DigiTech Bad Monkey

Simple as Lipstick Pickup!

DANELECTRO PLAYERS: This is your Review...
(First off can more of you guys please write reviews...we're
ALL Tone Freaks & we should be helping each other out-Nuff Said.)

My 2 hours spent so far with the Monkey-were with a DC-59 Reissue> Bad Monkey>Dano Tape Echo>Dano Spring Reverb> 5 Watt Type A Tube Amp.
This is a very pure chain & purposely so...I was impressed by what I read here & picked one up @ GC for 33 bucks drove home & plugged it in...

Other than slight compression, the BM does not color the unique (love it or hate it)tone of the Danelectro...with the nob on my amp at 10 oclock-I was able to dial in almost identical clean tone with the Monkey ON vs. Off...I was happy with that already & I will add that the slight compression warmed up the Lipstick PU's in a good way aka my tone was not bastardized by some digital beast...I am not fantical about "true analog" because I cant afford it BUT I try to adhere to "Analog tone" at least...anyhoo with the Level:6,Low:7,High:6 I started to turn up the Gain at about 7 you get a slight smooth overdrive, at 8 it starts breaking up, at 9 it was Perfect for that early Keith Richards sound with some Spring Verb added...at 10 I turned on my Tape Echo & got a great Syd Barrett vibe going...which is always a pleasure...the strings resonance kept there natural Dano twang nicely thru the Monkey & there was no clash between the natural "disortion" sounds created by saturating my Spring King or tweeking the roll off switch on my Tape Echo...I can say the Monkey blended very well with my other effects but in a very subtle way...I could turn it on or off & it was "close enough" to what I would have acheived overdriving my amp the with Volume knob...

So far I am very impressed...I am not a pedal fan...especially in that DOD, Digitech manner...I also thru a Boss DS-1 in & out of the same chain (my Girlfriends son had one sitting there) & it sounded like complete crap (sorry Boss lovers)...it completely colored the Danelectro tone no mater how I tweaked it...

Highly recommened for Danelectro users using a tube amp!

PS I also got some WONDERFUL WARM SURF TONE with the Monkey & the Spring King (does one thing very well if you take the time to figure it out) using just the Dano Bridge Pick up...nice overdriven "Boinginess"...Sweet!

Just Bought it...

I play bluesy jazzy experimental stuff...I like droney acid soaked sounds that were created in the 60's using enhanced 50's gear...I like to keep it simple...I dont own a distortion or Fuzz pedal...I have been playing for 23 years...I have several Dano's Vintage & re-issue & a Gretch (LP jr style) Electromatic w/ P90...also an Ephipone Dot (Gibson made). I dont purchase a pedal if it colors my tone...the Bad Monkey passes with a B+...

Pretty straight forward as described below many times. Easy to dial in a good sound. I added a little more treble - bass on 12 oclock, treble at say 2 o'clock.

I use a mix of everything. Gibson, Gretsch, Fender, my own brews etc...fav pickup is P-90. Amps are usually EL84 based things, although 6V6 has stolen my heart recently. But mainly I play through a Laney VC30, Vox AC15CC, Velocette 12R, 5E3 clone, Sovtek Mig 50.

Well, I bought this on a recommendation from someone I trust. I played it only for 10 minutes, which I would not normally do - more like ask for it overnight and try it out properly. So 10 minutes into playing I said YES! Great sounding drive unit. Doesn't screw you tone in any way, simply adds to it. With no gain and level up a bit I can get a nice boost with little breakup - that's nice! Further up I can get totally broken up tubey sounding over drive. It is quite true to its name (not Bad Monkey - DT, what are you thinking?) - Tube Overdrive...This pedal is quiet, no noise, and a nice buffered bypass that doesn't suck your tone. The drive tone is smooth, with only a slight touch of sterility...but barely noticeable. With a Strat say, the quack setting isn't mudded out by the pedal - instead it keeps the tone and adds the level of drive you've dialled in. That's great.

