DigiTech Bad Monkey

Great sound straight out of the box. Set all to 12 o'clock and start from there.

All the guitar players are raving about this thing, but if you are a bass player don't feel left out!
I run a Thunderbird through a David Eden Traveller head into a Hartke 4.5XL and a EV 15" TL box. I have been using a Boss ODB-3 up until now for my overdrive sound. I have also tried out others including the Bass Big Muff PI.
The Bad Monkey leaves them all for dead. This is not the modded version either.I have had no trouble with low end loss, I can just dial it back in with low end control. The purists will say that this is just compensation and not the genuine low end from the bass. I run a good rig and really care about my sound and that doesn't bother me at all.
This is a real transparent overdrive not just a fizzy fuzz. It even allows for great controlled feedback that I just could not get with the others.
Bass players, this is for you!

New and gigged with it already. Looks solid enough. Those tiny switches inside the Digitech pedals worry me to look at, but I have never had one fail me.

N/A

Great pedal at a great price, not just for guitar players.
I play 70's rock & 70's punk with a few great growly driving basslines and the Bad MOnkey just brings them to life, combine with a good chorus and you are in ballsy bass heaven. Don't even consider a ODB-3 with this around.
Bass players, this is for you!

Easy to use.

***EDIT***
Made in USA my Butt!
It is Made in China.

I play mostly single coils.
Stratocaster, Telecaster, Guild Blues P-90 through either a 50 watt Marshall JCM 900 with Mullard EL-34's and 2X12 cab or a restored 1965 Epiphone Pacemaker amp.
I'm an old guy who has been playing forever and I use the Epiphone amp the most because of its light weight.
The amp has a Weber Alnico speaker and EL-84 type power tubes rated ar 12 watts max.
The only problem with the amp is that it only has a volume control and no tone control.
I also use a Weber Mini Mass attenuator on lower volume gigs.
Everyone comments on 'for the money'.
I don't care what it costs so long as it is reasonable.
This pedal has EQ cut and boost rather than a tone control.
Gives me all the tone I want from punch to screaming treble or any combination of both.
I have used an 808 tubescreamer since the 80's and it finally went out on me after many years of use.
I refuse to pay the price for an old 808 and the new reissues are overpriced for what they are.
This pedal is so close to the 808 sound that I can't tell the difference.
It is close enough to perfect to me.
I play everything but hiphop and metal but I do play a few songs in those genres.
I am now playing in a modern country band.
We also play classic rock and pop.
My Epi amp will break up a little when cranked and with the attenuator it gets beautiful harmonics only problem is that the attenuator cuts the volume in half at any setting.
This pedal boosts the front end of the amp and tone giving me more perceved volume.
As for overdrive it sounds like an 808 tubescreamer.
This will probably be my only and last distortion unit.
Through my Marshall it enhances the great Marshall sound.
I don't like complex, botique, fancy pedals with too many knobs on them.
I got to give it a 10.

It will probably outlast me.

?

Not much more to say.
If you like tubescreamers and you want bass and treble cut/boost you can't go wrong with this one.
It is almost as ugly as an 808.
I fon't use many effects and only when necessary but tis one is always on.
Boost the treble and it gets super country twang.
Boost the bass and get punchy.
If you ar old school and like good control and a good sound you can't beat this one.
Find your setting and leave it alone.

It can't get much easier than this.
Four knobs who do exactly as what they were meant for.

If you use it for what it is made it is a superb pedal in sound. Ofcourse there are better pedals but you have to pay maybe 4 times the price of this one.
And the price, the name, the sound, ... It's just charming

Never failed

Never had to deal with them: because of reliability.
But very nice they give sound examples with almost every pedal.

I just planned on buying me a second and maybe even a third: second for driving the first just a bit over the edge and a third for spare because I can't miss it in my rigg.

Tough case, gain, volume, bass & treble. EZ battery swap. Rubber base. Easy to use. All settings work well.

