With its great tone and ease of use the Digitech Bad Monkey may out perform the original Tube Screamer or even some pricier boutique overdrive pedals.
Guitar tone aficionados are a pitiful lot. Most of us will spend small fortunes seeking the perfect guitar tone. It starts with the desire to find the perfect guitar to pair with the perfect amp. But that's only the beginning, unfortunately, because the perfect guitar and amp will need to have just the right pedal (or pedals) placed into their perfect signal chain and, you guessed it, what starts as a harmless hobby can quickly become a full-blown case of GAS - gear acquisition syndrome.
Of course over the past several years more and more manufacturers are only too happy to provide we poor GAS victims with an unending supply of "boutique" guitars and amps to satisfy our cravings. By the way, "boutique" is another way of saying "expensive".
In more recent years, builders of effects processors have entered the boutique market with some pretty high ticket offerings. But the next time you get all glassy eyed and light headed when the guy in the NAMM booth goes on about "true bypass" this or "germanium" that just remind yourself that you don't have to spend $250 or more to get a good pedal that will give your perfect guitar and perfect amp the respect they deserve.
Of course over the past several years more and more manufacturers are only too happy to provide we poor GAS victims with an unending supply of "boutique" guitars and amps to satisfy our cravings. By the way, "boutique" is another way of saying "expensive".
In more recent years, builders of effects processors have entered the boutique market with some pretty high ticket offerings. But the next time you get all glassy eyed and light headed when the guy in the NAMM booth goes on about "true bypass" this or "germanium" that just remind yourself that you don't have to spend $250 or more to get a good pedal that will give your perfect guitar and perfect amp the respect they deserve.
Send in the Monkey
Overdrive and distortion pedals are especially plentiful in the growing boutique pedal market and while there are some phenomenal companies making some phenomenal units, it's comforting to know some of the old school manufacturers like Digitech are still offering up some solid products. Case in point: Digitech's Bad Monkey overdrive pedal.
It's no secret that the Bad Monkey is Digitech's take on the venerable Ibanez Tube Screamer but you could say that about 90 percent of the boutique OD pedals on the market today. Afterall, the original TS808 is considered the standard in overdrive tone.If you are lucky enough to find an original TS808 be prepared to spend alot; even the reissues will run over $200. Similarly, the more common TS9 is commanding high prices in the used market and most of the boutique pedals out there will command higher prices than original or reissue TS9's. The Bad Monkey is a more than viable option to the Ibanez (or many of the boutique contenders). And while it covers very similar ground (it's even the same "seasick" green), it does some things differently (better?) than the Ibanez and at a fraction of the cost.
Bad Monkey Compared to Ibanez TS9
The Bad Monkey's design is fairly simple and straight forward. Right to left you'll find controls for Gain, HIgh, Low and Level. You'll note on the Ibanez TS9 that there are only three knobs. Instead of separate controls for high and low frequencies there is a single Tone control. This is the first improvement on the original Ibanez design. You'll have much more tonal control with the Bad Monkey.The gain control covers the same territory as the TS9. Keep in mind that both the Bad Monkey and the TS9 are overdrive pedals. If you are looking for a pedal to play hardcore, grindcore or any other kind of "core" you'd be better off looking elsewhere. But if you're looking for good, midrangy, classic rock overdrive, either pedal will get you there. One of the key differentiators between the Bad Monkey and TS9 is the level control. The Bad Monkey seems to have a much broader volume range than the Tube Screamer. One complaint about the TS9 (and especially the later TS10) has been that when kicking in the overdrive the output level barely matches that of the clean signal.Not so with the Bad Monkey. It has plenty of boost. For this reason many players use the Bad Monkey as a clean boost for their solos. Overall the Bad Monkey's tone is fairly transparent allowing the tone of the guitar to go through the pedal without getting colored too much. For fun try using a TS9 with a Bad Monkey as a boost pedal; or try using two Bad Monkeys in your chain.Another handy feature in the Bad Monkey is its dual output jacks. Output 1 goes to your amp. Output 2 is designed to go to a mixer: a nice option for guitarists running their guitar through the P.A.
A No Brainer
There are some finicky tone seekers who will swear by their classic TS808, TS9 or spendy boutique OD and would never consider something as pedestrian as the Bad Monkey being part of their pedal board. They may be right, and in their defense, there are some fabulous pedals on the market right now.But to my ears the Bad Monkey does a bang up job of creating those classic OD tones, and at a price that can't be beat. Those of us lucky enough to jump on the Bad Monkey bandwagon when it was first released a few years back were able to pick one up for about $39. Since then the street price has gone up to between $49 and $59 - still a great deal. The Bad Monkey really is a no brainer.
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