DigiTech Bad Monkey

It's an overdrive pedal. How hard can it be? If you've ever used a BOSS, DOD, etc. this is exactly the same. Level knob for overall volume output. Gain knob for level of overdrive. And two EQ controls, one for highs and one for lows. Step on it to turn effect on and off. Changing batteries seems pretty simple as well.

9. Even though nothing is perfect, the sound quality of this pedal is amazing for what it is and how much it costs. There is some noise, but no more than any other overdrive/distortion type pedal I've used, and even then really only when the gain is dimed. When I tried this pedal at the music store I chose a Mexican standard strat to try it with, and they had me play through a small Fender solid state amp with an 8" speaker. Any amp with less than a 10" speaker is pretty useless in my book. Your guitar always sounds like you're playing through a transistor radio. But this pedal made that little amp sound like it was pushing a 12" speaker! The low end control on this pedal is it's secret weapon. After playing the pedal for about an hour I decided to purchase one and take it home. At home I plugged it into my Fender Champion 30 (solid state, 10" speaker) and tried both my Fender Mexican standard Strat and my Epiphone Les Paul. Both guitars sounded great. Again, the low end knob on the Monkey allows you to dial in more bass response for a fantastic punchy sound. My love is the blues, but I also play a variety of pop-rock contemporary Christian style songs at Church every week. The tone I was looking for with this pedal was SRV, Henry Garza (Los Lonely Boys) and Kenny Wayne Shepperd. I found it. Just the right amount of grit, and with the extra low end it just wails. Sustain is increased, too, I noticed. I am very happy with this pedal. It got it's first live performance test this Sunday (Easter). At church I play through a Marshall VS265 (solid state w/ 12AX7 preamp tube and two 12" speakers). The Monkey sounded fantastic. Again, if it could make an 8" speaker sound good, I figured it would flat out rock with a pair of 12". It did. Two other nice things about this overdrive unit. When you reduce or increase the amount of gain on the pedal itself, the output level stays consistent. No more having to readjust the output level every time I change the amount of gain. And the Monkey never sounds muddy playing chords. Nice and articulated on any gain setting.

I guess only time will tell, but seems solidly built, similar to BOSS but slightly larger. All metal housing, which Digitech claims is thicker/heavier than most other similar units. It is a fair bit heavier than a BOSS, so I would say their claim is probably true. The other nice thing is METAL input/output jacks. No plastic junk here.

Can't comment as I've never dealt with them.

Overall this pedal has provided the sound I was looking for, a punchy, bluesy, overdrive ala SRV, KWS, and Henry Garza. The overdrive it provides sounds better than that available on my Fender Champion 30 and my Marshall VS265, and I consider both amps to have better than adequate gain channels. The Monkey just simply sounds better. I plan on getting the Screamin' Blues eventually and use it in tandem with the Monkey. I tried the Screamin' Blues at the same time when I tried the Monky and was equally impressed. Sounds great, but with more distortion capability.

This pedal is very user friendly and the manual is easy to follow. I have a made in the USA model (date of mfg 08-04). In speaking with the local Digitech rep, I found out that these are now being made in China and when the USA supply is off the shelves, they will all be the imports.

I'm using a Fender Stratocaster and a Fender Deluxe and this pedal just amazes me at the great tone it provides. Although not a true bypass model, it doesn't affect the tone when in the 'off' position (at least to my notice). I use it with all controls at 12 o'clock and it sounds sooooo good. It blows away my Ibanez Tube Screamer !

The pedal is built like a tank, it has an easy hinged cover for accessing the battery compartment and seems to allow for a *much* longer battery lifespan.

Customer support online is very fast and supportive,

I play classic rock, blues, jazz and funk. The pedal is very close to sounding like the Ibanez 808, it may be *better* than the 808. It really has that warm overdriven tube voicing down pat. I've compared it to a Boss Blues Driver, Ibanez and others, but this BAD MONKEY not only sounds cool, it even looks cool !!!

Very easy to use - level, high, low, gain. You will find a good setting immidialy.

OMG, this is the best overdrive, I've ever tried. You nail the tube factor with this Bad Monkey. I can't believe, that someone finally done it. I use both Les Paul and Strat-type guitars. I'm using a Yamaha digital amp, and a Yamaha DGstomp as well. When gain is setting to low, it sound good, and when gain is over 12 clock it's actually sounding better. With Les Paul's you will dial high up, and with strats you can dial low up. You will always find a sound, that you can use, and that you will love.

Fully reliable.

Best overdrive, and at a low price too. To good to be true, but this is real. I will now purchase other Digitechs stompboxes.

