the end all clean boost for bass and guitar!

[gutsofgold]

I've been through quite a few boosters the fast few days and I was wondering what YOU would say is the end all clean boost for guitar and bass. I'm talking about flat response, only slight colored clean boost. No distortion, no "fat" sounds, no bass loss, no added sparkle. Just simple volume increase that will drive the amp it's placed before.

SHO - great sounding on guitar, slight sparkle feel, cuts a lot of lower freq on bass
Minibooster - cuts too much bass on guitar and bass even with higher value caps, more of an overdrive
LPB1 - punchy! sounds very cool on both guitar and bass but way too much EQ altering

What else !?

[soulsonic]

A simple opamp boost running from a bipolar supply that has DC offset compensated and trimmed so that you can get away with no input or output caps. I can't imagine anything more full range and hi-fi than that. And if you need more headroom for whatever reason, you can always increase the supply voltage to whatever you need.
It's really simple if you just want clean. The majority of guitar boosters out there are intended to add color, so alot of times you don't get clean, BUT lots of recording preamps are designed to give a flat uncolored response; so, if you go with that sort of design philosophy, it's not a difficult problem to solve.

[Steben]

One of the problems with buffers and boosters is that the direct guitar's characteristics (impedance, load) are cut. This means the darkening of HB or even the natural resonance is buffered. Even the most flat preamplifier will make a fuzz face sound like metal.

Or in other words: "clean" is as personal a taste as "crunch" is.

[Renegadrian]

I believe the Tillman to be the closest to your requirements, while the TJP seems quite interesting and could be a good substitute...

[liddokun]

I like the AMZ mosfet boost.

[Steben]

I like the AMZ mosfet boost.

Seems the best choice to me if you need to pump some gain.
The Tillman and TJP are nice and simple, yet rather "modest" gain amplifiers.

[Renegadrian]

Just simple volume increase

Well, that's what they do, they're not the loudest tho'...

[AL]

AMZ boost is a good one.

I also use a Nobels ODR-1 a lot.

AL

[Mark Hammer]

If you provide a very high input impedance, such that the negative effects of the cable are eliminated, then a flawlessly flat gain stage will appear to have added treble, even though it didn't.  If you provide boost which does not succeed in providing suitable buffering, then chances are the tone will also be altered, except in a different way.

If you use boost to simply provide more volume or optimize S/N, then you will not want any sort of tonal change at all.  If you use boost to push subsequent devices/stages into overload and breakup (which, by definition, adds treble), then you will likely want a booster that either loses treble (by virtue of not providing that much buffering), or one that allows you to trim treble.

Any of the high input impedance boosters like the MosFet are quite amenable to sticking something like a guitar tone control on the output and trimming back on the treble when you need to, and letting the treble back in when you need to.  The option to trim back on treble exists in ANY "clean booster", whether it is bipolar, MosFet, JFET, or op-amp.

[The Tone God]

I'm agree with soulsonic. If all you want is clean, practically unaltered response, gain an opamp setup is hard to beat. I've been flogging that horse for awhile now though. People seem to be put off when they see opamps so transistors some how make beginners more "comfortable".

Personally I like to use a pair of opamps one with good input impedance then another with good output drive characteristics. Most circuits, including famous transistor based circuits and single opamp circuits, lack being able to do both input and output well. The extra opamp circuitry does make the circuit more complicated but you can pick and choose what you want for input and output specs. For many though the single opamp circuit will do the job.

Andrew

[kurtlives]

Has anyone ever thought of not boosting their signal but restoring it? Have your guitar vol at 70% and crank up your amp a bit more to compensate for the loss... Then just turn up your vol on your guitar for solos.

I know some people play around with their vol controls while they play but why not start with it tweaking a little...

[Fox]

Has anyone ever thought of not boosting their signal but restoring it? Have your guitar vol at 70% and crank up your amp a bit more to compensate for the loss... Then just turn up your vol on your guitar for solos.

I know some people play around with their vol controls while they play but why not start with it tweaking a little...

Yup this is what I do most, the volume on my guitar is actively used for driving the amp harder. My preamp is up at dist lvl then back off on the guitar for clean sounds then max volume for solos. Also I have added a push/push switch to my tone control so that it switches the guitar volume to max, its simple and cheap.

cheers
Fox

[Dragonfly]

Has anyone ever thought of not boosting their signal but restoring it? Have your guitar vol at 70% and crank up your amp a bit more to compensate for the loss... Then just turn up your vol on your guitar for solos.

I know some people play around with their vol controls while they play but why not start with it tweaking a little...

nope - never thought of that 

[Dragonfly]

seriously though...for just "boosting", as soulsonic said - op amp running at a higher voltage...

HOWEVER...remember that the perception of "clean" also depends greatly on your amp. If you run out of headroom by boosting the signal, it wont sound "clean", even if the signal coming from the booster is "clean".

[RedHouse]

Has anyone ever thought of not boosting their signal but restoring it? Have your guitar vol at 70% and crank up your amp a bit more to compensate for the loss... Then just turn up your vol on your guitar for solos.

I know some people play around with their vol controls while they play but why not start with it tweaking a little...

Of course people have thought of that, it's the ancient way of doing it.

Problem is, as myself and many others prefer to use the guitar's volume knob to vary clean-to-dirty tone, not the volume.

One can go from a nice rythm "crunch" to a sassy "overdrive" at the flick (roll) of the finger, and anywhere in between. 

[kurtlives]

I mean starting out with the volume dropped and turning up the amp to compensate. People have been doing that?

[RedHouse]

I mean starting out with the volume dropped and turning up the amp to compensate. People have been doing that?

Yep.

In the old days, when one first dials-in the setup as a band starts to do a set, one would turn the guitars volume to like 4 and then dial-in the amp for the stage volume at a rythm level, then one had some overhead for a lead.

Then along came footswitching amps in the 80's. 

[Eb7+9]

A simple opamp boost running from a bipolar supply that has DC offset compensated and trimmed so that you can get away with no input or output caps. I can't imagine anything more full range and hi-fi than that. And if you need more headroom for whatever reason, you can always increase the supply voltage to whatever you need.

B-I-N-G-O ... no overall phase shifts and no transient screw ups from the caps initially charging at the front of waveforms ...
my approach is to use two DC-coupled inverting opamp stages, trim the offsets in each stage according to matched feedback and leg-to-groung resistors and produce gain through a variable input resistor on the second stage ... capacitorless design is the next paradigm : true servo ...

[liddokun]

Dragonfly, that Clean Machine box you posted up there is a simple tone control, right?