Do you hear only pedal tone when boosting? Or, just a better version of the amp boosted?

[DanTravis62]

I haven't read the thread yet, just the OP.

Uh yeah, you are really going to want to read the whole thing

Apparently everyone who uses marshalls is a complete idiot who suffers from stockholm syndrome, is mentally ill, and if you boost a marshall you're only hearing the tone of the boost pedal, and since mesa's mark series amps offered a pre-tone stack flub solution in the late 70s everyone should be using marks or some shit

Also he refuses to post clips and/or elaborate on exactly how people who play heavy tones should be setting their amps to not fart out on palm mutes (barring someone having a larry, hermannsonn, ground zero, bay area thrash mod, jose mod, etc)

 

[FourT6and2]

Uh yeah, you are really going to want to read the whole thing

Apparently everyone who uses marshalls is a complete idiot who suffers from stockholm syndrome, is mentally ill, and if you boost a marshall you're only hearing the tone of the boost pedal, and since mesa's mark series amps offered a pre-tone stack flub solution in the late 70s everyone should be using marks or some shit

Also he refuses to post clips and/or elaborate on exactly how people who play heavy tones should be setting their amps to not fart out on palm mutes (barring someone having a larry, hermannsonn, ground zero, bay area thrash mod, jose mod, etc)

Hilarious haha...

So, rhetorical question: why were boost pedals invented in the first place? They didn't just appear for no reason. It was because there was a need

I was actually anti-boost for about 27 years. I wasn't against them, per se. I just never used them and didn't feel the need. Part of it was not wanting to complicate my signal chain. I liked plugging straight in and keeping this simple. And if I didn't like the tone of an amp like that, I got rid of it. But about two years ago, I got my first boost pedal just to see what all the fuss was about. A Maxon OD808. And yup... that changed my mind real quick. Since then, I've tried a ton of different boosts and can't really see myself using a high-gain amp without one. So far, my favorites are the Maxon OD808 (newer one) and a DAE Duality. The Duality has two boosts in one. One is a tighter 808 circuit and the other is a TC Integrated Preamp.

Boosts are awesome. And a bajillion bands/artists have used boosts since they were first invented. There's a time and a place for everything. If someone doesn't like them or doesn't feel the need to use them, awesome. That's their prerogative. But to admonish other people for using them? That's quite odd...

 

[rstites]

Absolutely. Just like how people buy expensive sports cars, super cars, and hyper cars... and mod them. That's how all these amp companies started in the first place... they modified amps. They hot-rodded amps. It's part of the game.

I just took a tour of the Pagani, Ferrari, and Lamborghini factories in Italy. Lamborghini got started modifying Ferraris... He literally got sick of his shitty Ferrari breaking down all the time, so he approached Ferrari with a solution from his tractor business and Ferrari laughed him out of the building—telling him he didn't know how to drive a sports car properly. So he said fuck it and built his own automotive factory the next town over from Ferrari and now they're pumping out incredible super cars left and right.

All these amp builders—Bogner, Diezel, Omega, KSR, Larry, Mesa, Soldano, Friedman, etc.—they all got started modifying other amps while naysayers told them what they were doing was "wrong". Now look at them.

Boosting an amp isn't right or wrong. It's only right or wrong for each person's specific use. Modifying amps is the same. The designers and builders of amps are not infallible. They are not divine gods of tone. So there's always room for personalization and improvement.

Interesting aside: both M. Soldano and R. Smith started off hot-rodding cars and later moved to hot-rodding amplifiers. There's a really natural cross-over of taking something out there and modding it up to do your own thing between the rock world and the car world. Both are full of guys that are driven to take something cool and make it better!

Boosting an amp is akin to putting a super charger on your muscle car. Sure, lots of people are going to look down their noses at you for doing it, but you know it just made everything better!

 

[BABMusic]

Here.

Thanks. I recently ordered some silver Marshall knobs from them, so they seem to be one of the most dependable sites to buy knobs from. I will use them again.

 

[matttornado]

I usually dial in the pedal's EQ to match the tone of the amp as close as possible, so when the pedal is turned on, it sounds like just more of the amp.

 

[BABMusic]

I was actually anti-boost for about 27 years.

I was similar because I was so used to my Mark series amp for years. I later learned that boosts can work with those amps if you turn down the treble and keep the pres low. It's not like a Marshall amp where you just plug in the boost and it sounds great with very little effort. I don't often use a boost with my BE amp because I have to turn up the negative feedback and change more of the knobs. It's a little more difficult (for me) to get the tones I want with a boost on my Friedman, but it can be done. Marshall + SD1 are as perfect match as you could ask for.