Has anyone tried the Blackstar pedals?

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modland

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Baically I've got a Orange Rocker 30, and it doesn't have a FX loop for a volume pedal (switchable), and I don't fancy using an inline wah style volume pedal.

Blackstar do a boost pedal, and I was curious if anyone else on here has tried one or reccomend something for the job,

Thanks all in advance,
John
 
If you want a clean boost that doesn't add distortion and just adds straight volume I use a Behringer Boost...works well for me....and it costs around the same price as a packet of Elixer strings
PB100_P0429_Right_web.jpg

Features

* Boost the volume and shape the sound of any instrument
* Switch to turbo-mode when playing solos
* Boost up piezo pickups to match regular amplifier inputs
* Dedicated Gain, Bass and Treble controls for awesome sound shaping
* Status LED for effect on/off and battery check
* Runs on 9 V battery or the BEHRINGER PSU-SB DC power supply (not included)
* First-class electronic On/Off switch for noise-free operation
* High-quality components and exceptionally rugged construction ensure long life
* Conceived and designed by BEHRINGER Germany :eek:
 
John

Good to see you back, hope you've made a full recovery!! How's things?


Oze

I have one Behringer pedal, a delay, and while the pedal sounds OK when it's switched on, it affects the sound very badly when it's off, have you compared the quality of the signal going through the boost pedal when switched off, to when it's totally bypassed?
 
Because they're such a cheap pedal I'm guessing it's not a true bypass..kinda like pedals used to be back when we were youngsters..lol.
Try putting the delay last in your pedal chain..tat's how I have the boost set up and I haven't noticed any signal issues....I've been using it for about 2 years now and as a clean boost it works perfectly..keeping my tone and just making it louder for solos.
 
I did have the delay last in the chain, it's currently in the cupboard where it cant screw with my tone!

I have quite a few pedals that aren't true bypass, mostly Boss, and when they are switched off and out of the chain there is next to no effect on the signal. Putting the Behringer in there adds noise, and really does remove all the top-end sparkle from the tone.
 
Hi again all, I have made a full recovery, but on the 6th, my motorbike was stolen from my home address and I chased the theif on it on the night, I am having a real hard time with local police cause they don't have a clue what they are doing, have recovered it for fingerprinting and now Mids want over ?200 off me for recovery that Cleveland Police told me they would pay for, I have no faith in the police now

Anyway, I am meant to be joining a band which would require dual lead guitars, so I need something to switch up the volume but don't want anything to affect the sound. Other option is buying an Orange Thunderverb 50 head, which would have a FX Loop
 
Hmmm.."top end sparkle" isn't my bag....so maybe that's why I haven't noticed anything :-?
 
Depending on how you are running the amp, if you are not running totaly clean with loads of head-room left, anything you try will 'affect the sound" An amp running flat-out will just saturate and sustain more if you boost the input, rather than increase in volume.

I use a treble booster ala Tony Iomi for leads, but have used a tubescreamer in the past with good success, but if you have a dimed metal sound with the amp cranked up I don't think you will get anything that will increase the volume and leave the sound the same unless you buy another amp and switch on the second one for lead breaks!

If you can give me a better idea of the sound you have and the sound you are looking for I might be able to help.
 
modland said:
Blackstar do a boost pedal, and I was curious if anyone else on here has tried one or reccomend something for the job,

Do you know which end of a soldering iron is the hot one? Then you can build an FX kit. BYOC do a particularly excellent boost pedal kit that houses THREE boost circuits, including the classic Rangemaster, in one small enclosure.

EDIT: Just re-read your first post, especially the bit about the fx loop. You don't need one to use a switcheable volume pedal - gain based pedals such as these are designed to go in the main line.
 
modland said:
Anyway, I am meant to be joining a band which would require dual lead guitars, so I need something to switch up the volume but don't want anything to affect the sound.

How about buying a bigger cabinet for the amp?
 
Hi again all, right, lets see where to begin

I currently own a Orange Rocker 30 (Combo)

I am a sound engineer for a local band and the guitarist has a Marshall DSL100 head, which has a FX loop and he has a volume pedal which is in his fx loop, one knob for the volume for rhythm, and thats it, so when its switched on, it bypasses the volume knob, sorry I dont know the brand.

