DigiTech Bad Monkey

Too simple - though like most any pedal, experimentaion is a good thing.

The online DigiTech Bad Monkey sound clips are quite accurate. For testing, I used one of my own Strats (loaded with Rio Grande Tallboys) plugged into a '66 Champ w/Weber 8A125, a custom Penn 40w 6V6 amp and Fane 12", a custom Winfield "Harvard" (twin EL84's) w/Weber 15F150T. Signal path was guitar-->Bad Monkey-->amp. Smooooth overdriven tube tone, no fizzy square wave "after taste", no radical loss of guitar tone, a very good range of boost from very subtle to a nicely saturated power tube-like tone. A very quiet OD pedal. Choice of pickup and picking techniques gave a wide range of tones, all very nice. Two thumbs up, a keeper.

Built like a heavy Sherman tank, this pedal will be around for the long haul, I'd expect.

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A very nice pedal to add "hair" to most amy music genre short of metal et al. I've had lots of OD pedals over the decades, most of the boutique variety, the Bad Monkey is just fine for the tones it provides and better still for the low purchase price. This pedal does what it sez it'll do, and what it's s'posed to do: fatten up the tone, add some varied measure of grit, be transparent enough to let notes in chords ring out.

Easy to use..yeah. Easy to get a good sound and change sounds? Twist the knobs and you're there. Don't need a manual, didn't read it.

No offense to tonesnob, but this monkey is a great buy! I don't know what he's playing through, but I also notice he didn't list it either.
Here's what I use it through:
3 Strats/Gerg Bennett Santana clone with humbuckers/Rockson OD10 (yes, and it sounds good!)/Bad Monkey/Big Muff/Zoom Driver (the good metal cased modeler)/Cool Cat Chorus/Danecho Delay/Crate Blonde Vintage VC3112 all tube Combo.
This thing smokes, no noise (depends a lot on your gear) stands out in the mix well. My other lead player heard it before I told him it was on my pedalboard the 1st gig I used it at and he said "what is that? Did you put new tubes in your amp?" Thought it was my OD channel on steriods, he said. Kids, if you can't get a good sound out of this with a decent amp and guitar, you need to go back to square 1. With my volume and tone controls, and some palm muting, I can make this thing do (almost, lets be fair) anything I want from Stevie Ray to ZZ Top (more in the old days). Good pedal, mmm mmm mmm!

Heavy duty case, only had it a month, but yeah I'd gig without a backup, but I usually have something around just in case. After 42 years of playing you tend to cover your backside!

Fix 'em myself or buy new ones, nothing here.

Right now I play classic rock for the bucks (have a very sick wife and we need the money for doctors & meds). Works great for distortion OR overdrive, specially in my style I'm playing. Great sustain when I kick in the OD channel on my amp, real nice for slide too all on its own. Nice pinch harmonics, but again, you gotta have a fair guitar and a decent amp, tubes help a lot. Lost/Stolen, I'd buy it again and be glad the guy that stole it had one now too. Ain't really nothing to pick apart here, it's just a flat out great deal and great sounding pedal. I stomp, it screams, that's all I want, the added plus that it's a smokin pedal for OD sounds with great clarity is just gravy to me. Remember boys and girls, YOU DON'T NEED A THOUSAND DOLLAR TS9, 30 YEAR OLD BIG MUFF, OR A LOCK OF ELVIS'S HAIR TO SOUND GOOD! Just learn your craft and find the sound you want, and if it comes from a 10 dollar pawnshop pedal, so be it. Don't fall prey to the boutique thieves or relic peddlers (no pun intended). Live and play, folks, it's all good. Been at it 42 years and I'm still searchin...Love to ya all.
PeAcE
The Doctor
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4 knobs

Someone needs to leave a truthfull review of this turd because these reviews are all from bedroom players with solid state amps that wouldn't know tone it jimi hendrix beat them over the head with it.

This low gain overdrive is a good concept but it is a tone assassin. It does not compare favorably to a tubescreamer or any other decent pedal. It is muffled and sounds the same no matter where you put your volume knob. Artificial is the word that describes it best. If you are thinking this will give you that slighlty overdriven tube sound I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you.

On the plus side it's cheep as dirt. Spend some extra money and get the barber ltd. If you want something tube screamer like get a tube screamer. A good amp will show this pedal for the crap it is. I hate all the new digitech pedals they are the worst line of pedals since johnson. I had some hope for this one after reading the reviews here. These people are tone tards.

Seems sturdy but the rubber pad will come of the footswitch easily that doesn't happen with boss pedals.

