Barge Concepts DB-2

This is a very easy pedal to use. I use it purely as a clean boost, and it gives me 3 levels of boost.

Very clean sounding, with no added grit. Exactly what I was looking for. Keep in mind, my amp, a Boogie .50 cal+ is very hard to push into preamp distortion

2 years, of weekly carting to band practice and weekly gigs. It's seen more than its fair share of beers and been dropped more than once, not a single problem. Excellent reliability,

I had some questions for the crew at barge concepts, and they responded to emails promptly, even though it was a long holiday weekend. Great Customer support.

The one pedal I could not perform without. As the primary solo taker in a 3 guitar band, sometimes i need to be a little louder than the other guys, and sometimes I need to be alot louder. This pedal has never failed to deliver.

It replaces a fulldrive in comp-cut mode, and 2 lpb-1 clones before that. It makes me sound like me, but Louder!

I will be buying the DB-3 if only to support the manufacturers of my favourite boost pedal.

As has been stated this is not a difficult unit to use. It is a two channel boost with effects loop between the two channels. While adjusting the amount of boost is easy the placement of the pedal and placement of other pedals within the loop is where you have to spend a bit of time to get the best out of this unit.

In buying a boost you look for as little change to your tone as possible. With the channels off this pedal is true bypass and did not alter my tone at all. Enguaging either channel activates the boost plus an impedence buffer. If you have channel 1 set at minimum then there is no increase in volume level but your tone alters slightly with the addition of the buffer. To my hears this is an excellent sounding buffer complementing your guitar tone giving it a little more presence and penetration. Sorry if these are not the most helpful words. I also found the buffer to be very good at driving my effects chain and cleaning up some of problems I have had with a bit of tone suck. Increasing the gain on channel 1 gives you a really nice clean boost with lots of headroom that doesn't affect you tone significantly. Channel 2 is similar to channel 1 except that it has a gain and master control thus allowing a little bit more shaping of your volume. If both the gain and the master pots are at minimum enguaging channel 2 results in a mute function. The send jack of the effects loop is continually active so is a good place to send a tuner signal if you so desire. At the moment I have placed my dirt pedals within the loop giving a pre and post drive boost. I have found this an excellent way of adding to my overdriven sounds. If I want more dirt form my pedals I switch on channel 1 if I want a louder version of what I am playing I switch on channel 2. I have also used this pedal to drive an effects chain. Placing all my pedals within the loop including some known tone suckers improved the tone a significant amount. So I have a slight dilema as to how to use the pedal but at the moment I am using it for pre and post overdrive pedals.

Haven't had it long enough to comment. However it seems particularly well made and upon inspection of the internals I have no concerns about the build quality.

Excellent Geoff was a great guy to deal with I cannot compliment the company enough for the service I received. Do some business with them you will not be disappointed.

As a boost pedal I think you would go a long way to beat this. It has two channels, effects loop and excellent buffer. It is built superbly and Barge concepts are a great company to deal with. There are many other boosters on the market but none that I feel over this range of features for the price.

It's not really a case of trying to 'get a good sound'. You need to spend some time working out how it will best suit you. But once you know what you want it to do, making it do it is as easy as anything.

I use this as the first pedal in my chain when playing with more than a few pedals in line.
I have channel 2 set at unity gain to act as a buffer - and a mighty good job is does too. I couldn't believe the difference in clarity I achieved simply doing this. Tone-sucking is no longer an issue for me.
I have channel 1 set to provide an additional ever-so-slightly gritty boost to add thickness and volume when playing clean, or to boost my OD pedal sound for solos.
I cannot detect any noise at all set up this way, and the improvement in my overall tone is remarkable.

So far no Barge pedal has let me down and I don't expect this one to.

As has already been said many times, Barge give the kind of customer support we guys dream of. Geoff is always happy to discuss any issues/ideas/queries and clearly cares a great deal about his products and customers.

Not everyone will find a use for this, but if you are using more than a few pedals, especially with long cables, or need a good quality boost (but don't want to spend silly money on some overpriced, boutique affair) you should get one of these.

This is a very easy unit to get great sounds out of under any condition. It's a two channel boost, the revamped and updated version of the DB-1. I can't hear much difference between the two myself, but either unit functions great before your overdrives, after as a volume boost, or in your effects loop as a solo boost pedal.

As a boost pedal, it certainly isn't responsible for a massive array of tones. It's very clean on channel 2, and channel 2 has a volume/master arrangemnt so you can grow some hair on your tone and drive your amp into mild breakup. Right now the DB-2 is set before a Jauernig Dual Diabolical Gristle Tone Manipulator, a DOD delay, and an Everman Pot pedal into a Dr Z Carmen Ghia head, but it could easily replace the Everman if I want to put another overdrive or boost in front of the Jauernig. Whisper quiet.

My first DB-2 had iffy switches that got worse. I thought that they might just be dirty, but they were breaking down as I used the unit. Geoff at Barge took great care of this once I realized that it wasn't just a matter of dirty contacts. My DB-1 has worked flawlessly and so far the replacement DB-2 has as well.

Tremendous. Geoff was very responsive and proactive in handling the bad footswitches. i wound up being offered a brand new unit if I needed it in time for any gigging while the damaged one was in transit. I didn't, but a brand new DB-2 arrived a few days after UPS delivered mine for repair. Geoff also listens to suggestions, however harebrained, and is very kind in all responses. As good as it gets here, people.

This is a secret weapon, and more people need to check these out. More versitile than the Luxury Drive (and I LOVE Tim Jauernig's products)and very affordable, I can't imagine anyone who couldn't find a use for this. There's even an onboard effects loop with this and the DB-1. The jacks are all front mounted to save board space, the knobs are big enough to tweak with your feet if that's what you like to do, and the boost works for anything from squeaky bluegrass to powering up a signal for your heavy metal stomps. Well thought out, well executed, well supported, and priced for a working chump like me. GET ONE. Or TWO.