Ok so I have been on a long quest to make a pedal platform rig. I finally found the perfect Preamp a Dr Boogie Pedal I found on GC used site. However it's missing a little sizzle. Currently I am using a magnum 44 as my power amp, a ltd explorer with EMG pickups 81s to be exact, and a bad monkey to boost along with an ISP for a noise gate. Now over all I am getting great tones and feel with my current setup. But I want my tone to be less dry and a little bit more saturated and a less "robotic" sounding. Is it the pickups the power amp or the boost that I need to change to get a little more wetness out of my tone?
Pedal platform and tone stacking
- Thread starter BrentSSL
- Start date
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DudeManBrother
Hey...how did everybody get in my room?
Well the 81 is very compressed so switching to a mid/high output passive will certainly add more harmonic overtones. Maybe look into a reverb pedal and just add a small amount to create some depth amidst the “dry” tight sound you currently have. Just place it after the Dr Boogie pedal into the 44 mag.
The Bad Monkey is a great TS alternative, and the gate shouldn’t affect the saturation while playing.
When I used EMG’s once upon a time, I think I utilized the chorus effect in my old G major to de tune a couple cents to try and manufacture some harmonic depth. It worked pretty well; but ultimately I decided to give passives a shot and have never looked back
The Bad Monkey is a great TS alternative, and the gate shouldn’t affect the saturation while playing.
When I used EMG’s once upon a time, I think I utilized the chorus effect in my old G major to de tune a couple cents to try and manufacture some harmonic depth. It worked pretty well; but ultimately I decided to give passives a shot and have never looked back
zilla
Grand Poobah
the dr boogie has trimmers inside the pedal that bias the transistors. you can probably adjust them a bit to get more saturation out of them. a tiny adjustment goes a long way.
zilla
Grand Poobah
Post a picture of the insides.
Shask
Well-Known Member
This is interesting, because as far as I know, the Dr. Boogie is a DIY pedal. I don't think you can buy them commercially, so I wonder who built it. I know I have thought about building one many times, and might in the future.
Trimmers are little things you can turn with a screwdriver that are on the circuit board. You have to bias the JFET transistors in that design.
Trimmers are little things you can turn with a screwdriver that are on the circuit board. You have to bias the JFET transistors in that design.
zilla
Grand Poobah
The dr boogie is a really great pedal and with a few mods its even better !
LiveOVErdrive
CNC hack
You might try throwing a graphic EQ in front of the preamp and boost the bass frequencies just a touch. That'll get your signal pretty wet sounding.
bhakan
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure about that pedal, but some of those "preamp" pedals are still meant to be run in front of an amp instead of into a power amp. Maybe running it into a good clean channel might give it a little extra warmth?
zilla
Grand Poobah
There are 5 transistors inside. 1 and 2 are the ones that impact gain and overall tone. Transistor 5 is a buffer and doesn’t need biasing
zilla
Grand Poobah
3rd and 4th bias the 3rd and 4th transistors. They have an impact on saturation but not as much as 1 and 2
shred-o-holic
Well-Known Member
I would say try a different power amp
zilla
Grand Poobah
You don’t need a multi meter but it will make it easier to get it back to where it is now if you don’t like the changes.
