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by Jim Button October 09, 2021 4 min read
Ever wondered what NOS means? Or what the four-cable method is? Some guitar pedal terms can be confusing but below we explain some of the most common (and some not-so-common) words related to guitar pedals.
Guitar Pedals were originally built with analogue circuitry - resistors, capacitors and transistors - before microchips became widely available. Today, analogue pedals are revered for their "organic" sounds and response to picking, although some may argue that the gap is narrowing.
Read: Digital vs Analogue Guitar Pedals
Artisan is defined as "made in a traditional way by someone who is skilled with their hands", which we believe sums up the builders we work with and the pedals they build.
BBD is an integrated circuit and the abbreviation stands for "bucket brigade-delay", referring to how the signal is passed from transistor to transistor, resulting in a degradation of signal. You'll find BBD chips in many analogue-style delays for this very reason.
"Boutique" is a term widely used to describe guitar pedals made in small volumes, often by hand, with high quality components and eye-catching artwork, but it is actually defined as "a small fashionable business that sells a particular product or service". We believe "boutique" is best used to describe the very high quality tones these pedals are capable of producing, hence our slogan: Artisan Pedals | Boutique Tones. See ARTISAN.
Read: What Is A Boutique Guitar Pedal?
A buffer is part of your signal chain that preserves tone. Often found in guitar pedals, it amplifies or 'buffers' the signal to help it through a pedal's internal circuitry with minimal loss. You can also purchase standalone buffers. Buffers are perfect for combatting signal degradation from long cable runs or large pedalboard setups.
Clipping is a type of waveform distortion that occurs when you push a circuit beyond its capabilities, leading to the peaks of the sine wave turning into more of a square wave. Different components clip in different ways; the two key types of clipping are soft and hard clipping.
Read: What Are Clipping Diodes?
Diodes are components used in a guitar pedal to achieve clipping. There are many different types of diode that can be used, including silicon, germanium and LED. See CLIPPING for more.
Used to connect pedals up to your amp so that boost, distortion, wah etc can go in front of the amp but time and modulation effects such as reverb, delay and phaser can go through the amp's effects loop - i.e after the preamp section.
Read: What Is the Four-Cable Method?
The element germanium (Ge) is used as a semi-conductor in transistors and diodes. Germanium components were used in early guitar pedals, such as the Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster, before being replaced by more stable, higher purity silicon. Germanium transistors and diodes are revered these days for the warm, organic, "vintage" tone they confer on pedals but they can be extremely sensitive to temperature changes, unlike silicon.
NOS is the abbreviation of "New Old Stock", referring to original vintage transistors, resistors and diodes that have never been used before. Some pedal builders scour the globe for small batches of these finite components. They are favoured in vintage-style circuits to help get as close as possible to the original pedal.
Described by the Cambridge English Dictionary as "a regular change in strength or direction in a wave or electric current", oscillation in the context of a tremolo pedal refers to the rapid increase then decrease in volume of the soundwave.
Patch cables are short instrument cables (1/4" TS unbalanced) designed to connect up several guitar pedals while minimising cable length. Excess cable length can not only get in the way but it can also affect tone.
All guitar pedals require a power supply. The vast majority run on 9V, allowing a battery to be used (if there's a battery snap built into the design of the pedal). While it's important to ensure your pedals run at the correct voltage to avoid damage, it's also important to pay attention to the power draw in mA. If your power supply doesn't provide enough mA, your pedal may not work correctly. Most analogue pedals typically draw between 50 and 200mA, while digital pedals prefer much more - up to 500mA. If you own several pedals it's worth investing in a multi-pedal power supply with outputs that allow you to tailor power delivery for each pedal.
Silicon (Si) is the element which largely replaced germanium as the semi-conductor of choice for pedal builders from the late 1960s onwards. Unlike germanium, silicon is temperature-stable and its purity enables a fuller tonal signal to pass through. It also appealed to builders as it's cheaper to manufacture silicon-based components. In character, silicon-based pedals can be said to be more aggressive compared to germanium equivalents.
Stacking is the act of combining two or more drive pedals in order to push the input stage of the subsequent pedal for a saturated, full character. Careful balancing of gain stages between the pedals can also achieve more nuanced tones than a single pedal can produce.
Tap-tempo is built into many digital time-based pedals, allowing on-the-fly adjustment to rate or time parameters in time with the tapping of your foot on an integrated or external footswitch.
