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Digitech Bad Monkey Overdrive Guitar Pedal Review

By  Bob Glastetter | Published  07/12/2006 | Guitar Effects and Pedals
Rating:

Digitech Bad Monkey Guitar Pedal Review

? Well the first thing I noticed was the great build quality of the pedal. Heavy, strong and well made, very impressive. This should handle the real world gigging situation easily. Controls are Level, Low, High and Gain. There is also a?additional mixer output feature?so both the regular output and mixer out can run at the same time, cool for recording.

? How's she sound? Let's get to the good stuff. The level control is just for turning the pedal volume?up?or down, simple we all get what that does. Now here's the good stuff. Low? end is something?that drops out of the Ibanez Tube screamers, this one has it?in spades. No lost low end and it can actually boost for fatter and thicker notes. Killer. High end is great also with a wide band of adjustment, excellent. Now to Gain:? Bad Monkey shines here from subtle overdrive to classic rock crunch. Much more gain than the Tube Screamer and?more versatile. Cool!

? But what about tone? Well Bad Monkey is a overdrive designed to retain the original tonal character of your guitar and amp but just add overdrive. Home run on this one,??THE best?overdrive at retaining your original?sound I've ever played?PERIOD! ?Sonically clear with no tone sucking when the pedal is off either, really blows the Ibanez Tube Screamer away. There is a pronounced mid hump that boosts the mids up just like the original tube screamer, some?players don't like this but I love it. It really makes your solo notes cut thru the band in a live situation?and stick out in the mix for recording. SRV and Metallica have used? Tube Screamers to?perfection.?For $50 this pedal can't be beat ANYWHERE even by spending much more. So if you're in the market for a traditional overdrive try this one out.

?Dislikes: The battery changing is a bit different in that there are release pins that must be pushed in to release the compartment. A guitar cable works great for this but I just?like the Boss style better.?

? Overall review:? 9 out of 10 with only one dislike which is?a high review rating?for me. Do yourself a favor just try it out and if you can try it out against the Ibanez Tube Screamer and see what YOU think!
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Comments
  • Comment #1 (Posted by Mark)
    Rating
    Neither the manual nor the unit itself indicate tranformer specs or polarity. Makes it hard to know what 9v adapter to use. Otherwise, this pedal is transparent and tonefully terrific.
     
  • Comment #2 (Posted by sahiet)
    Rating
    En una excelente opcion para quienes estan buscando un overdrive, su apariencia es rustica y muy vistosa, a demas tiene dos salidas, una para el ampec y otra para el mixer, cuestion esta muy interesante y de mucha utilidad, su precio es muiy comodo, en comparacion con otros overdrive, como por ejemplo el boss blues driver, el cual tambien es un gran pedal, promucho mas costoso.
    su sonido es excelente ,, se puede variar desde un estilo t bone walker hasta un grunch mas fuerte,, tiene el tipico sonido vintage.
    Comparado con el blues driver de boss prefiero el bad monkey, por que es un clasico overdrive, el bos es mas un distorcion moderado , o un over muy fuerte, el bad monkey es blusero por naturaleza y estoy seguro que quedaran satisfechos con sus prestaciones.
     
  • Comment #3 (Posted by rk)
    Rating
    i like it esp for the price. I agree








    i like that the boss changes the battery much easier.
     
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