Bad Monkey love...

Bridgehouse

A while back, Mrs B bought me a Bad Monkey, cos she 'loved the name'

I've never really used it much till now. Stuck it on my new bass pedal board through a Boss LS2 to mix with dry.

Dimed Low and High, put a bit of gain in and set the level. Turns out it's a flipping awesome bright boost that really makes the tone pop.

Who'd have thought it, eh?

Any others love their Bad Monkey?

guitarfishbay

Yeah it's a good pedal.

Also very good as a boost for high gain amps as you can drop the bass even lower than a TS if you need to.  With a Dual Rec on Red/Modern this can get it into actual modern territory, rather than 90s modern.

Reverend

Sounded beefier than a Maxon 808 into one of my JMP 2203 heads 

steer

I liked the Bad Monkey more than my Ibanez tubscreamer. 

Bridgehouse

My expectations were low tbh, but the reality is, it's a bloody good boost. It's really good with bass, which surprised me. Mixing it with dry using the LS-2 has preserved the low end thump - its like it's giving the top end and harmonics some drive and sparkle.

Really chuffed. 

clarkefan

I had a different experience with mine, it dulls the treble to my ears, I could hear it clear as day. Only thing I noticed that was worse was an old wah years ago.

Sassafras

ICBM

To be honest I found it very underwhelming after all the hype about them originally. I much prefer the hot Head and the Screamin' Blues.

Bridgehouse

ICBM said:

To be honest I found it very underwhelming after all the hype about them originally. I much prefer the hot Head and the Screamin' Blues.

Which is what I was expecting.. but no, not on bass, and not when mixed with dry... odd huh?

ThePrettyDamned

ICBM said:

To be honest I found it very underwhelming after all the hype about them originally. I much prefer the hot Head and the Screamin' Blues.

I liked it. It's not good into a clean amp as a distortion but if you use it to push a low watt amp it's pretty ace - bit like a tubescreamer really. 

But yeah, I agree re screaming blues and hot head. I prefer the screaming blues to the boss BD2 actually, although there wasn't a lot in it iirc. Not sure if the circuits are similar. 

mike_l

I like the BM into a dirty Marshall as a boost, just to tighten and give an extra kick.

Voxman

ICBM said:

To be honest I found it very underwhelming after all the hype about them originally. I much prefer the hot Head and the Screamin' Blues.

Ditto re Bad Monkey - I went for the Behringer Vintage Tube Overdrive TO800. Seriously under-rated pedal & IMHO one of the best TS clones out there - it has original 4558 op amps and MA150 distortion diodes. 

Dave_Mc

ThePrettyDamned said:

ICBM said:

To be honest I found it very underwhelming after all the hype about them originally. I much prefer the hot Head and the Screamin' Blues.

I liked it. It's not good into a clean amp as a distortion but if you use it to push a low watt amp it's pretty ace - bit like a tubescreamer really. 

But yeah, I agree re screaming blues and hot head. I prefer the screaming blues to the boss BD2 actually, although there wasn't a lot in it iirc. Not sure if the circuits are similar. 

Yeah I found the bad monkey a bit muffled on the treble. Hard to fault for the price, but for not much more you can get better-sounding tubescreamer-style overdrives. And the buffer in it's not great, either.

Far as I'm aware the screamin blues is a blues driver with a bass control, much like the hot head is a ds1 with a bass control. pretty much the exact same circuit, far as i'm aware, apart from the circuitry for the additional bass knob.

siraxeman

Sold mine a couple of years ago..not cos it wasn't great - it was. Just I had the Hardwire Overdrive that is similar but with a bit more scope (and output). But, Gary Moore sounded good with his! And I remember being stunned at how good it made my DSL sound on the green channel with the boost button engaged on the amp - BM pushing that was a great sound.

IMO the Bad Monkey and Boss SD-1 are 2 of the best ever cheap OD's ever.

Dave_Mc

^ Yeah the hardwire one is essentially a much better bad monkey.

57Deluxe

Still available for Chinese market if you missed getting one!

https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1Q7.EJXXXXXcGXVXXq6xXFXXXa/Electric-Guitar-Effects-Tube-Overload-Digitech-Bad-Monkey-Video-RecordingHigh-Cost-Performance-Overdrive-Distortion.jpg

Voxman

I hadn't realised that the BM is now discontinued.  It was a popular pedal, so I wonder why Digitech withdrew it?

ICBM

Voxman said:

I hadn't realised that the BM is now discontinued.  It was a popular pedal, so I wonder why Digitech withdrew it?

In order to make them collectable and more valuable, the same as anything discontinued.

Have they replaced it with something which is basically the same circuit but in a cheap flat box with a crap footswitch, 'funky' graphics and an even more obscure name? That seems to be standard practice these days.

professorben

ICBM said:

Voxman said:

I hadn't realised that the BM is now discontinued.  It was a popular pedal, so I wonder why Digitech withdrew it?

In order to make them collectable and more valuable, the same as anything discontinued.

Have they replaced it with something which is basically the same circuit but in a cheap flat box with a crap footswitch, 'funky' graphics and an even more obscure name? That seems to be standard practice these days.

But that makes no sense?

making them collectible and desirable sure, but if you ain't making it anymore you can't make money from it?

its prob a chicken-egg thing, but unless it's a long con to reissue the original it seems a bit counterproductive.  

Bridgehouse

professorben said:

ICBM said:

Voxman said:

I hadn't realised that the BM is now discontinued.  It was a popular pedal, so I wonder why Digitech withdrew it?

In order to make them collectable and more valuable, the same as anything discontinued.

Have they replaced it with something which is basically the same circuit but in a cheap flat box with a crap footswitch, 'funky' graphics and an even more obscure name? That seems to be standard practice these days.

But that makes no sense?

making them collectible and desirable sure, but if you ain't making it anymore you can't make money from it?

its prob a chicken-egg thing, but unless it's a long con to reissue the original it seems a bit counterproductive.  

Maybe there's a stupidly cheap transistor or other part they can't get anymore.. can't see it being a con tbh

ICBM

I really need to remember to add smilies to these things .