Advice sought on Boosters..

Beexter

Just wondering how you use yours?

Is it an "always on" effect that you control from the guitar volume pot or do you just kick it on for solo's?

Reason I ask is that the early Dallas Rangemaster didn't have a footswitch, so I guess it was either on for a whole song, or it wasn't.

My understanding is that a booster will increase the gain of the signal arriving at the input of the amp? Most true boosters I've seen have a single volume/ gain control - I assume that if this control is turned way up, you will effectively overload the pre-amp valves in the amp causing a clean amp to start breaking up as you slam the input tubes with too much signal. Of course, if the amp is already overdriven, it'll take it up a notch.

Is that right or am I missing the point?

If that is the case, do you have to be careful about what pedals come after the booster - I would imagine it would be easy to overdrive the input of most effects pedals if the booster is set high?

That being the case, do you tend to run them at the end of the chain?

In principle, it has to be one of the simplest things to use but as you can see, I've got the potential to get it very wrong so would appreciate input from those more knowledgeable than me!

Fiftyshadesofjay

I think you've covered a lot of it there.  They normally overdrive (or boost) the signal so they're good for pushing the preamp valves of an amp if going straight in.  They can also add they're on tone, the Zvex SHO i used to have certainly added a little extra sparkle as well as the boost.

As you've suggested they will push the pedal afterwards rather than the amp if used that way, this can sound good though so it's worth experimenting.

You can also use them in an FX loop for a pure volume boost for solo's.

Faff

I have a wampler talent booster (talent disappointedly not boosted before you start! ) which is supposed to bd a transparent boost but it does add a bit of sparkle and space and definitely makes amp sound better so I leave it on all of the time full whack in the fx loop.