Why you are using booster pedals? (always on)

[RaistMagus]

Hi guys, I'm very curious as to what exactly each player is looking for from using booster/tone coloring pedals as always-on or almost always-on pedals. I'm satisfied with my tone, however I'd like to test a few of these but it's not so easy at this corner of the world. So I'd like your input to help me understand what I'm missing (if anything). For the answers to be more meaningful and useful I think it would help if some more info was provided. So could you booster pedal users take some time to provide the following details?

1. What booster pedal are you using?
2. How would you describe with words what the booster pedal does to your tone?
3. How many other pedals do you have in your chain?
4. What kind of tone are you improving with the booster (clean, hairy, crunchy, heavily distorted)?
5. Is the above tone produced by a pedal or by a pushed amp?
6. Does the booster add more gain to your signal or just coloration?
7. Do you feel the booster affects the responsiveness of your setup? (Does it "get in the way", like buffered pedals do (vs a guitar straight to amp setup))
8. What pickups are you boosting, single coil or humbuckers?
9. What amp are you using?
10. What genre of music are you playing?
11. Do you gig or are you a bedroom player?

People with free time, post away!

 

[MilwMark]

I play at home a lot and in two bands (one rock, one old country inspired). Pedalboard ranges from four at most (OD - tuner - VP - delay) to just OD (sometimes just a cable dde09.

Tele (neck HB bridge single) or lap steel into SFDR, Gibson GA-30 or Gibson Lancer. I try to size the amp to the venue so I can get it clipping. But I still like a little pedal clipping mixed in.

The OD is always on. Drive usually set 9 o'clock or less. Tone and level unity. It gives me three things primarily: tightens the bass a hair, more linear/predictable vol/tone pot tapers on the Tele, and improved overall clipping
/liveliness to my ear. And I guess a fourth - more breakup if I size the amp wrong and can't turn it up enough.

Many work for this. For me, in roughly descending order:

- OD250

- v1 mk1 Bouesbreaker clone

- Rat (if I'm just dropping one pedal on the floor, this jumps to first - stays put).

- KTR - OD-3 and BD-2. Both let too much bass through to use live for me but I love them at home.

- I tried a Durham Sex Drive that my local shop has used (I know, Joe, I know . . .). Was surprised how nice it sounds. Kind of like a Peppermill with some switchable "amp" compression and a tone control. Probably too much bass for live work for me as well.

Anyway, I don't like to stack and I leave my OD on all the time, which simplifies lots of variables for me.

(Sorry I didn't take them in order and number - felt too much like homework dde00).

 

[Wrong-Note Rod]

In my country band, I have a dirt cheep BabyBoom X compressor that is first on my pedal board, and always on... for a light bit of compression and a tiny little boost in signal. Not much. But I can tell when it isnt on.

I'm an old rock dog and my picking is a bit lazy at times because of playing thru distortion all those years, picked up some bad habits you know, hammer ons, pull offs, not picking every note, etc

I'm getting better, but, the compressor helps me. Maybe one day my picking will improve so much that I wont need it. Until then....

 

[richey88]

Right now I am loving a Donner Boost Killer at the end of the pedal chain. I believe it's an Xotic RC boost clone. Add some grit if wanted (I keep the gain low and volume up), adds sparkle and presence to my clean tone, fattens and boosts the overall dirty sound for solos. OCD clone for the dirt in front. Amp depends on the gig-SCXD or Excelsior pushing a 2x12 cab for my little bar gigs, Vox Pathfinder for practice. Strat or P-90 equipped axe for me.

Used an MXR Micro Amp for yrs at the end, but the DBK has a little grit, bass, treble controls and sounds awesome! DBK works great for clean tone tunes that I ride the volume knob on my guitar. Band plays original indie rock, have been known to fill in on almost anything

Have fun finding your sonic nirvana!

 

[waparker4]

Boost helps a strat sound bigger. Anything without bass drop out works for that for a strat. Orange squeezer comp or a BBE Boosta Grande or the boost side of my TRex Crunchy Frog work well. That's about it for me for always on

 

[Ed Boyd]

1) Boss GE-7 and Boss EQ-20.

2) It boosts it.
A) GE-7 = Specifically boost sepcific frequencies for parts I want louder while shaping the tone in howevever I want. Sometimes that may be a flat boost.
B) EQ-20 stores up to 9 specific 10-band EQ curves. What the GE-20 does is take all 4-5 Teles and makes them sound the same so I can switch guitars and still have my go to tone. (note this pedal does not suck but it does lick a little. It is convenient and serves it's purpose but the A/D conversion I believe has some negative impacts on the sound. I am not carrying a guitar rack anymore but if I did there are programmable EQs that store multiple curves tht would do a much better job.

