Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster vs. Echoplex

Snake Aces

Singlecut Slut
I am curious how the SD Pickup Booster compares to the Echoplex. I do not really care about the pickup resonance switch option on the Duncan although I am sure it is cool in it's own right. I care solely about the boost. I have been interested in the Echoplex for a long time now but I notice the Duncan is a bit more affordable.

Do any of you have experience with both of them and if so what are your thoughts?
 
Re: Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster vs. Echoplex

Do you mean the actual Echoplex tape echo device of yesteryear, boutique digital renditions or the Electro-Harmonix pedal that recreates just the "gain matching" pre-amp stage of the original device?
 
Re: Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster vs. Echoplex

This reminds me that sometimes I GAS for the Xotic EP...
 
Re: Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster vs. Echoplex

I have owned both (and still own the EP pre).

The sound different. The PB used just as a clean boost colors the tone in it's own way-midrangey, and definitely has far more output.

The Dunlop sounds closer to the real deal, but it has some low end grunt and softens the mids and highs. It has far less ouput overall than the Duncan and one of the coolest things is you can set it below unity and it's like a "clean pedal"..it will keep your tone beefy but with less gain than the unaffected sound. So you can set your crunchy sound up, kick it on and get the sound much cleaner--it still stays punchy and big, it just seems to lessen the pre-amp gain. But as you get the least rotation on the knob, it cuts off completely. So you can use it as a kill switch or even an attentuator of sorts at the very minimum settings.

I had the Xotic too. Cool pedal, but IME with it, the EP, and the Belle Epoch, it's the least EP sounding of the three. The Xotic always seemed to muddy in vintage mode or too bright in "standard" mode. 9v or 18v. Cool clean boost, but not a great EP boost, if you get my drift. I much prefer the Dunlop, but the pre-amp in the Belle Epoch is significantly better than the Xotic or Dunlop.

The Pickupbooster is it's own animal. I preferred it's PUP color functions over it's actual boosting properties It was very noisy, and got muddy much above 9 oclock on the boost. But it sounded righteous with my strats in mode 1 or 2.
 
Re: Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster vs. Echoplex

I have owned both (and still own the EP pre).

The sound different. The PB used just as a clean boost colors the tone in it's own way-midrangey, and definitely has far more output.

The Dunlop sounds closer to the real deal, but it has some low end grunt and softens the mids and highs. It has far less ouput overall than the Duncan and one of the coolest things is you can set it below unity and it's like a "clean pedal"..it will keep your tone beefy but with less gain than the unaffected sound. So you can set your crunchy sound up, kick it on and get the sound much cleaner--it still stays punchy and big, it just seems to lessen the pre-amp gain. But as you get the least rotation on the knob, it cuts off completely. So you can use it as a kill switch or even an attentuator of sorts at the very minimum settings.

I had the Xotic too. Cool pedal, but IME with it, the EP, and the Belle Epoch, it's the least EP sounding of the three. The Xotic always seemed to muddy in vintage mode or too bright in "standard" mode. 9v or 18v. Cool clean boost, but not a great EP boost, if you get my drift. I much prefer the Dunlop, but the pre-amp in the Belle Epoch is significantly better than the Xotic or Dunlop.

The Pickupbooster is it's own animal. I preferred it's PUP color functions over it's actual boosting properties It was very noisy, and got muddy much above 9 oclock on the boost. But it sounded righteous with my strats in mode 1 or 2.

Awesome! This is really helpful info and exactly what I was looking for. It sounds like the Echoplex is more of what I am looking for. I really want something that I can use as a clean pedal at the moment but it sounds like I could mess around with it and really discover some cool and useful territory.
 
Re: Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster vs. Echoplex

The Dunlop sounds closer to the real deal, but it has some low end grunt and softens the mids and highs. It has far less ouput overall than the Duncan and one of the coolest things is you can set it below unity and it's like a "clean pedal"..it will keep your tone beefy but with less gain than the unaffected sound. So you can set your crunchy sound up, kick it on and get the sound much cleaner--it still stays punchy and big, it just seems to lessen the pre-amp gain.

This sounds very useful for me.
 
Re: Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster vs. Echoplex

Xotic RC boost is the one I have. Just a clean boost that works good on clean channels too. I use it with my guitar that has the passives in it. Very transparent.
 
Back
Top