A SERIOUS boost to my tone!

[MusicChad]

I just "accidentally" ended up with something that may have just revolutionized my tone... seriously... I think I now understand to some extent why people have/use booster pedals...

I was helping a local store owner pack up his "gear" as their shop recently went out of business. The building is up for lease and apparently has a new tenant. At any rate, I was helping him pack up his things and was telling him about my new pedal board set up. I told him I had tried an Electro-Harmonix LPB-1 booster and really didn't care for it. He said, "Dude, everybody with good pedals and a tube amp should play a booster peal - you just need a good one..." Well, a little later, he came over and said, "Here is a good booster pedal - give it a try... I never sold it because it has a bad switch and I hardwired it so that it would always be "on"... ...throw this first in your chain and you will understand..."

I offered to buy it, but he gave it to me for my help because it is 1) old 2) beat up big time 3) has a bad switch 4) he is out of business... Anyway, later in the evening, I plugged it in and...


WOW!:yeah: I think I "get" it...

The pedal is:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/images/products/effects_pedals/sfx-01.jpg

Seymour Duncan SFX-01 - "Pickup Booster"

I tried it with some HBs first and wasn't impressed... However, I plugged in my strat and HOLY COW! It was incredible! I've always been a tiny bit unsatisfied with the tone of my strat because it wasn't "hot" enough or "shimmery" enough... Well, this little beauty sure fixes that problem... It was hard to do an exact A/B comparison with the effect off and on because there is a jump in volume (at least on my small solid-state practice amp). Also, one of my distortion pedals got louder while the other didn't... (Both were more saturated) Either way, I was able to mark with masking tape a volume on my amp for "with and without" the pedal for just a straight clean sound. It was truly breath-taking how much better it sounded... It was more "full" and "rich", yet at the same time more "clear" and "shimmery". Absolutely wonderful.

On distorted tones, It was harder to compare head to head because the saturation changes in the ODs... So you had to change the level, drive, and EQ a bit along with physically removing the booster due to the bad switch... By the time I got it all done, I wasn't as "certain" on the differences as I was with the clean channel... However, it sure "seemed" like the overdrives were much more lively.

I'm most likely going to be pulling one of my compressors off my pedal board to make room for this thing right at the top of the chain. Originally, I had a compressor set to be as transparent as possible to help bring up the level of single coils to match HBs... It was always on with my strat. I have a second further down to enhance "pick attack" and to actually "pump" just a little bit as I absolutely LOVE that sound on a tele, although I rarely actually turn that compressor on... Either way, I think that this booster pedal accomplishes the same task as the first compressor but, it doesn't limit the dynamic range, etc. and seems to add a tremendous amount of "sparkle", "shimmer", "chime", and overall "soul" to the sound... It just makes everything including the effects, overdrives, etc. just JUMP!


So a few questions:
anybody else tried one of these pedals? Anybody else believe that a good booster pedal is a "must have - magic bullet" type of effect? If this Seymour Duncan is a bad booster compared to brand X - let me know because I'll go try it today!

Thanks for reading!

God bless!
CJ

[MusicChad]

By the way - that local store owner is one of my "mission fields" these days... I had a lot of opportunities to talk to him about "grace", "second chances", "eternity" etc. as he was pretty bummed to be packing up his business... It was his dream to run a little store and was hard for him to have to walk away... He still hopes to re-open down the road (most likely in a new location it would appear) once the economy cleans up a bit... Over all - he just kind of felt like having some money for things like... ...oh... ...food would be handy...

Pray for "Ronnie"...

[scooteraz]

What a booster usually does is 2-fold. The obvious is that it adds gain to the signal. Not so obvious is that the input impedance of most boosters is significantly higher than is the input stage to a tube amp. So, the load on the pickup is much less. So, if you have been experiencing loading problems on your pickups, a booster helps alleviate that issue.

Obviously, with humbuckers, they are able to deal with loading a bit easier. Single coils, less so. Interestingly, the single coil EMGs put the booster on the bottom of the pickup.

I have a Zvex SHO booster. But the SD unit is also nice, and costs less.

[Micter]

I have built a couple of SHO's. Very kewl pedals. The Pickup booster is supposedly a variant of the microamp IIRC It should be fantastic in an fx loop.

[stephen]

I use a booster pedal primarily for leads. I put it after my OD's, but before my modulating pedals.

I use a BBE Boosta Grande. It does add a little OD girth, but not much. The SD unit ahs always been on my radar, and I may still get one one day. It is a "clean boost" (no girth, gain or overdrive from it). But for now, I am totally happy with what I got.

[scooteraz]

I actually use my SHO with my acoustic. I use it to match levels between finger picking and strumming. Does a really nice job there. Sometimes we have services where the sound guy is only there for setup, so I use it then.

[Micter]

I actually use my SHO with my acoustic. I use it to match levels between finger picking and strumming. Does a really nice job there. Sometimes we have services where the sound guy is only there for setup, so I use it then.

Interesting, I hadn't considered using a SHO on an acoustic. I will be playing worship at a mens retreat this weekend. I'll be using an acoustic. I'm gonna give that a try.

[scooteraz]

Interesting, I hadn't considered using a SHO on an acoustic. I will be playing worship at a mens retreat this weekend. I'll be using an acoustic. I'm gonna give that a try.

You have to be really reserved on settings, since there is something like 60 dB of boost available, and you are really only looking for 6-10 (if that much). But, it adds no color, and is out of the circuit when you are not using it. Works pretty well.

[Randy]

That is one of two effects that I've been considering for the last two years (not being a "Pedal Guy"); the SD Pickup Booster & the Holly Grail Reverb (for my old Fender Princeton that doesn't have reverb).

Your review was really good; thanks!

~Randy


~Randy

[indianrock]

I have an RC Booster as first in my pedal chain. So far leaving it on all the time.

[LesStrat]

SD RAwKS!