DigiTech Bad Monkey

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.

A tubescreamer with more tone control. Easy to use and dial a good sound.

fender strato with hot rails/squier california with GFS rails clone/gibson les paul studio straight to a rocktron wah before the bad monkey.
A tube amp, with its natural distortion is the best choice. Also, try it in front of a BBE sonic maximizer.
This little box really surprised meu. I had my share of tubescreamer and clones, even built mine, along with modified boss SD`s, but this little box covers it all with a more flexbile equalization.
I give it a relative 10, because it`s the best bang for the buck, tubesreamer and overdrive related.

never had any problems, but I own it for 1 month. seems rock solid.

no need to contact them.

A lot of value for the price, and it seems to be dropping fast. I threw away my tube screamers and ds clones and kept only the bad monkey. excellent for boosting dirty channels, but it has a good sound of its own.

Very easy to use and set up. Hard to get a bad sound.

I play predominantly through my Washburn Stage A20 which has Seymour Duncan Custom Custom pick up in the bridge and a Jazz in the neck. My amp is a Mesa Single Recto head through a Marshall 1960 quad.
I bought the Recto for the modern high gain tone so the Bad Monkey is used for crunch and lower distortion sounds through the clean channel. It allows me to get blues type tones as well as classic rock crunch. It produces very full and amp like sounds that sit nicely alongside the amps core tones.

I have had it over three years and it is very reliable. It has been used with different amps with good results.

Dealt with Digitech regarding a problem with a cheap multi effects unit , RP50 which I had a problem with just outside warranty and they did not seem to care at all. Don???t really rate them form that experience but I have had no issues with this pedal.

Our band plays covers ranging from old rock to the latest pop songs. We tend to add a bit of grunt to most songs and this pedal helps when I want to play with a bit less overdrive than I get from the amp itself. It covers in all the gaps nicely. I did have a MI Audio Crunch Box and Tube Zone when I was using a crappy old Marshall AVT50 head to supply some decent distortion and overdrive but I have since sold them now I have the Mesa. The only overdrive I kept was the Bad Monkey which says something. I am interested in trying an OCD as I was very impressed with some samples I heard of that.

4-knobs and very easy to use.

I'm using this with a highly modified Fender MIM strat (SCN pickups, Seymour Duncan hotrail in the bridge), playing into a Fender Blues Deluxe amp. My effects chain in the following order: standard Dunlop CryBaby wah, Russian Big Muff PI, Boss DS-1, Digitech Bad Monkey, MXR 10 band EQ, Danelectro Cool Cat Vibe, Digitech Digidelay digital delay pedal. The overdrive on my amp was a little muddy and I also wanted to the option of boosting my Big Muff and DS-1. The pedal sounds great on its own. The ability to adjust the highs and lows separately is a HUGE plus. The pedal thickens up my DS-1, but shines even more with the Big Muff...it allows the Muff to be boosted and really smoothed out (when I choose) - very good for getting those Gilmour-esk tones.

My buddy lent me his analogman modded Boss SD-1 and I A/B'd it with the Bad Monkey. The Boss overdrive made it sound like I through a blanket over my amp. This was not the case with the BM. On every setting and with every pedal configuration I ran it through, the BM ended up being heads-and-shoulders better than the modded SD-1, and it cost far less $$$. It really lets my tone shine through.

I also like that I can turn down the gain and use it as a boost for my clean signal...completely backed off, it adds no grit to the signal, which is something most OD pedals can't claim.

The pedal is a solid, heavy piece of metal. The footswitch can wobble a little bit more than a Boss's, but that's more in the difference in design...not a big deal. Be sure to go online and extend the warranty to 6 years (one year longer than Boss's :-) I would have no qualms in gigging without a backup.

I had a few questions regarding an RP350, which I consequently ended up selling about a year ago. Digitech was very good about getting back to me about it. A++

This pedal, as a boost, works for just about everything. On it's own, it's good for any signal that you'd want to be thickened up or add some dirt to. It's not a distortion pedal, but it works GREAT with other distortion pedals. My friends own a lot of very expensive pedals, and it has given me the opportunity to do some good A/B's. Compared to every other OD I've tried, this one takes the cake...and all for $39.99!

Digitech is discontinuing this pedal (at least I know guitar center and musiciansfriend aren't selling it anymore), so you should scoop this one up while you can...or at least they start going for 100 bucks on ebay.

