A cable is not
supposed to have
such an impact.
...But it did.
“Better definition in every
aspect. Harmonics flew out
eagerly, the characters in
my sonic story were more
colorful and present. I can’t
believe it. The claims made
by Vovox were apparent.
The lowly cable made an
obvious difference. The
best comparison to my
fellow guitar players is that
the change was on the
level of swapping out a
pickup on your guitar.”
The Keeley Katana and
Xotic EP Booster provide
generous boost capabilities, but intentionally color
your signal in a manner
many players like. The
Katana allows you to add
extra drive by pulling up
on the Volume knob, while
the EP Booster aims for
the tonal juju of a vintage
Echoplex unit of the sort
used by Jimmy Page on
early Led Zeppelin albums.
Max Mobley - www.crawdaddy.com
color your signal in a manner reminiscent
of the old Echoplex tape-delay units used
by Eric Johnson and Jimmy Page. It also
offers internal switches to boost bass or
treble frequencies. Many other boost pedals
also offer overdrive options, leading to an
overlap with effects labeled as overdrives.
One kind of coloring boost pedal that
remains somewhat misunderstood is the
germanium boost. Germanium transistors
were employed in many of the early power
boosters and fuzz pedals used by the classic
British guitarists of the 1960s. One of the
most famous was the Dallas Rangemaster
Treble Booster. Even today, debate rages as
to whether a germanium transistor-based
booster was ever used by Eric Clapton on
the seminal Bluesbreakers “Beano” record,
but there’s no doubt that driving an amp
with such a device will bring you significantly closer to the legendary tones of the
British Invasion era.
If you choose to use a germanium
power boost like the Analog Man Beano
Boost (street $175, analogman.com),
65Amps Colour Boost (street $229,
65amps.com), or Keeley Java Boost (street
$229, robertkeeley.com), there are a few
things to keep in mind:
•;These;are;boost;pedals:;They;will;not
impart distortion to a clean amp at
unity gain (meaning the output signal
of the pedal is the same level as the
input signal). To generate distortion,
you need to be pushing the amp with
the pedal. This means the output of
the activated pedal will be significantly
louder than when it’s bypassed.
•;They;will;impart;a;“British”;sound—
even to “American”-sounding amps.
So if you’re looking for Robben Ford-style, Dumble-like smoothness, they
aren’t suitable.
•;As;with;any;boost;pedal,;germanium
boosts sound best if the amp is already
overdriven a little when the guitar volume is maxed.
•;A;germanium;boost;will;impart;its;char-
acter any time it is on, even if you roll
off your guitar volume and play clean.
swiss engineering - swiss made
www.vovox.com
The Analog Man Beano Boost, 65Amps Colour Boost, and Keeley Java Boost use germanium
transistors to impart a British-type flavor when they’ve driven your amp past unity gain.
