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by Jim Button February 07, 2020 2 min read
Let's start by addressing the elephant in the room. Digital vs analogue guitar pedals: which are better?
Well the truth is, neither! Much like cars or guitars, it's not a manufacturer's philosophy that matters, but how they implement it. There are great digital pedals and awful analogue pedals, and vice-versa.
Transistors are responsible for providing a pedal's gain, and come in various flavours: BJTs, MOSFETs, JFETs, silicon, germanium and opamps.
Clipping diodes can be used to simulate tube distortion by "clipping" or squaring-off the tops and bottoms of the waveform. They are used in conjunction with a transistor (which produces the waveform to be clipped by the diode) to achieve the distortion effect.
Resistors and capacitors are responsible for shaping the sound, maybe knocking off some top end or adding a midrange boost.
For more complicated analogue effects such as delays, phasers and choruses, bucket brigade delay (or BBD) integrated circuits are used. Consisting of thousands of transistors, BBDs are responsible for the desirable signal degradation found in so many analogue pedals.
The many different circuit layouts and individual component values can drastically affect the sound of an analogue pedal, and they can also be sensitive to voltage changes, heat and dynamics, so a fading battery, dodgy mains or wet weather can play havoc with stability!
Famous examples of analogue pedals include the Dunlop Fuzz Face, Ibanez TS-808 Tubescreamer, and Dunlop Cry Baby Wah.
In the 1980s, mass-produced, affordable microchips changed the landscape forever. Along with the first calculators and home computers, microchips found their way into guitar pedals.
Some of the signature sounds of the era are a result of this change. These early microchips were pretty basic and couldn't manage the high sample rates of modern equivalents, meaning the sampled guitar signal could often be compressed and low fidelity, in the same way a low quality mp3 sounds less realistic and expansive than hi-res lossless audio.
Once the signal is sampled and converted to digital 0s and 1s, effects can then be applied using digital signal processing (DSP). The abilities of early digital pedals were limited due to the processing power required, but as processing power has increased, so has the ability for pedals to apply a multitude of effects at high resolutions.
Today we are spoilt for choice, with multi-fx units able to provide users with a whole rig, and digital effects pedals offering users plenty of tonal options.
This is where the big difference between analogue and digital pedals is felt: whereas analogue pedals are favoured for their imperfections, analogue warmth and amp-like distortion, digital pedals have given guitarists access to unique effects that the analogue realm can't achieve. At its simplest, this means longer delay times in a delay pedal, while at the more complex end of the spectrum it means realistic cab and amp sims that can be loaded from a large database of digitised gear.
Famous digital pedals include the Line 6 Pod, Boss DD-3 Digital Delay and DigiTech Whammy.
by Jim Button April 18, 2023 12 min read
by Guest Author August 26, 2022 3 min read
by Jim Button June 24, 2022 5 min read
This Pedal is easy to use and has many sweet spots! Perfectly tuned combination of two legendary circuits! Highly recommended!
super fun trem, decent sound, huge volume. havent spent a lot of time messing about with it, but did have a play with the slide and drift feature which are a nice bonus. cant wait to have more time to play around with it.
Boost Guitar Pedals are great as always, fast delivery
been playing it a few days now, and have it set up so it works with with whatever i thow at it. its in my chain after OD but Before Distortion. feedback dial is great and can have it very far clockwise before it sends you in an infinity loop, mix is a bonus, i haven't messed about with the shapes much yet because i found a dreamy setting i dont want to change. would highly recommend isolated power suppy, it did not like daisy chain or cheap single wall one, but works smooth with isloated brick
Boost Guitar is great again to got it within 24 hours of shipping
Perfect for that traynor amp growl on bass. There’s a lot of scope with gain and EQ controls (which sound ace wherever you dial them in). Had the Tronographic Rusty Box before this which I regrettably had to sell; this is a perfect (and smaller, less power hungry) substitute.
I spent months searching for an affordable vibe pedal that actually sounded authentic.
Not only does this have the very sound that I was after, without a ton of tweaking, but it is priced reasonably too. It is not at the cheap end of the market, but for a hand-built pedal with dual speeds this is unbeatable.
The sound is spot on. Warm and rich with the throb missing from many of the lower-priced pedals. The second speed makes it easy to switch between chord and solo settings.
The delivery was amazing too - ordered in Friday afternoon and delivered on Sunday morning!
I can’t recommend this highly enough to anyone looking for the best univibe around.
add another 5 stars, im no pro but i know what sounds i like and the Bloom is the sound i like. ive had Boss BD2, donner dumble drive, Tumnus and Tumnus deluxe but to me The Bloom tops them all. its a well built easy to dial in. having full gain is so clear and not nosiy. only tried with my strat single coils atm. the distortion isint the best but im comparing it to the Drunk Beaver Batv2 and have a feeling that its a layer distortion for another distortion pedal. fuzz is lush. the chip and fat switch really bring it to live and gives you more options for sound. i cant believe this is made by 1 guy. To me Drunk Beaver are up there with the best pedal makers. could send hours going on about the great things. and im only useing a boss katana mk2 no tube amp but you can get some faux tube headroom with the right switch. if you like the demos, well i got good news, it sound way better in person
Boost Guitat Pedals are great too, fast delivery, great communication. couldnt ask for a better store
Bone white Davies 1611
The Bleak District Tapescape is one of the best delay and ambience style pedals ever invented. The controls are all intuitive but highly flexible, the sounds are rich and detailed, the modulation can go from dreamy to nightmarish very quickly, and all of that inside a small footprint with a low power requirement. It's difficult to get a bad sound out of it, honestly.
Add in that Boost shipped it out quickly and it arrived with a nice note written on the invoice, is there anything else you could ask for? Definitely will be buying more from both Boost and Bleak District in future.
Part came as described. Website was easy use.
very cool pedal
Awesome service and communication all along!
Will gladly order again
I ordered a set of strings from Boost, that did not initially turn up. After contacting Boost via the website they immediately sent out another set (no questions asked). Both sets arrived a few days later (Thanks Royal Mail!). Boost were prompt in dealing with the issue (gave) me a set of strings and got things sorted out. Highly recommend you use these guys.
My favourite strings, at a great price! Very reasonable postage rates and speedy service. My first purchase from Boost, but will definitely not be my last. Hassle free, excellent...
Jazzmaster happy🙏
I didn’t know that particular manufacturer from Italy, but I definitely recommend their "Vintage Vibe”. It’s simple, intuitive, it looks awesome, the build quality seems impeccable, and most importantly, it sounds fantastic.
Pre-ordered the Tapescape through Boost Pedals. Great pedal, great order experience
I'll be away from my pedalboard from 6th - 18th April...but you can still browse!
I'll ship all outstanding orders on Friday 19th April.
All the best,
Jim