3) Depends on the gig. Anywhere from 4 to 12. Always have a tuner-compressor- OD and EQ.

4) Not really improving just making my base tone louder. Ideally the FOH desk should not have to work so hard chasing levels to fit the song.

5) Tone is always a combination of everything from hands to speaker.

6) Depends on which one. See #2.

7) If it gets in the way then get rid of it. Buffered pedal in themselve don't get in the way. Don't drink the true bypass Kool-Aid. Don't fight the chain use it.

8) Depends on the gig. Option include: an original blackface Twin, Mesa Boogie DC-5, a 5 watt Blackstar, a 20 watt VHT, Boogie Express 5:50 plus and 2-12 cab.

9) Various Tele pickups including both stacked HBs and true single coils. Use DiMarzio Tone Zone humbucker on slide oreinted guitars.

10) Modern Country

11) gigging

 

[mad dog]

Clean boost for me. TIM, set with gain no more than moderate, say 9 to 11 oclock, bass half rolled off, treble rolled off a quarter. This pedal cannot be beat. I've used it as an always on boost with every amp I've owned for years. Only one - the Fender EC Tremolux - sounds better without.

"Boost" can mean many things. Clean boost to me is a fattening of the sound, added volume, an enhancement without significant amounts of distortion. Which then sounds just as beautiful at higher volumes as at lower volumes. Not a dirt pedal, which obviously distorts. I find it hard to do without a good clean boost, have little use for dirt pedals per se.
MD

 

[Dismalhead]

I'm using a Digitech Hot Head distortion to goose my Rat 2 for a hotter lead tone. Not using it for more volume, it comes before the Rat in the chain. To describe it, it kind of rounds out the tone and tames the Rat, which has a very buzz saw cutting distortion, which is great for rhythm but kinda thin and choppy for lead. The Hot Head/Rat combo gives me a fuller, more mid-range 80's metal sounding lead tone.

Now I'm not really recommending the Hot Head here. It's just my old distortion pedal that I had before I bought my Rat and I found that it serves this particular purpose after it sat in the closet for a while. As a stand alone unit, it's a pretty generic metal pedal that I probably wouldn't buy again.

 

[Monotremata]

Well its not my "normal" setup but once in awhile I like to use my booster instead of my regular dirt (Boss HM-2)..

1. What booster pedal are you using?
EHX LPB-1 Nano

2. How would you describe with words what the booster pedal does to your tone?
Makes my amp loud and grindy.

3. How many other pedals do you have in your chain?
10 or so.

4. What kind of tone are you improving with the booster (clean, hairy, crunchy, heavily distorted)?
Crunchy I guess.

5. Is the above tone produced by a pedal or by a pushed amp?
Vox normal channel w/no eq on 10.

6. Does the booster add more gain to your signal or just coloration?
Both, I keep it cranked all the way.

7. Do you feel the booster affects the responsiveness of your setup? (Does it "get in the way", like buffered pedals do (vs a guitar straight to amp setup))
Not really at that level of distortion.

8. What pickups are you boosting, single coil or humbuckers?
"Vintage" MIM 60s Tele singles.

9. What amp are you using?
AC15C1 into a Marshall JCM800 4x12.

10. What genre of music are you playing?
Industrial metal, doom metal, grindcore, post-punk, noise

11. Do you gig or are you a bedroom player?
Both

Raistmagus - is your name a Dragonlance reference?

 

[johnnylaw]

I have a few dirt pedals and a preamp. The preamp is the only "always on" unit, and that is when I play below the volumes at which my tube amps begin to "breathe". For instance, living room rehearsals with unmiced acoustic instruments, or small, quiet listening spaces (think coffee house) venues.
When I can push the amps a little bit, the "always on" preamp is either dialed back to nearly nothing, or turned off completely based on how "alive" the guitar is in my hands.
The preamp can also be used as a special effect in the studio to hammer the front-end of an amp for thick (if not rude!) overdrive/distortion.
The dirt pedals are set up for quick color changes of my tone based on a particular song, or my particular mood swing. I rarely step on one to boost signal level for a solo as I have the Tele volume knob for that. They're more "set it and forget it between tunes.

 

[harphunt]

I've been stacking ODs on the clean channel as I've had a love/hate relationship with my lead channel. Lead channel lacked rhythm punch and over saturated with lead boost. ODs seemed to sound better than my tube amp, but I always felt like I was cheating. Stacking ODs has become too much work I think...

