DigiTech Bad Monkey

The low & high freq. level controls make it very easy to get good tone from this unit. I find that most if not all OD's tend to bump the midrange up too much for my taste, but I can compensate for that tendency with these two tone controls, leaving the original basic timbre of the guitar intact thru the unit. This is what I was looking for in an OD pedal, and the Bad Monkey gives me that.

I don't care to emulate any 'famous artists' sounds, so I can't comment on that
The overdrive is smooth and very dynamically responsive. I can set it so that it's almost clean if I'm playing softly, but grits up nicely when I 'dig in', emulating a tube amp's response as well as any other OD unit I've heard. It's rather quiet, too, for a distortion type effect. I mostly play humbuckers with a solid-state amp, so I rely on my pedals for overdrive/distortion sounds. I really haven't tried this unit with any single-coil pickups, but intend to. I'd think that it will give me the Stratty-neck-pickup Texas Bluesy tone, real easy.

This thing is a tank! Heavy metal housing, nice heft to it. I don't know where a previous reviewer got tthe iodea that it's a plastic housing (?!). I really like the battery-access method on Digitech pedals; very elegant design. I think it's built as well or better, mechanically, than any pedals out there, and wouldn't hesitate to use it without backup.

Haven't had to use their customer support.

I play mostly blues, and blues-based rock, and this unit gives me the tone I'm after
I've been playing for about 30 years, and have several other OD pedals that I keep in the chain just for the tonal variety. I'd definitely buy another on of these if it were lost or stolen.
I love the build-quality, the tone controls, and the response and tone. There's really nothing that I hate about it at all. I did compare with some other OD's in the same general price range, and found it more to my liking than any of the others. It really makes my playing more enjoyable, because with the way it responds to my playing dynamics lets me just play, rather than worry about stepping on switches. It definitely doen not get in the way.

Well, what can I tell that you already don't know?

VERY easy to get a great sound out of this pedal.

I'm using the Bad Monkey with my LP Standard, Seymour Duncan Custom Custom bridge/Burst Bucker Pro neck. Amp is a Marshall DSL 50 with a 1960 BV 4X12.

I've tried pedals by Tonebone, Marshall, Boss, Ibanez, Indy Guitarist and a few others that I'm sure I've forget about. While a lot of them were good in thier own way they all left me going..."hmmm, not quite what I thought it would be." Something was always missing, or had too much or too little of something.

Now, I'm not going to sit here and say this is THEE pedal of all pedals. But for what it is it's DAMN good and for my needs for what I like to hear it's one of the best I've tried.

The Bass knob....my God!! A bass knob on an OD pedal!! What a novel concept!!! Nothing was worse then stepping on a pedal and hearing the bottom end fade away. Not with this pedal. You can dial in how much or how little bass you want. Nothing lacking there at all. The mids this pedal delivers are of a nice texture. Just enough to push it out without being overbearing. No hump or "nasal sounds" either. The Treble knob is very good but depending on what amp you're using it can get a bit "spikey" if turned up too high. Same with the Gain knob. Sounds great thru my DSL 50, but it can sound rather biting thru my Fender DRRI if your not careful.

It's hard to describe a tone and in my very humble opinion I think it works very well for certain Van Halen things as well as certain Led Zeppelin things. I don't try to nail someones tone but I do like to get as close to the ballpark as possible without going too overboard. Songs like VH's "Beautiful Girls," "Panama," "Dance The Night Away," ...Led Zep's "The Rover," live version of "Over The Hills".....stuff like that. I'm not going to say the pedal NAILS those tones EXACTLEY because it doesnt. But set right and it DOES work very well for things of that nature. I don't think it's as organic sounding as my Barber Direct Drive SS, but it still works great for certain things.

Seems well built. Time will tell.

Haven't dealt with them so I can't say ya or nay.

Again, the Bad Monkey may not be this or that when compared to some other pedals, but of all the pedals I've tried my SS and the Bad Monkey or my favorites, hands down. For $40.00 it's a steal too.

I use an American Deluxe single coil strat through the bad monkey into a loaded Pod XT Live. I run that into a recently purchased atomic 112-18.

The Bad Monkey's "Ease of Use" couldn't be easier. At the same time, not a one trick pony, either -- I suspect I'll end up with another one so I can have one serving as my master of OD with the other set up as a clean boost for the SRV side. Tweaking the monkey in combination with various stomps in the Pod give all sorts of flavors, all of which are simply delicious.

