Seymour Duncan pickup booster pedal

[feloniuspunk]

A good friend said this is one of the neatest pedals you can get for about $79. Anyone tried one? What exactly does it do?

SFX-01 Pickup Booster Pedal

 

[jackaroo]

Curious myself. It's intended function seems to be giving a little oomph to low powered single coils. But I'm thinking about it as a clean boost!

JD

 

[spentron]

Well, of the clean boosts on the market, it is one.

 

[LongJohnny]

It is simply a clean boost, with some filtering, for beefing up single coils. You can get some pretty boutique boosts for that kind of money on the 'Bay. Check out Catalinabread Chili Picoso, or some others.

I know a lot of people hate the HC forums, but a lot of pedal DIY'ers hang out there, and build some excellent quality pedals. I would also recommend the HBE Germania pedal, as this is simply an awesome pedal.

John

 

[JPenn]

I think it's a cool pedal. It has a 3 position switch on it , up is vintage humbucker, middle is straight boost, down is hot humbucker. I use the up position when I need a bridge humbucker sound, it really fattens up the mids and shaves off the highend of a bridge single. The down position is like a mix between 1 & 2, it keeps a Strat sounding more like a Strat but adds some lowend. With a humbucker guitar I only use the middle position.

For the price I think it's a good buy, you can cover a lot more ground with a Strat and this pedal than just a Strat alone.

 

[Dave B]

Originally posted by LongJohnny

.....I would also recommend the HBE Germania pedal, as this is simply an awesome pedal.

John

+1. But.......

The Home Brew Germania is a treble booster, not a clean boost. On its Lo-Fi setting, it does the Rangemaster thing, and has more than enough output for me. Put it on the Hi-Fi setting, and the thing must triple its output level and really go over the top. So it can cover a lot of different territory.

 

[jlagrassa]

I had a couple of the SD Boosters and thought i was a good booster Tone wise but I had Issues with both of them. I think if they used better switches I would have kept it.

For a little more money I bought the Barber Launch Pad which is a very nice Booster that can be dialed in at unity gain (Buffer) if you wanted to use it that way the SD Booster had a minimum of 6db gain which I also found to be to high when used as a solo boost!

 

[feloniuspunk]

Tone Quest report

Here's what the September '04 issue of "Tone Quest Report" had to say about this pedal:

"The Duncan Pickup Booster - Once in a while, we discover a tool that embodies the essence of form, function and value. The last product to meet this criterion without reservation was the Holy Grail reverb pedal, and we’ve found another – Seymour Duncan’s Pickup Booster. Best of all, our discovery was quite by accident.

In the afterglow of the Clapton and Doyle Bramhall show, we were researching Fender’s aftermarket Clapton 25 dB mid-boost TBX kit when we found the Duncan Pickup Booster. Then we recalled that Peter Stroud had mentioned it as well, and for $79.00 at Musician’s Friend, we bit. The pedal arrived two days later and did not disappoint.

This effect couldn’t be any simpler, producing 6-25 dB of flat EQ gain, and it’s about as transparent as it gets. Another feature is the Pickup resonance Switch, which is designed to make a single coil sound like a vintage humbucker in the #1 position with a resonance shift down 2-3k Hz, or a high output humbucker in the #2 position with a resonance shift down 3-5k Hz. Very cool, and your guitars with single coil pickups are indeed transformed to wide-glide fatboys (especially Stratocasters).

But our favorite features of the Pickup Booster is the way it seamlessly functions as a dynamic extension of the volume pots on your guitar. Dialing back the guitar volume completely cleans up the tone so efficiently that the pedal acts as an external component in your wiring harness, similar to the 25 dB kit, but without any modifications to your guitar. We love the inexpensive, compact Pickup Booster simply for what it does. So will you."

 

[ToneDog]

I used one for a short time too. It was one of the 9 or 10 boosters I experiemnted with before settling on the RC Booster.

The SD unit was very clear and transparent, however, you can't dial in anything less than the 6db minimum. There were many instances where I wanted something slightly under that but couldn't get it so it had to go. I personally feel that a clean boost should not limit you in that way and the minimum boost setting should start at unity gain.

 

[Blues Wail]

good bang for the buck. a lot of people seem to like the mxr
micro amp more. i prefer the duncan , more volume and clean headroom. no problems i have had it for a year. they had some
problems at first , now they seem to have them corrected. i like
this pedal a lot.

 

[Neon]

There was a thread about the Duncan Pickup Booster appx a month ago.
For more info try this link:

Previous thread about Duncan Pickup Booster

 

[yZe]

Okay, well I got one the other day and it did just what i wanted.

Perfect clean boost w/no coloration and as transparent as possible

I go through a red Bear MKE 120 and when set clean, boost I wanted was there (from subtle to dramatic)

when I Maxed out the gain, it didn't boost the volume, but the pre-amp signal

So i decided to boost the power section by running it through the loop

WOW !!!! Now it's WAY, WAY over the top.

Even when the amp is set pretty gainy

It's way too dramatic

So, upon further inspection, I saw that the thing starts at 6db

So I can't go from zero

So boosting the power section 6db just doesn't cut it

I'm getting the Launch Pad next week

How else could I use this pedal besides trading it back in for some cash?

What is a buffer, anyway?

 

[Digitalman]

I've had one for a while and still use it constantly. I got an MXR Micro-Amp recently and didn't like it as much.
I had to replace the switch in it though, one call to Duncan and a new one was in the mail. An upgraded Carling no less.

It's a great pedal and it's cheap - although I'm still tempted to try out a Picoso...

 

[JPenn]

I'm still using the SD booster for a solo volume boost. Set at very minimum it seems to be just right.

 

[nashvillesteve]

I like the Hotcake Bluesberry just great for a neutral clean boost (and more if I want it), but I'm pretty sure that the SD pickup booster was NOT designed to go in the effects loop...

 

[Curt]

Okay, well I got one the other day and it did just what i wanted.

Be REAL careful with the slide switch. The switch is small, fragile and the switch body will seperate very easily. I've repaired quite a few of them. The only source for the switch I could find was Semour Duncan.
They sound real good by the way.

 

[royd]

another user here. I've had mine for a good while and use it to boost clean solos. 6 db is just about perfect for that. It is extremely transparent, the resonance switch is subtle but effective... It has a permanent spot on my board.

 

[yZe]

I'm pretty sure that the SD pickup booster was NOT designed to go in the effects loop...

I agree, but if one has the preamp gain set pretty hairy, then a boost through the front end only boosts preamp volume, not the real volume

What I was hoping to do was go from some crunchy rhythm and boost it cleanly w/absolutely no extra gain.
If that booster started at zero, I would give it a 150%

Instead of getting my money back, what are some other uses for this pedal which would warrant me hanging on to it?

 

[slingshotmb]

listen.....
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Seymour-Duncan-SFX01-Pickup-Booster-Effects-Pedal?sku=150710

 

[onestop]

Is this pedal True Bypass?