Carl Martin Hydra Boost

One knob for the boosting.
That would probally count as simple even for an old git.
Weird jack locations though, slightly off from each other??
No matter, but it looks odd.

Use it in various setups, I actually have two of them.
I use them for lifts and clean fills.
Have a slight expanding topend, very soft and easy on the ears, meaning that it clips with an inoffensive sound, lovely.
Clean operation, no misgivings they do their job and that is what matters to me.

As stated earlier I have two, will get one more, alot of stuff can go wrong when you play, it is just Murphys law.
But they have proven quite roadworthy for 6 months now.

Asked for some impedance stuff, swift and polite answers from one of their techs.
CM is serious and helpful.

Good simple booster, sounds well both in overdriven and clean applications.

A very uncomplicated cleanboost.
One volumeknob and one switch.

Very clean and transparent.
I use it for clean sounds mostly, as it is very pleasing there.
But sometimes it goes along with my drives, either as a boost into them or as an extra volume kick.
Great sound no matter what.

Small uncomplicated, sturdy switch, nice chickenhead, the pot felt good.
No issues.
Good highquality boost.

Had no dealings.

A very good working unit, more liniar than my old MXR booster, meaning less of that slightly boomy lowend that the MXR has.
So I use both sometimes.
It works without a flaw, I play alot of different things, and it is a permanent part of my main rig now.
I think that I'll get a few more of them, they take no space and help me with my levels.
Thanks CM for the very good little boost.

Hmm gotta think here!
One knob and one switch....standby until I get my degree in advanced science.

Very quit and clean.
Good for that extra volume boost for clean solo's, works well with my TS-style drives too.
Plus it plunged my old Fatcat Ibanez into a screamin' frenzy, not that was fun.
Use it with my Marshall DSL 50 and a 2x12 cab with G12H speakers.
Did not encounter the popping noises some of the others spoke of, guess mine is fixed.

Well build, nice switch and love the "cute" look of it, a pleasent pedal by all means.
Will get one more for a second rig and for backup.

No dealings, but I have only read positive things about CM, so all is good.

Very very nice cleanbooster, a sleeper for some odd reason!
Nice little gem waiting to be found, do yourself a favour to hear one, they are very good.

This is an amendment to the below critique: In all fairness, other boosters that I?ve tried that have true by-pass also pop (including high dollar botique). If you are going to be turning a pedal on and off a lot, say for a lead boost, beware when the pedal is true by-pass. As stated, this pedal sounds great and does not change your tone at all when on.

I contacted them and they got right back with me. Excellent and very friendly.

Super easy to use

The sound quality rules....Unfortunately, the *&$^*% switch pops when you turn it on and off. For a lead boost, this does not work. If the band is playing, it's probably not audible, but if you are recording, forget it. Yes, I know you could solder a couple of resistors across the cap input and ouput, but they should've thought about this.

Hands down, best clean boost of the bunch, and I've tried them all. Unfortunately, I had to send it back due to the popping with the switch. It was truly depressing having to send it back. So close....

Bought for around 795 danish kr. It is very easy to use, and I trust the company, always good back-up and mailing, if you have questions.

I use it with my Martin JC 40 guitar mounted with L.R. Baggs iBeam Active system. This pick-up is very natural and a little dark sounding. I have some trouble "getting through the mix" compared to my mate's cheap Seagull-western with a bad-sounding, but loud and treblish "system". The guitars go into the PA-system - Soundcraft - and the Hydraboost does just simply boost with no colouration of the sound at all. I might actually need an EQ, if I can't get to the PA. But there are problems like feedback, well not the Hydraboost's fault, but I can't turn it up very high, so the idea of boosting my Martin, when soloing is not fullfilled. One highly irritating thing is, that when you activate the pedal with your foot (boot/shoe..), then you tend to turn the knob - up or down!!(chicken-knob-type)!! It is difficult to give it a rating for sound-quality, because I don't think it has a quality in it's own, but it is clean, clear and neutral.

It looks okay , sturdy and so, but apart from the problem with turning the chicken-knob every other time you hit the pedal, I find it likewise problematic, that you have to remove 4 screws to change batteri (for just a little pedal like that, you normally wouldn't use power-supply) and the batteri is just lying loose in the cabinet, rattling around with no kind of fixation. But rating reliability - well I am sure it is reliable.

Always nice guys at Carl Martin, good quick and honest replies and sometimes support and service.

Everything is mentioned above - if you want to use it with a western-guitar, it is the quality of the guitar, it's pick-up and the amplifier/PA, that matters, this little thing just boosts... But I wonder, if I had been better off with an EQ...

Switch on an turn a knob.
Smile on and play.

This is a very balanced cleanbooster.
It has that expanding quality, not too bassy or too much topend.
Noise is low.
Workes well with my amps and overdrives.

It works after 20 gigs, used it alot.
Did not let me down once.

No dealings, guess they are cool?

It works great for my setup.
Love the tone in this one.

One knob.
That is pretty straight forward.
Turn til you get your desired volume.

It has a cool expanding vibe in the topend, very soft and pleasent.
Very little noise, most of noise comes from the amp really.

No trouble, had it for 10 months.

No dealings so far.

I play all kinds of music, fits in well in my setup.
Would not hesitate bying a new one if it got lost.
Had an MXR, had abit too much lowend, and a few others, too much coloration, this is my kind of cleanbooster.

To get a good sound?? There is only one choice= The sound you put in but it comes out louder, thats the only change.
I mis in the manual the technical specs.(how long can you play on a battery etc)

I'm not a guitar-player at all! I'm a saxophoneplayer for 30 years now.
It's always very irritating when I play a solo and the soundenginear is too late with pumping it up.
(why should I do my best for....).
But with this little booster: no problems at all, and more applause!

It's a very trustfull thing and I use it in many ways

I ordered it online...
Can you upgrade it?? Why: it works perfectly, don't change it!

I play ska/reggae/funk/soul.
If it would be stolen, I would steel one back.
Other products influence the sound way too much, this one doesn't.
It would be nice if it wouldn't matter if you put in stereo ore mono plugs. I'm mosly using an in-ear-system. Mono left/mono right would make it even better.(beceause of the fx)

C'mon...one knob!

So here's the deal - I've had a bunch of 'boost' pedals. Fulltone, Roger Mayer, Xotic, I can't remember them all...but lots of money wasted - all sold.

So I was about to drop on a Cornish boost (with one knob, and does the exact same thing) at about 3 times the dough...all I wanted was a 'clean' boost for cranking solos - at the end of the signal chain, right before the amp input that wouldn't change the tone drastically.

This totally does it. All the others changed the tone too much, made it muddy, added unfriendly distortion or noise. This thing works. Obviously if you're using an overdrive pedal before it, it will boost the hiss of that pedal, but that's to be expected - from what I can tell, the Hydra is completely quiet.

I run it at about 10-11 o'clock and that gives me around 10% boost of the original tone. High quality tube amps are used.

Had it a few weeks. I've had other CM pedals for years and no problems.

Never dealt.

$100 bucks from pedalgeek.com

Well worth it!

Thank you Carl Martin for saving me a few hundred bucks on something else.

One Knob. One Button. I pity the fool who can't use it. My only beef is the position of the LED. While it's a nice bright blue, when you hit the footswitch it's covered by your toes, so you can't tell if it is really on. The footswitch really needs to be hit hard, so sometime's I'll think I turned it on, but won't know until I've taken my foot away from the pedal...which is critical seconds when ripping into a solo...

The chicken head knob is a tad too easy to turn...which means you can easily knock the setting with your foot. But that also means you can easily change the setting on purpose with your foot.

AC adapter can be used with this...a boss adapter will fit the hole.

I've only used this with a Digital Modelling Amp (Line6 FlextoneII). So please bear that in mind. I'll post again after trying with a tube amp (which I believe the pedal was designed for).
I'm using an ESP Viper (EMG humbuckers).

While not "dead silent" on higher-gain channels, I'll give this thing credit. The worst noise you get is a "tape hiss" type sound. You can tell when it's on, but it's not brutal noise like other boosters. TONE IS NOT ALTERD!

The functionality of the pedal seems a bit off, though I'm guessing it's the amp and not the pedal. On a clean / low gain channel, the volume jumps noticably louder, and the signal is noticably hotter. But with higher gain channels, there is no change in volume at all, though you get killer sustain. Again, could be the modelling amp maxing out.... I hope so, because I would like the volume to jump when playing hi-gain solos.

Steel case seems sturdy enough. My only concern is the position of the LED. I'm certain that I will crack it with my foot.
Also the input jack was a little tight, hope it wont be a problem.

N/A. Though I plan to write them about what types of 12 or 18 volt adapters can be used (the manual wasn't very clear on that).

I play Loud Rock / Metal. I went through alot of poop to get this pedal (side note: UPS eats the hogleg), and am a tad disapointed with the lack of volume boost on high-gain (hoping it's the amp). Otherwise this is exactly what I was looking for. Nothing fancy, tone is left alone, just gives you a little more bite.

Very very easy to use - it has one boost level knob and one on/off switch. The manual is small but good. It gives you some examples off how to use it in you setup. Just plug it in...

Some of my former boost-pedals has changed my tone, which they shouldn't - and also been quite noisy. So this time I was looking fore a simple and natrual sounding boost pedal that didn't affect my tone. I tried out a lot of different pedals and in the process I more or less stumbled over the Hydra Boost.

The Hydra Boost is dead silent, natural sounding and it don't affect your tone. Great!!!

Carl Martin handbuilds all their pedals, which you can see if you open them up. You can see that the soldering has been done by hand and not by machine. I like that!

I haven't dealt with them.

I mainly plays blues/rock and my setup is very simple. Various guitars -> Delay (also Carl Martin) -> Hydra Boost -> Fender Twin Reverb

If it was stolen i would buy another one immediately. It's simple, dead quiet, natural sounding and produced in a very good quality.
I'm still rather suprised how much a difference this small pedal meant for my tone compared to the other boost pedals I have owned and tried. And it looks nice too :-)