DigiTech Bad Monkey

It was easy to get a SUPERB sound out of this lil Green thang. x

Well ive been playin for 12 years now (im 26) & ive ownd tons of 'Overdrive' pedals such as: TS-9's/SD-1's/WYLDE's MXR & THE VOX BIG BEN.
I playd them all thru my Marshall 100watt Valvestate with 5x12" Celestion speakers in a cab!!
Out of all the pedals that shone the brightest it was the Digitech Bad Monkey EVERY TIME!!
ITS THE BEST 'TUBE-EMULATION' PEDAL THERE IS OUT THERE!!
With incredible sustain and its amazing depth in tone = PERFECT!
Add it to your amps overdrive & you will get BLACK SABBATH/ SLASH/ZAKK WYLDE/S.T.P. & JERRY CANTREL of A.I.C.(RIP)
(it even does that Nirvana Raarrhhhh too!)
And with the superb controlled feedback that would put a smile on Hendrix's & Page's face any day... \m/(-_-)\m/
This pedal (IMHO!) is the Holy grail of Overdrive boxes!!
Forget all the 'vintage' hype'n'stuff - BUY THIS BAD MONKEY NOW...
For Blues,Grunge & Heavy Rock this pedal's got your ass coverd!!
And for #29 you cant go wrong. Peace out man. :)
(id give it a 10 but nothing in life is a 10!)

As strong as an OX,
Cos its made out of steel dudes!
LOL :)

Never delt with'em & I hope i dont have to...

Man i love so much music but its mostly Grungy Rock,and this pedal just does nothing but inspire me to play even more so from my soul.
Peter Greens sound is to die for in my books & this lil monkey helps me get into 'The Zone' lol...
I cant see how someone could NOT LIKE this Bad boy - Full Stop!!
Let there be rock my friends.... ROCK!!! \m/(-_-)\m/

Easy as you would expect.

My setup :

Ibanez RGT42, ESP LTD MH201, Ibanez RG770 -> Morley Wah -> Bad Monkey -> B-52 AT100 -> Effects out -> Danelectro Fab Chorus -> Dan Echo -> Effects in -> Avatar 2x12 Texas Heats.

I love what this pedal does for my sound. I set the level at about 7 and the Gain at about 5. I set the gain on my amp at about 5 also. This is the best tone that I've ever had. It also sounds very good by itself on my clean channel. It doesn't get very heavy on it's own but it has a very good bluesy rock sound. I use it to boost my signal going into my preamp so that I can have multiple gain stages for my dirty channels. This pedal does exactly what I hoped it would do and the price ain't half bad either.

Seems to be built well.

Digitech has been good to me in the past.

Overall this is a very good pedal. It is built well and it has great tone. If you're in the market for an affordable overdrive, you can't go wrong with this one.

very easy to follow instructions 4 knobs, simple.

Excellent very very nice sound on my blues junior, makes the sound thicker and has more power.

very good looks ruggedly built

excellent pedal, very good value.

This is a very easy to use pedal. It's got gain, level, low and high controls. There's really not much to it. A good feature- you just need guitar cables to acces the battery compartment not a screwdriver. The manual is very short but covers everything you'd need to know. It has two outputs - one for an amp and one for recording.

My setup is: Esp ltd ec 50 ---- Bad Monkey ---- (sometimes rp80)---- Epiphone Valve junior.

The bad monkey gets a really nice blues/rock tone (similar to a tubescreamer) through this setup with the gain turned up to 10 (using a clean amp), but it can sound pretty bad when the gain is turned down past halfway. I don't have a decent guitar with single coils to try with the bad monkey, but I think a single coil guitar would sound better on low gain settings.

This pedal is good for getting sounds of 1970's blues/rock and my setup can get a good Led Zeppelin sound. It's also good for stuff like Pink Floyd (when combined with a few more effects!)and modern indie stuff like Franz Ferdinand. After I bought it I looked at the sound samples on the digitech website and they're pretty accurate but not 100%. Sounds good with 'Low' at 12 o'clock and 'High' at 3 o'clock but obviously adjust those settings to personal taste. Turning up the amp gain gives this pedal more boost and still sounds great.

As far as I can tell it's got a true bypass but i'm not 100% sure.

One fairly big problem with this pedal is that it can sound quite different on differnt amps. On my (very old) peavey amp it sounded really wierd and fuzzy (hard to describe) but on my new valve junior it sounds great. I have tried it on a few solid state amps and it sounded good but for some reason it sounded real bad through my old peavey. So if you have a cheap amp you might want to try out a friends monkey before you buy your own. The 8 refers to how it sounds on my current setup. With my old amp it would be a 4.

Solid (and as heavy) as brick. I would deffinately gig it without a backup but would bring a power supply for it as it begins to sound pretty awful when the battery starts to run out. I've found the batteries last about 1-2 months (about 4 hours per week use)

Never dealt with them.

Overall this is a great pedal, especially at half the price of a Boss Blues Driver (in Australia). I play bluesy rock, 70's style rock and art/experimental rock (did I say a play rock :P) and this pedal is great for that. This pedal is not perfect (the different amp thing is a problem) but works great for me.

If this was stolen (and I got insurance money) I would go out again and buy another. Depending on your budget I would also check out a Boss Blues driver and Ibanez Tubescreamer. The Bad Monkey does the same thing as these and is a lot cheaper. The Bad Monkey will not suit everybody's taste (and amps) so use your common sense and try before you buy. This is an overdrive, not distortion pedal and sounds a lot differnt from a Boss Ds-1.

One last thing, unlike a lot of Digitech products, the Bad Monkey is analogue not digital so this pedal shouldn't be dismissed because it's a Digitech.

This is a really easy pedal to use.

It has four nobs (level, low, high, gain). the nobs are very solid feeling and sturdy. the pedal itself feels very strong as well.


The manual is really cool, it shows a bunch of different examples to get a good sound out of it.

Heres my setup:

Fender Telecaster with Hot Rails in the bridge > Boss ME50 > Digitech Bad Monkey > Peavey Classic 50 4x10.

I also use a Limited Edition Epiphone Les Paul Standard. The reason I bought this pedal was to drive my amp harder so I dont have to use as much gain. I play indie rock/ambient/experimental stuff.

I usually dont use it with the telecaster because the hot rails are high output, but its great with the lp.

its very warm and responsive. it sounds amazing. its pretty quiet through my setup.

Its tough. All metal, very well designed. I would like to get a backup just in case. I mean, at $40 why not grab an extra one?

This pedal does exactly what I need. It sounds great with my rig, and it was cheap. Im very happy with how sturdy it is and the weight. The controls are great and work well, the sound is awesome, and its cheaper than a tubescreamer. i used to own a ts9, but i like this alot better. the only problem is that it doesnt clean up totally. it works as a great clean boost, but the boost isnt completley clean. which is fine, because i never play totally clean anyhow.

also, its all analog!!! no digital crap at all!!! i was shocked when i read this, but its true. i was skeptical at first to try any of digitech products because ive read so many times that their stuff is crap. but it all comes down to your ears, if it sounds and works good for you, then there you go.

if i lost it or had it stolen, id buy a new one for sure.


if you want a good overdrive and dont want to pay out your ears, pick one of these all analog beauties up. you wont regret it.

This pedal is definitely easier to use than most pedals. Instead of having a Tone knob, it has a Hi and a Low knob. I find it really easy to get the EQ I want with that as opposed to using a Tone knob.

My setup: B.C. Rich Bronze Warlock with a Bill Lawrence L-500XL bridge pickup (that made my cheap guitar sound more like a $400-$500 priced guitar) through this Bad Monkey pedal straight into my Marshall JCM 2000 DSL100 with a 4x12 straight Park cab.

As you probably guessed, I play metal. This OD pedal was exactly what I needed for my rig. I bought it simply for boosting my signal going into my preamp. It does this very well. It really tighted up my amp and it lets me back off the gain and get that power tube tone I like.

I'm still not crazy about how it sounds when I switch over to my clean channel. It's cool because it throws a little dirt in there (I think it's just making the tubes break up a little, hence it has nothing to do with how the pedal sounds, but more to do with how strong the output signal is). The other guitarist in my band really likes how it does that, but I need to experiment with it more to see what I can do with it.

The Hi/Low knobs that I mentioned earlier really help me because my agathis-body guitar with that Bill Lawrence bridge pickup tends to be bright, especially with that Park cab. I can use the pedal to balance my EQ a little better before I come into my amp so I don't have to rely solely on the amp's EQ.

As any metal fan/musician should, I love classic rock. So I figured this pedal could also serve as something for me to mess around on at my house through my Carvin solid state acoustic amp. Yeah, it's not the best amp to use for what I do, but it's just what I happen to have. It's easier to practice on it than lugging my Marshall rig around. Anyway, I'm not really impressed with the overdrive tone. I was hoping I could sound like Skynyrd, but I haven't been able to get very close to that. But I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to emulating that kind of tone, so you can probably disregard my opinion on this aspect of the pedal.