I totally recommend this pedal if you're looking for a lower gain tube type sounding drive pedal. Versatile enough for cleaner boost, right through to dirty grit. Forget about the price - at twice it is still a great pedal.

Too new for me to comment

Again, too new.

I play rock covers, original slightly physcadelic stuff. I need a versatile pedal that sounds good and doesn't change the tone of my carefully selected amps and guitars...this does that. And adds

There's 5 million reviews already so I'll just share my unique experience. But simply put -- this thing is a piece of cake to use.

Very organic, beautiful tube sound. Not a lot of distortion, it's more mellow. Check out what I did yesterday: Took my Richter guitar -- an EX335 clone with P-90s. Put on the neck pickup and turned the volume full up and tone all the way down (think Clapton's "woman tone"). Plugged into the Bad Monkey, with treble at 0, bass at Max, Level at 3 o'clock, and Gain at Max. Plugged that into a "Blue Moaner" (that's a Dallas Rangemaster clone, made by Blue Bayou F/X, great handmade pedal, check Ebay) on Max. Plugged that into my friend's Fender Twin. I'm not even sure what channel the amp was on -- clean / distortion / both. Those amps are fucking confusing. Anyway, moral of the story --- the most monstrous, godlike rocking tone I have ever played through! I can't wait to plug it into my Peavey Delta Blues and see how that sounds.

A tank.

N/A

More people should know about this pedal. At $40, it's the deal of the century.

Well marked and easy to figure out. It has knobs for Level, Lows, Highs, and Gain. All knobs have usable settings (gain is fuzzy at high levels). Only consulted the manual to change the battery, which is not obvious at all, but really simple ones you figure it out.

Sound quality is FANTASTIC! NOT expecting this out of a $40 pedal.

I'm using a few different guitars, mainly a Cort Katana rewired with Seymour Duncan pickups (a JB/C5 hybrid in the bridge and a Jazz in the neck). This guitar is basically a 25.5" scale PRS knockoff with a Tonepros bridge and 500k pots. The pickups are higher-gain Seymour Duncans with Alnico 5 magnets. Amplifiers used were a Marshall DSL50 through a Celestion V30 4x12", Roland Microcube, and various small and large tube amplifiers.

This pedal is an improvement on the Ibanez Tubescreamer. It compresses the sound slightly (not as much as the TS808), provides a very mild to moderate amount of soft clipping, and has the ability to boost volume levels to saturate a tube amp. Like the Tubescreamer, it works wonders for kicking a dirty channel of a tube amp into overdrive or giving a little bit of kick and power to the clean channel of an amplifier. Unlike the Tubescreamer, it has better control over the highs and lows with two separate EQ knobs versus one tone knob. It also has less of a pronounced mid-boost and more low-end than the TS808.

I find that it works better with tube amps than solid state. It preserves the feel and response of the amp better than many other pedals (like the Boss SD-1). It can easily be an "always on" gain boost if need be. It also stacks really well with other pedals. For ultra-low volume practice, I run this into a Zakk Wylde overdrive pedal and a Microcube. The ZW-44 is a very clear pedal with a bit sucked out of the mids. Running the Bad Monkey into the ZW-44 gives a huge "Marshall on 11" kind of sound, even out of a tiny amp.

There is very little noise to this pedal and the pots are not scratchy at all. Furthermore, the buffer seems well designed and even the mixer out can be useful to get a bit more presence out of dull, solid state amps.

The pedal seems pretty rugged and reliable. I haven't experienced any issues but haven't had it a long time.

Never dealt with the company, but the website has the manual, which is a big plus.

I play a lot of music, from blues to indie rock to some heavier stuff. It works very well for all styles of music and at this price is a must-have. I've been playing for 12 years and would definitely buy this again and recommend it to friends.

With this sound quality and price, it's definitely a "10"!

Very, very easy to use. Took no time at all to get a good sound out of this pedal.