I am into all sorts of music, and I mean all sorts, everything from the likes of the beatles through to iron maiden, nirvana, reuben, kings of leon, deftones, feeder, oasis etc etc

The band I am meant to be playing in used to play older rock stuff, nothing heavy really, thin lizzy, hence the dual lead, and their new setlist for their new line up includes thin lizzy, green day, clapton, tom petty, pearl jam etc etc,

I don't have the money to go out and buy a new amp, but if I am going to be playing some lead parts I will need to be able to have a good control on my level, hence my current problem

I love the tone from my amp and I've toyed with the idea of using my Boss DS1 for the lead parts and my overdrive channel for distorted parts and vice versa, but the tone doesnt work, ive got other boss pedals too, but I can't find anything to fit, if the money was there i'd just buy the Thunderverb 50 head, but its not,

Sorry for the long dragging out of this all but hopefully i've covered everything
 
Almost with you John :)

The DSL100 gets most of it's distortion from the pre-amp, so if he's not running the amp flat out, the volume pedal in the loop is in effect (scuse the pun) turning his master volume up or down, so the sound will stay largely the same.

A clean boost, or volume pedal in front of your amp will affect the gain on the signal resulting in more, or less distortion, it's exactly the same as rolling your guitar volume up & down.

A few suggestions:

Try using the dirty chanel set up for crunch, and use the clean channel with the DS-1 (or another dist pedal) for the lead sound, that way you have control over how much gain/volume you apply as you are starting with a nice clean tone. If you use the DS-1 in front of the already distorted channel it'll probably mush up a bit!
 
Hi again,
I'm not happy with the tone of the DS1 as a lead, and I don't think I'd survive with it as a rhythm, that was the argument, I want to keep the Orange tone, but need to have a lead volume, I don't want to use the guitar volume knob to sort that, or have a wah style volume pedal, the whole Blackstar thing was, they do a boost pedal, and I thought that would probably be my best bet as its a valve incorporating pedal, if i could use it to boost the volume, it would keep a good tone and boost the volume, im sorry for my explanations, I explain things like the clown fish on finding nemo tells jokes
 
You're explaining everything very well. The trouble is putting a boost pedal in front of ANY overdriven valve amp WILL change the sound, and if the amp is quite heavily overdriven this will have more of a gain/distortion boost rather than the volume boost you are looking for.

If you like your mates volume pedal in the effects loop solution you could try asking a tech if he could fit a loop to your Rocker-30, it would probably cost less than a Blackstar pedal. Alternatively borrow all the pedals you can until you find one you like.

God luck :D
 
modland said:
the whole Blackstar thing was, they do a boost pedal, and I thought that would probably be my best bet as its a valve incorporating pedal, if i could use it to boost the volume, it would keep a good tone and boost the volume,

I wouldn't be too worried about the valve in the blackstar pedals. As far as I'm aware, there's a ton of solid state stuff in there too, ICs, transistors and the like. In my opinion, anyway, as long as the amp is valve, the pedals can be solid state (as long as the pedals sound good, of course)- it should still sound like a valve amp, kind of thing.

I haven't tried the blackstar pedals yet, though. But i thought the artisan amp they do was overhyped.

JohnA said:
You're explaining everything very well. The trouble is putting a boost pedal in front of ANY overdriven valve amp WILL change the sound, and if the amp is quite heavily overdriven this will have more of a gain/distortion boost rather than the volume boost you are looking for.

agreed. if all your pedals are true bypass it'll probably change the tone slightly when switched in anyway (i think that's how it works).
 
I'm not really getting anywhere here am I, i'm just going to look into modding my Rocker 30 with an FX Loop so I can put a volume pedal in
 
Just a thought. You could contact Orange and see if they would add an FX loop for you, that way it wouldn't invalidate your warranty.
 
Modland, I agree that you're not getting anywhere here and I very much doubt that Orange will mod your amp - you'll have to lose the warranty and go to a third party modder. I don't think you're approaching the problem from the correct angle - it sounds like you want to have your cake and eat it too, and are considering some very unusual options to get there.

I don't think you'll get the versatility you need without a little sacrifice, even if its as simple as learning to use the guitar's onboard volume control. You say you've considered using channel switching and a DS1 in your setup - have you considered a simple transparent overdrive pedal in that configuration? Maybe a digitech bad monkey or a marshall guvnor? Crank the level control and keep the gain to a minimum.
 
If the budget allows then you won't get a better spec'd & transparent pedal than Xotic RC Booster. It'll add up to +20dB of clean boost, and has very good controls to o/drive your sound if that's what you need. It's a bit pricey but a serious contender.
Check here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY9dIk748FY
and - http://www.xotic.us/effects/rc_booster/

Also check Xotic AC Booster if you want a bit more tubescreamer range grunt.
 
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