After an unsuccessful try with a new pedal, tried the lead channel with a bit of hair for rhythm and used the OCD as lead boost and... sounds good. There is enough headroom to where the amp raises volume, not just saturates as before. Rat comes back...

We'll see how long this lasts...

peace

 

[RaistMagus]

Thanks for the replies guys!

Raistmagus - is your name a Dragonlance reference?

Yes, you got it right!

 

[Mr. Lumbergh]

1. What booster pedal are you using?
Simble OD.
2. How would you describe with words what the booster pedal does to your tone?
Sharpens the attack, brings in more mids, and gives me a nice bit of breakup.
3. How many other pedals do you have in your chain?
5.
4. What kind of tone are you improving with the booster (clean, hairy, crunchy, heavily distorted)?
A bit of dirt.
5. Is the above tone produced by a pedal or by a pushed amp?
The combination.
6. Does the booster add more gain to your signal or just coloration?
Adds a bit of gain and brightness.
7. Do you feel the booster affects the responsiveness of your setup? (Does it "get in the way", like buffered pedals do (vs a guitar straight to amp setup))
It's a true bypass pedal, I haven't noticed any change in tone when not in use.
8. What pickups are you boosting, single coil or humbuckers?
Singles of course
9. What amp are you using?
Fender HRD.
10. What genre of music are you playing?
Blues and Classic Rock.
11. Do you gig or are you a bedroom player?
Bedroom player that occasionally jams with an organized group.

 

[jayyj]

I use a Roland Space Echo in front of my Fender Princeton, mainly for the preamp. It seems to thicken the low mids and smooth the treble when using a bright sounding guitar. Brian Setzer is a fan of them for the same reason.

I have a friend currently cloning the gain section in a pedal form so that I don't have to take a fragile old tape echo to gigs.

 

[Wyzsard]

Read this RaistMagus (assuming you use a tube amp)

How To Cook A Tube Amp
(link removed)




I use this one

 

[gtrguru]

Sometimes I play with a Klone as an always on boost. It's like adding a "more" button to the amp. Allows me to have a fat singing sustain with guitar volume on 10 and a cool rhythm sound when rolled back.

 

[Jimmy Dean]

I am using a Catlinbread Chili Picaso. It is at the front of my pedal chain. I am using an OD, vibrato, 2 delays & reverb. I use 2 different guitars. My electric has hot Seymore Duncans in it so I use the boost for solos. I also use an acoustic with a soundhole pickup & leave the boost on all the time with it to bring up the dynamics.

 

[TheletterJ]

I employ an MXR Dyna Comp and a Boss GE-7 as "always on" pedals and I use an LPB-1 as a boost. Each has it's own use in my rig:

LPB-1 = Boost
GE-7 = Fattens up my single coils and adds more oomph to my distorted tones. I use this in the same way many people use a BBE Sonic Maximizer. To my ears it "takes the blanket off the amp."
Dyna Comp = Set to unity gain but adds compression and sustain. I just like it on.

1. What booster pedal are you using? For Boost, specifically, an EHX LBP-1. I just use it to add volume to my clean tone for clean solos and to make certain parts stand out louder in the mix.

2. How would you describe with words what the booster pedal does to your tone? It darkens the tone a bit and adds volume

3. How many other pedals do you have in your chain? 14

4. What kind of tone are you improving with the booster (clean, hairy, crunchy, heavily distorted)? Clean

5. Is the above tone produced by a pedal or by a pushed amp? The pedal

6. Does the booster add more gain to your signal or just coloration? Coloration but a slight bit more gain.

7. Do you feel the booster affects the responsiveness of your setup? (Does it "get in the way", like buffered pedals do (vs a guitar straight to amp setup)) The LPB-1 feels kinda muddy, not perfectly clean so it can get in the way if used often.

8. What pickups are you boosting, single coil or humbuckers? Single coils

9. What amp are you using? Fender HRD

10. What genre of music are you playing? Funk, Rock, Disco

11. Do you gig or are you a bedroom player? Gigging musician

 

[blowtorch]

When I do the "always on" thing it's generally either the Jekyll side of my old silver VS J&H with the level cranked and the gain turned all the way down, or, the Nocturne Atomic Brain, "Normal" side

 

[Monotremata]

Thanks for the replies guys!



Yes, you got it right!

NIIIICE!! I'm still hoping one day they finish the rest of the animated Chronicles trilogy but its been awhile now.. I think Keifer Sutherland was Raistlins voice IIRC!