Adding a clean boost (with special thanks to pingu)

[Jim Soloway]

In my thread about the Vox Clubman the main negative I sited about this otherwise fine little amp was that I was unable to get enough volume. Because of my combination of a very light touch and relatively low output pickups, that is a common complaint for me. Forum member pingu suggested that I try a clean boost. I thought that was a great suggestion. I had tried one many years ago and been happy with it.

Within a few hours I found a good deal on a BBE Boosta Grande in mini format. The difference is profound and should solve a lot of problems without having to change either my playing or my pickups. It provides much more volume from my amplifiers and perhaps even more important, it gives me a much hotter signal for recording. The benefit of this is that I'm able to dramatically lower the gain setting on my interface resulting in a much lower noise level. (What noise remains is almost certainly coming from the low quality 9 volt power adapter I'm using but that is easily rectified).

Here's a photo of my interface. Channel 1 is the gain setting that I was using without the boost. Channel 2 is the gain setting I was using with the boost (and even at that lower setting I was getting a much stronger signal.



And here's what it sounds like playing my Soloway Gosling.

And again, a special thanks to pingu for the excellent suggestion.

[pingu]

glad it worked out Jim

i’d be interested if it’s helping
in the guitar to amp situation
(Vox Clubman or whatever else)

[garybaldy]

I use an MXR micro amp.

[jads57]

Several great options including Xotic Sweet Boost, T.C.Jauernig Luxury Drive on lowest level, Timmy Pedal set as a Clean Boost, and a bunch of others. Maybe just a Boss Equalizer pedal?

[Christian Miller]

I got a TC Electronic Spark mini just to see if a boost was for me years ago and it’s still on my board haha. It does the job?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Boss Man Zwiebelsohn]

I got a TC Electronic Spark mini just to see if a boost was for me years ago and it’s still on my board haha. It does the job?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They seem to have run out of names.

TC Electronic | Product | SPARK XL

[GuyBoden]

The inexpensive Muslady Golden Horse works well as a cleanish boost, I think mine cost £16.

[jbernstein91]

I use a pre-Mosfet Fulltone Fulldrive-2 in Comp-Cut mode, which functions as a clean boost and sounds great for jazz in a live ensemble situation.

The Full-Drive 1 also has Comp-Cut, but I haven't used one so I don't know how its Comp-Cut compares to the pre-Mosfet Fulltone Fulldrive-2's Comp-Cut.

[Sam Sherry]

I use an MXR micro amp.

I use the MXR/Bradshaw MC-401 clean boost. Is it an upgrade of the MicroAmp? It's a cousin, no matter what.
> Simple. Works great.
> Engineered to actually not affect your tone. Does not have tone knobs!
> Ubiquitous and affordable. There's a couple dozen on Reverb starting at $59; there's five each at Guitar Denter and MusicGoRound starting at $68.

Play a solo, step on the button preset to your taste -- I'm usually around +4dB. Finish the solo, step on the button, back to 0-boost.
If there's no PA it's a brainless, consistent bump.
If there's front-of-house sound they don't have to figure out that I've started my solo and they don't have to realize that I've stopped.
"We gotcha covered for that, chummay."

[GuyBoden]

But, how clean are some clean boosts?

[jbernstein91]

But, how clean are some clean boosts?

With the pre-Mosfet Fulltone Fulldrive-2 in Comp-Cut mode, it's completely clean as long as you turn the Overdrive knob all the way down or nearly all the way down and do not engage the Boost function. It still functions as a clean boost even without stepping on the Boost switch.

[jorgemg1984]

But, how clean are some clean boosts?

That also depends on other factors - how hot are your pickups and how clean is your amp. With a PAF and a 100% clean amp, I've found most eqs and "clean boosts" to be actuallty clean. Some more transparent than others, but all clean.