Build Your Own Clone Tri Booster

One knob for volume, one to select between the 3 different boosts available. Dead simple operation. I'm gonna forgo the rating here because you can choose to build it yourself or get it built. However, once it is built, it's dead simple to use.

I have a love/hate thing going with the treble booster side (the reason I got the pedal). On the love side, it sounds great playing distorted rhythm, cleans up beautifully, and really pushes tube amps into beautiful chaos. On the hate side, it buzzes like a swarm of bees when you're not playing, has a funky cocked-wah sound when playing certain notes (generally between the 5th and 8th fret, plus it gets worse when using it with a tubescreamer-type pedal), and sounds thin and harsh clean, which means you can't use it as an always on pedal and control the gain with your volume knob, even though it goes from full blown to clean at about 8 on the volume knob. I used to prefer the blue setting to the green setting, but that changed when I adjusted the internal trimpot. Now I can't decide between the two, for clean boosts at least.

Also, on the BYOC website, it has a how-to for biasing transistors. The benefits are lower noise floor, better sound, etc. Even biased to 7 volts at the collector (I think, it's been a while since I did the mod) it still has a higher noise floor than any other drive pedal or fuzz I own.

The treble booster would be perfect with 3 improvements:
1.) Lower noise floor
2.) No funky cocked-wah sound
3.) Brightened the sound without thinning it out

I'm not gonna give up on it yet because it sounds amazing playing rhythm, but I am gonna build another treble booster that's closer to a vintage circuit (this one is wired to use regular power supply even though it has a PNP transistor, I'm gonna build one that's battery-operated only in hopes that its better sounding)

9 for the two clean boosts, 7 for the treble booster sound so I'll split the difference (kinda)

Very reliable, and if it breaks, I built it so I can fix it if need be.

BYOC is great with helping out customers, and they have a forum with some very knowledgeable people, so you have no excuse even if you mess up the build.

I play blues and rock, bought this because of eric claptons beano tone. If it were stolen or lost, I would either buy a treble booster that uses a NPN germanium transistor, or a PNP pedal that's battery operated. But don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic pedal, I just don't need the clean boosts. If you were to buy a linear boost, a mosfet clean boost, and a treble booster, you would most certainly spend more than what they're asking for it. Amazing deal for the money.

As a kit, it's easy enough to figure out. If you want to bias it correctly, it's also fairly straightforwards but a touch more difficult finding the correct parts values - i'll say 8 for normal, 6 to 5 if you wanna bias it correctly.

I also used the transistor found in the original, the oc44 I believe (CV7003, the military version of the one found in the original). Correct bias is around 7 volts at the collector, nice but not necessary.

Nice, warm treble boost, although it does tend to thin out the other frequencies - the mid boost is nice, full range is bassy, and while I use the mosfet and clean boosts, it's mostly for the rangemaster mode I bought this pedal.

I'm using it with a jazzmaster, les paul - it's too thin with a strat or tele through the wrong amp. Put it in front of a tube screamer for some great distortion sounds.

Works well with just about everything, I just wish the treble boost mode was bright without being thin - biasing it corrects much of this but its still present, unfortunately.

10 for the green side, 7 for the red side I say (I don't use the blue side very much)

Absolutely reliable, the mosfet boost is wonderfully complex and sweet once its adjusted, the treble boost is only nice through some amps and harsh though others. They all work great though.

No customer support other than what you provide yourself, which is both the beauty and the beast - if you can't fix it, you're SOL but if you can then it'll pretty much always work.

Amazing boost, I just wish there were seperate switches for the mosfet and treble boost, (I don't really use the blue position on the led to be honest) and that they worked better together. The treble booster works better for fuzzes, the green (mosfet?) boost works better in front of a tube screamer. The blue setting on the led is too bassy and I don't use it very often to be honest.

I wish they used a different cap for the treble boost though, I don't like how it cuts down on the mids and bass - I may change it later...

Works great.

Use Clean Boost & LPB1 boost. Germanium is not loud enough.

Not noisey at all.

Use it with tube & SS amps.

No backup needed.

N/A

Play rock & Blues.

