Question about the Boost Pedal

[MagicMoogMan]

Hi There,

I'm a guitar player with a simple board. I have a guitar - tuner - compressor - distortion - flanger - delay - reverb - amp.

I have room for 1 more pedal. I always wanted a volume pedal.

So let me get this straight. The Mini Fooger Boost can be used as a volume pedal for my WHOLE rig? Would it control the overall volume of my amp/effects? Or just the volume of the pedal itself? I'd love to do volume swells with my delay/reverb pedals.

The question is: Would this be an ideal substitute for an actual volume pedal? Or should I just get the real thing?

Also, where would this pedal go in the chain?

[Alien8]

A bunch of things:

1) any volume pedal will control the volume of the signal that it is fed. If you plug your guitar into it, the volume pedal will work the *same* as your guitar's volume knob.

2) the volume pedal placed before a distortion pedal will affect the amount of distortion you get, however you will never get *more* than the pedal can generate. Placed after the distortion, a volume pedal will control how loud the distortion is, and will not change the amount of distortion. (Unless you are gain staging).

3) if you place a volume pedal at the end of your pedals, in front of the amp, you will be changing the level of the input signal to the amp. This means that the volume swell created will be of all of the effects, however it will affect the resulting amp tone slightly. It is not like turning the master volume down, it's more like turning the gain down.

All that said, if you want a volume pedal, and need to know where to put it, the best place is either before your compressor OR before your distortion OR before your delay. Your ears can judge that, but before the comp is where I would put it.

Now, that was a volume pedal.

The MF Boost is different. Yes, WITH the ADDITION of an expression pedal, it will act like a volume pedal, enabling you to do swells etc.

The MF Boost is much more tho. It has EQ, Drive, and Boosting abilities. A standard volume pedal does not do these three. Boosting your signal is used to push tubes into saturation, overdrive distortion pedals to places they can't go on their own & to emphasize musical passages like solos. The EQ & drive parts are fairly obvious.

In your rig, I would put the MF Boost before the distortion after compression.

So, to be clear, you will need two pedals, the MF Boost & an expression pedal.

If you just want volume swells, stick to a simple volume pedal (Ernie Ball passive is good). If you want boost, drive & EQ as well as volume swells, the the MF Drive.

What kind of amp do you have? Does it have an effects loop?

[facon]

Can anybody comment on the signal of the boost set to unity gain? A lot of people hate the way volume pedals affect their signal. If the MF Boost can act as a volume pedal that is completely transparent, it may be a big bonus to some people.

[MagicMoogMan]

Thanks for the replies so far!

I have a Sunn SL 160. It's a 60 watt SS amp form the early '80's. I usually play at bedroom levels, so it suits me just fine. And yes, it does have an effects loop.

[EMwhite]

Can anybody comment on the signal of the boost set to unity gain? A lot of people hate the way volume pedals affect their signal. If the MF Boost can act as a volume pedal that is completely transparent, it may be a big bonus to some people.

Based on what has been written about it, that would appear to be one of the uses. But you should go onto ProGuitarShop's YouTube channel and respond to the video, they are usually pretty good about answering product questions?

I can tell you that the MF DRIVE pedal greatly benefits from having a 'boost' in front. For me, it's a compressor/limiter that I have but obviously, that's only on/off. I don't have room or money to buy this also but the advice above is to experiment by having the Boost in front of distortion.

Also wanted to pass along this: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifie ... rc=3TP3L1A It's a combination 'volume' aka attenuator pedal and clean boost in one pedal. I have no experience with it, it just popped up in my mailbox on MusiciansFriend's site.

The MF Boost plus the new expression pedal (EP-3) might be a better option at $180 if you have the pedalboard room for it.

[Alien8]

Thanks for the replies so far!

I have a Sunn SL 160. It's a 60 watt SS amp form the early '80's. I usually play at bedroom levels, so it suits me just fine. And yes, it does have an effects loop.

You can of course ignore this entirely, but I would recommend you do the following: Move your flanger, delay and reverb to the effects loop. This way you apply the sound of the preamp to the effect, which will make your sound a little more layered.

If you get a volume pedal put it after your distortion. This way you will do volume swells without changing the distortion level.

If you get a MF Boost, put where I said above, before distortion. You will gain some pretty wide flexibility with your tone from it. Boost after distortion may sound like your amp is broken, and not in a good way only because its solid state. Some SS amps respond well to boosting, some don't at all. Try it tho

[Moog Music]

Hi There,

I'm a guitar player with a simple board. I have a guitar - tuner - compressor - distortion - flanger - delay - reverb - amp.

I have room for 1 more pedal. I always wanted a volume pedal.

So let me get this straight. The Mini Fooger Boost can be used as a volume pedal for my WHOLE rig? Would it control the overall volume of my amp/effects? Or just the volume of the pedal itself? I'd love to do volume swells with my delay/reverb pedals.

The question is: Would this be an ideal substitute for an actual volume pedal? Or should I just get the real thing?

Also, where would this pedal go in the chain?

The expression pedal input allows you to control the input gain of the MF Boost. You can use it as a tone enhancing volume pedal with a pretty subtle, but positive impact on your tone. You can also use it to nail the front end of your amp. It sounds fabulous after the MF Drive and just before the amp, though you can use it either way. If you want to do swells, place it before your time based effects (or place your time based effects in the effects loop)

Hope this helps,
Your friends at Moog