Booster choices?

[tungngruv]

I need a boost that will raise the volume of a solo, then be switched off to go back to a normal rythym volume. I'd like it not to change the tone at all. I was thinking AMZ Mosfet boost or the Gus Smalley NPN boost. Any advice on these two circuits? Thanks in advance!

[Mark Hammer]

They both operate essentially like the input buffer found on any Boss pedal, except that they can add gain.  I like Jack AMZ design because it provides very high input impedance, and you can switch between two presets quite easily.

The gain is set by the resistance in series with the emitter cap to ground.  Lift the cap or insert a very high resistance and you go back to the "default" gain (which should equal x1).  What that means is that you can easily make a pedal where stompswitch A makes or breaks that connection to ground (turning it from unity buffer to gain machine), and stompswitch B selects between series resistance 1 or 2.  Those two series resistances are simply two variable resistors as presets.

To avoid any popping, it is probably a good idea to connect the cap via a high value resistor (e.g., 470k or greater) so that the cap can drain when it isn't connected via a gain-setting pot.  The gain-setting pots then go in parallel with that fixed resistor.

[lethargytartare]

I had a guitarist who used a sparkleboost I built for him (circuit/design by Dragonfly, here).  Very clean, and he used it primarily for boosting his his solos.  He played a tele deluxe through a fender reverb amp, and he's generally a very vintage tone guy -- tube screamer, wah, vibe...etc.  Got a very good SRV tone, and had a strong preference for a clean boost -- and was very happy with the SB.

I recently built an lpb variant, and a dod 201 preamp (again, from docs here) -- but have yet to hear them at volume to tell how clean they are in practice.  But they were all very simple builds, so I bet you could easily build all three, slap them in some box with bypasses, and give 'em a side-by-side-by-side comparison.

But my recommendation has always been the sparkleboost -- and will be until I find something better :-)

Best of luck!

ltt

[tungngruv]

Thanks for the info guys. I'll build a few and post my results. Forgot to menyion that I will be boosting a pretty distorted lead tone, that's why I wanted the boost to be as clean and transparent as possible. Once again, thanks for the input.

[delbowski]

this might not be the most help, but i'm having great success with a microamp i built from the GGG design with some mods to get a bigger boost.  with my setup i have one of the pedals in front of the amp which gives you a gain boost, and one in the effects loop which, for my amp, bypasses the preamp allowing for increased volume with absolutely no change in tone or saturation at all.  i'm playing a Gerlitz Revelator 2x12, so other amps might react differently.

http://www.gerlitzamps.com/html/features.html

i know it's a basic pedal, but it's doing just the trick for me when i need volume without gain.  great for leads whether clean or distorted.

[nero1985]

it also depends on if your are getting your distortion out of the amp or from a pedal, if you get it from a pedal you should put the boost after yhe distortion, when you get it from the amp you'll distort it more from my experience and you'll get a little boost as well, if you have an FX loop you cna use a relay and leave the circuit on the loop and bypass it with a remote switch

[dosmun]

Another vote for Dragonfly's SparkleBoost.  It seems to be a pretty neutral sounding boost.

[cab42]

I once this saw this Solo Pro at http://www.diyguitarist.com/PDF_Files/SoloPro.pdf. It should do the trick.

P.S: I haven't tried the other boosters mentioned, but I really like my NPN boost.

Regards

Carsten

[tungngruv]

I built Gus Smalleys simple boost and Jack Ormans Mosfet Booster. They both sound really good, Gus's actually adds some gain when cranked. Jacks seems a little more transparent at max gain. Actually both were pretty easy to perf and both sound killer. I'll try the Sparkle boost and Paul M's Solo-Pro next. The Solo Pro actually looks like what I am looking for. Thanks much guys!!!!!!

[RDV]

Whenever I try to boost an already distorted tone it just gets more distorted and sometimes goes down in volume rather than up. I really like the way Neil Young does it which a machine that actually turns his amp up or down. That works.

Another suggestion is a clean booster(like AMZ's Mosfet Booster) in your effects loop(assuming you have one). This way you'll retain the same sound from your front end and just make that hit the amp harder.

RDV