This is a pretty straight forward pedal, it's a boost, it makes your guitr louder. I built it mainly for the germanium boost. Sometimes I use the clean boost but never the LPB mode. The treble boost only fits some songs and some guitars I think. I use the mid germanium boost about 90% of the time and it's amazing

I use this with either my 62RI strat, or ibanez lespaul into my 50watt plexi or marshall 18watt clone. It's perfect for solos just click it on for a tad more gain and to stand out a little more. Of course it's noisy, it's a boost.

I built this thing myself and I built it pretty good I think. It's not going to break on me. It was my first build and the only problem I had was I put mounted the switch wrong so I took it out, turned it 90degrees and it was fixed. Not hard at all to buid, and fun.

The guys on the forum helped me with my switch problem within a few hours.

I play classic rock/chili peppers stuff like that. I really wanted to to help me stand out in solos and that's what it does, I love it.
If it were stolen I would buy another one as soon as I got home. I bought it mainly because it is one of the cheapest germanium boosts on the market, plus it does treble, mid, full range, clean, and linear power boost. It does them all very good.

super easy to use. mine was built by keith and labeled as well.

live i use mostly strats & telecasters. the studio another story, lots of varied guitars to choose from. the tri-boost sounds fantastic! in all the modes you can't dial up a bad sound.

built solid, no problems...

keith is great. maybe not as easy to reach since his pedals have become more popular but he's there for you if you need something.

this is a great and very versatile boost. i think it competes well with other great boosts: java boost; dyna ranger, super hard-on...

It's very easy to dial ina a good tone with this pedal. There's a lot of sound options for a boost and it's very straight forward.

As for building the pedal. The directions are about as clear as they get. I've built 4 of keith's pedals, and have not had problems with any of them

Man, this thing sounds incredible. I actually assembled this pedal for a friend of mine. Since I had a ZVex SHO, I didn't need to buy a boost. I almost have him my SHO instead so I could keep the tribooster. This pedal sounds great and I like the tonal possibilities of this thing.

I feel that this is a very solid design. I built it.

keith's customer support is a good as any support could be. he's very responsive. if you look on the BYOC's forum, you'll see that keith responds many of the threads there. I don't know where he finds the time to design new kits, answer orders, and give such great customer support. he's amazing

I would recommend this pedal to anyone. it's one of the best boost pedals out there. the price is really good for what you get. I think it would be great to cascade a pair of these, kinda like the ZVex super duper 2 in 1, with the variety of circuits, that would be a much more versatile and powerful pedal than the super duper 2 in 1.

Good sounds abound, and it doesn't take long to get acquainted with the different sounds available through the 3-way selector switch. (Although I enjoyed building this unit, I will focus this review on the pedal, not the project.)

I use a Tele and an SG with low-watt Fender and Carvin tube combos. The Tri-Boost, like most (perhaps all) boost pedals, generates some noise, but it's no worse than turning up the amp to an equivalent level. A friend A/B'ed my Tri-Boost with an MXR Micro-Amp. He reported that the Tri-Boost added less signal coloration than the MXR. My pedal seems at least as flexible as my Keeley-modded Rat, albeit over a different range of applications. Clean boost, warm/dark boost, or germanium sizzle.

This category is more about my skills than the product, so I'll pass.
I will note that I have a good feeling about the components.

When I started building, I went to the BYOC website for the instructions and TA-DA! they weren't where they should've been. I posted this item on their forum. There was a response in 15 minutes and the problem was fixed in 25. Flawless, no, but I'm impressed with their dedication and integrity.

Simple, flexible, happening sounds. Beyond the pedal itself, the experience gave me the confidence to tackle building and customizing a few more pedals, and that's no small thing. I'd recommend BYOC to anyone with opposing thumbs.

two knobs, period! one selects boost mode (Germanium {Rangemaster clone}, LPB {Linear Power Boost, silicon based}, and "Clean" {MosFET based Clean Boost}), and the other knob is volume.

oh, and there's a switch, too. but it only works in germanium bode. it's a "full/ trebble" switch.

this pedal sounds great. lots of useable clean boosts. tons of available volume available.

Clean mode is my favorite. alters the signal the least. gives you the same signal you had, but louder. very beautiful. i love running this pedal into my Fulltone OCD. gives it some extra gain, and really rocks!

