, or even somewhat similar. And I think IMO that is what is happening in that video.

I could not believe I saw a VS Garagetone pedal on that board...but again, the guy just can make anything work for his needs (and wouldn't use it if it didn't). So the good news is that for the rest of us mere mortals, the potential is there...

I guess it's really good news, given the low cost of the EP ($116 new, less used) compared to a lot of other stuff.

GET the Sex Drive. Seriously it is a box of magic.

Read my OP again. I have one. :grin: