Colorsound Power Boost

Not too bad -- three controls (volume, treble and base). On mine, at least, the quality of the audio changes dramatically as the volume moves toward top levels -- it goes from a "heavy on the treble end" to a full, fuzzy, 60s-British blues sound. Almost interactive in its presence.

I currently use a 1951 broadcaster, 1958 strat and a 1963 SG-LP. Amps are 1966 mini blues breaker, 1957 bandmaster and a carr mercury (great for home!). The colorsound has made me rethink my pedal collection (which is pretty substantial), much of which now is up for sale to a local LA shop. It beats the TS808 hands down for overdrive and it is superior to my Cornish G2in the fuzz dept. In fact, it is as close to a "one size fits all" pedal as I have seen (also makes a very nice treble boost and the bass adjustment adds considerable character above and beyond the treble).

Well, it is around 35 years old and still works fine. What more can you say?

No idea -- never had a need to contact colorsound

Wonderful pedal. First colorsound I ever owned (and I have been playing for 40+ years!). Wish I had tried one sooner. If you have a chance to try and/or purchase one, do yourself a favor and snap it up ASAP.

I played with the pedal in the shop for about 10 minutes and within that time worked the full scope of the pedal. However this should not be taken as a bad thing. It has treble and bass controls, volume and an on/off switch, how hard can it be! It is a little more difficult to get to the battery than with newer pedals, there is no separate battery compartment to get to, however once you know where to put the screwdriver/knife you choose to open it with, it is very easy.

I use this pedal with either a 1975 Fender Telecaster Deluxe or a Squire Telecaster, through a Marshall DSL 401. Before I bought the Marshall I had always used a Boss DS-1 for distortion. I originally planned on keeping this to ue with the Marshall, however when I got the amp home and played around with it, I found that, compared to the distortion built into the amps two channels the DS-1 sounded weak and tuneless, there was nothing it could do that I could not get out of the amp itself. This is where the beauty of the Power Boost lies, I can get a whole range of sounds from a simple volume boost, useful in some cases, to a sweet slight overdrive sound which the amp is not great at, through to a full on wild fuzz reminiscent of Muse's Plug In Baby.
There is another facet to this pedals performance though, on top of its ability to drive the valves of an amp wild, and that is the bass control. The treble control can seem a little pointless sometimes seeming only to add to the sound when the volume control is right and so the pedal is producing a wild fuzz sound. However the bass is amazing! I didn't appreciate just what it could do when I bought the pedal as I was trying it out in the shop and couldn't crank the volume up, turning the bass right up just seemed to produce a low grumbling that was wholly displeasing to listen to. However when I got home and plugged it into my Marshall with the volume up, this grumbling turned into a hugely powerful bass sound that nearly took my knees off! It is loud and very very wonderful! I can't get enough of the punch this pedal produces.
The pedal is also true bypass, the sound is nice and old when the pedal is turned on, a sweet vintage tone until you turn it up so much it gets nasty, and silent when the pedal is off.

I have had this pedal for about 3 months. In the shop, it wouldn't work properly until myself and the owner opened it up and cleaned up the pots, but after that it worked fine. Since that time I have had to clean it up a few more times, mostly after it has not been used for a bit, but as long as you remember to clean it up it is fine.
The only problem I could see occurring with this pedal that couldn't be sorted with some contact cleaner or possibly a new switch is the area around the switch caving in. When you open the pedal up you can see that there is not much inside and the metal casing is not hugely thick, you can stamp on it, but I wouldn't want to stamp on it to hard!
I would gig without a backup, but only because I had never seen one before I bought it, and haven't seen one since! Not sure I could get hold of another one. I'll give it a six, but only because of the difficulty getting it going in the first place! However that is probably a little harsh, the pedal is about 25 years old after all!

Never dealt with them as it has never broken, I haven't seen anything of colorsound at all for ages, may not even exist any more. It's pretty simple however, would probably have a go at fixing it myself.

I play all sorts of music, blues, rock, anything I can have a go at. This pedal helps for both of those, Rock when I want to tone down the distortion and so don't go with the amps channels and definitely blues. Sounds great with a Wah as well, possibly better than the amps distortion, probably because it is better before the wah than after, not sure. Still love it though.
My one complaint is that it uses so many batteries and has not room for a power supply, however i can put up with that, can't have everything!
All in all it is a great pedal that is very versatile, have to be careful though. If I want to whack the volume up to get the fuzz i use a volume gate to as it throws the volume right up and can push it to far when playing with other people, or if u have much hearing left. In fact I'd suggest something like this whatever as rolling off the guitars volume control cleans up the fuzz, it seems to like the volume control on the guitar at about 6 or 7. Below this and its to clean, above this and it gets a bit out of control!
But aside all this stuff, its agreat old pedal which makes a lovely noise! Alsoi a piece of guitar history! If you find one grab it, u won't regret it!

Piece of cake. First go around, treat it just like an amp: gain (volume), Master (mounted on the side of the box), treble, bass. It's that easy. It definitely interacts differently with high gain/vs./low-to-medium gain amps, but works well with both. Read on...

