dual boost

[ryani]

this question is for anyone who has a dual boost pedal (i.e. super duper 2 in 1 or maybe just two amz boosts cascaded in a similar fashion w/ a master volume).  What does your pedal do if you turn both boosts all the way up?  I did that with mine and it kicks in to a very strange distortion, it's hard to explain.  when I don't play, it's totally silent, which is strange because for most of the way up, the pedal keeps amplifying the hum from my single coil, but with both boosts at the max the hum goes away and the distortion changes.  It sounds like a noise gate.  This distortion is buzzy like when you wire diodes wrong, but it doesn't cut in and out, possible just because the gain is so high that the level doesn't drop low enough.  As soon as I stop a note the pedal goes completely silent.  I don't mind this too much, it's kind of interesting and  it gives me plenty of boost with out turning both boosts up all the way (so I don't really need to turn them so much that I get the weird distortion) , I was just wondering if this was normal.
Thanks
Ryan

[petemoore]

well I don't think it's the Booster [I never run two full up boosters seriesed, cause ISLC], itself distorting 'badly'
 I never run my Mosfet boost more than about a percieved 70-75% of it's volume level, I think it distorts just about whatever's in front of it, I usually ever need volume boost level differences between circuit in and circuit out of about 20% difference from where I was, or 'unity'.
 I find the Mosfet sounds best at less than full output, some inputs can take more of the Mosfet Boosts 'hard push', but I have no inputs around here that can tolerate more than about 66%-80% of it's output, I have to use the boosters volume control to keep the sound from clipping.
 Can be delicate. For just high notes an interesting ring can sometimes be found by violating the volume law for loud bass notes, cranking the Boosters vol up, and cheating the clip by not playing loud low notes when in violation.
 Other than that I always leave some headroom and attenuate the Mosfet Boosts [almost too fantastic for it's buddies good] fantastic Boost ability. I forget now...some kind of huge Db is supposed to be available with this thing. I like that it drives my output tube Dyna ST70 amp.

[RDV]

All respect to Z.Vex, but two mosfet boosters in series, with both full on sounds lousy IMHO. A very strange yucky distortion, not very musical. One mosfet booster up all the way, ODing the crap out of a tube amp's front end sounds great OTOH. I would use one boosting lightly, and one ATWU.

HTH

RDV