SFX-01 Pickup Booster Review

The first effects pedal designed specifically to work together with the pickups in a guitar to achieve optimum gain and resonance for all tonal applications. Works with all musical styles.

Ease of Use:	10
Sound:	9.5
Reliability:	10
Impression:	10
Overall rating:	9.9
Users rating:	7
Comments:	7

overall: 10

Featured review by: V_mike, on november 14, 2007

Price paid: $ 45

Purchased from: eBay

Ease of Use: This pedal is an absolute no-brainer. Just has a chicken head knob controlling the amount of boost, an on/off switch, and a 3-way resonance toggle. The boost goes from 6db to 25db. I wouldn't worry about the resonance switch, it doesn't really do much. There is a manual, and it is available on the Seymour Duncan website. // 10

Sound: I use this with my Gibson Les Paul Vintage mahogany and Fender Standard Strat H/S/S through an Epiphone Valve Junior Head and the matching extension cabinet. It is a bit noisy, but not unbearably so. The noise is really a factor of the boost itself. This pedal doesn't sound good when run into other pedals too much, but sounds great alone. The effect is really strong if you turn the knob past the 16db marker. It makes my Les Paul purr and my Strat quack. // 10

Reliability & Durability: It hasn't given me any problems yet, and it is very sturdy. Whole chassis is metal, only plastic is the knobs and the inputs. All the parts seem to be firmly secured onto the chassis. The sound is very consistent, however it can be a bit too loud at times. No real complaints with this pedal. I would gig it without a backup, but I don't gig, I just play with friends sometimes. // 10

Impression: I play blues/rock and some other stuff, but the bottom line is this pedal sounds great for any style. It just adds flavor to the guitar's sound, adding only to the tone you already had. I really love how it sounds through a tube amp with a strat on the neck pickup with the volume on 3 or 4. Just plain awesome. If this were lost/stolen, I would replace it without a thought. // 10

overall: 9.8

Reviewed by: TokyoPartyboy, on may 22, 2008

Price paid: $ 107.1

Purchased from: thomann.de

Ease of Use: Not much to say here. there's a on/off Switch, one knob to control the amount of boost (=>more volume in clean channel, more Overdrive in lead channel)and the resonance Switch that is intended to change the sound of your single coils to the sound of a humbucker. Everything is also in the manual. // 10

Sound: I use a Fender Standard Tele and a Peavey Classic 50 212. As Telecasters are pretty noisy, you'll get more noise when the Booster is active, becuase it amplifies the noise of yout guitar, so I recomment a Noise Surpressor in front of the pedal. The effect is quite good when I'm using the lead channel. The distortion becomes stronger and harsher until I turn the gain knob past 2 o'clock, then, nothing happens anymore; the amP's just saturated. Clean, the pedal makes everything louder, but it eats a bit of transparency and brilliance, so I don't use it often when I'm playing clean. The resonance Switch works good, but It really just changes the resonance, it doesn't make your guitar singlecoild sound like a high output humbucker... the sound stays crispy like Telecasters normally sound. The Switch is still nice as the normal Tele-hum is less noticable when it's lower, so I often use the Switch when I'm in lead channel. I bought the pedal because I wanted to have more Overdrive without affecting my tone, and it does that very well, but I give only 9 points here because it eats brilliance when you play clean. // 9

Reliability & Durability: It's a tank. I have it for 5 month now and gigged with it several times and I never had a problem with it. I trust this pedal, I don't even bring a backup. Batteries last quite long (about 3-4 month), but I use the power adaptor of my pedal board. The pedal takes 9-12V adaptors. // 10

Impression: If it would break, I's replace it immediately, because other boosters (e.g. MRX Micro Amp) sound far too messy, this one sounds nearly as good as the original signal. I know that there are much cheaper boosters, but I'd still buy this one. It would be great if it had tone controls, but you can't have everything. // 10

Comments

[Jimbleton]

how much is this in english pounds

[V_mike]

It's about 80 USD brand new, but I don't know the exchange rate...

[damm_punks]

bout £40

[Roxor_Mc0wnage]

I must disagree with you here V_mike, the resonance switch does a ton depending on what guitar you play through. It lowers the resonance frequency by about 3db in position 1 and 5-6db in position 2 making your resonance fatter and taking a single coil guitar and making it sound more like an active humbucker. Its not a very subtle thing either, it makes strats sound mean!

[reelbigfish432]

dude $80?! thats cheap man

[fred_slayer]

to convert money www.xe.com

[slayerfrk]

how does this thing sound for a high-gain metal sound on a single coil neck pickup?