What is your favorite booster ?

[Diary Of An Axeman]

I use two on my pedalboard; one at 6dB and for pickup enhancement and the second to drive my line stronger with a 9 dB boost to the rack and hit the two 12ax7 tubes in the Digitech 2112 SGS and the 12ax7 tubes in two VHT Valvulator 1's harder.
And it doesn't mess with the headroom in my signal , with those two Pickup Boosters.

 

[Aelred]

It depends on the amp etc for me - and now you've given me GAS! I don't have any of the usual suspects, e.g. Exotic, TC Spark etc. (is a KTR a Boost? A Deco?). So...

• Spaceman Mercury IV Germanium Harmonic Boost - I love this thing but it isn't a simple thing like an EP or Spark look to be
• Spaceman Saturn VI Harmonic Boost - kind of a mini Merc IV
• Spaceman Atlas III Preamp Boost - the switch is dodgy and in need of repair, but I recall preferring the Saturn VI
• Black Arts Toneworks Skyboost - this one I use with Orange amps and other BAT pedals (Coven and Quantum Mystic) and active humbuckers

 

[Trandy]

Xotic RC Booster V.1

 

[megametal7]

ive been using this thing since it came out....

 

[Eagle]

I usually don’t need one but the Klon if I do.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Xotic RC Booster V.1

Same here (or clones of it). I own 4 (one original, 3 clones, the latter actually working better...) and had 2-3 on my last board all the time. Possibly my most utilized pedal ever.

 

[Eagle]

RC Booster has a fair bit of compression in it . I have the chrome one laying around somewhere.

 

[Sascha Franck]

RC Booster has a fair bit of compression in it

Which is great for most applications.

 

[dronerstone]

I have no single favorite, there's too many great ones that I've accumulated. Depends on the application, but these are the ones I enjoy on a regular basis:

- Sound City Rangemaster (built by R2R)
- D*A*M Red Rooster clone (by Giovanetti)
- Fulltone FB-1 (despite the BS racial slurs)
- MXR/CAE Line Driver (basic but a gem)
- FLB Skeleton Key (for QOTSA toanz)
- DOD Juice Box (one of my first pedals)
- TC Spark Mini (love the momentary)
- SD-1 of course, thanks to @James Freeman for the reminder

 

[Eagle]

Which is great for most applications.

I don’t disagree, I mentioned it because nobody ever talks about it. I replaced it on my board (long time ago) with a Kelley two knob compressor set low. I only used it on clean tone. I used to use an od on leads , klon, TS808 , OD1 depending on the amp. On my recent amps I have more than enough gain and the clean channels have input gains so I rarely use them preference being a compressor.

 

[James Freeman]

SD-1

 

[Humbug]

To be fair, it's really my _second_ favourite boost, but the other one currently only exists on a breadboard and is much less photogenic :)

 

[Sascha Franck]

I don’t disagree, I mentioned it because nobody ever talks about it. I replaced it on my board (long time ago) with a Kelley two knob compressor set low. I only used it on clean tone. I used to use an od on leads , klon, TS808 , OD1 depending on the amp. On my recent amps I have more than enough gain and the clean channels have input gains so I rarely use them preference being a compressor.

All fine, but when I'm using a booster, I'm pretty much always expecting the sound to become a tad more "dense". As in delivering more "flesh". Can be done by pushing an already saturating amp (hence as well raising the compression amount), but often I really like a bit of compression somewhat better, simply because I don't need to push the overall drive amount too much, so the attacks stay articulate and I still have more decay (which IMO it is all about for lead sounds).
In case of the RC Boost, I also like that it can add a bit of dirt on its own.

 

[DrewJD82]

Lovepedal Tchula.

It could easily be an always-on pedal for me. That thing adds like 10lbs of balls to anything it’s in front of.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Lovepedal Amp50. Better as a flavorer/pre-boost.
My favorite Post boost of all time was the Mesa V-twin on the clean channel. Runner up is the Voodoo Lab Giggity.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Fwiw, my other favourite booster sits in the Egnater Goldsmith. Unfortunately, I have pretty much no use for the overdrive portion of that thing anymore and it's quite a massive brick, so slapping that onto the board just for the boost isn't something to happen. Ripping out the boost section isn't possible, either (PCB stuff).

And fwiw#2: Boosters along the lines of the RC Boost (and the one in the Goldsmith, which is sort of similar) also work quite great as post-pedal boosts. And even in case you don't boost the level. Depending on the drive pedal used before, they can add quite some punchy goodness.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Runner up is the Voodoo Lab Giggity.

Great pedal (checked it out quite a bit some years back). But too expensive and, even more important, too big for my board.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Great pedal (checked it out quite a bit some years back). But too expensive and, even more important, too big for my board.

I can't remember what I paid, it's been a lot of years but I still have it. Don't remember it being that expensive back then though?

 

[Sascha Franck]

I can't remember what I paid, it's been a lot of years but I still have it. Don't remember it being that expensive back then though?

It's €209 over here. Which I think is quite a lot for a single function pedal.

 

[mavrick102000]

Keeley Katana