For guitar I'm using a PRS SE Soapbar II with Jason Lollar P90's. That's plugged into the Bad Monkey and then right into the amp. Got a Boss DD-3 Delay going into the effects loop. Weber Beam Blocker across the stock Peavey speaker and an Eminance Cannibus Rex used as an extension. All gets LOUD as hell, too.

As I mentioned it took no time at all to get a good sound going with the Bad Monkey. Finally, an OD pedal with a bass knob!! I've tried a number of OD's throughout the years and my first thought upon trying those pedals was always the same: not enough bass. The added bass knob alone is one of the things that makes this such a good pedal. It's very hard to describe a sound and what works for one guy may not work for another. There's enough mids in the pedal to push it out without being obnoxious. Thru my amp the mids come across as
"darker" but without being muffled or nasal sounding. The treble is nice, clear and crisp and can really cut thru if you turn it up all the way. The bass control fills it all out. Nothing lacking there at all. The drive itself isn't spikey or buzzy at all. It just seems to have a nice "earthiness" to it that doesn't cover up you playing when playing chords. It seems to respond very well to changes with your guitars volume knob. Much better so than with all the other OD's I've tried.

I know this is very subjective, but this pedal thru my setup works very well for Allman Brothers, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen II.....things of that nature. When I play I don't try to nail someones tone "exact." I know some people are obsessed with trying to do so but I don't have the time for that. Just give me something that will be a close 2nd, somewhere in the ballpark that sounds good and I'm a happy camper. For what I like to hear this pedal has finally gotten me there.

Seems very well built but I guess time will tell.

Never dealt with then so I can't comment.

Overall I really don't see how one could go wrong with the Bad Monkey. I have'nt tried everything out there and I'm sure there are other pedals out there that have more of a detailed complexity that so many tone mongers are searching for. And while nothing is perfect some things are better than others and so far the Bad Monkey is the best sounding OD pedal that I have found to date. It works very well with my setup for those "Marshall moments" better than any other pedal I've tried. And for only $40.00 how can you go wrong?

This has four knobs. Each one is easy to use, heavy duty, and very smooth. The manual is good and the ad even gives you four presets to try. Very easy.

This is an amazing pedal, not just for the money. It is my favorite overdrive that I have used. It is very warm and completely transparent. You can use it from a clean booster that sounds just like your amp, or turn up the gain to drive the amp harder. I have found with my Strat that I can get perfect Jimi Hendrix, Joe Walsh, Stevie and other sounds quickly and easily. I really love this pedal. Just don't expect metal distortion out of it.

This is an extremely heavy duty pedal. I would play without a backup as long as I had a power supply(because of the battery). It is like a Boss pedal, but heavier. I like the way the top comes off with just a cord. On Boss pedals you don't need anything, but the screw can scrape things easily, so they are about equal there.

Never dealt with them.

I cannot recommend any overdrive pedal more than this. It is cheap, makes Tubescreamers sound like crap, and is very tough. You cannot go wrong with this pedal. I like it so much that I plan to try the Hot Head distortion now.

5 minutes to dial it in!

Les Paul & LP Jr thru a Bandmaster & Traynor YBA-1.
I can't believe this pedal. It sounds like a Tubescreamer should.
I'm using this to run with my Barber LTD pedal with my Bandmaster's
(66 & 68).
It's has amazing tone. I've never tried anything form Digitech because of their name "DIGITECH" not very Rockin or organic sounding.
Bad Monkey isn't much better. It could be called Butt Monkey for all I care. This pedal Rules. Thin Lizzy - AC/DC....yeah!

It weighs about 3 lbs.

I know Digitech & DOD are the same these days.
They seem to care about their customers.

I play Hard Rock/Punk Rock. Non-Master volume amps for me from here on out. I've been on a pedal hunt for the past 2 months. If it's an Overdrive pedal I've tried it (belive me)!
I didn't expect this pedal to sound this good. It sounds like a Reverend DriveTrain with less gain. I think these sell for $40 new.
Why can't Boss make a pedal that sounds this good, without he shitty high-end shrill & suck out the low-end.
I'll keep this pedal forever. For $29 off Ebay I can't believe it.
Smooth Tube like Overdrive from a company named Digitech, I never knew!

