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Post by Tinkerer on Jul 14, 2021 11:26:41 GMT -5
I'm confused about clean boost pedal choices and would appreciate some schooling!! There are many pedals out there that are called "clean boost", but there seem to be 2 main types - those like the TC Electronic Spark Mini which have just a level knob and those which have a gain knob and a level knob (and tone controls). I'm confused about the difference between gain and level when it comes to clean boost and am wondering if there is an advantage between just having the single level knob or having gain and level controls if what I want is a clean boost? Thanks!!
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Post by Leftee on Jul 14, 2021 11:52:40 GMT -5
Think of “gain” as “sensitivity” in these cases.
It’s a nice feature in a clean boost. Especially if you guitars/pickups run the gamut of output levels. It’s not necessary, IMO.
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Jul 14, 2021 11:53:45 GMT -5
I have not looked at the schematics of these, but in its simplest form, a clean boost is a device that increases the amplitude (voltage) of the signal's AC wave form without distorting it. The goal is to drive the preamp stage in the guitar amplifier a bit harder by sending a larger, clean sine wave to the amp for more "push" than the guitar's pickups by themselves can provide. Adding a gain knob is an additional stage that either increases voltage to drive the pedal's internal boost stage harder, or it artificially distorts the sine wave to get some grit or crunch into the tone. Distortion is sometimes called "clipping," because when viewed on a scope the smooth round tops and bottoms of the sine wave are clipped off.
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MoJoe
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Post by MoJoe on Jul 14, 2021 14:18:06 GMT -5
I had both TC Sparks and liked the 4-knob better. Costs about the same and if you can spare the extra space on the board I'd recommend the bigger booster. The mini will do an okay clean boost. The gain pot on the bigger one will in fact roughen things up a little and it has a three-way switch to boost clean/fat/mids which was nice to have. If that matters..
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Post by LeftyMeister on Jul 14, 2021 17:28:07 GMT -5
Geno, that's a good explanation. It also implies the distinction between overdrive and distortion, which is simply the varying level of a distorted waveform.
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Post by Tinkerer on Jul 14, 2021 23:48:28 GMT -5
Thanks everyone!!
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pdf64
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Post by pdf64 on Jul 15, 2021 8:40:41 GMT -5
A clean boost will typically just have a single gain stage. Ignoring any tone controls, if it’s got one knob it will either vary the actual gain of that stage, or the stage will have a fixed, lowish gain (eg x10 = 20dB) and control is most probably an output level / volume / gain potentiometer. If it’s got 2 knobs, one will probably be the circuit’s gain, the other will be an output level pot.
The latter may facilitate some degree of clipping within the pedal, especially if it’s a bit more complex and has 2 gain stages arranged in cascade, ie by turning the circuit gain up and the output level down.
A clean boost may have a flat frequency response, or may have some degree of frequency response shaping. And may have one or more tone controls. The latter might be described as a preamp.
The endless discussion about distinct differences between pedals marketed or otherwise described as overdrive / distortion / preamp / fuzz etc mystifies me. When examining the actual circuits, they all tend to be much of a muchness, variations on a theme, clipping, with any particular variant potentially being described as being one or other or more of the above. It’s not that all overdrives use one method etc, all distortions use another etc. The main circuit features that distinguish one such pedal from another are the means of achieving clipping, and the tonal shaping, before, within / between, and after, the clipping stage/s.
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MoJoe
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Post by MoJoe on Jul 15, 2021 14:10:17 GMT -5
Thanks, great info. I came to similar conclusions by intuition when I was trading the fancy overdrives for different boosters. The all linear ones were found a little blunt and made room for Xotics with their own sound, converting the JTM45 in a sort of three channel amp with outboard gain stages from a boosting compressor into a clean-ish RC into an EP booster. Still sounding all amp, with a fat ring from the comp, more sizzle/RC or plain porkish/EP. Couldn't be happier.
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