Thanks again John for the Trans-Boost pedal!!!
I just was playing with it for about an hour with my Schecter C5 with active EMG’s and my passive Fender Strat. Both the bass and guitar were connected to the Trans-Boost then straight into the SWR 750x amplifier with a 4x10 cab w/tweeter.
I first tried it with the bass with lowest drive and least amount of clipping. It sounded very natural with a subtle little something in the tone that sounded just right. I ran it this way to get a feel for what the transformer was adding to the sound. Very subtle, but very nice!
Then I tried it with the drive at maximum with various clipping levels. This box can get real dirty with my C5! It may be a lot more dirt than I would use in a band setting, but the burpy attack was a blast! I could see myself using these settings for different passages of songs when the keyboard player is busy with his/her left hand on the lower register. With the drive at maximum and clipping at minimum, I could hear a slight loss of HF detail (the tweeter in my cab was on) which I attribute to the transformer beginning to saturate with the low frequencies. So, I don't know yet if I like transformer saturation or not, but I do like the B-H distortions that all transformers have.
I then adjusted the clipping to its max position and dialed up the drive until I had just a little break-up on the initial attack of each note. If I were still playing with a band, I could see myself using this as an always on pedal with these settings. These settings worked well for dynamic dirt… when digging in; there was just enough grit to emphasize the mood/feel. It reminded me of the times I had played thru my friends Mesa combo.
With my Strat, the pedal didn’t have enough drive to go into the heavier distortion territory with this soft clipping circuit. But it had enough to make chords sound thicker/fuller. A very nice tone enhancement for my Strat, but if a guitar player wanted one of these for dirt they may need to add more gain to the drive circuit by changing R6 to 3K3. I like it as is for a clean-ish blues tone and it would be perfect for driving another dirt box or tube amp. It had the same feeling to me as playing thru a clean tube amplifier. This would be a great way for someone to tube-i-fy their sterile SS rig. (My rig is Hi-Fi sterile, even though the preamp is a tube hybrid.)
With a minimum drive setting, the Strat had the same feel as my C5… natural sound with just a little bit of transformer color added to the tone. Very nice!!! This pedal would be great for re-amping tracks in a mix.
When I get more time I will try the Trans-Boost in the effects loop on the amp. This way I can try the bass again with heavier distortion settings on the box and blend some dry signal with it.
BTW, this pedal is even better looking in person! Great job John... THANX!!!!
-Frank
Yeah, this review made it easier to pass the pedal over...
...or not. Damn, I need to get one of these.