Dead easy.Very responsive tone controls.

Stratocaster into Boss cs2 into Marshall guvnor,Bad monkey,Line 6 Echo park,into Epiphone Valve Junior.This is the best overdrive pedal I have ever owned and also one of the cheapest.It gives you instant Kieth Richards rhythm tones and Instant srv lead tones.No joking if you dont buy one then you are missing out on a great pedal.Future classic for sure.It hasnt got bags of gain but if you are looking for that overdriven valve vibe then look no further.

Hasnt let me down so far.Solid build quality.

If your into blues and play a Fender then you need one of these.

No problems getting a good sound here - having bass & treble pots is a real bonus as opposed to having a single tone control. Not a huge amount of gain, but it's an o/drive pedal after all. Sufficient to get a great rhythm crunch & less aggressive leads.

Manual is fine, but use your ears - there's nothing technical going on here

I'm using it with a valve Fender Blues Jnr & a solid state Hughes/Kettner edition blue 30watt combo. Guitars are classic 60s Strat, modded Squire strat with Seymour Duncan P/Ups (lil 59 humbucker at bridge), Fender Toronado with SD P/Ups and a few others.

This thing always sounds absolutely superb - smooth with a capital SMOO but gritty enough at extreme settings if thats what you're after. It's solid state quiet, hiss is negligible.

If you're thinking about a TS9/808, try this first. It's a quarter of the price and you certainly won't be wasting your time.

This thing is a brick - heavier than equivalent Boss - over 2lbs - and a quality build. I'm confident it will last for years. I use 2 O/Ds in my live rig (the other is a TC Electronics Vintage O/Drive)so I do have a back up. I'd be happy if I had to just take the Bad Monkey though.

Battery change is the new Digitech style with spring loaded pins. Must be the easiest yet.

Never dealt with the Company - don't expect to have to.

This pedal has to be the bargain of the decade. You can pick it up on-line for less than #25.00 and for that you're getting a noticeably fine product. My TC Electronics Vintage overdrive pedal cost me 4 times as much, and as good as it is, it ain't 4 times better. Infact, it's hardly better at all - maybe a little more transparent but actually less warm.

As long as you like the sound of your rig, you'll love the sound of the Bad Monkey. It retains your guitar/amp sound, but makes it warmer & wider. It feels like an exotic Fulltone OCD pedal, in that the extra drive seems to come from the amp rather than being an obviously imposed sound altering device stuck in the middle of the floor. This is especially true of my valve amp, though the solid state H/K isn't far behind..

It's not a pedal for metal, but blues/classic rock and maybe even country sounds are brilliantly served.

I'd replace it in a heartbeat if it went walkabout. If I hadn't already got another 2 o/drives, I'd run two for different drive levels.

Very easy to use. I took one of the presets from the manual and went from there.

Great sound. Amazing bang for the buck. This is the first pedal I've owned that I just can't not stop playing. I've used a SD-1 and Keeley Rat Mod for boost in the past but the Monkey is by far my favorite. I keep the gain at zero when I can play loud to get my valve amp breaking up on its own, or throw the gain up to 12:00 when I am playing at bedroom volume. It has such a realistic tube sound that I can't much tell the difference between my amp's OD sound or the pedal (other than the amp has to be real LOUD to get into "the zone").

Seems solid. If it broke I would just buy a new one.

Great pedal over all. I opted not to buy an attenuator to play my amp at bedroom volumes after playing with the Monkey for a while. I bought it because everyone seemed to rave about it and they are right. If it were priced over the $99 mark I wouldn't rate it as high, but that monkey has some serious bang for the buck! I bet if I swapped the guts into a boutique case even tone snobs would give it thumbs when they heard it :)