What OD/Boost Pedal do I want? Help me choose

[JeffB]

Re: What OD/Boost Pedal do I want? Help me choose

Most SC's lack the mids of a humbucker, which is why many strat players can get a great tone out of a TS9, especially through a fender. It fills the scooped 'mid cavity' and fattens up the tone.

You might end up with too muddy a sound if you hammer it with flat EQ, which is why OD pedals (like a TS9)are designed with a bit of compression, mid boost, and some bass roll-off in mind to both fatten up your sound and get rid of fart at the same time.

Again, all good points and IME with Strats, definitely true that pedals like a TS9 can be a boon if that is what you want (to fatten up the sound). Generally though I prefer to get all the "tone" adjustment through the instrument itself by wood choice, fingerboard type, pups, tone/volume controls etc, instead of "adding on" tone adjustment..it's less errr..."natural" (?) with pedals.

I figure if necc the pup booster will also fatten up any mids I feel may be lacking with it's resonance switch (or whatever it is). However, I'm not totally stuck on using it. If she works, great, if not, I'll try something else w/out hesitation. Also, a pup change may be in order to slightly fill out some mids while still remaining "strat-like" in tone..but that is a thread for the pickup lounge

 

[ErikH]

Re: What OD/Boost Pedal do I want? Help me choose

You can always go the DIY route and build your own. I've built 4 different boosters and finally found one that suits my setup perfectly, even though the others all had their unique properties. It's based off the front end of the Marshall 2203/2204 preamp using a JFET where the first half of the 12AX7 would be. It sounds great and pushes the daylights out of my amps.