Vote for THE BEST BOOSTER pedal in most DIY Builders

[shredgd]

Electro-Harmonix LPB

Why? Because it is *transparent*.
I used an AMZ mosfet booster before, but I was unhappy for the huge amount of bass and highs I got when it was engaged (volume boost for solos). "Hey, but I've always been told the mosfet booster IS transparent!!". So here we come to the mighty question: what is transparent? Does it mean "flat frequency response"? No, it doesn't. Or at least it doesn't to me. Our ears do not have a flat frequency response to volume: the more the volume, the more the bass and highs we hear. So a volume boost must have quite strong mids, to be transparent and pleasant to our ears.

Giulio

[ampman50]

Amen to the Sparkle Boost. I also play a Mini Booster and an SHO, each have their own merits. I like the Mini Booster at the end of my signal chain for the for some extra boost, the SHO for a clean boost and the Sparkle Boost for a little grit.

[Earthscum]

So a volume boost must have quite strong mids, to be transparent and pleasant to our ears.

That's a good thought (although it may be another man's ceiling). As a bassist, that's actually a REALLY good point. I think I know how I'm building the second booster... mid-happy and able to bust bazonkas out of shirts! Should be a nice contrast to my DS-1's mid scoop.

Guess, just from experience, my opinion would be on the LPB, but I don't think I've ever built a true LPB. I like the MPSA13, and every time I board it, I end up changing something, but it still starts off as an LPB. Almost everything else I have tried out seems to clip way too early for my tastes. I have plenty of overdrive and distortion pedals, so clean is good.

[askwho69]

This is nice!!! very informative! Im starting planning in building AMz mosfet booster! can you recommend usig 2n7000? as replacement for bs170? shredgd > nice explanation about transparent! now i know )

[Gus]

There is no BEST booster.  What you need to ask is what is missing from your sound now.  What do you want to add.

If you are playing metal with a solid state amp you might not add much if anything.  An EQ might be a better circuit to selectively boost and/or cut frequencies to the amp.

[deadastronaut]

volume pedal....with level setting pot...very cool and adjustable, wish i'd bought one years ago...

can go from backed off clean n grit to full on gain... i like it...but yep, its not really a boost..its just my

guitar volume on the floor ...but it works for me.

[zambo]

+1  I am with deadastronaught on this actualy. Mine is actualy a volume pot with a bypass switch instead of a sweep pedal. I just click it into the path and everything gets cleaner. I call mine "the underdrive".

[AnalogPackrat]

ROG Omega with variable bias (I used a switch).  Very touch responsive, goes from tubey to fuzzy with bias changes.

[shredgd]

After extensive search and experiment, I've come to the conclusion that the best clean booster for solos (volume boost) is the MXR microamp, with a little mod: a 220p cap instead of 47p in the feedback loop of the opamp (C2 in the GGG schematic).

The microamp has the great advantage to have a volume control which doesn't affect tone, because it controls the (clean) gain of the opamp instead of being the classic volume pot at the end of the circuit (which applies a resistance in series to the signal, unless you put it at max). So your tone will be consistent throughout all the gain spectrum, i.e. at all volume levels.

My cap mod aims at giving a slight high-end (presence) roll-off because, as you probably know, the greater the volume, the more our ears perceive high and low frequencies. So this mod is to compensate for this factor and give a tone that, to our ears, is exactly the same as the lower volume starting tone.
Of course you might fine-tune this roll-off to your own taste by experimenting with slightly different values.

Giulio

[Frank_NH]

My first post here after lurking for several months.  

My vote is for the ROG Omega.  The "range" control, as mentioned above, changes the input impedance so you can go from a treble boost to a warm, mild overdrive.  It's fantastic in front of most overdrives I've tested.  I built mine on a veroboard layout and boxed it in a 1590B.

http://www.runoffgroove.com/omega.html

[JustinFun]

I've built a lot of different boosters but for me the one that works best is the seymour duncan pickup booster. I have an original and have made a clone from the schematic that's floating about on the web and it sounds identical.

The thing is though, a booster, more than any other pedal, is really tied to what works with your guitar and amp. With my Rickenbacker 330 and 70's Hiwatt, the SDPB beats the SHO, LPB, and a number of others I've tried. Doesn't mean it's objectively 'better', just that it works really well with what I've got.

[stallik]

I like the valvecaster into a valve amp. Adjust guitar volume between clean and dirty. Just shoving one into a wah housing with the rocker adjusting guitar level down to a pre determined level.
What do I play? Rubbish mostly

[pinkjimiphoton]

my stupid simple overdrive.

it's tiny, there's nothing to it, and it's one of the best sounding overdrive/boosts i've built.

yep.... i did it. i voted for MINE. i've built somewhere around 200 boxes at this point, and so many boosts it's not funny.

this replaced all the other ones on my live board.

[bilo01]

A rangemaster was my first build and only booster so far.
But i'lld hold anything else i'm doing to get started with Rory Gallagher's Hawk 2 booster.
So if anyone has a schematic....

Obvious what i'm playing i guess

[bluebunny]

yep.... i did it. i voted for MINE.

We'll allow it just this one time.       (Good choice, btw...)

[sajy_ho]

+1 to OMEGA

[pinkjimiphoton]

yep.... i did it. i voted for MINE.

We'll allow it just this one time.       (Good choice, btw...)

[armdnrdy]

The thing is though, a booster, more than any other pedal, is really tied to what works with your guitar and amp. With my Rickenbacker 330 and 70's Hiwatt, the SDPB beats the SHO, LPB, and a number of others I've tried. Doesn't mean it's objectively 'better', just that it works really well with what I've got.

+1

With different gear....it's like comparing apples and oranges.

The title for this thread should be:

Vote for the best boost pedal for use with a stock Strat and a Fender Twin.

or

Best boost pedal with Humbuckers and a Marshall Plexi.

[pinkjimiphoton]

yep. i have different boosters i use for different guitars, and at different points in my signal chain even. and every one sounds and works different depending on whether you're using it as an overdrive or a boost,  and like you guys said, a strat or a paul or a tele or a rick. all of 'em will sound and react differently.

[shredgd]

The thing is though, a booster, more than any other pedal, is really tied to what works with your guitar and amp. With my Rickenbacker 330 and 70's Hiwatt, the SDPB beats the SHO, LPB, and a number of others I've tried. Doesn't mean it's objectively 'better', just that it works really well with what I've got.

+1

With different gear....it's like comparing apples and oranges.

The title for this thread should be:

Vote for the best boost pedal for use with a stock Strat and a Fender Twin.

or

Best boost pedal with Humbuckers and a Marshall Plexi.

My point was to give a useful advice to anyone searching for the best "transparent" booster to use after gain pedals for a volume boost, so not a tone modifier/enhancer to put before an overdrive or a distorted amp. Therefore the guitar/pedals/amp combination used can be taken out of the equation.
In our guitar world, with so many different options and claims in terms of boost, achieving a simple volume increase from a pedal to get the *exact* tone we long struggled to obtain, but just *louder*, is more difficult than you think. A completely flat full-frequency "hi-fi" booster, which many companies or electronic books advertise as "transparent", is far from being that faithful to our tone, and will disappoint most of all those who, like me, was happy with his tone and was just searching for a simple tool to use during solos.