Unreal. I can get smooth, heavy overdrive from this thing all night long. I can also run it through one of my Fender patches and get pretty darn close to an SRV type sound. Also, if I want that "in between" sound, where the Pod is somewhat lacking on its own, I use the Monkey to set the grit and everything comes together great.

Other than running through batteries like they're going out of style, this thing is dense like a brick. Feels very sturdy, unlikely to flake. But, for $40, why not have a backup?

No experience.

Probably the best add to my signal chain on a per dollar basis. If I won the lottery, I wouldn't replace it with something more expensive. I'd just buy 3-4 more.

Even a simpleton like myself can handle this.

Not so nice. Tried it with my Marshall AVT50 (tube in preamp) and it didn't really add anything significant. In fact, the gain added was too brittle vs the amp gain. I'm a product of the Page/Townsend era and don't really like the solid state crunch. Probably ok for modern thrashers but useless on Zep type rock. If you have a tube amp, don't bother.

Worked great for the hour that I tried it!

Ahhh, fork out the xtra 100 bucks and get a tube amp bro.

Very easy. Just four knobs.

I have compared it to Analogmans silver mod and a stock TS-7 Tube screamer. The latter two are a lot and a little better, respectively. The two Tube Screamers sound much more REAL than the monkey, but the price is also much cheaper. I can get the Monkey to sound almost like the TS-7 by playing with the tone knobs.

Reliability should be about the same as the TS-7, mediocre. Cheap materials compared to the Analogman.

DOn;t know

The pedal weights a ton compared to the TS-7 but is cheaper. It uses up batteries faster than the TS-7, and sounds almost as good. I use the pedals at the some time so I can get different levels of scream without having to fidddle with the knobs in between songs.

Good value for the price.

very easy to use indeed

I play an epiphone lp with emgs into a marshall jcm800, so the sound is quite dirty but with a sharp bite to start with and I use this pedal as a booster.

I really love this pedal. I also own an sd-1 bit is also fantastic so I can only compare it to that.

First great thing is that the pedal doesnt suck your tone away and so leaves the natural sound intact. The sd-1 is bit trebley in comparison but the sd-1 has a bit more drive and sustain.

The other great thing is that you can add bass to your overdriven sound which you cant do so well with the sd-1 and other similar pedals that boost the mids.

With the amp cranked and this thing on I am in tone heaven, really heavy 80's metal sound with tight clarity.

I havent played a tube screamer or any really expensive overdrive pedals before, but to be quite honest I cant possibly see how you can get much better than this.

I cant decide if i like it more than the sd-1, I think people who are really fussy with their tone would prefer this pedal because it maintains the sound of your amp without boosting treble/mids.

However whilst I reckon rhythm guitar with fat chords sound marginally better through this pedal, I think the sd-1 has a better "melt your face off" cutting lead sound.

Anyway, I will shut up now! :-) But if you own a decent amp and like high gain rock tone I cant see how you can go wrong with this bad boy and bearing in mind the price!!! Nothing is perfect but this is damn close.

seems pretty solid

dunno

I play hard rock/cheese metal and this is great through my set up. I can imagine in a few years these things will be expensive once people realise how good they are.

??25 I got mine for! What a steal! There must be a catch....

Like a 3-knobber but the TONE gets broken into two controls: low and high. The other no-brainers are Level and Overdrive. Only challenge is opening the battery compartment. Fun to figure it out yourself!

What you've got with the Bad Monkey is a versatile stomp box with I'd say better than average overdrive tone. Does it warrant raves? No, not if its $40 price tag were taken out of the equation. But, it is $40, and since that fact can't be ignored...yes, it deserves a few raves no other OD pedal deserves. (Except the Danelectro for $15! But its CHEAP plastic body combined with the term "STOMP" box seems like a troubling match).
Why buy a Digitech Bad Monkey? It's versatile. Big time. Rather than a simple TONE control, there are two controls allowing you to contour your tone for bass "Low" and treble "HIGH". Then of course it has the only other two controls needed for an OD pedal: DRIVE and LEVEL. Regarding its "level" control - this thing makes for a very, very high output boost pedal. Again this adds to its versatility. It dishes out enough highs, booming lows and sheer volume when the level is cranked to make even the most robust 12" driver begin to fart out. Impressive. Its not totally transparent though, so for those of you where complete transparancy is essential, the Bad Monkey won't replace a dedicated booster pedal. It is however more transparent than most OD's because of its two dial EQ controls.Included specifications state you'll get 18 hours from a 9V while Boss and Ibanez OD's average 30 hours. But when you hear this gas-guzzlers output, it's hardly surprising - this thing was made to push tubes into breakup.
How about the tone of its drive.. Well, it offers the amount of drive/crunch an overdrive should so its perfectly adequate. If you're not satisfied then what you seek is a DISTORTION pedal. Anyway, The tone of this drive is... well, ok. I'd say a "six".. which is good by my picky-picker standards. But, the fact that you get all this: a booster(wow!)pedal, 2 EQ controls, semi-transparency as a booster, lead-brick weighted feel so it actually stays PUT!, and overdrive tone I'd regard as not bad at all(and not the best).... is a lot to ask in an OD. The Bad Monkey seems the product of a lot of thoughtful design by someone who actually plays a guitar. Even the battery compartment access seems to project "wittyness" as opening it is done easily with the tip of a 1/4 jack: something guranteed available should you need to open it. And it seems secure from accidental opening to boot. I've never seen this much quality and good tone for anything near $40. However, it's mere "good" drive tone that is neither bad nor great will keep it from perfection. And when the tone of a guitarists overdrive is paramount, dropping $200 for tone noticeably better hurts the Bad Monkeys greatest strength, its economy and versatilty. Still, its worth $40 and easily a good deal more. Because of its sheer versatility, for $40 the Bad Monkey is a must have for any electric guitarist: trust me, it will find a reason to be in your chain!