I don't see any reason to buy a second one just for backup, even though they are very affordable.

I've only had it about a month or two, so I'm not sure how it's going to hold up. But it definitely is built solid, so I would be surprised if it died.

I haven't had to deal with them any.

I am convinced that a good OD pedal is essential for anyone playing metal with a tube/valve amp (which is the only way to do it). Before I had it, I thought my tone was decent. Now that I use it, I'm really cutting through the mix. I'm actually adding a lot to my band's sound. I can hear myself no matter what riff we're playing, and I often think to myself "I sound really good tonight" while we're practicing. It has been my best investment since I bought my Marshall.

This OD pedal is now an essential part of my rig, and if anything happened to it, I would have no problems going out and buying another one. After all, they're only $40. If you're thinking about trying an OD pedal to boost your tube amp, I highly recommend this pedal. It's an affordable way to try it out, and I'm willing to bet that you'll be happy with what it does.

Very easy to get a good sound out of it. Very smooth, very nice! The footswitch could be a little more sensitive. . . . I like to tap my stomp boxes (big feet, small pedalboard -- I need to be delicate), but with this one I've gotta give it a good heave.

EXCELLENT. I don't have, nor have I used a Tubescreamer, but I nearly bought a TS7(808 Mod) and I'm glad I didn't spend the extra $40. It does what I need it to do. Drives my tube amp quite well. It's quiet boost and sweet gain . . . doesn't do zz top.

Seems rock-hard. Digitech throws in a battery, which is great. I have one other digitech pedal and it's just bulletproof.

Haven't needed to.

Overall it's a great tube sim if you are stuck with a SS amp, and it's agreat driver for a tube amp. if you play blues and rock, you need this pedal in your lineup.

Very Easy to get a good sound out of this. Set all knobs at 12:00, and tweak to taste from there.

I'm using this with a Fender Standard Stratocaster with Seymour Duncan Antiquity Texas Hot pups. Not noisy on it's own, but when used in conjunction with the overdrive on Hot Rod Deluxe, need to be quick on your feet turning it on and off in a gig situation. THat nails as close as I've gotten to the SRV Pride and Joy/Rude Mood sound. Also works well as a clean boost. How I use it with the amp's overdrive is to set the amp drive on 4 and the gain on the Monkey at half. Allows me to use the amp for a volume boost (something which the Monkey does due, unless like me you are in a band with three guitar players and may find it is not enough), great some great semi-dirty bluesy sounds out of the Monkey, and killer rock stuff when they are both turned on. The most versatile sounds you could want to come up with with this setup. For what I am playing right now (classic rock, rock and roll, bluesy stuff) best sounds I've gotten out of nearly thirty years of playing and gigging. I can't imgine being happier even with a TS-9, although I've honestly not played through one, however for practicality's sake, this is half the price, and some people here say it sound's better. In my opinion, blows the Boss Sd-1 (which I've owned and turned in to buy one of these) out of the water soundwise. Nothing short of something that automatically turns me into SRV wuld get a ten....others have made Eric Johnson comparisons (the tones out of the pedal, not my playing necessarily).

I've had it only two months, so hard to say. Been dependable so far. Probably not an issue. Do use it without a backup, but have an overdrive on the amp that will make it through the night. WOuldn't deliberately gig without one, will likely keep this pedal for many years. Very happy.

Never used them, don't know.

Been playing about thirty years, gigging off an on about twenty. Play classic rock, blues, country, oldies, everything but metal. I also have an on/off again relationship with pedals. I can say unequivocably this is one pedal I would not sell (might trade it for a TS-9 or 808 though, but no cash exchange). I have a delay I use which I also like but this one gets a lot of use during gigs. If someone stole it, I'd be tempted to hunt the guy down and beat him to death with it, but hey, at $40, would definitely buy another - am anticipating the price will go up on these in the future, too good of a steal right now in comparison with the overpriced Tube Screamers.I like the flexibility in the low high and gain knobs, lot more variation in sound there then you would think, but I have my one favortie setting and I stick with it. When used in combination with your amp's gain, lots of flexibility there. Not really a good clean boost, will probably look towards a compressor for that. Great higher gain/tube driven sounds when used in cobination with your amp's gain, think as I said, Stevies's more gain-y stuff, or maybe the solo on Keep Your Hands To Yourself. On it's own, nails quieter bluesy stuff, or alternatively CCR Green River type of sound. If you want some semi-dirty sounds, I.E. Eric Johnson, this can do that well also. If you want Satriani/Vai/iinsert your favorite metal player here, look elsewhere (I'm a big Satriani/Vai fan as well, but don't aspire to that style anymore, ergardless, this pedal doesn't do that). Again, the decision to buy this pedal was due to a lot of research, and largely based on what I have read here. Thanks to those who helped - my opinion, every bit as good as the best reviews I've read here.

Level, bass, treble & gain controls.
Very easy to get great overdrive tones.
Ingenious access to battery
Website has some suggested settings, and sound samples.

The best pedal I've used for this kind of application. Very nice and "tube-like"
Not a 'distortion pedal' for hard rock and metal, if your putting it in front of a clean amp. Sounds absolutely awesome in front of a slightly overdriven valve amp. S.R.V. , Angus Young, Page etc.
I'm using mine with 2 Ibanez' and a Parker Fly into a Laney LC15R or Marshall amps. Thickens tones, adds boost, or whatever you set it for.

Built like a tank, and great battery access (no broken plastic battery covers)

N/A

Look somewhere else if your after a pedal to provide mega gain metal sounds, this won't!
What it will provide is great tube amp like drive, or to boost an already driven amp (preferably valve) in a solid, fantastic value pedal.

This pedal is very simple to get the tone you want. 4 knobs, Level, Low, High, and Gain. Never opened the Manual. Upgrades? I'll let you know in the next Section.

I use a LP Copy and a Lace Huntington and my Pedals are :
Vox Wha>Compressor>Bad Monkey>Tremelo>Traynor TRM40 with (2) 2X12 Cabs. I match the Level with the Clean Level on the Traynor and go from there. Since the Traynor is quite loud, my levels run between 3-4. Low around 10, High around 2, and Gain at 1-2. With the 2X12's I get enough Low's to bring a little Bottom in the Mix. And when I kick it in, the Band knows who walked in thru the door.


Now that I've said all that, here's what you need to do to make this Pedal sing. Have the MOD done by no one else but Mark Humphery. You can get intouch with him through the RigTips Group on Yahoo.
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rigtips) He will make the MOD that will keep you playing until your fingers bleed.


There is no noise on mine. I use it connected to a 1-Spot Power Source. The Pedal/MOD are very transparent. Tell him Loud Bob from The Route66 Band sent you over. You will be amazed at what he can do for you.

I haven't Gigged with it yet, but use it at every Practice we have. It never leaves my chain. Will I use it w/o a backup? You bet!

I haven't had to use Support, but if it needs it, it'll go right to Mark Humphery (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rigtips) for any repairs.

Our Band plays Rock & Roll. And together we've been playing since 1966 (ie; Route66 Band). If it were lost or stolen, I'd be on the horn to Mark for a new one.


Once the MOD is done, you'll love this Pedal. Try one for yourself.

The pedal is easy to use with several ways to change the amount of drive, volume, treble, and bass. Just a stock pedal on the outside.

Mark takes an already hot pedal and makes it scream!!! I liked the Monkey because it's hot, but not too hot. I played it in a local store and almost bought one, but they were not in stock. So I, not able to wait, got on e-bay.
This is where I found the Rabid Monkey.
The mod adds much more warmth as well as nice powerful lows and highs that would cut through sheet metal.

Only had it for a month or so, but no staggers as of yet.

Haven't had an issue, so I don't know.

I use it with a mildly dirty amp, this gives a great Zakk Wylde type of overdrive.
I also use it by itself to get that steel cutting Angus Young live guitar sound.
On a clean amp with the drive on medium, it gives a great blues sound.
Overall it is a wonderful pedal, you can trust Mark to give you a great deal. I don't know about his service, but if it's as good as the equipment he sells, it's got to be great.

Kramer Baretta with QuadRails...This bad boy is da bomb!

No noise, very quiet, even when stomped

Yes, indeedy

never needed

Blues and jazz, about 20 years...if stolen, I would immediately contact Mark H for another...

This pedal is very simple to get the tone you want. 4 knobs, Level, Low, High, and Gain. Never opened the Manual. Upgrades? I'll let you know in the next Section.

I use a LP Copy and a Lace Huntington and my Pedals are :
Vox Wha>Compressor>Bad Monkey>Tremelo>Traynor TRM40 with (2) 2X12 Cabs. I match the Level with the Clean Level on the Traynor and go from there. Since the Traynor is quite loud, my levels run between 3-4. Low around 10, High around 2, and Gain at 1-2. With the 2X12's I get enough Low's to bring a little Bottom in the Mix. And when I kick it in, the Band knows who walked in thru the door.

