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Vin Diezel
Active member
VH4 does not seem to like boosts imho, except for channel 1.
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Vin Diezel
Active member
Channel 2 also seems to work if you want a tone that sounds like a compressor is on. It's kind of cool sometimes.
But boosting ch3 and ch4 makes the sound worse.
But boosting ch3 and ch4 makes the sound worse.
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Vin Diezel
Active member
It just raises the noise floor, hiss, white noise and makes it sound less direct and powerful on the gain channels.
valve
Well-known member
i use an EQ infront and cut some bass and lowmids for clarity, so i am reducing the signal power and it's the opposite of boosting. therefore i get less overall signal/clipping compared to straight in and raise the gain on the amp to compensate.
It's a lil less dry therefore. It's a nice side affect except for channel 1 where i already could use a lil more clipping for an edge of breakup sound direct in.
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belensky
Member
I’ve always felt that the Herbert—or any Diezel, really—doesn’t need to be boosted to sound great. But out of curiosity, I went the typical route and tried the usual suspects: Ibanez TS9, TS808, and Boss OD-style pedals. I genuinely hated the result. With the Herbert, those kinds of boosts just make it sound congested and cheap to my ears.
That said, I’ve had a lot of luck with the Precision Drive. While it’s technically in the Tube Screamer family, it can be dialed in to sound much more transparent. With the volume and attack maxed, treble at 8–9, and gain at 7–8, it acts more like a high-pass filter—tightening the low end without coloring the core tone.
I’ve also had great results with the RC Booster and Klon-style pedals, specifically the J. Rockett Archer in my case.
The Archer combined with Herbert’s Channel 2+ can be dialed to sound very close to Channel 3, just with a bit more cut and a little less thickness. This gives you two shades of lead tone: smooth, violin-like solos on CH3, or a more aggressive, cutting version on CH2+ with the Archer. Same amount of gain—just different EQ and feel.
The same goes for CH2– with the Klon—it behaves much like CH2+, but even more cutting and focused.
The RC Booster is fantastic, especially with Strats on the clean or crunch channels. It boosts both the lows and highs, so your Strat sounds fatter and more sparkly—more Stratty, really. It also works great in high-gain settings as a transparent “thickener.” It slightly boosts the top and bottom while trimming some mids, making the amp feel a bit slower, thicker, and more old-school. In some ways, it even makes the Herbert feel a bit more VH4-esque.
90% of the time I use Herbert on its own, but with these three pedals, I can tweak the amp in any direction I want:
Precision Drive – as a transparent tightener
RC Booster – as a thickener
Archer – as an additional, slightly tweaked channel of Herbert
That said, I’ve had a lot of luck with the Precision Drive. While it’s technically in the Tube Screamer family, it can be dialed in to sound much more transparent. With the volume and attack maxed, treble at 8–9, and gain at 7–8, it acts more like a high-pass filter—tightening the low end without coloring the core tone.
I’ve also had great results with the RC Booster and Klon-style pedals, specifically the J. Rockett Archer in my case.
The Archer combined with Herbert’s Channel 2+ can be dialed to sound very close to Channel 3, just with a bit more cut and a little less thickness. This gives you two shades of lead tone: smooth, violin-like solos on CH3, or a more aggressive, cutting version on CH2+ with the Archer. Same amount of gain—just different EQ and feel.
The same goes for CH2– with the Klon—it behaves much like CH2+, but even more cutting and focused.
The RC Booster is fantastic, especially with Strats on the clean or crunch channels. It boosts both the lows and highs, so your Strat sounds fatter and more sparkly—more Stratty, really. It also works great in high-gain settings as a transparent “thickener.” It slightly boosts the top and bottom while trimming some mids, making the amp feel a bit slower, thicker, and more old-school. In some ways, it even makes the Herbert feel a bit more VH4-esque.
90% of the time I use Herbert on its own, but with these three pedals, I can tweak the amp in any direction I want:
Precision Drive – as a transparent tightener
RC Booster – as a thickener
Archer – as an additional, slightly tweaked channel of Herbert
Attachments
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Vin Diezel
Active member
I used the RC Booster to cut some bass, but not with the Diezel.
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MetalGOD84
Member
Nice tip from @belensky tbh I never tried a Klon on my Herbert mk3, I will plug my 25€ Klon Clone to try out.
The CH3 does not need a boost except if you wanna Djent, on lower tunings I like to use the Fortin 33 which basically does not add any gain but only cuts low and low-mid frequencies considerably making the amp very Djent sounding.
On CH2(+) I tried a couple: Lichtlaerm The King in Yellow, Fortin modded TS808, Fortin 33 and SD-1.
My least favorite was the Fortin 33 specifically on standard until drop-C for anything lower that that it might be ok.
The SD-1 makes the amp more aggressive and has the characteristic mid bump of the SD-1. It’s totally serviceable and can be used as a lead boost.
The Lichtlaerm TKIY sounds great and it has lots of tone sculpture possibilities it make the amp sound as you would like to, while retaining the amp base sound. This is my second favorite pedal.
My favorite pedal that makes the Herbert really sound aggressive and brutal (specially with lower output/PAF style pickups) is the Fortin modded ts808. The pedal cuts lower and low-mid frequencies just right and it fits the amp like a glove.
At the end of the day you cannot go wrong with any of pedals, I would say for the price the SD-1 is a terrific option, the
Lichtlaerm if you want a Swiss army knife and the Fortin if like a more modern metal oriented ts pedal.
The CH3 does not need a boost except if you wanna Djent, on lower tunings I like to use the Fortin 33 which basically does not add any gain but only cuts low and low-mid frequencies considerably making the amp very Djent sounding.
On CH2(+) I tried a couple: Lichtlaerm The King in Yellow, Fortin modded TS808, Fortin 33 and SD-1.
My least favorite was the Fortin 33 specifically on standard until drop-C for anything lower that that it might be ok.
The SD-1 makes the amp more aggressive and has the characteristic mid bump of the SD-1. It’s totally serviceable and can be used as a lead boost.
The Lichtlaerm TKIY sounds great and it has lots of tone sculpture possibilities it make the amp sound as you would like to, while retaining the amp base sound. This is my second favorite pedal.
My favorite pedal that makes the Herbert really sound aggressive and brutal (specially with lower output/PAF style pickups) is the Fortin modded ts808. The pedal cuts lower and low-mid frequencies just right and it fits the amp like a glove.
At the end of the day you cannot go wrong with any of pedals, I would say for the price the SD-1 is a terrific option, the
Lichtlaerm if you want a Swiss army knife and the Fortin if like a more modern metal oriented ts pedal.