Gets a ten till it breaks.. feels overbuilt. More tank-like than any BOSS I ever owned.

Who.. what?

You read the review, great for $40.. a must have. You'll have to drop $80 to find better overdrive tone, $200 to match this OD's versatility. Need an OD? I'd say buy it blind because most would NEVER return it or regret the purchase. Its hefty lead-like weight would slow the theif down sufficiently so that I may overtake and then procede to bludgeon... Yeah, I'd buy it again.

Easy to use - I had a good sound out of it after only a minute of fiddling with the settings. The key is to make sure your volume and EQ settings match your amp settings, and it will provide a nice and seamless transition from clean to overdrive.

I give it a solid 9 because I paid $34 for it, and for a $34 pedal, I was amazed. A ten for me is actual tube overdrive from the amp, but this sounds great through the clean channel channel of a tube amp. I took a chance and read the reviews where people said "smooth overdrive" and the reviews were right on. I've played it through a Peavey Valve King 112, and a Mesa Boogie Tremoverb Dual Rectifier, and it gives a very smooth overdrive to the clean channels of both amps. I noticed there is a slight delay on the Valve King when switching between channels, so I bought this pedal to allow time sensitive switching to overdrive. It sounds just like I was hoping it to sound. I like that there are two EQ knobs: low and hi, which I actually like better than Boss's style of on tone knob. I get a more intricate mix with the Bad Monkey. It's cheaper than many overdrive pedals, but sounds great. Don't expect this pedal to give you higher, crunchy distortion levels at full gain - it's just an overdrive pedal and you can't get that sound out of it. It does give a decent full overdrive sound though, and through my mesa, it sounds incredible. I've never tried it through a solid state amp, though, so if you use solid state, you may want to take a trip to the music store and see if you like it. Lastly, the band monkey sounds decent in series with a distortion pedal. You could use as a gain boost if you wanted.

It's made of metal and you wouldn't want to get hit with it. I am glad digitech has been making metal stomp boxes. I don't buy plastic pedals out of principle.

Definitely a good value. I've been paying guitar for over 13 years, and lately profressionally. I am discerning about the effects I use, and what sold me on this pedal is that I can turn it on and off without drawing a lot of attention to the effect change. Some songs I play get steadily thicker, and this pedal can make seamless transitions. If you turn the volume up, it could be set to bring in a harder sound, but my use for it is to keep it more subtle. You can get it for $35. Negotiate with 'em.

Simple

Crank the bass all the way up and this is like 2 Ibanez Tube Screamers put together.

I think I paid $35 for it. I've had $150 MOD pedals and all sorts of exotic and rare pedals. This one just nailed it. It's a miracle. Remember, Dimebag could make a K-mart guitar kick arse so just buy this pedal, end your perfect distortion search, and practice your style.

Very easy to get a good tone from. Bass, treble, volume and gain knobs.

This was a surprising find for little money too! Fairly neutral OD pedal. Does not seem to color over the basic tone of an amp. Just applies a smooth and natural sounding OD over the tone.

It seems well-built. I've had no problems with mine.

N/A

I play classic rock, blues, and do like some older metal. This pedal is primarily a good blues pedal for me. I have a MI Audio Crunch Box I like for my rock tones. It has a great mid-range that this pedal does not. Between these 2 pedals (Crunch Box and Bad Monkey) I have any OD tones I want covered.