Valves can be used in pedals to give a more amp-like, analogue character. Some players value the response and transparency that valves give compared to MOSFETs, op-amps and transistors.
by Jim Button April 18, 2023 12 min read
by Guest Author August 26, 2022 3 min read
by Jim Button June 24, 2022 5 min read
This Pedal is easy to use and has many sweet spots! Perfectly tuned combination of two legendary circuits! Highly recommended!
super fun trem, decent sound, huge volume. havent spent a lot of time messing about with it, but did have a play with the slide and drift feature which are a nice bonus. cant wait to have more time to play around with it.
Boost Guitar Pedals are great as always, fast delivery
been playing it a few days now, and have it set up so it works with with whatever i thow at it. its in my chain after OD but Before Distortion. feedback dial is great and can have it very far clockwise before it sends you in an infinity loop, mix is a bonus, i haven't messed about with the shapes much yet because i found a dreamy setting i dont want to change. would highly recommend isolated power suppy, it did not like daisy chain or cheap single wall one, but works smooth with isloated brick
Boost Guitar is great again to got it within 24 hours of shipping
Perfect for that traynor amp growl on bass. There’s a lot of scope with gain and EQ controls (which sound ace wherever you dial them in). Had the Tronographic Rusty Box before this which I regrettably had to sell; this is a perfect (and smaller, less power hungry) substitute.
I spent months searching for an affordable vibe pedal that actually sounded authentic.
Not only does this have the very sound that I was after, without a ton of tweaking, but it is priced reasonably too. It is not at the cheap end of the market, but for a hand-built pedal with dual speeds this is unbeatable.
The sound is spot on. Warm and rich with the throb missing from many of the lower-priced pedals. The second speed makes it easy to switch between chord and solo settings.
The delivery was amazing too - ordered in Friday afternoon and delivered on Sunday morning!
I can’t recommend this highly enough to anyone looking for the best univibe around.
add another 5 stars, im no pro but i know what sounds i like and the Bloom is the sound i like. ive had Boss BD2, donner dumble drive, Tumnus and Tumnus deluxe but to me The Bloom tops them all. its a well built easy to dial in. having full gain is so clear and not nosiy. only tried with my strat single coils atm. the distortion isint the best but im comparing it to the Drunk Beaver Batv2 and have a feeling that its a layer distortion for another distortion pedal. fuzz is lush. the chip and fat switch really bring it to live and gives you more options for sound. i cant believe this is made by 1 guy. To me Drunk Beaver are up there with the best pedal makers. could send hours going on about the great things. and im only useing a boss katana mk2 no tube amp but you can get some faux tube headroom with the right switch. if you like the demos, well i got good news, it sound way better in person
Boost Guitat Pedals are great too, fast delivery, great communication. couldnt ask for a better store
Bone white Davies 1611
The Bleak District Tapescape is one of the best delay and ambience style pedals ever invented. The controls are all intuitive but highly flexible, the sounds are rich and detailed, the modulation can go from dreamy to nightmarish very quickly, and all of that inside a small footprint with a low power requirement. It's difficult to get a bad sound out of it, honestly.
Add in that Boost shipped it out quickly and it arrived with a nice note written on the invoice, is there anything else you could ask for? Definitely will be buying more from both Boost and Bleak District in future.
Part came as described. Website was easy use.
very cool pedal
Awesome service and communication all along!
Will gladly order again
I ordered a set of strings from Boost, that did not initially turn up. After contacting Boost via the website they immediately sent out another set (no questions asked). Both sets arrived a few days later (Thanks Royal Mail!). Boost were prompt in dealing with the issue (gave) me a set of strings and got things sorted out. Highly recommend you use these guys.
My favourite strings, at a great price! Very reasonable postage rates and speedy service. My first purchase from Boost, but will definitely not be my last. Hassle free, excellent...
Jazzmaster happy🙏
I didn’t know that particular manufacturer from Italy, but I definitely recommend their "Vintage Vibe”. It’s simple, intuitive, it looks awesome, the build quality seems impeccable, and most importantly, it sounds fantastic.
Pre-ordered the Tapescape through Boost Pedals. Great pedal, great order experience
I'll be away from my pedalboard from 6th - 18th April...but you can still browse!
I'll ship all outstanding orders on Friday 19th April.
All the best,
Jim