Carl Martin Contour & Boost

Four knobs and on/off toggle..easy

Great for fattening up those single coils. I played a Strat Plus with the Lace Sensor Golds and it really gave a nice fat tone,very nice. I mostly play through tube amps,small combos to 4 12 half stack depending on the gig.
The tone is nice but subtle. No over the top changes and with my Les Paul or any humbucker equiped guitar the difference was even less.

Nicely built, no problems.

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The real reason I wrote this is because I'm looking at the prices people are paying for these. I got this as a gift but found out that it was purchased for $70 bucks. At the prices that everyone is listing, these pedals used are a true bargain. Solid reliable construction with nice tones. Truly a great addition to any pedal fanatic and if you're a Strat or Tele player you can't lose.

Wonderful easy eq and boost to use.

This is a great box, you can boost middle, or make it a top and bottom booster for that over the top clean sound found on expensive productions.
Works great a toneshaper for drive too, lots of places to go with 4 knobs.
Use it with my two Plexi ri heads and an old 58 Fender Bandmaster combo.
No destroying your sound when the pedal is bypassed either, good buffers.

No troubles for two years now.

No dealings

It is simple and powerful, silent and has a wide area that it can cover.
Good for both clean and dirty shapings, from spank to mean.

I have only used this pedal once, and as I my bandmates were in a hurry I didn't have the time to really check it out.
But nonetheless it seemed easy to use, and at the same time it seemed that it has endless possibilities for sound altering.

Very straightforward layout with two seperate filters with volume

My setup: Gibson ES 335 DOT > Emma ReezaFratZits Distortion > Carl Martin Contour'n'Boost > Blackface Twin Reverb

This unit seems to have been built with some very components, very noiseless. And particularly the boosted sound into my twin reverb is glassy; very clean.
If the filters are set to extreme positions, the sound quality is altered marginally. It seems like the pure tube sound is dissapearing(but that is what happens with all active eq'ing I've experienced)

Great possibilities for altering clean sound.

looks sturdy

This is really a nice box for country leadguitar

I bought the Contour'n'Boost as a replacement for my previous booster, a Carl Martin Hot Drive'n'Boost. I had removed the distortion switch as I never used it. That one worked fine; made my clean sound louder.
But with the Contour'n'boost I can see futher possibilities.. As I was messing around between two songs I found a nice sound, bypassed it when the others started playing, and when I kicked it in for a solo I was blown away: Suddenly my Bigbodied mahogany Gibson sounded like a telecaster. That was so cool!
I got really excited, and every little twiddling with the knobs created a new sound. That is really great for me, cause I dont use any effects, just the clean sound from my twin (and a little distortion for a couple of songs, but not for lead). Now I can have a darkish rythm sound with the treble pickup, and kick in the bost for a sound that cuts through the rest of the band ( acoustic, pedal steel, bass and drums) AWESOME!

I haven't had the time to test it through, but right now it seems to answer all my needs for a boster.
It is terribly expensive though, And I even got a super deal on it.

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I just got this, and have not had a chance to test it yet. I am only submitting this in response to the prior post stating that this pedal is true bypass. Once glance inside the box is enough to tell me that this is not true--and sure enough, there is no claim at the Carl Martin web site that it is. I see that there are two JET-input quad opamps in there, so I imagine that input is well buffered with a high input impedance, which would mean minimal tone-sucking. But it is NOT true bypass, and since the jacks are soldered directly to the pc board, it would be difficult to convert it without cutting traces :(. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

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It takes a few minutes and "there it is." You really dont realize how much different it makes until after you turn it off. Otherwise easy effect to use.

Im using this with a Peavey XXX on the clean channel as it really dont help with the two other dirty channels. The 2 filters seem to really makes a substantial difference with using other effects esp. distortion. It also is great for pushing a tube amp when needed.

I had the switch fail and e-mailed the company. To my suprise they actually mailed another switch from Holland- no charge. It was an easy fix. I wouldnt gig without a back-up.

Awesome!! Quick response.

I play just about everything. All music and this is an effect wirth buying. I woulndt spend more than 100$ dollars on one. As far as comparing it to others on the market, it really is one of the better of many. I go through A LOT of effects for use and collection, and i would add this to any chain.

Turn the knobs and it quickly becomes obvious. The mistake most player's make is not even trying it. plug the crappiest squire they can find into it, you'll figure it out real quick.

Makes the worst guitar sound like a two thousand guitar.

That holm malmquist is like the neve of pedals, i swear.

High pass, low pass. crossover point is voiced for guitar and can really produce deep dynamic bass and clear ringing highs from a guitar with flat lifeless tone. Seems totally transparent, untill you turn it off and all the life goes out of your sound. This is one you'll just want to leave on all the time.

9 point off for flimsy switch. All my martin's have held up well.

Absolutely essential for coaxing amazing tones from guitars you thought had no soul. plus the ulimate tone control/ booster for guitars that sound good to begin with.

Most guitar players do not understand this pedal. Get one while you still can. It is not overpriced for what it does. The best "deal" in carl martins line in my opinion.

Easy if you have any knowledge of how high and low pass filters work, easier if you know how you want to boost your tone. Pedal is basically a clean boost with 12 dB of gain on eitherside of a hi and lo pass filter. This allows for a large amount of tonal variation. I am using this pedal directly after a tremolo pedal and before a pitch shifter. The Contour & Boost is also great after all types of distortion/overdrives as it allows for further sound tweakability. I use the pedal in addition to a Roger Mayer Classic fuzz to get a more distinct edge to the fuzz. I typically don't like things that are too easy to use, I like to struggle to find the right tone - this pedal is the perfect combination of totally simple and something to think about, as sometimes it is not obvious what a signal is in need of.

This pedal seems to be made for guitars which is nice, because some of Carl Martin pedals seemed suited for other instruments in the studio. This is the best clean boost pedal I have found, as it allows boost of all areas of guitar signal. An interesting aspect to the Contour & Boost is its adaptability to different guitar styles/pickup sounds. I can use this pedal to boost the bottom end of a telecaster or crank the mids of my hollowbody Guild Starfire with P-90 for the perfect growl. The pedal is also a nice way for a guitar to interact with their signal before it enters a tube amp. Overall, the sound quality is superb for a clean sound, and perfect for a boost sound as well.
I would recommend this pedal to anyone in need of a clean boost pedal with some tonal tweakability. This pedal does not replace my MXR Microamp, but it eminently more useful. I find that I am using more often then my Boss/MXR graphic EQ pedals as it allows for a more accurate guitar sound to come through.

The pedal seems to be made quite well. I have heard good things about Carl Martin pedals. The switch could be quieter, but on the other hand it is true bypass. I like that it has a built in AC cord that is NOT a wall wart.

The only thing I can say is that I would like more Carl Martin pedals.

I play blues driven simplistic guitar as well as knob twiddling noise adapting, these styles fall somewhere between roots-rock, 20th century classical and free jazz. I am comfortable practicing pentatonic scales as well as modulating a signal with a Doepfer analog synth, playing fuzz-pop psychedelica, and computer processed guitar sampling/re-sampling. When it comes to guitar I am only looking for a few different sounds; crystal clean, volume boost, neat overdrive, and velcro fuzz. This pedal helps me better achieve all four and has therefore found a home in my everyday pedal line-up (this is a rare accomplishment as most pedals I buy, I only use for occaisonal utility playing)