Pretty much as easy as it gets, only 4 knobs, 1 level, 1 low, 1 high, and 1 gain, and has GREAT sound. Manual is very good, quite descriptive, and came with a booklet with all of DigiTech's pedals and some example settings for each.

Using this with an Epiphone Les Paul Classic and Vox Pathfinder 15R. Haven't noticed any excess noise, and it sounds great. Not really going after the sound of any particular artist, so I can't say if it sounds like anyone famous.

On a side note, when I bought this pedal I had an Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer on my board as well...I ended up selling the TS9, to me the Bad Monkey sounds just as good (if not better).

Seems pretty reliable, shell is metal, so that's always a plus. I'd gig without a backup.

Don't know

I play mostly Alternative and Bluesey stuff, the Bad Monkey is GREAT for low gain situations. I've been playing for 10 years, and like I mentioned above, owned an Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer when I bought the Bad Monkey, and ended up selling the Tube Screamer because I liked the Bad Monkey tone just as much (if not better) than the TS9.

You cannot beat this pedal for the price (or even with some more expensive pedals)!

takes a deep push to turn on. but as i run this through a loooper, that and the slightly noticable bypass circuit are not issues for me.

i have been playing semi-pro for 25 years. have always hated dod and digitech (sorry) i play semi hollows into clean fender amps. and God Damn this is a dream come true! i have used a boss od 3 for 2 years for my od/crunch tone. (let me note i own keeley, and a few other high end boutique pedals). well this thing shows the od 3 for the raspy thin pos it really is. i just bought a second BM last night, as this will be my main tone. (bosstone or keeley 3-way rat on top for hot leads) this fixes all my ts-9 complaints.
hey tone snob, have you played 500+ live shows? build and mod your own pedals? didnt think so. i doubt you ever owned this pedal. why are you going out of your way to review this box that a true tone snob would never consider. LOSER

the switch concernes me a bit. time will tell

IT WAS 29.00 BUCKS WHO CARES

i'm thrilled i stumbled on to this. Thank you all for your accurate reviews here on HarmCent. great value, great tone, monkey time! i felt like a dick asking for it at the counter of guitar center. now i'm laughing at the 60.00 i spent for two of them, and at thought of how much time and effort tone snob will spend being mediocre. i will wrap by saying, i cannot spell well and rarely use punctuation, but i know a new classic when i hear it. i dont even mind the name anymore. it has the charm of a orange grestch. MUCH love to you all in the comunity. see ya tonight in the clubs.

4 knobs... couldn't be any easier.

I can't say enough good things about this pedal (and this Digitech line in general). This pedal is super quiet and has the warmest, most tube-like overdrive sound of any overdrive pedal I've ever used. Use a humbucker equipped guitar and it nails amazingly warm plexi/AC-DC type sounds. Use single coils and you're in Hendrix/Texas blues territory. Kick this pedal in in front of an already moderately distorted tube amp and you've got an incredibly warm, fat ultra gain sound that sustains for days with clarity and best of all it doesn't create feedback like so many other pedals do. On top of the way it sounds through an amp you also get the emulated direct out for going straight to a mixer. It sounds just as fantastic for recording direct to the board. Yes, this pedal f***ing rocks!

I would never have expected this level of rugged build from a pedal in this price range. It weighs a ton and is very solid. It won't skid across the floor, and the battery access design is ingenious. Instead of the crappy plastic cover DOD approach or even the slightly less crappy "unscrew the plastic finger-screw" Boss approach it has two metal pins (one on each side) that you simply push in with a 1/4" guitar plug (or similar sized object). When the battery has been replaced, you just pop the top back down by hand and you're ready to rock again. Also, the battery life for this pedal is nice and long. I've run my current battery (a standard Energizer) in it for over 6 hours and it's still doing fine.

Never dealt with them.

I play mostly very hard rock. Live, I use this pedal into my Marshall TSL100 half stack. I've been playing for 20 years and I must say that this pedal surprised me. Now go buy one.

It is a pretty standard stompbox. I have a stock BM (made in China) and have had no problems figuring out some nice tones from it. The recommendations from the digitech website and accompanying brochures are good places to start.

HW1 Strat-->CS3-->Bad Monkey-->Digitech X Series Delay-->Stock Fender Blues Jr. This basic setup gives me most of the tones I am looking for playing rock, blues, and country styles.

The Monkey is very quiet in comparison to the Tubescreamer it replaced. It has nice breakup as you roll the gain knob clockwise going from a natural sounding country OD to texas blues tones at a higher gain. The Low and High tone knobs seal the deal for me because it gives flexibility in the tone that a TS doesn't have. I like how you can dial in the mids but they don't HAVE to be there like with the TS. I also like how it cleans up when rolling off the guitar's volume.

