Boost

Hi there,

Looking at getting a nice clean boost with some EQ control. Interested in Walrus Audio Plainsman (which is discountiuned but pretty cheap from reverb) or MXR Microamp + (microamp with bass and treble contorls) Microamp has many reviews but plainsman very few. Any thoughts?

Thanks

it has very few reviews because only a boob pays Walrus prices for a boost... even one with tone controls is such a simple circuit that it requires no R&D and very few parts to put out. The mian thing that separates boosts is the gain amplification semiconductor. You cna do soem voicing stuff around that but the soul of the boost is that transistor or IC. What really differentiates a LPB1, microamp, katana, and SHO? THe amplification is achieved via a BJT, IC, Jfet and Mosfet respectively... the supporting circuitry will be different for those different semiconductors of course and they all react differently to a 9 volt single power rail. Input caps, treble and abss controls,that's all we;ll and good but the soul of a boost is that amplification device and the supporting circuitry. They all sound different...

Paying Walrus levels of money for a boost seems silly unless it's special in some way

I might add that there aren't a lot of bad MXR products. They had some questionable ideas in the 80s before they shut down but none of them were bad pedals, they just had some warts. MXR is an excellent company, seldom bettered by the sall 'boutique' builders in my experience. For a meat and potatoes effect like a boost with tone controls I don't think you can go wrong with the deluxe MicroAmp

I was recently playing with some boost pedals, and still stand by our findings here. Love both the MXR and the Exotic EP.

the EP sounds really good for being unfaithful to the echoplex pre on a number of levels. Those xotic guys made soemthing new and awesome in its own right.

Thanks for your help guys, I've tried the EP boost and it's not really my thing. I completly agree that buying a boost for the price of a walrus pedal is crazy but actually it's a bout $10 cheaper for me to buy the walrus from reverb

• https://reverb.com/nz/p/walrus-audio-plainsman
• https://reverb.com/nz/p/mxr-micro-amp-plus

no kidding, then you answered your own question. To be honest I wouldn't pay more than $100 for any boost. There's nothing in them. If you include the box its maybe $20 in parts and 15 minutes labor populating and soldering the PCB and attaching jacks/switch if they're on flying leads... if its all board mounted then maybe 10 for an eperienced pro. If you can use surface mount parts and a sodler bath then tis like a pedal per minute and another minute for mounting in the box and a quick QC check by a human.

So your saying to build my own pedal? Sorry I'm a little lost, bascially where I'm is both pedals are going to cost me around $105USD, so what would you suggest?

Honestly, that's not a bad route to go

I said I don't pay for boost... you do whatever you want, ya kiwi

and which one am I talking to, anyway? Mark or Eric?

you obviously want the boutique one so buy it... here's the thing with these small fancy brands that are so popular now. If you're touring its always better to buy stuff you can replace at any music store in almost any town in case something you can't live without gets broken, lost or stolen last minute. More stores are carrying these small company fncy pants pedals these days but even the big box stores in the USA like Sam Ash and GC focus on different brands and certainly they don't stock every pedal whereas you can walk into any store any place and be pretty sure of finding most of the MXR line and be 99.9% positive that in a pinch you can get an ordinary microamp with 1 knob rather than 3 that'll probably get close enough. Even if they still made the plainsman it might be tough to find at 7pm on Saturday night in St Louis. If you're not planning on getting in a van or bus and gigging all over the place for months on end then get the one that sounds better or that you think will sound better... if you have dreams of the open road? go for availability. For 100 bucks each buy both and sell one when you decide what your preference is! Or pull a Jim and plan on selling one but keep it anyway because $100 is less than you spend at the bar on Fridays.

or yeah, just try building a boost with tone controls... there's a million idiot-proofed boost kits and you'll learn a life skill putting one together. You'll overpay for the parts but in the future you'll be able to build something you want if eneded and you'll be able to fix your pedals yourself thanks to elarning about how a little hi z amplifier works

thanks man, and maybe your talking to mark eric? who knows

middle name And?

haha well my name is actually Darcy but when i made this account eric clapton and mark knopfler were my favourite guitar players ;)

like Pride and Prejudice Darcy or Smashing Pumpkins Darcy?

I know which one I prefer

definitly smashing pumpkins

Correct.

so is Darcy a male name in New Zealand or are you deisgnated female? ebcause there aren't lieke ANY women who regular post to these tpye of emssagebaords and it would be a good thing to ehar you're not a dude.

and for real, build a boost pedal.... elarning electronics is a good diea for an electric guitarist... I was just inside my vintage traynor ehad alla fternoon trying a new master volume type and tweaking the gain up where the channels mix... I keep pushing it to be like a hiwatt or vintage orange on steroids. If I ahdn't built a boost as a kid I woulda never been able to do this.