No kidding about the boost!!!

[maximus1]

in terms of gain, feel, and saturation. the effect is not small at all. if you have enough gain already don't use it but if you need more boost. basically i had a 1086 and a kh-3 side by side at one point and if i turned the gain all the way up on the 1086 it was muddy and too bassy and it didn't crunch right for me, so i put a sd-1 in front and backed the gain down on the module, the boost tightened the low end and gave it the extra gain and crunch i needed and i only used enough gain on the module to get there. then the kh-3, with the boost on it was too noisey and it thinned the tone out a little so i turned the gain up a little more but not full on the module and turned the boost off and it sounded great. the kh-3 had enough gain on its own and through its eq was tight as well on its own. so for some modules it works great and some it may or may not be needed but with experimenting you'll never know. either way i never got more volume out of the amp boosted or not, i 'd say unboosted the amp has a tiny bit more presence to it but its very slight but if you re not getting a certain feel out of it then try the boost. one things for sure at lower volume setting on any 100 watt amp a boost pedal will get a closer feel to a cranked amp. i know now what i like where when and why and without trying it i'd never figured it out.

 

[strato62]

I'm right there with OkStrat and GtrGeorge !

Boosting can only do so much especially with high gain mod.

We have to make some distinctions between tone sculpting/voicing and boosting.

What works for me is having some od pedals set in a way that they can give me more tonal and character/texture options, sometimes 2 pedals in combination.

Imho, lower gain mods (Brahma, Plexi, Brown among others) are more suited to benefit from a boost, clean or with a little dirt on top, I use guitars with low to medium output passive pick-up's, no EMG's.

In the end, experimentation is the key to your sonic exctasy.

Rock on !

 

[Mailman1971]

Yup, its all about trail and error. Finding the "perfect" mix of when to boost or not and how much gain to set it on. I like the added "dynamics" the boost gives me on some of the modules. Dont work on all....some it actually makes the tone WORSE. But like mentioned in previous posts....TRY IT ALL and then sort out the garbage tone. I actually keep a small note pad on top of the amp for when I get that KILLER sound for that split second(and not forget it) I jot down the settings. Saved my *** a couple times when we were playing and I couldnt remember the settings from the previous times.
Plus a little too many "screwdrivers" tends to blur the session sometimes! 8)
But its all good!

 

[GtrGeorge!]

Im not trying to be confrontational and all, but I think what you are calling "boost" is not actually "boost".
I get the impression from your post (maximus) that what you like most from your SD-1 (or similar) pedal is the unique filtering it does. And once filtered, you can add some gain and drive THAT signal into the front end of your MTS module.
yeah..I like that myself. And lots of smart engineers do, as well...thats why so many of them run a signal thru a certain preamp* before printing it. It can transform overtones, filter out aspects of the signal you don't want, and even amplify aspects of the signal that are very minute.
To me, and maybe alot of folks, "Boosting" is taken to mean simply taking your signal and gaining it up before it hits the input of the module.
And that, In my experience, works just like a few people here have already stated...you increase noise, decrease dynamics, and often wind up a signal that isnt much of an improvement over what you had.
And dont get me wrong..I love distortion....I got shelves of fuzzboxes!!


*historical tidbit: Richie Blackmore used to run his Strat's signal thru a japanese reel to reel preamp (the reels were off the unit) to filter and boost his guitar signal. It was then fed to his Marshall stacks. he hid this fact for a long time, but later admitted it.

 

[shred-o-holic]

This discussion is still going? :lol:

While I agree about the noise contribution part.........I'm going to have to disagree about the dynamics portion.......the boost actually increases dynamics quite a bit in my experiences...not in every situation and it depends on what kind of music we're discussing...that's kind of the reason alot of people boost high gain amps out there as it is though.......I can give you two amps specifically that respond very well to boosts......Mesa Rectos and Soldanos...SLO, Avenger, etc.......actually I can give you a ton more.....like I said earlier.....this is not a new and unheard of process by any stretch......again I'm talking in a Metal context......I could list a whole bunch of artists and CD's that have amps used this way.......but again the horse is well beaten and dead in this discussion... :lol:

 

[mike]

Try a clean boost that won't alter your tone like this-

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfFhgYLblTM

 

[tonymustang302]

Try a clean boost that won't alter your tone like this-

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfFhgYLblTM

I think i might look into that

 

[Mailman1971]

That does look pretty sweet!! Never heard of them before. :?

 

[droptrd]

Try a clean boost that won't alter your tone like this-

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfFhgYLblTM

That is a great example of a clean boost. I am a big fan of boosting the front end of an amp. It is a VERY useful tool.

 

[SacredGroove]

Try a clean boost that won't alter your tone like this-

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfFhgYLblTM

The MicroAmp does the same thing, except the awesome boost at the end. It looks like a modified MicroAmp, but I'm sure costs much more.

 

[tonymustang302]

what about EMG's afterburner?

 

[crankyrayhanky]

*historical tidbit: Richie Blackmore used to run his Strat's signal thru a japanese reel to reel preamp (the reels were off the unit) to filter and boost his guitar signal. It was then fed to his Marshall stacks. he hid this fact for a long time, but later admitted it.

Well, now my secret is out: I use a Beta Machine to boost my rm100 shhh top secret...but most times I'll use my ZW mxr pedal

 

[Mailman1971]

*historical tidbit: Richie Blackmore used to run his Strat's signal thru a japanese reel to reel preamp (the reels were off the unit) to filter and boost his guitar signal. It was then fed to his Marshall stacks. he hid this fact for a long time, but later admitted it.

Well, now my secret is out: I use a Beta Machine to boost my rm100 shhh top secret...but most times I'll use my ZW mxr pedal

You got me as well....I "sometimes" run my guitar into a old toaster I have and then back into the old silvertone amp that is slaved out thru a Mixing board then back into some EMG pickups(not put in a guitar) and then into the pre-amp where I use just a 'touch' of flanger for that special tone. Its killer!
Nah..........I leave out the flanger sometimes! :wink:
Its all goooooood!!
Life is short....HAVE FUN!!
:lol:

 

[GtrGeorge!]

...yeah...but its true Blackmore did that for a long time,
so, while boosting is new to some of you guys here...its actually really old.
And how you do it is really personal, in terms of what works for you.

 

[droptrd]

*historical tidbit: Richie Blackmore used to run his Strat's signal thru a japanese reel to reel preamp (the reels were off the unit) to filter and boost his guitar signal. It was then fed to his Marshall stacks. he hid this fact for a long time, but later admitted it.

Well, now my secret is out: I use a Beta Machine to boost my rm100 shhh top secret...but most times I'll use my ZW mxr pedal

I hear good things about those Zak Wyld MXR pedals. Are you happy with it?