Little Help Finding A Boost Pedal

So I've been using a Maxon 808 and I absolutely love it when it's paired with my Mark IV. But when I want to go into the clean channel the volume is greatly reduced and there is a hint of gain (coming from the 808) that I don't want. Is there a different pedal on the market that can effectively do the same job as the 808 but allow me to go into the clean channel and still have crisp cleans? Maybe this is what a clean boost pedal is? I'm a little unsure....

Xotic RC booster

That looks like a nice pedal, but will it give me a decent amount of gain to my mark IV? The Maxon gives a huge amount of drive to my tone...

Maybe I'm misunderstanding completely that it's essentially impossible to use a boost pedal to add gain to the distortion channel and expect the cleans to stay un-distorted when you make the switch to that channel simply because a boost adds a certain level of gain...?

MXR Micro Amp.

You'll probably want to use a clean boost like the Micro Amp on your cleans and an overdrive like the OD808 on the lead channel.

I use the Xotic EP Booster with great success. One up front and the other in the loop gives maximum flexibility, too.

I really want to find a pedal that I can leave on in both modes. I don't want to tap dance every time I go from clean to dirty, you know?

Thanks for all of the suggestions so far, guys. The EP Booster looks pretty nice too....

The RC is really clean and the AC is almost clean. I have the AC Xotic. It plays better with EL34 amps to my ears when adding a lot of gain. I hand Rivera Knuclehead Tre for a while. Awesome clean channel. Xotic AC RC boosts worked pretty good when I took the head to the music store to try pedals. The bass and treble controls on the Xotic units are very effective, not decorative like on some other stomps.

I don't boost the high gain channels normally. Jetter has good 6V or V6 dirt boxes. It has 2 modes. JTM - JCM800ish picks. The V or 5153 cleanish channels can get some Marshallish dirt with the Jetter. The R2 pedal has a lower gain side that may be what you want. It adds a little dirt but keeps the bounce. Not compressing at all. It just livens up things a bit but not too much coloration. The high gain side is pretty sweet. Plenty of YT vids.

I recommended the RC but I do use the Xotic AC Booster with my LSC running EL34's to get some dirt. I set the gain to the lower side (maybe 1/3) at the most. It does clean up with guitar volume which is nice, but is not really clean...it's almost clean.

I do have the Xotic BB preamp (the silver one with the extra mid's knob) as well. I got it to add more dirt, but I don't really use it. It collects dust on my pedal board.

Pmaurer said:

That looks like a nice pedal, but will it give me a decent amount of gain to my mark IV? The Maxon gives a huge amount of drive to my tone...

Maybe I'm misunderstanding completely that it's essentially impossible to use a boost pedal to add gain to the distortion channel and expect the cleans to stay un-distorted when you make the switch to that channel simply because a boost adds a certain level of gain...?

Click to expand...

AFAIK, what you said is entirely true. I have a similar setup with a MK IV and a Keleey modded TS9 for a clean boost. It makes my lead channel sing.

However, leaving the TS9 engaged when using the clean channel will add some grit to it. You should be to compensate for this by running a lower gain setting on your R1 channel.

Gain is gain. If you increase it in front, you will have to decrease it somewhere to stay clean. If the amp's gain control is at the beginning of the signal chain, you should be fine. If there's an active tone stack before the gain, then you will distort.

elvis said:

Gain is gain. If you increase it in front, you will have to decrease it somewhere to stay clean. If the amp's gain control is at the beginning of the signal chain, you should be fine. If there's an active tone stack before the gain, then you will distort.

Click to expand...

+1

Fulltone Fatboost III


all gain pedals, sound different to my ears.
that's why there are so many different ways to skin a cat.

Hello from England.
Custom Audio Electronics CAE 402 via MXR does it for me because the boost section does exactly what it says on the tin with negligible sound/tonal colouration and just gives you a volume boost for your cleans whilst retaining the tonality of the core sound.
The Overdrive facility comes in to complement the on-board high gains on the MarkV without distorting the sound. This is great for preserving the Gibson growl without totally overwhelming the source and and just pushes the input of the Mark V.
I am also impressed by my chums in the rock fraternity who assure me that this particular pedal lends itself especially well to something called ' stacked distortion ' - of which I know nothing !

How about trying a Visual sound Sparkle Drive? It is an 808 also, and the new models you can mix clean boost with TS808 . The clean is colorless.

VR, Ron