Along the way in this awesome pedal adventure of mine, I come across a TON of pedal builders, and try to do my best to help out all the little companies I can: get their name out into the world, get links from my site and social media pages to theirs and, of course, buy a pedal whenever the funds present themselves. I’ve been looking for a simple, one knob, always on boost/preamp pedal as of late, and decided to take a chance on a little company in Los Angeles called Beetronics, and a little pedal called the Boos-tah.
Roughly based around the ZVEX Super Hard-On, the Boos-tah is a no-nonsense, one-dial pedal designed to beef up your guitar’s tone and push your amp into a slight breakup. This it does very well, and can be an excellent addition to any board that might be lacking that little bit of extra ZING! needed to really make it stand out. Anything before about 10:00 just makes your initial signal a bit quieter, but around noon it starts to add depth and character to your tone. Up at about 3:00, your amp starts to crackle just a wee bit, and when cranked, your signal is sent into a delicious overdrive. I only used this on a tube amp (a late 90’s Peavey Classic 30, one of my faves), so I can’t really comment on its affect on anything solid state, but it made my amp really sparkle, in a way it definitely doesn’t without a boost of some sort. Not that it sounds bad without it, it’s just that it sounds great with it…you know what I mean, right?
If you’re in need of a good “always on” pedal, might I suggest this one. It’s always great to support the little guys, especially in an industry this big and overwhelming, and this hand-crafted pedal will do you no wrong. Thanks to Filipe for working with me on arranging a review for this pedal, and although this is his only offering at the moment, I see grand things ahead for him and Beetronics.
Submitted by Mike B, Website
Demo Rock pedalboard by West Coast Pedalboard
