So I got the opportunity from my good buddy and fellow TB'er @DirtyDuke to try out a boost pedal he was involved with. It is from a company called Southampton Pedals. Here is there website link: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]. Ive had the pedal for about a week now and have had the chance to use it in the mix at practice earlier this past week. I'll start it out with........
Construction and build quality. Excellent. I opened er' up and everything looked nice and neat, solid. The box is small. Nice proper foot switch. Which is great for a pedal board like mine. One knob. which will bring me to the actual functionality of the pedal......
One knob (which was pink when I got it. Sorry Duke, I couldn't take it, I swapped it out for the green know that is on it now
). It goes from a slight boost fully CCW, very slight, to a little more boost to a lot of boost to dirty boost fully CW. Now, I don't see myself using this boost with the knob dimed at any time really. Not with bass anyway. I did plug my guitar into it dimed and it sounded pretty awesome IMO. But I will focus on the time I spent with it with bass. I still have not found out if it will run at 18v. Still waiting on an answer to that. Which will bring me to the way I think it sounds and reacts to my bass, playing dynamics and board......
From what I understand, Duke, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought you had said it was roughly based off of a boost the like of an EQD Speaker Cranker. Ive never used one so that is where any comparisons will stop. When the pedal is engaged and the knob is fully CCW it adds a little bit of boost already. Not so much to where you would engage it there for a solo or the like IMO, but you can tell you engaged it. I have been keeping it anywhere in between 9 o'clock and 11 o'clock. This, to me and for my setup, is where the sweet spot is. It starts to add enhancement to the low, they are low yet crisp, still plenty of bass on tap here, it adds some really nice shimmery highs, I love those. Its almost to where its, well I don't want to say harsh, because its not harsh, but it enhances them. Its like an exciter. If you really dig in you will get some breakup especially more closer to 11 o'clock and on. I think it enhances the mids too, especially the high mids to my ears. Now if you really wanna get crazy and you start cranking past noon and on, it gets some serious harmonic content and will get dirty but with A LOT of punch. I retract my earlier statement of saying that about the Speaker Cranker. Because that is sort of what this boost does, it cranks your bass signal up and makes it really articulate and clear while still keeping your bottom end very much in tact. It adds some even when you crank it up. It is also pretty transparent I think. Don't quote me on that just because I think it is. To me. You may not think so. I will really try and get a halfway decent demo up here tomorrow hopefully. I'll hang a mic over my Ampeg B50R and try and record through it with Audacity and see what happens.
Now, I have to say, if you haven't figured this out yet, I suck at describing things like this (sorry duke!! haha). But I'm trying. I hope that I got a decent idea of what this pedal can do across to y'all. I am in no way affiliated with Southampton Pedals. Duke simply asked me if I wanted to try out a boost that he and an acquaintance of his were collaborating on together. So I said sure! I already have a DOD FX10 I'm using as a boost/tone enhancer already but I was looking for an actual boost to go along with that. I have tried the EP Booster by Xotic, the W&C Phat Phuk B and I actually like this one the most. Compared the the EP, this boost is so much more clear and articulate with no mud. Compared to the PPB, this boost plays really well with a board full of effects like mine. Its simple and clean. And powerful. By clean I mean it doesn't get muddy. It will get dirty though the higher to take especially past noon and on.
On the Southampton they have an OD and fuzz soon to come (which I hope to have and try soon, the fuzz, and will do a little thread like this one on it). There isn't a boost really. I'm not very clear about the OD they have up on there is the same as this boost, but i don't think they are one in the same as I think this is something that Duke and Southampton are working on together. I could be wrong. Hopefully Duke will clarify some of these inconsistencies I have throughout some of this "review". I attached a pic of the one I have been using.
Hope you guys made sense of this! Thanks for checkin it out. I'll add a pic as soon as I hop on my phone.
Construction and build quality. Excellent. I opened er' up and everything looked nice and neat, solid. The box is small. Nice proper foot switch. Which is great for a pedal board like mine. One knob. which will bring me to the actual functionality of the pedal......
One knob (which was pink when I got it. Sorry Duke, I couldn't take it, I swapped it out for the green know that is on it now
). It goes from a slight boost fully CCW, very slight, to a little more boost to a lot of boost to dirty boost fully CW. Now, I don't see myself using this boost with the knob dimed at any time really. Not with bass anyway. I did plug my guitar into it dimed and it sounded pretty awesome IMO. But I will focus on the time I spent with it with bass. I still have not found out if it will run at 18v. Still waiting on an answer to that. Which will bring me to the way I think it sounds and reacts to my bass, playing dynamics and board......From what I understand, Duke, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought you had said it was roughly based off of a boost the like of an EQD Speaker Cranker. Ive never used one so that is where any comparisons will stop. When the pedal is engaged and the knob is fully CCW it adds a little bit of boost already. Not so much to where you would engage it there for a solo or the like IMO, but you can tell you engaged it. I have been keeping it anywhere in between 9 o'clock and 11 o'clock. This, to me and for my setup, is where the sweet spot is. It starts to add enhancement to the low, they are low yet crisp, still plenty of bass on tap here, it adds some really nice shimmery highs, I love those. Its almost to where its, well I don't want to say harsh, because its not harsh, but it enhances them. Its like an exciter. If you really dig in you will get some breakup especially more closer to 11 o'clock and on. I think it enhances the mids too, especially the high mids to my ears. Now if you really wanna get crazy and you start cranking past noon and on, it gets some serious harmonic content and will get dirty but with A LOT of punch. I retract my earlier statement of saying that about the Speaker Cranker. Because that is sort of what this boost does, it cranks your bass signal up and makes it really articulate and clear while still keeping your bottom end very much in tact. It adds some even when you crank it up. It is also pretty transparent I think. Don't quote me on that just because I think it is. To me. You may not think so. I will really try and get a halfway decent demo up here tomorrow hopefully. I'll hang a mic over my Ampeg B50R and try and record through it with Audacity and see what happens.
Now, I have to say, if you haven't figured this out yet, I suck at describing things like this (sorry duke!! haha). But I'm trying. I hope that I got a decent idea of what this pedal can do across to y'all. I am in no way affiliated with Southampton Pedals. Duke simply asked me if I wanted to try out a boost that he and an acquaintance of his were collaborating on together. So I said sure! I already have a DOD FX10 I'm using as a boost/tone enhancer already but I was looking for an actual boost to go along with that. I have tried the EP Booster by Xotic, the W&C Phat Phuk B and I actually like this one the most. Compared the the EP, this boost is so much more clear and articulate with no mud. Compared to the PPB, this boost plays really well with a board full of effects like mine. Its simple and clean. And powerful. By clean I mean it doesn't get muddy. It will get dirty though the higher to take especially past noon and on.
On the Southampton they have an OD and fuzz soon to come (which I hope to have and try soon, the fuzz, and will do a little thread like this one on it). There isn't a boost really. I'm not very clear about the OD they have up on there is the same as this boost, but i don't think they are one in the same as I think this is something that Duke and Southampton are working on together. I could be wrong. Hopefully Duke will clarify some of these inconsistencies I have throughout some of this "review". I attached a pic of the one I have been using.
Hope you guys made sense of this! Thanks for checkin it out. I'll add a pic as soon as I hop on my phone.
