What is the point of a boost pedal

[sominka]

Don't understand this. You get a boost pedal to drive your amp into distortion. Is that right?

Why dont amps have this built in already to eliminate the need of a boost pedal?

Or is it just old amps that need this.

Thanks.

[GibsonGM]

There's NO point to a boost pedal, man!   It's a LIE!!!! 

Just kidding...yes, you overdrive your TUBE amp's front end.   Some people like this, some don't...the boost lets you try it out.  IMO, nonj-tube amps don't sound good boosted - YMMV.   

Different boosts SOUND different, too (a tube screamer is kind of midrangey, a MOSFET boost is more 'transparent' and just louder...).   Some boosts are tube-based, or use opamps, or JFETS, BJTs and so on.    You could use more than one boost for different tones.  Some people use a distortion pedal or fuzz, and boost in front of THAT!

Some amps DO have another channel, called BOOST or LEAD or something.  When you make your own tube amp, you can choose to build one just like that if you want!  I don't find them as useful, however.

I use a 40W Fender amp on stage that has plenty of headroom - so when I boost it, I DO get a little more distortion, but the volume goes up a lot as well. So, I never have to worry about getting louder for solos!   This is just 'my thing', others have their own approach to getting the right tone, sound levels etc.

Hope that is helpful to you!

[ElectricDruid]

If you had an amp with a boost pedal built in, what's the first thing someone's going to try?

...putting a boost pedal in front of it to get more distortion!!

There's no *need* or even necessarily *logic* about any of this. It's just people experimenting to see what sounds good.

[patrick398]

I think boosts can be really useful when you want to slam the input of a OD or fuzz, it can give them a very different character and doesn't necessarily increase in volume. I have a couple of ODs which i could take or leave, but with a boost in front they sound fantastic.
I also find them useful after OD or fuzz for when you don't want to change the character of the pedal, just want to jump out a little more.
I have one at the beginning on my chain that stays on all the time. I think it gives my guitar more clarity and weight, and it feels more responsive.

(Guitar tone adjective bingo has commenced)

[willienillie]

^Dig.  My (modded) OCD really likes my (less modded) Rangemaster in front of it.

[MrStab]

i'm surprised everyone's talking about going into the front of the amp. i know plenty of live players who exclusively use boost pedals in the FX loop to bring solos and certain sections of songs to the front of the mix. it's pretty essential for some acts, particularly when there's more than one guitarist.

ideally, for less noise, you'd attenuate for rhythm and unattenuate for leads, but that's pretty unintuitive to most people as most of the time is spent playing rhythm.

[Ben N]

You can use a clean boost to effectively add a gain stage so that you are getting tubey goodness from all your tube stages, even the input stage (which otherwise is acting as a clean boost!). Here is a link to Dave Barber's "tube cooking recipe" for getting a fatter, slightly more saturated clean tone. If you do this with your guitar volume set halfway, you can also easily ramp between fat clean and dirty just by rolling up your volume knob. Andy Timmons does something like this with his Blues Driver.
I don't think this works for everyone or in every situation; if you run your amp at maximum headroom and get all your dirt from your pedals, this is not your ticket, although you may have other uses for the booster, like just extra volume for leads.

[Mark Hammer]

While not unlimited, amps and pedals have a certain amount of headroom that allows for the S/N ratio to be improved by adding a bit of uncoloured gain to the guitar signal.  Not generally the case if the pickups are super-hot, but for many pickups, especially single-coil, a bit of clean boost can improve the sound.  That's not how everybody uses them, but it is one way to use them.

Alternatively, as others note, some folks use them not to overdrive anything, but simply as a volume boost for solos.  I have an old Yamaha amp head that provides a "preset volume" for that specific purpose.

[antonis]

a MOSFET boost is more 'transparent' and just louder..

I should swear that you've never dealt with MosFet boosters, Sir... 

Alternatively, as others note, some folks use them not to overdrive anything, but simply as a volume boost for solos.

Absolutely true and correct..!! 

Even a 9V single supply boost could add volume on a diode pair clipped signal coming from preceding effect..

Solid state pre-amps are usually fed from +/-15V so a booster powered with +24V single supply (or +/-12V) can add enough volume without any distortion..

[GibsonGM]

a MOSFET boost is more 'transparent' and just louder..

I should swear that you've never dealt with MosFet boosters, Sir... 

There really is nothing one can do to a signal that will result in NO coloration whatsoever, not even turning up the volume pot; I personally find a basic Mosfet boost to be as transparent as I can get, however, so I felt it was ok to say 'transparent'.    It certainly drops some low end - but I find that to be a GREAT thing when I am boosting for a solo!!!       I suppose that depends on if you play rock, jazz, or reggae or something. 

The magic is in the ear of the beholder;  the only way at all to come up with an opinion on sound is to...build the thing and try it out!

[amptramp]

Using a boost in front of a fuzz will add to the sustain by making sure it takes longer for the signal level to get back down into the linear range.  Using a boost after a fuzz will help the signal recover from low level clipping and get it back to the level the amplifier needs.  But a boost is usually a good idea just to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio from the guitar.  Putting a boost with a low output impedance in the guitar will enable the guitar to drive a long cable so when the Stones finally tap you to be their next guitarist (as if you are going to outlive Keith!), you can go anywhere on the stage with your 100 foot cable and cable capacitance will not kill the highs.

[Frank_NH]

Some people even go the extra mile and put the boost in their guitar!  Just ask Eric Clapton https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/10083-the-fender-eric-clapton-active-mid-boost

[Mark Hammer]

Some people even go the extra mile and put the boost in their guitar!  Just ask Eric Clapton https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/10083-the-fender-eric-clapton-active-mid-boost

However...

A parable I've told and retold here.  Years back, I made myself a TS-808 clone.  At the time, I was using a guitar that had built a preamp into.  I had set the gain at around 4x or so.  The amplifier tolerated it but would add grit when chords were hit hard.  So, a nice balance between improving S/N and adding amp coloration.  The TS, however, sounded simply awful.  I honestly couldn't see why folks were so enamored of them.  Then I bought myself a new guitar with single-coils and NO preamp.  All of a sudden, the TS came alive, and the magic was obvious.  The moral is that some things can benefit from a signal boost, and some things can't or don't.  So, use boosts judiciously.

The serial position of a boost also makes a difference.  I made a Box of Rock clone, using the Madbean layout.  The BoR includes what is essentially a Super Hard-On circuit as a boost preset after the overdrive section.  I included an order-flipper toggle to situate the boost either after or before the overdrive portion.  The former provides a straighforward level boost of the effect as is, while the latter pushes the overdrive portion harder to achieve a more distorted sound, without much level change.

[Danich_ivanov]

The way i would use it is to enchance soloing parts, but octave up fuzz does it for me. Currently i'm using boost the other way around, to attenuate, i have iso cab with combo inside, i set it's volume to the point where it opens up, and then use boost to bring input from the pedalboard down. As a result it sounds about as big, but practical.

[MrStab]

i'd imagine the low-impedance output that some boosts provide, and having those increased highs made more impressive by gain, could be partly responsible for significant differences in the tone of successive pedals

op-amps 4 lyf