Highly recommended!!!

Easy enough. The knobs are clearly labeled.

I use mine with my Deville 2x12 and it's a vast improvement over my coveted Boss OD1. While The OD1 sounds great, now matter how much I wanted to deny it, it can't hold a candle to this. It just has way more sound possibilities with the Hi and Low EQ.

Sturdy construction, hard metal. Switch feels solid.

Haven't need them yet.

Awesome for any kind of music with a bit of grind or just to use for some boost.

Well...it is pretty easy to get a good sound out of, as long as you are playing fairly loud. To my ears, unless the amp is loud, the Bad Monkey just makes it sound mushy.

Basically, this is a really good Tubescreamer type pedal, for about half the cost of a new one. I really love that it has controls for treble AND bass, instead of the universal tone control. When I bought it, I had never considered owning another Digitech pedal. They just didn't seem like my thing. I generally enjoy boutique and vintage stuff, but this really caught my ear. I use it as a volume/grit booster, exactly as I would a tubescreamer. My set-up is: guitar (GPC Weaselrite, Reverend Volcano, Custom built Tele)--tuner, wah (currently a modified Crybaby), Zinky Master Blaster (clean boost), Bad Monkey, Ibanez AD 99 analog delay---Revenge 18 watt combo amp.

18 months later, I'm still using it regularly without a backup. The jacks are fine, pots are fine, and the switch is fine. If it goes out during a gig, that's ok. I can plug straight into my amp and get a great tone, after all, if you aren't happy with your straight in tone, you probably won't be happy with a bunch of pedals running into your amp.

I have never dealt with them. I'd rather not-

I play in a punk band, but I also 'moonlight' in a rockabilly band, and sometimes play country. I can adapt the Bad Monkey in my setup quickly, and it blends in. I've been playing more than 20 years, and have owned a ton of gear. Right now, I am at a place where I am very happy with my gear. I don't have all of the expensive stuff that I once had, and that is good. If the Bad Monkey were stolen, I would definitely get another one. I've also been looking at the Ibanez Tubescreamer TS9DX and the Maxon 820, but I'm happy with the Bad Monkey for now-

Thickest overdrive i'd ever use! good stand along overdrive for both rythm and lead. I love the slightly compressed tube OD sound. Makes my tunes cut right through the Band. Contourable color mix makes this one unique where most OD usually have single tone control knob.SMOOTH

metal casing very though, but the footswitch is flimsy

best overdrive I had used so far

Super easy to use
I love the Bass and Treble Knobs as opposed to a Tone knob like on lots of other similar gear.

Control Lay out is:
Gain Bass Treble Level

I really believe this pedal is destined for greatness. Who knows, in 20 years everyone may be on E-Bay giving $100.00 for them...he he he
Well maybe not, but it is a cool little unit.

I've tried it hooked up several different ways, and on the advice of a friend I put it in the chain after another distortion/boost unit and it really adds great "feel" to my digital environ.

It gives some nice "spank" and really has a great response to picking nuances.

I keep the gain fairly low...somewhere in the 9 to 10 O'clock area and use my Ibanez PT5 (another great unit!) to boost the monkey into more grit.
I use a Digitech GNX3000 for Amp/Cab Modeling and effects. I don't use a conventional amp at all anymore. With the GNX on the job just a power amp and 1-12 Cab.

But this is how I run it
Guitar(Mexi-Made Strat all stock S/S/S)into my Morley Wah, into the Ibanez PT5, into the Bad Monkey, into the Digitech GNX3000, into a Nady Power Amp into my home-mede 1-12 cab loaded with an Eminance* Texas Heat Spkr.

The Ibanez unit is a 5 pedal multi fx get up that I have set for varying stages of volume and distortion to pust the Monkey with.

It just seems to sound better this way. And it no doubt adds the "feel" that was missing in the GNX.

With my settings and particular set-up there is no noise at all.

Very well made.
Should last a lifetime
I boutgh mine new, about a year and half ago and no problems at all.

I see that digitech has wised up and started charging more for this pedal.
They where like 30 bucks at first.( if i recall rightly)
It is still well worth the price and I would have to but another if this one crapped out!

never used

Great pedal. Everyone needs at least one of these on their board.