Now that I've said all that, here's what you need to do to make this Pedal sing. Have the MOD done by no one else but Mark Humphery. You can get intouch with him through the RigTips Group on Yahoo.
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rigtips) He will make the MOD that will keep you playing until your fingers bleed.

There is no noise on mine. I use it connected to a 1-Spot Power Source. The Pedal/MOD are very transparent. Tell him Loud Bob from The Route66 Band sent you over. You will be amazed at what he can do for you.

I haven't Gigged with it yet, but use it at every Practice we have. It never leaves my chain. Will I use it w/o a backup? You bet!

Haven't had to use Support, but if it needs it, it'll go right to Mark Humphery (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rigtips) for any repairs.

Our Band plays Rock & Roll. And together we've been playing since 1966 (ie; Route66 Band). If it were lost or stolen, I'd be on the horn to Mark for a new one.

Once the MOD is done, you'll love this Pedal. Try one for yourself.

How easy is it to get a good sound out of it? VERY EASY
How about Editing? EASY
How is the manual for it (if there is one)? NOT GOOD

What setup (i.e. what guitars and amps) are you using this with? I use an american strat, Fender Bassman LTD

Is it noisy? NO

On what settings? my favorite blues is: Vol=1pm, Bass=11am, Treble=3pm and Gain at 3pm, and use the neck pickup

Are the effects weak or do they always sound great? The MONKEY sound very good. Its got more of a tube tone than any pedal i have ever tried ! Its a MID RANGE pedal with the hollow tone. It really reminds me of ERIC CLAPTON. sounds really good with my fender bassman.

Can you get the sound of your favorite artists? I can get a great bluesy tube tone. I'm amazed how close it is to a overdriven tube tone. Are certain effects (distortion, chorus, ...) very good? I play a Delay pedal with it. And for extra drive, i use the digitech scream'n blues pedal with the bridge pickup.

i've played it everday for 6 months

GOOD

I'm a BLUES ROCK type guy. I love a good tube tone when driven, as we all do. This pedal works well with my BASSMAN. I get a great driven tube tone. Like people say, its a SMOOTH tone. It really sounds like eric clapton when he's playen a great slow blues (HYDE PARK). Its the best TUBE DRIVER i've played. Its that BOXY MIDY tone. I have many guitars, but i like the american standard the most. the unit also sounds good with humbuckers. TRY IT !!! for $40, its the best deal out there.

pretty good pedal.
the two tone controls bass and treble equals more customization.

very sweet sound,
you get some fat bass for your tone

Hot Rod Deluxe and Fender Strat

it feels stronger than my Boss BD-2
little heavier and slightly wider
but it's tough metal case

haven't dealt

very good value..
I can use it as a clean boost too
or overdrive, or lead boost.
very flexible pedal

This is a neat little pedal with 4 controls which allow an easy tube driven sound to come from a non-tube amp. I have the MIA model (Sept. 05) and it's the best color (green) that I've ever seen.

I play an American and Standard (MIM) Fender Strat through a small Crate 100w Solid State amp. I like the option of the dual outputs to use with 2 separate amps or 2 separate channels. Nice settings to get whatever tone you're after. I cranked the low to 1 o'clock and set the treble at 10 o'clock, the gain at 3 and dist at 5 and it sounded like my old Deluxe Reverb being pushed a bit.

This is a very rugged pedal with an ultra-easy, no tools needed battery change compartment. I have used it on several gigs without a backup.

I've only called customer support to ask what other products they offer and they were extremely polite and helpful.

I've been playing for 27 years and mostly blues and rock music. I love this pedal because it allows me to use a 30 pound amp that sounds like a Marshall Stack when the pedal is set for extreme drive.
I sold my old MXR Distortion + and a newer Zendrive because this Bad Monkey puts them both to shame. My friends also have gone and bought this pedal and we all think it's the HOLY GRAIL ???

Easy as pie to work with. I got "my sound" in about 60 seconds. Got the "Stevie Ray/Tubescreamer" sound first. The manual is simple, because the pedal doesn't require much thought.

I use a Vox amp (solid-state, but a good one), and a hot-rodded Strat (decent sounding single-coils). No other effects. I started with a clean and even-sounding tone from the amp. This pedal really fattens up the tone, and makes my amp sound like it has tubes that are being pushed right to the point of breaking up. It's brilliant for hard-edged blues (moreso than the DigiTech Sreamin' Blues, in my opinion), 60's Rock, 70's Rawk, and anywhere else you may need that extra push. I compared several Tubescreamers and TS-style pedals, and found this to be the most genuine sounding of all. At $40, I couldn't pass it up. It sounds (again, my opinion--and tone is subjective, innit?) better than a modded Ibanez TS. The best among more costly green pedals.

This pedal pushes your sound, but is transparent with your guitar's tone. My Strat sounds like a Strat (on steroids). I like the fat tone I get from it so much, I'm swiching to humbucker-equipped guitars to feed the need. It's a beautiful-sounding pedal.

As a side note, this is NOT a digital pedal. It is analog. The X-series pedals are digital, and have those characteristics. But the Bad Monkey, Screamin' Blues, Grunge, Death Metal, and Hot Head are ANALOG. One reviewer stated otherwise, and I almost didn't buy the pedal. When it's at all possible, try before you buy.

Built like a Boss. If it blew at a gig, first of all I'd be very surprised, but then I'd just plug directly into the amp *gasp*, and play on.

Don't know yet--not worried.

The only overdrive I'll ever use--period. The only negative thing is the way you have to remove the top of the pedal the replace the battery. But this minor inconvenience isn't even enough to lower its rating.

Very easy to use. Plung in and play. I recommend having all knobs half way and then adjusting them to your preference.

GREAT sound!! This is one of my favorite pedals. The overdrive is so sweet. Very warm sounding and great sustain. I run this and all my pedals through a Yamaha T50. I am planing to get a 3 amp set up. That being the Yamaha T50 for overdrive with the Bad monkey, Fender Hot Rod Deville for clean and Latvala vintage (custom made..point to point wiring) for warmer tones. I have tried it with the Latvala and it is just the best.

Never had a problem with it. I have an Boss overdrive in my pedal anyways just in case.

Have never dealth with them, or have had to deal with them. Great product.

If you want a great tube overdrive tone, this is it. It can give you a great Santana overdrive/sustain tone, SRV raw tone, Slash warmth, Michael Schenker edge. Probably not the best for metal, but it doesn't matter cause we are talking about GOOD tone. Get it one and you will not regret it.

Simple. Level,..low,.. high... and gain.. In,.. Out,.. to amp.. to mixer. So Simple I bought 2 of em.. More on that...

Sounds Great! So good in fact I bought 2 of em and daisy chained them together For the most over the top sound!.. OK let me start by saying I use this in a TUBE AMP.. I cant say how it'll sound thru solid state amps..I dont use em. I've played gobs of equipment thru the years since 1975 and Mesa equipment exclusivly since 97' .If you know boogie you know the distortion is very Ballsy and dark..Just like I like it. Any way back to the Bad Monkey. I needed something for one of my backup amps which is a 69' Fender Bassman that I've got loaded with Ruby Tube 6l6's and Groove Tube 12ax7's. I have been laboring trying to find a pedal that gives me a sound close to what I'm getting out of my Boogie rigs and the Bad Monkey IS IT! Now it's a OVERDRIVE and wont do Metal...Alone.. but wait! Their so cheap take 2 of em and daisy chaing them and you'll find yourself selling off the rest of your pedals on ebay or a least scalling down your pedal board. 2 pedals together will push it into the metal zone, Not thrash Rectum Frier but close. I tried numerous pedals..TS's MXR's .Voodoo Labs Sparkle ect. ect and I did find some very good sounds but the the Bad Monkey sounded so close to these for a fraction of the cost that it was a no brainer..I'm thinking of promoting my Bassman with the bad monkeys to 1rst stringer for a while.. I play in a Rock/Classic and Original Rock band and will use this setup at my next gig. This pedal is quiet even when I run the gain W F O. It makes harmonics jump of my fret boards and sustains for days.. a la Gary Moore, Vivian Cambell, .. I mostly use my Gibson SG loaded with Seymoore Duncans, JB Bridge,, Pearly Gates in the neck and Also a Carvin DC 127 with stock Hum's and coil taps.. 2 Totally different guitars made out of different woods and they both sing with the Bad Monkeys.. Setup is Guitar..into Bad Monkey .. into Bad Monkey ..into Carvin Digital Delay into Fender Bassman.. That's it.. It produces the meanest wall of sound I've ever heard out of a Fender Bassman.. So close in sound to my Boogies it's scary.. Now alone the pedal is still a great sounding pedal. But classic rock is the most you'll get out of it alone. Nothing wrong with that if thats the genre your after like me..