I tried this effect in the store with a Screamin' Blues and this one won the comparison. I liked the two stomp boxes in tandem as a mild OD/boost and higher distortion, but I could only justify one purchase at the time.

No probs with Digitech yet at all.

I'm mainly a bedroom player so I can attest for this pedal out on the gigging circuit, but it is well-constructed. It is the best OD pedal I've owned, including Tubescreamers, and it was far less expensive. Save for boutique quality and priced pedals this effect is the way to go for overdrive.

Tone controls seem a little peaky with some instruments and it takes a bit of doing to get a good sound dialed in, but that's pretty much normal.

While I do not especially go crazy over the tone of this unit, it's good enough and most people will love it -- but the primary and glaring advantage it bears over other cheap stomps is its abilty to keep good definition when chording or arpeggiating. This is a true acid test of a distortion or overdrive stomp: "Can you strum a complex chord and have the tone structure still be apparent through the distortion, or does it just turn to mud?"

It's amazing how many stomps can't do it with most guitars. Chord and they just blow up on you. This one keeps that clarity quite well for a stomp without a Wet/Dry setting.

Though the jacks and pots are plastic PCB-mount, contrary to previous reviews, they are well supported and seem relatively rugged. The metal case is fine and the bottom is secured with Allen screws (nice touch!). The rubber isn't shifting and peeling up as it does on some stomps I've seen.

I've had a few problems in the past with their gear and have found DigiTech support to be only adequate: Slow and confused, with several attempts having to be made to get correct support answers.

This is a third-generation effect using a machine-built PCB with micro-miniature surface-mount components. User repair and modding are probably out of the question, but this construction decreases production costs adequately to have a US-made pedal in this price range. Contrary to previous reviews, this is not a digital effect, but an conventional analog circuit using 4580 surface-mount dual OpAmps.

It's well-built, rugged and maintains a very "focused" signal - unlike most other cheap OD stomps. I don't know of another OD stomp that is as good of a dollar value at the Bad Monkey's typical $40 street price.

Yowsah, yowsah..step right up and see the simering simian, the naughty ape...dare I say..the bitchy baboon??!! No you say....a digitech pedal for $40 that actually sounds good? Hmmm.....4 knobs, no waiting level, bass, treble, gain. All work well and actually have an effect on the tone. The controls ( as others have stated )are very interactive, so you need to actually spend some time with tthe pedal and try out various settings to see whats going to work for you.

This is a follow up to a previous post where I stated I was not happy with the pedal and didn't see what all the hub-bub was about. Well...I admit it....I made a mistake. I should have waited a while till post until I had a chance to actually spend some time with the pedal. This is a very nice sounding, low gain overdrive. I don't know if it's as good por better than the Keeley-Analog Man modded pedals that others have stated, since i've enver used a modded pedal. I have had a veritble treasure trove of pedals i nthe 38 years I've been playing though. From old pedals taht sounded like crap back i nteh 70's that now command stupid high prices to a few botique pieces to the sundry Ibanez, Boss, Vox, Vesta Fire, Ross, DeArmond and other off the shelf musci store staples over the years. Suffice to say, the BM is a good un.

Four knobs - no brainer effort required to get a good or even a (dare I say & piss off the likes of "tonesnob & company) a great one.

I use this with a reissue Fender Jaguar Samick Royale RL-3 - probably one of the most under-rated guitars on the planet - I LOVE it and I've owned Gibson, Epiphone (USA), and heritage semihollow - this beats them all. Whoops - thsi is about the Bad Monkey - with a name like that I HAD to try it especially after hearing Digitech's sound clips. I have NOT been disappointed. It fattens up my Jaguar and adds a beautiful and musical overdrive to my Royale. I have tried settings all over the knobs & cannot find a bad sound. I have been playing over 40 years & have had a LOT of different equipment - I have VERY fussy ears too and the Monkey pleases them. It sounds very musical & does NOT impose itself on your guitar's natural tone,

It's basically a tank - no worries no problems!

When I dealt with them on a coupek of questions they were very responsive, helpful & friendly.

It's an overdrive and beefs up slightly anemic single coils, buffs out humbuckers and can be used (& I have used it) for blues, classic rock, jazz, surf, anything I play. It's dynamic as anything I've ever tried but it is NOT overbearing like a lot of the TS-9 clones seem to be. If you can't get a good sound out of this box, it's not the Bad Monkey!

I'd replace it if it were stolen in the proverbial New York minute. I've had BOSS, Reverend, Visual Sound, and VOX overdrives and they all sound pretty good BUT the Bad Monkey is the real overdrive king IMHO. This box may be the best kept secret in the overdrive box realm. Better buy one before they become collectible!