Duncan Pickup Booster

mrchodito

New member
Can you guys explain to me what this is exactly? What's so special about this thing? I hear no negative talk about it, and i'm considering getting one to try out. How much is it and where can you get 'em? How come it can't find anyting about it on the main duncan site?
 
Re: Duncan Pickup Booster

Interesting. I still need to know how it differs from say, a keeley modded boss overdrive pedal, or any dist/od pedal in general. Would this be a worthwhile addition to my pedals if i am getting this keeley od? Anyone have any advice?
 
Re: Duncan Pickup Booster

Heya,
I recently purchased one and am very glad I did. Now, I don't run mine as the directions say to. See, these are designed to be the first link in your signal chain, the first thing plugged in from your guitar. First, it's a gain booster, simple gain boost, from 6 to 25dB. Instead of other od pedals which color your sound, supposedly this is pure gain boost. The second feature is the pickup resonance switch. For this to work at all, the pedal MUST be plugged directly to the guitar, in otherwords, the first thing in the signal chain. The switch has three positions - off (does nothing), position 1 which will give your pickups the characteristics of a vintage humbucker, and position 2 which gives the character of a high output humbucker. I've checked this out and it works. Unfortunately, along with being the first thing in the chain, it has to be plugged directly into the guitar, no wireless unit. I'm a klutz so I use a wireless, LOL!

I plug the pedal in AFTER most of my other pedals and use it as a gain boost for solos. Since it is boosting the signal level to the amp, it also seems to give me a bit more presence and clarity.

As a simple gain boost, I highly recommend this pedal. And for the resonance switch, it does what it says. I mean, it won't make you think you have a vintage Les Paul, but it will fatten up your sound. I'm looking at a possiblility of mounting the circuit in my guitar so I can gain the benefit of the resonance switch while still going wireless. A kind soul on here pointed me to a place that sells just such a circuit.

BTW - the pedal is built like a tank!
 
Re: Duncan Pickup Booster

This resonance feature interests me. I'm having issues with a laney that is very harsh/pitchy/squealy and have a jj tube on the way to hopefully remedy the problem. If this resonance thing fattens up the sound perhaps it will help my les paul through this amp. I'm seriously considering this pedal as a gain boost. It's either this or a dunlop gain boost pedal(wah style). both around the same price.
 
Re: Duncan Pickup Booster

What exactally do you want to know?

The way it differes from a OD/Distortion pedal is that it doesn't make any crunch on it's own...it just boosts the signal of your pickups to hit the front of your amp harder thus making your amp distort on it's own.

The res switch has 3 positions, the middle one is no tonal change at all the other 2 change the treble curve and midrange a little to "fake" the sound of a bucker from a single coil pickup.
 
Re: Duncan Pickup Booster

Never tried the s.Duncan Booster, but if it is nearly as good as my MXR Micro Amp (also a booster), it is worth every cent.

I love my Micro Amp.
Hits your pre-amp tubse so hard, it goes into overdrive/tube saturation, without colouring your tone, unlike an overdrive/distorsion box !
(it's kinda like an 11 & 12 on your pre-amp vol. knob.)

I got a Marshal BluesBreaker II, od pedal this week-end, and this pedal has two modes.
* "Blues" mode - Marshall Plexi'ish overdrive
* "Boost" mode - one hell'va clean boost that is just as good as my Micro Amp !

. . . and it is only $60.00 ! (Micro Amp = $80.00)

Do look into the MXR Micro Amp, and BB2, as very good alternatives !




EDIT :

. . . i run my Micro Amp very last in my 5-6 pedal chain !
 
Re: Duncan Pickup Booster

What exactally do you want to know?

The way it differes from a OD/Distortion pedal is that it doesn't make any crunch on it's own...it just boosts the signal of your pickups to hit the front of your amp harder thus making your amp distort on it's own.

The res switch has 3 positions, the middle one is no tonal change at all the other 2 change the treble curve and midrange a little to "fake" the sound of a bucker from a single coil pickup.

What would the res switch do to a humbucker then?
 
Re: Duncan Pickup Booster

The clean boost is superb - loud and clean.

The resonance switch is very cool and it does what Duncan claims. My tele bridge pickup sounds a lot like a low output humbucker with it.

One thing to note about any clean boost feature. For best effectiveness, your amp should be set for clean playing, otherwise you just cause the amp to saturate and you probably wont get much boost. That may or may not work for you. Maybe you just want to push the front end without creating more volume. That does not apply to the freq shift feature though.
 
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