Well I've had em for about 4 months and I dropped one that hit right on the "Low" knob and bounced a couple of times.. Still working just fine..Athough I dont recommend dropping them.. (watch your alcohol consumtion before handling any equipment). Although It survived (and works fine) I find the "Low" knob does'nt "Feel" the same.

Havent called so cant say

I play Rock, Blues, Country, Funk , Punk, It just dont matter..Whatever band I find myself in at the Time..

Playing too long. And own to much crap to list since 1975.

If lost or stolen would buy again as long as Digitech doesnt get hip and start charging double what there getting now..

Look I'm only speaking for myself and I aint telling no one what to buy. Sound is subjective. What sounds good to me may suck to you..what sounds good to you may suck to me.. But I've found that with a good clean tube amp this pedal just shines..And that aint no Monkey Buisness. :-)

This is a very easy pedal to operate. The inclusion of both treble and bass tone controls blows away a lot of other pedals instantally. All the knobs feel solid and the pedal case is robust and solid. Foot pedal action is perfect.

Let me first list a few of my other pedals... Fulltone OCD, Barber Directdrive, Barber LTD silver, Boss DS1, Danelectro Fab overdrive, Boss OD3. ( these are just my overdrives.) My amp is a GenzBenz El'Diablo C60/30 combo (tube.) The Bad Monkey can hang with ANY of the other OD pedals I have, it is actually smoother than most and is nice and pick sensitive, it just sounds superb. I usually keep the Barber LTD and DS1 (only) on my pedalboard and switch out other OD's or distortion pedals when required.. but, every time I plug into the Bad Monkey I am amazed at how great it sounds and responds.

I have and have had other DidiTech products, I keep a Digiverb on my pedalboard and had the RP100 and The "Weapon". Never had any problems with any of them and this Bad Monkey is built rock solid, no worries!

Never needed them, in my opinion that deserves a 10.

I have been playing for 40 years, I am still a fan of the guys a lot of people don't think about anymore, Alan Holdsworth, Steve morse, Al Dimeola, Malmsteen, Vai, etc. These guys were and still are monsters! With that being said, The Digitech Bad Monkey is an exceptional OD pedal and for the price it is the correct choice. I have owned tons of gear in the last 40 years and very few items come to mind as real keepers, My Yamaha NE1 and Barber LTD are two items I will not part with. Now on that list is the Bad Monkey. I wish ALL pedals had seperate treble and bass controls and performed like this one does. I stayed away from it for a long time because of the paint job, it seemed a little over the top to me but now after using for about 6 months and comparing to other similar products it works and sounds so great that I would not want it to look any other way. I don't care if it's hot pink, tone and playing response is the bottom line and I do not think you can find a better made pedal that sounds this good until you get into the high end botiques. I rest my case.

4 knobs , level ,low,high and gain . Simplicity itself .

Seeing a new one up on ebay for only #19 , and a quick bit of research on Harmony Central confirmed this was a low risk investment for what was probably a great pedal. Delivered in two days , plugged in and ....wow!!
Everything everyone said was confirmed . Not a heavy distortion , but a lovely saturated tube emulation , or overdrive.
I have today borrowed a friends Ibanez tubescreamer TS808 reissue and have been doing an A/B comparison . He paid #120!! No discernible difference between the two , apart from the #101!!
This pedal normally retails around #39 . It is a bargain at that price and shows the TS as being an expensive 'genuine article' .
Cannot recommend this pedal highly enough

Built like a tank and very well finished . great LED size , very visible compared to Boss . I guess it will outlast me.

Can't see why I would ever need to talk to them

Light rock/blues . Perfect
24 years a player but still looking for my perfect sound . This has certainly helped.
Play a couple of USA Strats , USA Tele , Yamaha SG and a Lowden F32C
Fender Blues junior (lovely sound!)
I would certainly buy this pedal again especially at that price!!

Extremely simple to use-Volume, Lo, Hi, and Gain. That's it--4 knobs
and a stomp switch. Plug in and play.

I need to preface this review with the fact that I have reviewed very
few pieces of gear on Harmony Central. It seems that most of the gear I would review, there are dozens upon dozens of similar reviews up. That said, the Bad Monkey really impressed me. A friend of mine
who is a vintage instrument dealer told me to go pick one up. I said, 'Are you crazy? It's a DigiTech!" Well, I'm eating my words.
For the money, you cannot go wrong with this pedal.

I have been blessed with very cool gear. I have an original 808 Tubescreamer, an original TS-9, Fulltone Fulldrives and OCD's. You name it, I've run across it. This is easily the best big production overdrive on the market. Yes, there are better overdrives, but this one has tone without having to spend $100-150-300+ on an overdrive.
That's just silly.

My set-up is a good guitar (usually an old Gibson SG standard, Custom Shop Gibson LP Jr., or a custom made 'Fender' Esquire)--wah pedal (Teese or vintage Thomas), MXR EVH Phase 90, overdrive pedal, Zinky Master Blaster (clean boost)--amps (Marshall 50 watt JMP, Marshall JCM 800, or 60s Fender Bassman and Orange 4X12 cab). The Bad Monkey sounds great in my rig, and would make an excellent addition to yours, probably!

I've had this pedal a very short time, but it seems BUILT! It is actually the heaviest (weight wise) overdrive pedal I've come across (that probably does not mean a thing), and it seems to be very well put together.

Have never dealt with them, but it was $40--backups are affordable but may not ever be necessary. I'll take my chances.

I play a lot of different styles professionally. My first love is dirty, dirty rock 'n' roll. I also play country and southern rock for fun. I play recording sessions, as well, but I have not had the pleasure of taking this box to one. I've been playing for about 18 years, and I own a lot of gear.

There is no comparison between this pedal and most others on the market. The new Boss pedals don't impress me. The new Ibanez reish Tubescreamers need mucho modifications to sound good. Really, there is no good bridge between this pedal and very expensive overdrives. This is as good as any for the money, and I would not hesitate to replace it if lost or stolen.

Ease of use? Easy....You would have to be a bit green behind the ears not to be able to operate a pedal like this. Old Skool baby.

I'm using this mostly as follows:

Les Paul Standard/Flying V/Washburn Superstrat
Behringer Hell-babe
Boss Metal Zone
BAD MONKEY
Laney AOR50 Series II Head
Korg AX1500G and homemade volume cut in effects loop
Peavey 412MS cab

I only got it this morning but I've had a good fiddle (with the pedal)and can see that it is exactly what I was looking for. A good boost/overdrive in the Tubescreamer vein, with good mid range response.
Ace.

Solid as a stone. So cheap I could buy 4 or so for the price of a TS-9 reissue.

Why do I need support for a pedal like this? It has a warranty, though.

Does exactly what it says on the tin. Don't buy expensive boutique or reissue TS pedals. No, get one of these and spend the rest of your cash down the pub.

easy standard controls.if you need a manual you need to be in a short bus.

this is where this thing shines.i play a strat,schector,ibanez,and danelectro.through a fender hotrod deluxe.i use a pedalboard with alot of pedals on it.the bad monkey does not color the sound like my boss ds1,or sd1.the monkey replaced both of those! this pedal gives a awesome tone in a tube amp a nice mild classic rock blues tone.it doesnt have a lot of gain but is very clear. in my effects chain i use a electro harmonix double muff for harder stuff and a rocktron metal planet for a marshall sound in my fender amp. throw this pedal in the mix and there is nothing i cant do!

digitech and dod seem to be the same company and dod used to make the worst stuff back in my earlier years (80's),and boss used to make the best.my how times have changed because its the opposite now! it seems to be pretty solid construction.

never used

i play classic rock, blues, psycadelic, and it gets the most use of any other pedal i own. iv'e been playing for 25 years.i would defintly buy again.obviously with all the other positive reviews on this monkey i'm not alone in my opinion that this thing kicks butt!!!

Digitech Bad Monkey Tube Overdrive pedal.

Four knobs: level, high, low, and gain. Very easy to use. You don?t need a manual for a pedal this simple (or, frankly, any pedal I?ve EVER used). Made in China.

I use a 1950s Fender Strat MIM reissue and a Fender Frontman 25R 25-watt amp with a replacement Eminence ?Ragin? Cajun? 10? speaker.

The sound of the Bad Monkey is warm and smooth with a fairly low-gain sound. This is NOT a distortion pedal, so those wanting a heavier hard rock-type of sound will be disappointed. Stop now and hit the back button if you?ve ever considered a Death Metal pedal. The attempt here is to sound like a tube amp cranked up to as healthy level. Digitech accomplishes the tube overdrive sound admirably.