LPB mode is also nice, although i don't like it quite as much as clean. LPB is a little darker than the clean mode, and has a little more grit to it.

Germanium is the wierdest. it's a rangemaster clone. it colors your sound, and the switch changes between the normal "trebble" boost, and a "full range" boost. this is a setting i, personally, would never use, however, i can tell why some people... many people... would like it. it overdrives your signal quite a bit. i'm told that when stacked with a germanium powered fuzz pedal it's fuzz heaven. but i don't have a fuzz

i built this mself, so i know enough about it to fix it myself. on the forum there are stories of pedals working for a while, and then stopping to work. however, as long as you take your time and build it right the first time, i don't see any reason why it would break.

customer support is fantastic!!! Keith monitors the message board very well, quickly answers questions. my kit had a defective pot. keith send me a new one at no charge and it got here in a few days.

fairly easy to build. sounds great. very reliable. i love this pedal, and can't wait until i can build more BYOC pedals. get one! www.buildyourownclone.com

Plug and play my friends, plug and play.

I got to try this pedal out last year when it was originally built under Keith's BigTone Music Brewery label. I was actually anticipating the arrival his tourbox in order to play the Anthology, a 6 fuzz type monster. But when I got the tourbox, I was blown away by the TriBooster and spent 2 weeks with it everyday. Well, the tourbox went on it's way and then poof!...so did BigTone. I scoured the country looking for a BigTone TriBooster but they alluded me at the last second every time. Well, luckily for me, Keith started up the Build Your Own Clone line up and there it was...the TriBooster now as a BYOC TriBoost. Keith assured me that the ONLY difference between this one and when it was a BigTone is the sliding tray battery compartment. That's it. So I jumped on it and had Keith build it and paint it for me. Not only had I found the elusive TriBoost, but now it's only have the price it was as a BigTone...thanks Keith!

I'm using a Fender American Deluxe Maple V-Neck Strat with SCN's and an Epiphone Sorrento thin hollowbody with P90's into a Fender Blues Deluxe with Amperex Bugle Boy 12AX7's.

The pedal takes battery or 9v power supply (not supplied).
You have three boost types: germanium boost, linear power
boost and MosFET clean boost. There is a low/high cut toggle which works on the germ boost setting. So you basically get 3.5 boosts in this pedal. Each one gives you that special "bloom" or perfect tonal blend. It is quiet except the first flip of the toggle gives you a snap sometimes, but not again. It gets a 9 for the pop.

I leave this pedal on 98% of the time.

I could run over it, the insides are just as strong. You can opt to build it yourself though too, so if you do that...it's as good as you build it obviously.

9 since Keith built it himself, but I haven't had it for a decade yet. Ask me again in 10.

I have spoken to Keith many times as both BigTone and BYOC, he is very friendly and professional and very sincere in assisting you with what ever the request.

10 for sure.

I use this pedal in all my styles of playing. I typically play Zeppelin/Beatles/CCR to Ween/Travis/Beck, this pedal goes with all. I have been playing for roughly 17 years or so and have had many pedals over the years. If this pedal were stolen, I would understand why...and of course replace it immediately.

This is the Tri Booster kit from BYOC It replaced their Range Master trebble booster clone. I built the dual booster version with the Full/Treble toggle switch.

This is a very easy kit to build. The pedal enclosure comes pre-drilled so all you have to do is know how to solder. There is only 1 knob to adjust and the toggle switch that adds an additional capacitor to the circuit for the Full/Treble mode. The pedal is true bypass and has a statuc LED to tell you when it is ON.

The sound of the pedal quite honestly is outstanding. I use it in front of an amp I built based on the High Octane project over at AX84.com It is a single ended design that puts out about 10W of class-A power. I use it with a 1x12 I built with an Eminence Patriot Series "Black Powder" speaker. The tone I get with the pedal and amp combo is thick and honky. The toggle switch is a nice touch too. I call it the Thin/Fat switch.

The pedal will be as dependable as you make it. If you have good soldering skills it will sound great and last a long time.

I never needed any but if you have any problems with your pedal build there is a BYOC Forum you can use to get in contact with other builders to help you out.