Bogner Ecstasy Blue pedal issue.

[TrueTone500]

Here are a few TGP comments on the Ecstasy blue pedal:

1. "It should be noted that the boost is always slightly above unity gain and will always have more drive. In other words, you cannot set it to have the same volume and drive as the normal channel, or the same volume but slightly more drive. It's gonna be at least a bit louder with significantly more drive."

2. "ONE QUESTION THOUGH: Is the boost volume adjustable? I havent dug deep enough into the pedal yet, but when I stepped on the boost switch, the volume jumped WAY UP...too much actually."

3. "I did notice with mine that I could never get the boost channel to be the exact same volume as the normal channel. Even with both the volume and gain trim pots as low as possible it was always a little bit louder."

This is what I have experienced also. The trim pots should operate the same as they do on the red pedal. On the red pedal, the trims level the boosted volume against the non-boosted volume - then above unity to your desired level. Maybe there's an additional internal trim pot inside the pedal? I'm thinking 2 x red (or even 3 x red) Ecstasy pedals would be the way to go, since there doesn't seem to be a bad setting on it. The "101" and "20th" modes on the blue don't sound so good IMO, yet the same modes on the red sound fantastic! I'm going to plug the blue into my power-block tomorrow... Maybe it's a low battery issue? Still, the inability to properly adjust the blue pedal levels between non-boosted/boosted may be a deal-breaker for me. I may send the blue back, and opt for a KLON KTR instead.

The way I hear them, there's nothing that the blue pedal can do that the red pedal doesn't do better. Okay, so the red doesn't have "Plexi" mode... That's what the bypass switch is for!

 

[guitarplayer]

I'm running two Reds. One for low gain on the 100 or 101, neutral eq mode, the other on the 20th anniv, B2 eq pre amp, tight amp mode for high gain.

 

[TrueTone500]

That's a nice pedal rig you have there. Simple, yet effective.

I absolutely love the red pedal "variac" mode! My studio amp has a built-in Staco Variac transformer which I use extensively. I fully expected a mere volume-drop trick with the Ecstasy pedals, but the variac circuit translates a convincing adjusted headroom and response. Very authentic indeed! The blue channel was always my favorite channel on my 100B and 101B models, so it was a huge disappointment to discover it didn't satisfy my expectations. To my ear, the Ecstasy red pedal sounds closer to an actual Ecstasy blue channel - with and without a drive pedal for bi-amping.

 

[lespaul3013]

Here are a few TGP comments on the Ecstasy blue pedal:

1. "It should be noted that the boost is always slightly above unity gain and will always have more drive. In other words, you cannot set it to have the same volume and drive as the normal channel, or the same volume but slightly more drive. It's gonna be at least a bit louder with significantly more drive."

2. "ONE QUESTION THOUGH: Is the boost volume adjustable? I havent dug deep enough into the pedal yet, but when I stepped on the boost switch, the volume jumped WAY UP...too much actually."

3. "I did notice with mine that I could never get the boost channel to be the exact same volume as the normal channel. Even with both the volume and gain trim pots as low as possible it was always a little bit louder."

This is what I have experienced also. The trim pots should operate the same as they do on the red pedal. On the red pedal, the trims level the boosted volume against the non-boosted volume - then above unity to your desired level. Maybe there's an additional internal trim pot inside the pedal? I'm thinking 2 x red (or even 3 x red) Ecstasy pedals would be the way to go, since there doesn't seem to be a bad setting on it. The "101" and "20th" modes on the blue don't sound so good IMO, yet the same modes on the red sound fantastic! I'm going to plug the blue into my power-block tomorrow... Maybe it's a low battery issue? Still, the inability to properly adjust the blue pedal levels between non-boosted/boosted may be a deal-breaker for me. I may send the blue back, and opt for a KLON KTR instead.

The way I hear them, there's nothing that the blue pedal can do that the red pedal doesn't do better. Okay, so the red doesn't have "Plexi" mode... That's what the bypass switch is for!

This was my experience with the Blue as well...I couldn't live with an unusable boost feature on a $300 pedal - so I took it back to GC.