Re: New Tone Box Day! The effect of a little magenta box.
Onto the review…
For those not in the know, Greg Fryer (a tech and builder from Sydney) was the first person to build accurate copies of the Red Special in the mid-late 90s. Since then, he has been involved in many BM gear developments, such as treble boosters, Deacy amp kits, general conaissance of Vox AC-30s, and development of the BMG Super guitar.
Currently, Fryer offers three different boosters: the Deluxe offers 36dB, while the Touring and Plus put out 31dB and 36dB respectively. The Plus is designed to be quite fat sounding, the Touring clean, and the Deluxe in between. Though the Fryer boosters are designed to perform optimally with a Red Special guitar + a class A type amp with EL-84s like a Vox, they work well with other rigs too. There are new boosters in development with gain and tone controls to vary the amount of boost and alter the timbre quality respectively, which are bound to be quite versatile.
My spartan rig consists of an oldish Ibanez RG320 (stock ceramic bridge pickup, mis-matched coil ‘Frankenbucker’ in the neck, also ceramic) into a first generation Marshall AVT-50 combo (rear cover removed). The reason I got the booster is I wanted something more subtle tonally, but that which slammed the amp a bit harder for a bit more sustain, power, and smoother notes when playing distorted. Also, I see the booster as a long-term investment for when I get a valve amp. I do have a dirt pedal (Marshall JH-1) which I don’t use with the AVT as its emphasis is on providing different timbre quality, rather than a the kind of boost a treble booster gives by putting some stress on the amp.
The term ‘treble booster’ is a bit of a misnomer as it does not boost only the treble frequencies, but the whole spectrum, and, depending on the components in its overall schematic, gives a different tonal colour and emphasis. So, contrary to what its name implies, it doesn’t hike up the treble into ice pick land.
I started by setting up a good crunchy sound, so the notes have a bit of ‘hair’ on them when the strings are hit hard (gain 9-11 o’clock). Plugging in the booster hikes everything up. Some people complain about the heightened hiss of a switched on amp but this is normal; everything is, after all, boosted, haw, haw. Full up, the Deluxe is powerful, fat without losing articulation, and sustaining. The midrange has a distinct vocal quality, the highs are smooth and round and the lows tight and robust. In this respect it’s an improvement over my old sound, particularly in the sustain and smoothness department, which was I felt way always a bit lacking. Rolling down the volume to about halfway yields a brighter, more percussive tone. At low volume on the guitar, it gives a bright, sparkly sound. For this reason I wish it had a foot-switch to turn it on/off, as I prefer the non-boosted tone when playing clean as it is richer and fuller, so I could just kick it off when necessary. Another tone I like is setting the amp’s gain at 8 o’clock, yielding a nice thick, round sound – a bit like an old Marshall – that cleans up nicely when the volume on the guitar is lowered. Neck pickup in parallel has a P90ish character on this setting.
One that is brought out through a non-BM rig is the clean sound. I play the old school way – turn guitar’s volume for a clean sound – because I find it more dynamically sensitive when hitting the strings. While the AVT’s clean channel is pretty good, it’s not dynamic enough for me; and switching channels results in that surging/whooshing sound we all despise. So, my typical way doesn’t work as well with the booster. As a result, I have rigged up the old footswitch again to use the clean channel, which I’ve fiddled with and got closer to my liking, though I still prefer the ‘old school’ way because you can dial in the volume for varying amounts of dirt.
I believe that best results would be achieved with a low gain, class A type amp but I’m happy with the way the booster works in my current rig as it gives me a better lead sound, colourful rhythm sound, and more power and sustain. I think that if one has a good valve amp, a booster is a good alternative to a dirt pedal, as the effect on timbre is more subtle, and the amp itself is pushed so the valves work harder to get that desirable tone. Now, all I need is a matching shocking pink Jem
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. The reason there's no switching is because these are signature pedals, in effect. In BM's rig the treble booster is always on to get 'that' sound, so having a switch, for him, is redudnant. Indeed, the Vox AC-30 BM that came out as a limited addition some years ago had a treble booster built into the amp circuit (I think it could be switched on/off) but people didn't like this. I should look into an A-B switch if I can't live without my previous clean sound.