The bass control should be renamed ?warmth.? One can dial in a very warm sound with the Bad Monkey. This pedal is never harsh even at maximum gain settings (although I use the gain at about the 1 o'clock position). I use this pedal in front of a clean amp and I?m able to get just the right amount of distortion. One can clean up the sound by rolling off the volume control on the guitar ? but only to a point.

The best pedal I?ve used previously is an early 80s MXR Distortion +. Despite the name, the old Distortion + was more like an overdrive rather than a distortion pedal. I no longer have the old Distortion +, but I recorded with it extensively in the mid-90s (so I feel like I remember the sound quite well).

I feel that the Bad Monkey is as good (if not better than) the old MXR Distortion +. The Distortion + had a high-gain yet smooth sound. The Bad Monkey is slightly softer and smoother still. The old Distortion +, however, did not have a tone control. Comparatively speaking, it?s easier to switch between clean and distorted sounds with the Bad Monkey.

The Bad Monkey is incredible for $40!

The pedal seems very heavy. Actually, it?s the heaviest pedal I?ve ever used so I bet it?ll hold up. I treat my pedals with kid gloves, however.

I have never contacted Digitech so I?ve give ?em a five.

I?ve been playing guitar seriously since 1989. I play mostly classic rock and originals. I like an English-type of sound and the Bad Monkey is excellent in this regard. I?m no longer as serious about music as I used to be but I know what I like.

I?m not a fan of most modern distortion pedals because I find them a bit over the top. I?m also old enough not to understand all this Death Metal distortion crap. As I stated earlier, those wanting a Death Metal sound will absolutely hate the Bad Monkey. Obviously, I'm fine with that.

No problems here, very easy to use.

It is a HUGE plus to have a Treble and Bass control instead of the usual one lousy Tone control that is meant for compromise! Any Tube Screamer clone, or any other overdrive type, would greatly benefit from this feature! This makes a WORLD of difference in allowing you to set the tone where you want it, which is EASE OF USE.

Very good tone in this box. Blues, Texas Blues, Blues Rock, Rock and Roll, Swing, Rock-a-billy,AC/DC, Zep, James Gang,... all those kind of tones are really well done with this little pedal. As others have said here, it is amazing for the price! Just to add to that: I was very happy with the sound I got from this with a Strat into a Carr amp, but it SHOULD sound good in that setup. So, I tried a Les Paul and it was great. You can dial in just what you need for overdrive and bass and treble to bring out the neck pickup while not making the bridge too shrill. Telecaster, great, same thing as the LP with the tone controls, etc. I tried it with a Fender Champ, a Marshall, a Twin, and straight into Pro Tools using its Mixer output that is suppose to have cabinet simulation built into it. All sounded excellent. (No, the mixer output doesn't sound just like you're playing through a miked amp, but it sounds pretty darn good. Very useable for some things.)

So, then I tried some other guitars to see how it handled different flavors. (These ARE NOT all my guitars and amps in case it sounds like I'm bragging on my collection! Friends good, friends with cool guitars and amps great!) Rickenbacker with toaster pick ups, great. (I have not liked most pedals/amps with this guitar, so I was really pleased to find a great combo here.) Tele Jr. (Set neck mahogany tele with P-90's, as in LP Jr.), excellent bark and rawness. Silvertone/Harmony Stratotone with the Rowe/Dearmond silver screen pick ups, (This guitar has WAY loud pick ups so not everything likes it, but the raw gut bucket/juke joint sound of this guitar works really well through the Monkey.) Guild X-170 arch top that does the Rock-a-billy thing really well, also liked the Monkey a lot. In short, (I know, too late!) everything liked to spank the Monkey. I can't believe how versatile this $40 pedal is.

It seems really tough. Heavy cast enclosure and hey, if I get 10 years out of a $40 pedal that's this good I'm WAY ahead of the game. Looking inside Digitech uses a combination of surface components (almost microscopic itsy bitsy resistors/capacitors/IC's) and also some regular size you see in the vintage pedals of yore. Looks well made and solid.

Don't know. It's 40 bucks. I'm not real worried.

I have not been a big DOD/Digitech fan since most of their pedals I have tried seemed too noisy/hissy/buzzy for my taste, as compared to BOSS or Ibanez. But I guess that's old news now because this is very quiet, sounds GREAT, is VERY versatile and VERY inexpensive!! Made in China, so obviusly the Chinese have gotten their manufacturing to the point of making some quality goods.

I have played through (and owned) vintage and boutique (expensive) pedals and I have to honestly say I like this pedal better than the vintage Tube Screamers and it's clones, as well as the Fulltone, Xotic, Blackstone, Klon, and the like. You don't have to pay $150 - $350 for a great overdrive pedal. For $40, grab one. You might end up selling off some of those pricey boxes!

Simple to use, all the normal controls.

Everybody here has said it all already, the Bad Monkey sounds great, unbelievable for the price. Excellent low end & plenty of high end sparkle and bite, due to the EQs. It really is obtuse that Boss, Ibanez, and even many of the boutique OD makers haven't decided to provide separate high and low controls. The main thing that I wanted to add is that I have been running my Bad Monkey off of the daisy chain power supply from my Boss TU2 tuner, and it's been working just fine, in fact it sounds much better than when I was running it on batteries. Digitech wants to sell their power supply, and that's the way business is, but I don't feel like blowing cash on batteries or a new power supply when I have one that works just fine. Gas costs 3 fucking dollars a gallon now, I can't afford to drive to the gig, let alone to buy a different wall wart for every pedal I own! Of course if it fries I'm out 40 bucks, but I guess I'm just that kind of risk taker, but I'll also be sure to let everybody know right away if it does.

So far so good; if heftiness is an indicator of quality, both the Bad Monkey and I are made very, very well.

I did email them with the power supply question, to which they simply replied that the Bad Monkey needs 9v DC, 300 mA with the negative tip inside, and if the Boss can do that, then cool (paraphrasing). I then checked my Boss PSA120, which only claims to supply 200 mA, so you would think that I'd have blown my pedal already, but nope. Then, when I looked in the instruction manual of the Bad Monkey, it said that it draws 4.8 watts with the power supply. How many mA is that? I'm not sure. I'd like to know, but now I'm not all that motivated to find out since the thing is working beautifully anyway. It's really just more of a curiosity. So in regard to customer support, the guy wrote me back by the next day, which is pretty impressive for a big company. I don't expect them to jump up and down with joy that I want to use another company's power supply.

I play new classic rock; great songs with big beautiful guitars. The Bad Monkey is one that I honestly think could be useful to every guitarist. It'll just give you a bump, or some nice OD. You'd need to stack it with something else to get into metal territory, but if that's what you want, you'd probably have that already. This is the new generation of the Tube Screamer. It sounds better, offers more control, and is way cheaper, so for God's sake man, don't buy one of those overpriced and overhyped turds without trying this ugly little bastard first!

As easy as it gets!

I?ve had the Bad Monkey for about three months and used it on quite a number of gigs and rehearsals. It has far exceeded my expectations in every imaginable way. Right out of the box it sounds as good as (or better than) my modded TS-9, TS-7 and TS-808 tube screamers ? REALLY! It actually has MORE of a pronounced upper mid boost (I?d say around 1.5 KHz) than the tube screamers do. I like that, but if you don?t, you can easily smooth out the freq. response with the low and high controls ? Why don?t ALL TS type pedals have this instead of just the ?tone? control? If you are looking for the SRV tone, this is the best off the shelf pedal available for under about $250? really. And, it?s not a one trick wonder, either. Max out the low, high, and gain controls and you?ve got VanHalen I (with a good tube amp, of course). Keep the gain below half way and it?s the nicest smooth boost a tube amp ever had. Personally, I use it exclusively for the SRV tone. I have the gain nearly maxed out, low just a hair past midway, and high at about 2:00. The level ends up at only about a quarter of the way up, which makes the level about the same as with the pedal bypassed. Speaking of bypass, to my ears, this thing sucks NO TONE AT ALL when off. Also, when it?s on, it?s one of the quietest pedals of its type I?ve ever ran across. I?ve tried the mixer out to a PA and I gotta tell ya, it?s not bad. Add in a bit of reverb and I think I could about make it through a night of playing direct if it was absolutely necessary.

Here is my rig in signal flow order:

?64 R.I. Strat with Seymour Duncan Hot rails with coil tap in bridge position, Texas Special in middle position, Seymour Duncan Hot PAF in between middle and neck, and a Texas Special in neck position. (Yep, my main axe is a 4-pickup ?Frankenstrat?!) Or, a ?92 SRV Strat. Or a Parker Nite Fly. Or a ?60 Les Paul. Or a ?83 Flying V. Or a ?78 Kramer (original one, with the aluminum neck). Or, a couple of funky old semi-hollow bodies (slide tunings in E, A, and G).