I use it with all my amps-solid state and tube. Sounds tubey with the SS amps and gives the tube amps an extra "something" that everyone here has tried to describe in one way or another. Basically it's a tube screamer design so if you know what the TS9 is and what it does then you will LOVE this pedal. It is a refined TS9 / TS 808. I own an original TS 808 (ugliest pedal ever! LOL) and this beats it just because it has the bass AND treble controls, both of which really make a lot of difference. The gain is about the same as a TS 808, maybe a little more. It's juicy and transparent. I have the gain at noon, treble at noon, bass at 3 and the level at 11. It's the only boost overdrive that I use with the solid state amps. I use it with other overdrive pedals for the tube amps. I just set the dials and turn it on. It stays on all the time.

Totally silent with AC adapter or battery. Except for an increase in harmonics and a juiciness factor, the pedal is transparent so my guitar sound is not affected at all with the tone controls at noon. I add some bass to my settings, which adds the kind of vibe you would get from a Fulltone fat boost.

Works perfectly with all my other boost, overdrive and distortion pedals. Warms up digital pedals like BOSS GT 8, Zoom G7, etc. It > IS < the swiss army knife of OD pedals. I would feel naked without this.

Using it with Ibanez and Gibson guitars. Sounds good with singles and humbuckers. It's the ONE pedal I want on my desert Island.

Tough.

In 1971 I played my first gig. So I'm working toward 40 years as a guitar player. I still play weekly and gig about 20 times each year with a jazz-rock-blues combo. Always liked the TS factor so imagine my happy surprise when I added this "enhanced" version to my chain. It does wonders for any combination of guitar and amp. Just go get one.

Easy to get a good sound from this pedal.

Gibson (or other "clone") Les Paul into Screamin Blues pedal, into Bad Monkey, into (either) BC 30 Roland Blues Cube/Fender Blues Junior/Fender Blues Deluxe amp. This is the one pedal in my chain that stays on all the time. I use the Screamin Blues to goose it for piercing solos but the real beauty of this pedal-with all knobs at 12 o'clock-is the way it brings that slightly overdriven tube amp mojo to every rhythm and solo. Yes I agree with the many who look upon this as another TS 9 WITH THE ADDED TONE SECTION.
It works well with other pedals, too. I have used a Tonebone Classic, a Rocktron Nitro, a few wah-wahs and a BOSS ME-5 in the chain with the Bad Monkey. It always sounds good and it always brings that tube driven tone to each of my amps.
Dead quiet using either a battery or a regulated 9V 300 ma PS. (Try the Danelectro PS. One of the quietest around)
Nice smooth overdrive with a touch of harmonics and ever so slight compression. Can't beat it with a stick!

All the positive hype is true. If you already have a nice TS 9 or one of its variants, you won't need this, necessarily. But you could get one for the cheap 40-50 price and add it to your chain anyway, in which case you would not be disappointed. As a standalone tube tone pedal it is one of the best-and certainly one of the cheapest. While my Tonebone classic may produce better overall dynamics, clarity and harmonics...I would never miss it as much as the Bad Monkey. The Monkey is the "take me everywhere" pedal in my rig. It always shines with the overdriven tube tone that all of us want, no matter what style we play (except METAL, of course.) This makes it for blues, clean styles, rock, jazz and country. I am buying another one real soon.

When my Ibanez TS 10 (modded to TS 808) crapped out, I needed a replacement for a gig on the following night. Not good. I went to the music store and all they had was this, used. Took a chance for 30 bucks and took it home. That's how I came into possession of my bad monkey.

Nice range of boost volume and nice range of overdrive. No sucktone or noise at normal useage levels. Bass and treble boost and cut. Direct out for going to a board and amp out, too. No noise on/off switching.

