Naive clean boost question

[TeleHawg]

OK, what does a clean boost do? Does it simply make the guitar louder, or can you set it to thicken the sound at roughly the same volume as with the pedal off?

Also, what is unity gain?

[Wardpike]

Clean boost is pretty much self-explanatory. It's a level increase to a clean sound for solo purposes.

Unity Gain is the restoration of the level, so what comes in (volume wise)is what comes out (volume wise). Sometimes the term is used to describe other applications, such as with effects units and amplifiers.

I hope I've been helpful,

Ward

[rhinocaster]

Clean boost is a term that gets bandied about quite a bit, and it can mean many different things.

Most "Clean boost" pedals I've played (A bunch!) act like mild overdrives. They hit the amps input harder and this drives the amps preamp and creates some level of drive. They tend not to have the elements inside that distort the signal before it gets to the amp, but a hotter input signal does tend to lead to more drive.

There are a couple of clean boosts that are just that. The SPF Ego Booster and the Fulltone Fat Boost both tend to give much more output while keeping the sound quite clean. The Fulltone sounds a bit Hi-Fi to my ears, but the Ego Booster gives me more headroom and a very transparent, loud, clean tone from several amps.

Some pedals start with unity gain on their volum knob. This means that with the volume knob turned "Off" on the pedal, you still get the same level of signal as if the pedal was not in the chain. Most pedals seem to offer a volume knob that will completely cut off the signal when turned fully to the left. This can be a great feature if you want to use your boost as a limiter. This can give a very lively rhythm sound and when you turn the pedal off, you get a hard working amp for your overdriven sound.