Next is a Korg DT-10 tuner.
Then a highly modified Cry-Baby.
Then the Bad Monkey.
Then A modified TS-7 tube screamer. (I use it in ?hot? mode with the drive maxed out for more of a Mesa Boogie hi-gain sound, which the Bad Monkey can?t do)
Then an old DOD analogue delay.
Then an A/B box to either?
A ?67 Super Reverb (w/ Alnico CTS speakers)
Or a ?67 Bassman head with a 4-10 Marshall cab loaded with vintage celestions.

I have owned a bunch of Digi-tech gear over the years. None have ever failed me. This box seems really well built, so I feel quite good about it!

Fantastic Value! That says it all.

Very easy to use. Level, Low, High, gain. Didnt find the EQ very responsive, but I have seen worse, keep in mind, this is a $40 pedal and as such, it will not turn you in to SRV just plugging it in, nor will it have some of the response of some higher end pedals.

This is a good sounding pedal. Not great, but good, and for $40, very good. I plug into a tube Fender HR Deville, and a Marshall pos hybrid combo. With a large amount of pedals in between a Paul or Strat. With just the Deville, I found the pedal to be exactly what I was getting with the overdrive channel already. Which would be cool if for some reason the OD channel was broken, but since it is working fine, I really dont need it. As a solo boost I found it to be OK, but I think you might do better for close to the same price, I like the Wasabi Dano overdrive more on the Fender for solos. Where this thing DID shine was plugging it into the little Marshall combo I use as a backup. I have never been able to get that thing to sound good, but the BM really gave it the kick it needed. The BM has a nice midrange boost that you might get from the MUCH more expensive TS-808. Having never had a TS-808, I cant comment on that, but since bang for the buck is important to me, I really like this pedal. I wont be using it with the Fender, but I will be using it with the Marshall.

Seems built well, but what has always bothered me is the power requirments for Digitech pedals have been picky. Since I am not fitting this thing on to my pedalboard, I havent looked up to see if this uses the same power as say, Boss. I will be using this as battery only when I need it. But I have to notch way down this category because I have head Digitech only supports thier pedals when you use thier power supply. Since I use a lot of pedals, it has got to work with pretty standard power requirements, and I dont think Digitech does that, thus I have to score this one low.

Dunno, but with the power issue, this gets a low score too.

I will give this a good score because it's a great value, good sound and is a very transperant OD, maybe too transperant for my needs, but I like the fact that I now have a good sounding backup amp using this thing.

after just a minute of messing with it i was able to get a overdriven sound through my p-90 les paul that sounded just like james gangs(joe walsh) walk away.

im using a les paul special with p-90s going into a peavy transtube(tube simulated) amp. i think the pedal is great. it took me a while to come around to keeping it cause i tend to be a anti pedal guitar player.

its perfect. the battery died on me cause i forgot to turn it off one night, but that was my fault.

idk if il ever have to contact customer support.

awesome. i believe its an original pedal. doesnt emulate anything.

THis pedal is extremely easy to use, even for ametures

Soudn quality is really quite good, but it's all relative. If you have a good amp that sounds right with the pedal, you'll get a good tone. Some amps just don't sound as good with certain effects as others. Also, the pickups you're using, your method of playing, etc.. all come into play. Those that expect a pedal to just magically make their tone shine are dreaming! A lot of how you play determines what it sounds like. When I first tried the pedal, I was in G.C. on a cheap guitar, playuing through a cheap amp, and it sounded amazing! When I got it home however, it didn't sound remotely like it did in the store. Needless to say, a slight adjustment in my playing, and tweaking of my amp gave me a nice sound that I was looking for. You can't judge the pedal in the first 15 minutes guys, it just doesn't work that way.

They have always been very reliable.

Have no idea, I've never needed them. Go figure?

Not exactly the sound I'm looking for, but pretty damn nice overall. If they made an OD pedal with a hint of chorus built in, now that's what I'm looking for! Or, I could just use a chorus pedal too! Hey, I was just stating what I'd like in my ideal pedal!

Pretty simple to use it you've actually decided want you want to get out of it. Very versatile High/low controls with a wide range of variance. The manual is decent, pretty well done actually. This is a korean made version of the later runs.

I play a Parker Nitefly II (1994) into a Marshall Valvestate half-stack with vintage 30 celsition speakers. I have also played this straight into a mixer with the mixer out and nothing else in the signal chain.

First the pedal/Amp combination. (with the amp out of course.)

I run my guitar into the BM into the clean channel on the marshall. This pedal has a very smooth on the edge of breakup sound, it allows me to really brighten my sound or really darken my sound, depending on where I set the 2 EQ controls. This does not need a mid control! One can easily get a mid boost by backing off the Hi/Low controls respectively. Its just the way a 2 band tone stack works. I mainly use this for a rythm crunch sound with the tone controls set so my guitar has the same frequency response as it does when its clean. It takes abit of tweaking but I can get them both to sound the same minus the addition of overdrive of course. Very sensitive controls.

Second the Pedal Mixer combination (using the mixer out of course.)

This is where I was really surprised by this $40 green box. The mixer out (simple cabinet simulator) seems to roll a bit of highes off and add a slight bit of compression. With the EQ on the board set to flat I get very good tones. Smooth crunch all the way, just the way I like it. A big plus is while using the mixer out its always using the cabinet sim whether the effect is engaged or not. I never planned on using this pedal this way, but found myself in a very small church where an amp at any level would have been to much.

Overall

The pedal is fairly touch sensitive and the gain control can really let you choose the degree of smooth crunch to light boost. No grinding metal tones here, but a very good rock sound. Also its fairly dynamic by itself, surprising little pedal for its price range.

Built like a brick, Heavier then my boss pedals and a better paint finish. :)

I have exchanged a few emails with digitech about this and a number of other products they offer. They have been friendly and very responsive although I have had no problems with any of their products.

- I basically play good ole rock tones and this suits perfectly.
- I have been playing for about 15 years.
- I'd replace this baby in a heart beat, for $40 it just offers more to me than it costs.
- The mixer out is a favorite feature just because it surprised me alot.
- I have used alot of other tube screamer type boxes (SD-1, TS-7, etc..) and this one is by far the most versatile while they all pretty much sound the same. No drastic differences anyway, but all are different in their own right.

Monkey boy easy to get sound out of this. You don't need a manuel, or you probably should play the Accordion.

I play at low volume, this unit compliments my Boss ME 50 and Tube Works Real tube. I bought this because I never appreciated fully the tube scream sound. This obviously is a tube scream replica, including the color. Also, I believe DigiTech is bludgeoning itself into Boss' market, whereas the pedals are similar, except the Digitech is solid ass steel. I never thought that I'd put my Boss SD-1 down, but this is more quieter, with better EQ options.

So far so good. This unit will probably last 20 years, and then some.

No repairs.

I like to use this pedal with Rat emulation on the Boss ME-50. I've played over 20 years and I have 3 vintage guitars, to include a Hamer Special 82 and Saber 540 S 1988. I thought that this was a cheaper copy of the classic SD-1, but I find that it is built as a Tube Screamer copy, but better. My set-up is very noisey, to inclue 2 noise reduction systems and this unit fortunately doesn't add to the noise, it gives my distorition a stronger edge/feel like any overdrive. Let's face it, those popular 1980 units had great sounds back then, but you have people working hard at Digitech whose careers are balancing on results, and newer units like this series is meant to challenge and raise the bar with the older companies. Plus this is made in the US of A. Not that I dislike Japanese products per se, but it feels good knowing that a quality product is coming from Utah, and I am helping our own economic welfare in some way shape or form.

Level, Low, High, Gain...you have to be a 'tard to not be able to use it.

Variety of amps: Mesa Boogie Stiletto Duece, '79 Marshall MK II Master volume, Whitney MV-66 (I have the only one!) Hiwatt D50LR. I got this pedal free when I bought a guitar online. I already have a Keeley modifed TS-9 and a older Ibanez STL. I WAS going to give it to my son...but as one of the previous posters stated HOLY CRAP - THIS PEDAL ROCKS! It is very transparent - I like my others, but the TS-9 seems to cut off some of the bottom end, and the super tube is nice - I actually like it better than the ts-9. But this thing is AWESOME. It doesn't color the sound of the guitar, and the overdrive is very smooth. I use it as more of a clean boost, but with the drive up it has a nice growl - not harsh at all. I recommend this pedal!

What blows me away even more is that I can set and forget it: It sounds equally good at one setting with ANY of my amps! I level the highs @ 5 (flat) and give the bottom a slight boost from about 6 to 6 1/2. I play with single coils and it really smooths things out withoug coloring tone.

Seems solid enough, similar to a Boss pedal. we'll see how it goes. But for the price I've seen them going for, even a "starving" guitarist could afford to buy two or three as a backup.

Haven't had to use them yet. But for the cheap price, I probably won't ever use them. I'll just buy another if it gives me problems. I don't see how it would though.