Do not fall for it. It promises much but delivers a fart. If you need a pedal that is cheep and good sounding get an arion. Run from the new digitech line. I have had hundreds of pedals and I wouldn't mislead you. I have always wanted a pedal that does a convincing low gain break up. This ain't it.

10 - can't seem to get any auditory goobers out of it...

It seems effects traders/traffickers on the internet frequently say, ONo Digitech/DOD stuff...O when they?re hawking pedals for trade. I?ve never used a Digitech pedal until I went out and snagged the Bad Monkey based on reviews at this site.
This pedal is quite solid and hefty, quiet, gives two outputs and is a metal flake green color which is deeper in hue and depth than the green of the OtubescreamersO which it emulates rather handily. And for Pete?s sake it costs $40 !!! This thing delivers the sweet woman-tone, the tone of crunchy chewey tubes being ingested by your electronic mojo lizard appetite. It is hep, cool, sure-fire brown sound certified chocolate cake for your ears. AND Digitech extends the warranty to SIX years if you register it (one year otherwise). Shut up with the internal voices-of-doubt game and go get one to play out with. Save your expensive bow-tique pedals for your own little museum of overpriced artifacts of tone...

Just bought it - but a 6 year warranty sounds sweet to me...

Inspires one to just play on for a long time, long time, long time...

Easy as pie to dial in what you want. Digitech provides good manuals with suggested settings to get you started.

THE BEST $40 I'VE EVER SPENT ! This pedal is awesome. Great transparent sound. You can dial just a touch of overdrive to good dirt. It is only an overdrive pedal so dont expect mambo distortion. This box is a permanent part of my rig. I would not change anything.

I have several digitech boxes and all work great. Never had a reliablity problem with them. I do suggest an ac power source.

I have been playing for 15 + years and have tried many overdrive and distortion units. This is one of my favorites. I'll never be without a bad monkey to spank.

This pedal will get over looked my alot of players because of it's low price.How could a $39 pedal sound good.Well those of us who own one know the secret.This pedal just sounds very good and beats out many pedals that are three or four times the price.It is a OD pedal and can get a little dirtier than a TS9 or 808.Very easy to dial in a good blues tone.

The sound is simular to Tube Screamer but will get a little more dirt.The pedal works well with clean channel to get a good responsive blues feel and sound.It will give your distortion channel that extra kick for solos.I have used this pedal in front of several tube amps and it sounds great.I have owned about every boutique pedal available and I tried hard to not like this box.I kept going back to it when I was at the music store.The guy that sold it to me thought I had lost my mind.I was always a good customer because I always bought the expensive stuff.Imagine a Bad Monkey in front of a Dr.Z.Yes you can find better sounding pedals but for what I was looking for the BD was perfect.

Seems like it is built well.

Hope I don't need them.

I play rocked up blues and classic rock.

It's very easy to use. It has a bass and treble control unlike most overdrives which just have one tone knob. Getting a good sound is easy in my opinion.

This pedal sounds great! I AB'd it with my Maxon 808 re-issue and the sound was VERY compareable. When the bass knob on the bad monkey was on about 2 O'clock, that's where it matched the bass response of the Maxon. Plus you could boost it more or cut it which is a great feature considering it- A} Is more versatile for either a stand- alone overdrive or one to drive your amp into sweet harmonics, B} costs one third of the price of the Maxon, C} is made in the USA.

I just got it, but it seems pretty sturdy.

Don't know.

I highly encourage you to try this unit. You won't be bummed if you like the basic Tube screamer sound. Also, with the gain up high it seems to have a bit more drive than the Maxon 808 re-issue,and with the added bass control it's versatillity is very worth the 40 bucks. One more thing- driving the Bad monkey with the 808 before it sounded
excellent! I'd buy another if I lost it. The X-series pedals are also amazing. Check out the Hot Rod distortion- I liked it better than the new Hot Head distortion. It was tighter sounding and the morph control on the Hot Rod is Wicked!

This is an overdrive, not a distortion pedal. It enhances the natural sound and tone of your guitar/amp combo. The manual includes sample settings.

I use a Fender and Les Paul Standard guitar, along with a Fender Blues Junior and a Marshall JCM 900. The Bad Monkey seems to work well regardless of the combination. The two tone knobs (low and high) help shape the sound very well. The distortion sounds great at 1 to 2, very weak beyond that. Basically, I'm using this pedal as more of a "volume" boost. It gives me a little edge for my lead playing. You'll like this pedal as long as you're not looking for great distortion tones.

Digitech has built the Bad Monkey like a tank. It's definitely tough and reliable.

Never have dealt with the company or had one of their products go bad.