I run it through a Matamp 2X12 combo, 120 watts, plenty of pre-amp gain on tap. It shines with medium-to-medium high gain levels on an amp that is cooking. Vintage gain is the most compatable. Set your level for a good rhythm crunch, and this pedal will do anything beyond that, but it is far from your TS9 "instant compression". Nice and loose.

tough case. PCB is immaculate. Solid jacks and pots. Soldering is top class, and the layout is well thought out. Passes all my tests, but I haven't had it long so I can't say positively. But my faith will ride on this pedal lasting through Armageddeon. A-men Brotha :)

I have talked to Macari's in London about their pedals for the past year and a half. Not once did they ask if there was a sale involved, or if I was an owner of one of their pedals. They responded to ALL of my emails at length, in the manner of a company who is INTO their art. I bought one of their pedals almost solely based on their level of customer service, and I am so glad that I did. This pedal is one that is too often overlooked by players looking for pure, raw guitar tones.

I would use this pedal for any type of music that might incorporate "Rock" into the title (music-labels are empty). Want an Overdrive pedal? Consider this one. Want nice piercing harmonics in your overdriven tone? Buy it. Want a HUGE VOLUME BOOST for leads from a ridiculously overdriven preamp like on a Mesa B or Soldano?...Keep Dreaming. You won't find that in a pedal. If you love old-school tone
and grind with old-school amps, its worth the $.

Fairly easy to use. Bass, treble, volume and gain (separate chicken-head knob at side of unit). Bass, treble and gain have no markings but easy enough to put those on yourself. There's no LED indicator and it's battery only. The battery compartment is accessible via two small screws either side of the casing and the base is prized off with a scewdriver. This is a reissue so I suppose the peope at Macari's/Sola are just being true to the original. I've also heard the battery life is excellent.

I'm playing this through the clean channel of my Trace Elliot Supertramp combo. I'm using a Mexican Fender Telecaster Custom (humbucker at neck). Neither brilliant but suitable for my needs.
I couldn't detect any noise but I've not had it at extreme volumes. It's designed to take you from clean to overdrive and to my ears there are a lot of fantastic textures in-between. It seemed to turn my Trace into a quality sounding amp, almost a 3D quality like that you can get from a Twin. It's sounds magic with the bass all the way up. I used to own a Big Muff but started leaning towards clean/overdriven sounds, however, found that if you turn the volume 9/10 the way round this pedal goes a bit mental and reminded me instantly of the Big Muff which makes it's extremely versatile in my book even though I'll probably never use that feature.
I've only had a couple of weeks and have not used it live, but know it's going to be an excellent boost and will cut through absolutely anything, the treble setting is too painful to turn all the way up but maybe that's just my hearing.

It's of solid build with steel casing and dials that won't ever fall off (touch wood). The switch is like that on a Big Muff - big & solid. One thing that worries me slightly is the amount of space inside - I'm not heavy footed (nor am I light), and this is merely speculation, but I think the outer casing may end caving in a bit one day.

Had a bit of trouble getting to my battery because I'm a bit stupid. There were no instructions with the unit and I didn't want to stick my screwdriver where it didn't belong. I wrote to Macari's (www.macaris.co.uk) via email and got a very promp response.

I play rock/blues and found this unit to be perfect for my needs. I've been playing for about 7 years and have owned many pedals throughout. I used to like using Boss but decided one day that I hated the switch/pedal mechanism they use. I'll use the Power Boost in conjuction with my Marshall BluesbreakerII. Ideally using the Power Boost for clean boosts and the Bluesbreaker for the wiry blues widdling. I'm in a dilema though, because I've come to like leaving the Power Boost on all the time and switching the Bluesbreaker on top of it. I'll need to get myself a decent amp now because I'm sick of searching for the lost pedal.

very easy to use...bass,treble and volume controls. volume controlling the amount of gain or overdrive. cool looking casing,this is an old one orange in color with yellow letters. it says ''hit it'' on the off- on switch. great. how cheesy can you get!

i use this as my only pedal with an ocassional wah-wah(sola sound) i use a les paul through an old marshall 100 watt plexi head with one slanted cabinet with old celestions. now this is the pedal overdrive of all overdrives.....fat,mean,bright and punchy....it will tear any amp up , it has a gain boost of about 70 %. powerful!! great sound. the best. apparently this came out around 1971 predating the colorsound overdrivers. very hard to find....and very expensive if you find one. i got mine 12 years ago at a yard sale for 50 bucks. sound very reminiscent of jeff beck,rory gallagher or jan akkermann. great treble boost,slightly noisy but worth the sound.

so far so good. very reliable. i heard a reissue one that looks and sounds just as good as mine.....so im planning to invest the 200 dollars to buy a back up. i heard sola sound are reissuing the old line of pedals. way to go! i always thought they were the best around. especially the very early ones. just try and listen to the old sola sound wah wah......shit.....quack funky heaven.

until recently i heard colorsound were back in business. thats great. i remember the old maccari shop in england where you could buy those pedals in the late sixties. all handmade and worth every cent. i hope that they`ll get it right like the old ones. so far so good though.

this is by far the best treble and bass boost ever made only edged by the old rangemaster treble boost also made in england in the early sixties. it is very powerful and works great with just about any amp. especially old english amps like marshall,selmer and vox. i will buy a back up one soon enough. if you are looking for that stingy,honky british sound this is the beast. your amp will get a royal kick in the ass.