I play a variety of music - mainly my own "noodling" around. I guess I'm influenced by EVH, Aerosmith, Nuno Bettencort (when with Extreme); and I listen to Metallica, Dream Theater, My Chemical Roman, Green Day, Nickleback - I have very wide taste in modern rock needless to say. No, this pedal may not be for playing blood curdling death-metal - But if you're into Nickleback or other similar styles - I'd say it would fit right in - maybe even older metallica if you left the controls flat.

Easy as Pie! The Digitech Bad Monkey consist of 4 control knobs; Level, Bass, Treble, Gain. The manual supplied is very useful, informing the user of the various presets and tones available.

Great! The Bad Monkey, in my opinion, is the best tube emulation pedal out there. The sound is very full with very smooth highs. With an increase in gain, the user can acheive a very saturated tone.

To this point, the Bad Monkey has held up. I have noticed that the output level has decreased ever so slightly, but this could be due to pick-ups or various other issues. The tone of this product still remains remarkable since the first day I purchased it. It almost seems that the tone of this product improves with age. Odd? I will take it any day.

Never had any issues with this product.

Great Product! For the price there is nothing even comparable, unless you purchase the real maccoy.

You plug the pedal in, and get a great tone from it! How difficult is that? I didn't have a manual but there is no need for one. This pedal is more versatile than a tube screamer because Digitech has provided low and high eq, level and gain, as well as 2 outputs, in case you want to have the effect output ran into a mixer or 2nd amp.

I change my setup all the time. The pedal has been used by itself and with a vintage EH Small stone pedal after it and a CS-9 Ibanez Chorus after that. I have played an older Hohner Japanese Les Paul Custom Copy, loaded with old Dimarzio humbuckers. The tone of the guitar is not colored too much and the other pedals sound great in conjunction with the Bad Monkey placed earlier in the chain. Also, I have played this pedal and the same setup using a Crate 100-watt PA amp, and the BM(ha!) dirtied the clean-sounding amp very well, and brought out such great tone, that I'd recommend this pedal to anyone not just as an overdrive for a tube amp, but also for an overdrive tone-producing pedal for a clean amp as well. You can get the sound to just gently overdrive it for lead tones, or really nice crunch sounds, and everything in between. IT isn't noisy, and the pedal is extremely easy to dial in.

This pedal is in a rugged, steel case. I see no reason why it won't perform for years, although it has a couple of chips in the corners of the paint. It is a nice metallic green color. It is heavy and ready for years of use. And, the price is low enough that any guitarist should at least try this out because it is less expensive than many other not-as-consistent sounding boutique and mass-produced overdrive/distortion pedals.

Digitech is a USA-based company that has a well-developed customer service department. They have very reasonable rates for repairing their older "obsolete" pedals, but they stand by them. It was very easy to contact them, although it wasn't related to this particular pedal, I'm sure they would be every bit as helpful regarding this or other pedals/devices.

I play jazz, rock, alternative, and my own style of mixtures there-in.

Very easy to get a very good sound out of.
Manual had no suggested settings.

Various American strats, 64 Vibroverb reissue, Guyatone Micro chorus,
Maxon Compressor, Fulltone Fulldrive, Fulltone Octavia, Dunlop CryBaby, ToneBone Hot British..

Effect is very quiet on its own, noisy when run in conjunction with my ToneBone.
I was very interested in this unit due to the reviews here on Harmony Central and other on-line reviews (Gear Page)
I must say I was very suprised at the tone and quality of this $40 pedal.
I have several TubeScreamer type pedals, including a Reissue Ibanez Ts-808, Maxon OD808, Reverand Drivetrain 2, Jaques Tubeblower.
After AB'ing all these pedals side by side, I can honestly say that if you are considering a Tubescreamer type pedal, Buy the Bad Monkey.
You will be saving yourself considerable money. Easily as good as any of the above mentioned pedals.

I read a review which stated that the Bad Monkey was as good or better then the Fulltone Fulldrive....that I can say is not true, in my opinion.
You can get awfull close to the Fulltone Fulldrive with this pedal,
but the Fulltone sounds a little more Hi-Fi, also the Fulltone seems to have a little more head room volume wise. Just more overall sparkle.

Looks solid. knobs feel a little cheap, but for $40 its a steal.

Never have dealt with Digitech.
I have owned a few of there other pedals.
Never had one go bad.

I play blues/rock. I have been playing for 20 years, love the sound of a strat and a Fender amp. I own way to much gear to list.

I can honestly state that this pedal is a very good value, and has a very good sound to it.
If you are looking at some of the pricey Tubescreamer clone pedals.
Save some money and get the Bad Monkey. You won't be sorry.

u know all the options on this..u know about it.

i was running this straight shot into a crate 120 amp. it sounds great. using a fat strat with it and a epi les paul standard. sounds like vintage overdrive with the gain cranked and just gives your guitar a warm pleasing tone with it round 1-6.

absolutely!

dont know

i like acdc, hendrix, gnr, floyd, etc. this box gets very high praise for a reason...it makes your tone much more authentic and cleans it up while bring out your true tone you dont get until you are cranked up on higher volumes. this box is a must have for every guitarist who is serious about tone!!!!!!!!

Plug in and play - the controls are obvious and responsive... I love the fact that the 'gain' is over at the far right side, I can adjust it w/ my foot on the fly if necessary (just a little more boost at the end of the set...;)

It does the tube screamer thang, but with more or less... much more tweakable, and almost every setting sounds good

I suppose a drummer could find a way to break it, but I prolly won't...

Never needed them...

Been playing blues/rock/country for almost 20 years. I play telecasters and odd customs through a 53 Deluxe, or a local-built 17-watt head. I currently have 2 bad monkey's on my gigging pedalboard... turn one on for a little boost, turn both on for a big boost... simple, easy, sounds great.

No-brainer to get a variety of sounds out of this Bad Monkey. Just dial in or out lows, mids or highs with the 2 tone controls, crank up the boost and/or dial in more overdrive. Manual need not exist, more of a marketing tool - but has some suggested settings that are worth checking out as a reference in sculpting tones to your liking. The simplicity prevents me from obsessing with it at the expense of developing my playing. Good "feel" to the on-bypass (spring) pedal

I use a Fender Blues Deville (4X10) and a cheapo fender practice (solid state) amp. The BM effect is more subtle than a classic distortion pedal. Its hard to saturate the tubes on the DeVille at a manageable volume, but if you dial in a touch of tube overdrive on the amp, let the Bad Monkey introduce some nicely eq'ed, slightly overdriven boosted tone, it pushes the tubes, blends nicely with the tube saturation, and gives a sweet, harmonicaly rich overdrive, sustain, and touch sensitivity that makes playing more expressive and responsive. I can control the crunchiness with my guitar's volume control, and the tone controls on the Monkey seem to amplify the effect of tone tweaks from my axe. I don't try to emulate anyone else's sound, but I love blues with a singing tone ala Buddy Guy, early (Bluesbreakers) Clapton. I don't care for raspy, buzzy overdrive, and the BM delivers a tight yet fat signal that works will with my amp.

With the solid-state amp, it works great to boost and introduce some grit to a clean tone , (smoother, less raspy than other od/dist effects I've toyed with) but you will want something else if you are looking for a full-on rock/metal lead tone.

It does introduce a bit of noise with the gain up, but I'm crankin' when it's on, so that's not an issue for me. I have an SG with a very hot pickup (dimarzio super-distortion), which helps me avoid cranking the output on the Monkey to push my amp, and I don't want or need a super-fuzzed-out pedal for my sound or rig. (I have a RP-5 for those times). In front of the amp, the BM sounds best. In the effects loop on the DeVille, it seems to suck tone, even in bypass mode - I don't know if there is some expected impedance on the power stage input (or pre-amp output)on the amp that differs from what the BM is designed for. Not an issue when I place it between the guitar and the amp input.

The unit seems realiable like most pedals, I like the battery placement and ease of replacement. The battery life seems fine (unless you leave your axe plugged in overnight).

N/A

I play primarily blues rock, but I also play in a church band, where searing leads just don't cut it. In both situations, the BM delivers what I need. I've been playing over 15 years, had an MXR distortion +, a Big Muff Pi, a Digitech RP5, various amps, and this is the best overdrive I've used. (haven't tried them all) I tried to compare it with a Tube screamer in a store, but they had a lousy amp to demo with. I couldn't hear much of a difference, but with the tone controls, the BM sounded better to me there, so I grabbed it, and now I'm a happy monkey. (Bad too!)

Easy to use and get a good sound for what it does. This is an overdrive type of pedal for bluesy type distortion. The highs are not scratchy but tend to be smoother than other types of distortion pedals. Turning the highs up will not give you a brittle sound, The tone controls seem to bring or push the tones they control upfront or forward rather than alter them. Turning the bass knob down caused it to sound funky until I also turned the treble down. Both at 10:00 positioned sounded good. The tone controls also work fine at higher positions and I have no problem with the treble all the way up.