I use this with with a laney LC 30. Pure fking heaven. That's all I got to say. Its my number one OD. Better than the TS 10 and more rugged. Sometimes I use the direct out into the Laney for a change of pace. Its a little smoother. Mostly using the amp out and setting it to sound just like the laney sounds dry. no problem.
Using a Epiphone G400 sg guitar with gibson burstbuckers going into the bad monkey then into the laney. Makes fat greasy butter on everything. I fouled me drawers when i opened up with this. Fkin great drive and sustain with almost 100 percent transparency. I love this thing. Too fkin good for 30 bucks.

compared to the ibanez TS10 this is a lot better built. It's almost 2 pounds of metal and the whole bottom is rubber. tough took me a while to figure out the battery thing.

This costs 40 new. its the biggest no braner in the world. your just stupid if you own a decent tube rig and you aint got one of these yet. WTF are you waiting for?????

Basic use as a Tube Screamer, but with 2 knobs for tone: Low and High. Couldn't be easier to use.

Of course there's a lot of better overdrive stompboxs, but for the price, this bad ass monkey is a must have.

Mine it's from the 2006 series. It's really built like a tank. Very solid and heavy. But I also had a 2008 series, and it doesn't even get near to the 2006: much more light (plastic?!?!), suck more tone (both are not true bypass, but on the 2008 series you can notice that pretty well), and the components soldering doesn't have the same quality.

Well, mine it's the 2006, so that's what I'm ratting, and once more, for a pedal of this price range, it deserves the higher ratting.

Never needed anything from support.

As I said before "this bad ass monkey is a must have"! For the price you can't find better. Sweet overdrive tube tone, easy to use, just like a Tube Screamer but more versatile, and very reliable (at least the 2006 version). If you can, get one.

Idiot proof

I have it on a board where it is the only non analogman pedal. It is not out of place at all. Says it all for me. I use it as a clean boot with low or no gain, bass and volume up, treble in the middle somewhere and it pushes the drive channel on my Fender Blues deluxe to give a lovely thick warm OD, but still with that Fender cutting edge. In line with the Analogman beano boost and it whilst my strat still sounds like a strat, the sound is thick and seriously powerful. I love the Monkey. Have not noticed any tone sucking of note when it's off.

Feels very solid. Can't imagine it failing.

This pedal would have been good at twice the price. At the price it is for sale at, if blues rock is your thing, you really have no excuse to give one a try. I doubt you'll be disappointed

Four knobs, not too complicated.

I run this right in front of my Dual Rectifier as a boost pedal. I usually use it with Strat or LP style guitars all with humbuckers.

Its not a noisy pedal and it doesn't suck tone. If you want to know what tone suck is try using a Crybaby wah.

On its own into a clean channel it can do a nice power tube breakup imitation quite well.

This thing really shines when you run it into a distortion channel. A dual rectifier on its own can sound a little dark and muddy, but with the monkey it tightens up the lows and ands a perfect amount of crunch.

Seems pretty solid.

If you're in the market for a tubescreamer type pedal this is it.

Very easy, tweak until tone is acquired. Since this little guy starts with decent tone, you can get there pretty quickly.

This is a poor man's tubescreamer, very close to the same thing. I own a number of tubescreamers and this one sounds a lot like the early '80's model with the TI chip. There is only one drawback that I have not seen listed here; there is a volume drop. I mean to say that, when you plug straight in to the amp and set the clean tone, then run through the Monkey, you will probably hear a need to touch-up your volume a tad, and this is referring to the "bypassed" sound. There is no noticeable drop when the drive is engaged. It's not like it's sucking tone, the sound is good, just ever-so-slightly lower. It may be only the one that I tested, but... I do wish that these "pedal-mod" guys would look into it. Some of their stuff is engineered with as much Love and has no one to Corp-ifornicate the product.

Popeye shot it with Kryptonite slugs, no effect. Pretty dang tough.

The folks at Digitech have always gone out of their way for customers that I've known, even now with their new stuff out.

I am a professional musician taking a few moments to help up-and-comers get some decent advice by which to spend their hard-earned bucks. I have lots of equipment, Marshall amps and nearly every brand of guitar, lots of effects, the whole deal. As for "style", I don't take country music contracts and classical gigs take too much Labor intensive "prep" to be practical, so I play a very wide variety for those who seek my services.