This is a very good pedal. People looking for a little boost will love it. Those expecting a distortion pedal will rate it poorly. This pedal isn't versatile but it excels at what it's suppose to do. I'd replace this pedal immediately because it's perfect for my style of music.

Easy to use as any other overdrive, the only other difference being the direct out jack that by the way if you plug into by accident and run in to your amp will actually get a slightly cleaner sound less noise but ever so slighly less sustain. But you can't get a bad sound out of this pedal! Comes with lots of liturature and sugested settings that you won't bother with as your hands will intuitively find a sweet setting, I use level 9 0 clock, and all others at three o clock on a Fender blues junior set to clean and it gives perfect distortion that matches the amp perfectly just as if I cranked the amp up to get distortion, so it effectively makes the amp a two channel now.

Ok here we go! I've collected overdrive pedals for the last five years and I have some from when I was a kid (ts808)(ts9) and many others, This pedal impressed the shit out of me, it's the best overdrive sound imaginable, But I'll state the flaw right up front, this thing will not clean up when you roll the volume back! You teasin bastards! I mean for Thirtynine dollars I'll cut you some slack but this thing has the potential to be a Holy Grail status drive but this holds it back, especially an overdrive, which should clean up when you roll it back because these are the more expressive of the distortion genre! I double checked it with a Nobels OD1 and sure enough the Nobels go's from clean to crunch with a slight twist of your Guitar volume knob, I tried to EQ them the same but I like the sound of the Bad Monkey better, More amp like! But damn man! I would give it a ten but I'll have to rate it a 8 because of this!

True story! I once left a music store after buying a guitar and a Digitech phaser, I accidently left the phaser on top of my Jeep when I left and seen it fall in a intersection when I left the light! It got creamed by Two cars, the first hit shot it about thirty feet down the road and the second sent it to the curb! the box was lost, I swung around and picked it up and got a severe case of low self esteme and went home and sure enough other than cosmetics it plays fine! I will gig without back up, But will not gig with this until they get it to clean up!

I play classic rock in a cover band and have played guitar since 1979, I have about as much gear as you can imagine, it comes and goes, I'll keep this for now, I feel this overdrive is on third base and the engineers at Digitech need Barry Bonds to homer this bad boy in with a modification to the circuit to make it volume sensitve and this will make the Bad Monkey the King Kong of the tube screamer sector! it dosent lose bottom end, it sounds natural and amp like, it just dosent respond like one.

The Bad Monkey is very easy to use. 4 knobs - Level, Low, High and Gain - standard distortion stuff. Manual is very basic, gets to the point. I grabbed the free Digitech product manual @ Guitar Centre, I'd suggest it for the settings suggestions.

I'm using this with a Squier Cyclone (humbucker in the bridge, single coil neck pickup) and an Epiphone SG/Les Paul Junior (P90 pickup) primarily into a Tascam Porta02/Behringer 802 for direct recording sounds with the amp modeling. This is an analog pedal, not digital like the DigiTech X Series, so there's a little noise. But the sound is far superior to the X Series Tone Driver (the yellow one) which I A/B'ed with the Bad Monkey.... the Monkey smoked it. I'll take the noise for the more convincing sound of the Bad Monkey. Maxing out the Gain gave the sound a nice squashed compression, rather than just adding more distortion. I also tried out the Hot Head, I'd suggest that for more gain. But I was coaxing some serious Roth-era, Van Halen-esque sounds using the humbucker with the Bad Monkey. Brown sound, baby! I could also see coaxing some SRV outta this. Nice smooth overdrive, great for strumming rhythm. At some extreme settings on the EQ's, it's a soloing beast, too. Using more relaxed settings on the gain, this was perfect for copping Springsteen and Replacements/Paul Westerberg rhythm tones. I imagine country players and bluesy bar band types would also dig this pedal. Quite versatile, very musical. I'm voting a 10 not for "pristine quality", because the pedal is incapable of that. I'm giving it a 10 because it delivers, period.

Metal housing, heavy, built like a tank. Kinda the best of both DOD and Boss pedals. I'd get a backup not so much for reliability reasons, but because you won't wanna be without it's sound. I don't see this pedal dying on ya, but spill a beer on any pedal and it's history....

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I needed a cheap, reliable overdrive that had amp simulation for making 4-track demos. I also didn't want something that sounded too much like transitors or someone's extreme idea of presets (or nu-metal). I really wanted to avoid something with an LCD or software or rack mounts or any of that crap. I was basically looking for a cheap SansAmp. I think I found it. I'd replace this in a heartbeat if lost, stolen or broken. It compares to nothing I've tried, and I've tried them all in my quest for this thing. And all this for a fraction of the cost of the competition. I think DigiTech has a winner here.