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DigiTech Bad Monkey
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DigiTech Bad Monkey

Overdrive pedal from DigiTech belonging to the X series

Guilll Guilll
Published on 03/08/07 at 02:03
It&#39;s an overdrive pedal, ie saturation "soft", which mimics the response of a tube amp a little pushed. But beware, contrary to what one might write, there is no lamp in it! It is analog, but transistors.

The connection is very simple: an instrument input on one side, two outputs (amp / PA) on the other. The output sound is a great idea: it has a speaker simulation and can therefore play without amp, directly into the sound system, a stereo or a computer. Very useful to save or show up in repeat (or together) hands in the pockets with just the guitar and the pedal! In addition, it is possible to connect the two outputs at once, to register while hearing his amp.

It works with a standard 9v battery or an adapter (not included, argggggh). The battery cover opens with lugs réctractables that I find very useful, certainly much more than the screw system from Boss.

Finally, the construction of the pedal is very good: it seems well finished, very strong (the box is metal), and it is very heavy for its size, which avoids sending any ballads kick. In the same vein, the knobs are a bit hard, they will not move if you want them to move. And in addition it has a color and fun names, I like it: o)

UTILIZATION

The general configuration of the pedal is super simple, but at the same time quite complete: there is a knob "level" to wake the neighbors too, a "gain" (saturation), a "low" (to boost or cut low frequencies) and a "high" (same with the treble). Casually that allows many things ... Editing sounds is childish: you turn, and it changes. It quickly fix the settings we like, and then it was only to reproduce them. As for the manual, it is also succinct useless.

The effect of the knobs is a little different on other pedals I tried, or EQ an amp, for example, if you put the bass to zero, the sound is used: the low frequencies are not cut, but simply put somewhat muted. The knobs are used on all their race, which provides an amazing variety of sounds with this little pedal.

Oh, and worse to the fact I just realize a very nice thing by plugging headphones into the output "mixer" gives her a very cushy safe to play at night when everyone is sleeping ... Very handy.

SOUND QUALITY

I use a Vox AD30VT and a half box Aslin Dane to play mostly Blues and Blues-Rock.

In sound, that&#39;s exactly what I expected of an overdrive: a soft, warm saturation. It is difficult to define, but it is a history of more than grain noise distortion. On the other hand, the sound of the pedal enough that depends on the amp: I am well aware with the Vox, by moving from a model to another. Pedal "boosts" the amp, gives an additional gain, while adding his own personality. On a clear sound, we get an overdrive sound and already saturated, well ... it saturates more! Which means that despite its relatively modest level of gain, this pedal can finally go far beyond the overdrive. By pushing the treble to the bottom, I get the same sound a bit "fuzzy" nice. (Note, however, from a certain level of saturation of the core, the effect of the pedal is really negligible).

As I said, the knobs very accurate and usable throughout their run to a great variety of sounds, dominated by the bass or treble, from crunch to overdrive. In addition, the versatility of the pedal is accentuated by the fact that all combinations sound. Thus, even with the treble and bass bottom to zero, the sound is warm and not strident. With my semi-hollow, it is against by not putting too deeply serious if you do not want to take off the wallpaper (it would sound almost like a bass!), But it should be very useful on guitars colder style Stratocaster.

Finally, the pedal continues to sound good even at low volume (due to the level knob), which is very useful if like me you live in a studio with two ...

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for some months now. Before I owned a Boss Blues Driver that I later sold due to lack of money, which I think was a little less versatile than the latter, even if it has more gain.

In short, it&#39;s a great overdrive, very practical and versatile (not "versatile", which has a different meaning in French and English!), Which can also be very useful to boost a the saturated (without going to any metal once). And if we add that the purchase of a well-known German site, it costs only 39 euros, auant that is happiness!