Just picked up a mxr mini booster

[89strat]

I play in two bands. One band is a three piece and I’ve relied on just my RAT and guitar volume knob for rhythm and leads. My other band is a larger band with two guitars, keys, drums, bass. So my leads are not cutting through. I tried my od808 after my rat to boost my volume, which it does, but it’s a little to coloring, middy, etc.. so decided to try a clean boost because I still want a the character of the RAT. So, i picked up the mxr mini booster.

I had a chance to try it tonight at practice. It’s cool. No problem cutting through. i was playing an hss Strat through a hot rod deville. Had a nice bloom to it and fattened up the single coils, without changing the overall character of them. Using it after my Rat and into the amp was nice also in the way my leads were more present in the mix. But, I felt it changed a little of the character of the RAT a bit, maybe lost a little of the sizzle or compression. Which I guess is where the internal trim pot comes in.

The basic setup of the pedal is that it’s a micro amp with an internal trim pot that adds in echoplex gain, plus a treble cut. I’ll have to try try adjusting the trim to see if I can add some gain or compression to my leads without having to add something else in my signal.



Has anyone tried or use one of these? How do you use it? How do you set the internal trim?

 

[whackystrings]

That sounds great...I was getting jazzed about looking it up but then I lost my interest when you wrote "internal trim pot that adds in echoplex gain". Ah, those &^%#ing internal trims.

"To change the output of the Echoplex Preamp circuit, remove the M293’s bottomplate. Using a trimpot adjustment tool, rotate the internal TRIMPOT clockwise to increase the circuit’s output or counterclockwise to decrease it."

Reference: https://www.jimdunlop.com/content/manuals/M293.pdf

 

[89strat]

Yup, that's an issue. The trim is not subtle, it can add quite a bit of gain, but I couldn't stop in the middle of practice, screw open the bottom and adjust it on the fly. I don't know. I will say, I did have an ep booster at one time, and what I remember of it, I thought this mxr sounded better. But I don't have both at the same time to compare them.

 

[ranchofm]

I had one. I got it for a very specific boost purpose, and it didn't work out in that role. It had too much bass for the chain I had it in. However, using it to push a small amp was great, and when I combined it with an RC Booster it was a righteous tone. It's one pedal that I consider revisiting.

 

[OotMagroot]

I can't get along with mine. I turned the internal gain thingy down, and it is still too dark for me. I liked the EP boost much better, I got rid of the EP boost and still have the MXR mini, go figure...

 

[89strat]

I can't get along with mine. I turned the internal gain thingy down, and it is still too dark for me. I liked the EP boost much better, I got rid of the EP boost and still have the MXR mini, go figure...

I've been playing with it a lot more, I'm using it as a solo boost after a RAT and before Delay into a clean amp. I spent a lot of time with the internal pot. I have it dialed in with the trim at about 25%. I think the trick to using this is the tone control. It's not really a tone control, but rather a tone-cut. At full clockwise, it's not adding treble, but is more at unity. However, because the volume is being boosted, so are the high frequencies, so you could dial it back with the tone cut as needed. I have the tone at about 4:00, and it's still adding fullness but it's not dark. But dialing it back anymore than that, it does get dark. I'm not 100% sold on it, but I think it will work for what I need it to do as a solo boost. It actually sounds good on it own also this way. I would like to try an EP Booster to Compare.

What did you like better about the EP Booster? Where were you using it in your chain?