I use a Musicman SUB1 and s Epiphone Less Paul and a Pignose G60V tube amp. The Bad Monkey gives me a very similar overdrive that my amp can get without giving me transisterish brittle highs, It does not color the actual signal much, slightly but not that noticable. Theres seem to be a touch of compression. For the price it works great. I have tried Fulltone, Tonebone, Barber Electronics and for the money ($40.00!) this thing is great. I tried the DigiTech Screamin Blues and it was horrible (brittle highs).

Built solid

I have never called them

I play blues, rock and jazz and this is a good match. This thing helps one play better and the sound is musical.

Four knobs(level, bass, treble, gain), one switch. Pretty darn easy. Twist the knobs, step on the switch.

Currently playing a PRS McCarty Standard, Hamer 25th Aniversary, G&L ASAT Special and an Ibanez NDM1 through eother a Champ(at home), or a Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue. I like overdrive & distortion pedals, and use a different one to suit whatever mood I'm in. When I want a TubeScreamer type pedal, I plug into the Bad Monkey...and I own a TS9 TubeScreamer!!!
The seperate treble & bass knobs are quite useful, and make the Monkey more versatile that the TS9. It also has a bit more gain and a clearer, brighter sound when engaged. Great for classic rock, blues, and some harder rock styles.
Does it suck tone when bypassed. Nah. Not too much.
Hint: OD pedals work better with a little volume to 'em. The Bad monkey really opened up at "jamming" levels.

I's use it at a gig without a backup...but I don't have to! I have the Made in China **and** the Made in USA versions. No difference soundwise.
Heavy pedal, feels solid. I dunno how long it'll last. I'm tempted to say I don't care at this price, but the sturdy construction gives me some confidence in it's longevity. I'll go out on a limb...

Never dealt with them. Ever.

I've been playing a long time(19 years!Yeeeeek!!!). I find myself just wanting something to push my Fender amps over the edge, for added sustain & rhythm crunch. I was giving some boo-teek pedals some consideration, when the missus bought me my 1st bad Monkey for my birthday in March. Two months later, and it's still my "go-to" pedal. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat...and did(hmmmmm....2 Monkeys chained together. I really oughta try that). I love the EQ controls, and the cheezy logo on it(really. I do. I don't care if you believe me).
At half the price of an Ibanez TS9, and with more ooomph and tweakability, this pedal is a steal. Try one. But one. Or two.

Very Easy. Called Digi tech. they said to zero out your amp, set the Bad monkey, then bring your amp back in. The manual gives sample settings.

Using with Strat, LP and Ric. I like it with single coil pickups. Princeton 65 and Fender Hotrod Deluxe.

What the Bad Monkey does for me is tune the Princeton into a tube amp. Takes the clean channel right to the edge of breakup. Think scratchy burble, like a tube, but without being distorted. The notes are still clear but that tube punch is there. You can get more distortion turning it up but I don't think that is the purpose.

Does the same on the Hotrod. It is like a favorite third channel setting. Clean, Clean with Bad Monkey and Dirty

I don't gig but the construction and quality appears to be excellant, I would think it to be reliable.

I called once and Digitech was great. I was not using/setting the pedal correctly. Once I did, it is awesome.

I play at home, soft rock, blues stuff. Playing about five years. I would replace it. I only have a Digitech RP50. Buying this though, makes me what to get a couple other digitech pedals to keep it simple.

Speaking from the desire to get a clean overdrive tubey sound from a solid state amp or just make the tube amp sound richerA pedal that actually changes the sound of the amp, not just a neat effect.

When this was demonstrated to me at GC it did nothing because the salesman did not know how to use it. After speaking with Digitech and using it correctly it is an awesome pedal.

Very easy...plug and play....I use it as a boost on my 5150's crunch channel.

Although it is great for the price....I waited to review this after a few months and many many recording tests. It is tight and clean sounding which is good, but it does sound just a nuthair digital, and sucks a little tone outta my amp? Just a little. I have found the best setting for me is the low/high at 11:00 and get a nice recorded Lamb of God type tone. Sounds good!

Built really sturdy! I heard it eats batteries, but I use a 9v adapter.

For the price, it is a 10, but for sound an 8.7
I bought a Maxon OD808 at the same time and compared the 2. The maxon made my head sing....The playability was awesome, but added some grainy sounds. Cool too. I returned the Maxon cause the recordings I did were so similar and not worth the $90 price difference....but the Maxon sounded more organic...it did! I liked both, and The Bad mokey is nice cause I can eq some of the highs and lows out. For $30 it is awesome and only slightly different than the spendy guys. I do like the Maxon better, but it wasn't worth it for me? I wish I had both, but oh well...Bad is Bad! haha

It was fairly easy to get a good sound. It's really just a TS9 with a low control. The manual was to the point ("This is the Level control. It controls level.") I have the 2nd generation Made in China version (1st generation was Made in USA). Speaker emulated output, I won't be using that.

I was hesitating to write a review right away. I've had it for 24 hours here and I really like the thing. It's about as noisy as a TS9. I have a TS9DX modified to TS808 specs by Analog Mike. I was easily able to emulate the TS9 sound with the Bad Monkey. But I wanted more low end than TS9 can do, so I boost the low a bit on the BM. I am using the BM only to boost already distorted sounds. Not into a clean amp. I have a Marshall Artist 3203 & have been searching for a boost for the Boost channel. Because though the channel has a lot of gain it dosn't quite have enough touch reaction for right hand fretting (EVH). When I hit my right hand finger on the fret I want it to sing. I was using my old 80's RAT, but it is sooo honky. Then I picked up a Zoom PD-01 Power Drive. Which is nice as a clean boost, but clean boosts weren't working the way i wanted (tried a Boss GE7 for that too). Boss CS-2 Compressor, too noisy & soft. Then the TS9DX, set to TS9. Works but thins out the sound quite a bit. The BM though seems to be my answer. I was about to try the Fulltone OCD but the price was scaring me. The BM price did not however.

The battery door/foot pedal? I can see that getting lost. Otherwise is as sturdy as anything else out there, Boss, Ibanez.

Playing 26 years. Ibanez RG 550's into Marshall, Peavey, Randall. Marshall 1960 cabs. Great value, come on. $30. I can't speak for stand alone sounds but for boosting a gain channel during solos I dig it.

quite easy, use the bass and trebble knobs against each other like i do. no need for a manual, although i don like where the batery is located.

my current setup is an
Epiphone Les Paul Custom flametop with a Duncan SH-1 '59 humbucker in the bridge--->Snarling Dogs Wonder-Wah 2(pick one up)---> this Moe-Foe (the bad Monkey)---> Ibanez Smash-Box Distortion (also a really nice pedal)---> Fender Princeton 65 112 (ss).
as you can see i use this along side a quite heavy distortion pedal. i rarely use them together, mostly by themselves. this OD provides as a boost for playing hard rock/blues/any damn thing you throw at it.
it dosent put out enough gain for me and my band (just an alternative/hard rock band) to use as my main distortion, but like i said it provides a fine boost to a clean or distorted signal.

wow, i wish every effect i owned were built the exact same way this is. built like a brick house. the only setback is the way it drains a battery.
solid, allways works, just need a fresh battery before every gig.

never had to deal.

i play hard rock alternative and blues. perfect for that style.
honestly if it were stolen or lost i would shop arround, but if the boss OD thats in this price range wont cut the mustard, i know i can depend on this.
i do wish it had more gain, i bought this wanting to use this as my primary distortion, didnt work out that way.
i don't like how the battery compartment is a little to complicated then it should be.

level, two band e.q.( big plus), gain. very easy to dial in desired tone.

'74 tele custom w/dimarzio fast track in bridge, 80's japanese tele and 60's rosewood reissue with fralins. doobtone micro buffer>boss tu-2>mxr microamp>bad monkey>boss dd-20>boss rv-5.
the bad monkey seems to be the answer to the eternal o.d. question. i put it in my fx chain and has not left since. i am still trying to equate how a low rung pedal company can make a such tone machine. i want it to be like 250$ so i can sleep at night. that would make sense. no it's 39 bucks.

it has only been a month, but i will buy a second before the next tour.

i play indie/new wave/blah, blah, blah. the B.M. has been a godsend. i been through the fulldrive, ts9, ts10, dod250 just to name a few. i also do alot of mods. all these have been very good or sometimes great, but the B.M. is the it pedal for now. i am thankful to have found these reviews. so do yourself a favor. If you are not quite set in the OD category, buy a B.M. you can't lose. i just wish it wasn't so ugly.

This pedal is very reliable and simple. It only has level, low, high and gain knobs. Very easy to get a beatiful sound. It is very easy to change the battery.

I have a Les Paul Westfield, Marshall G50RCD (clean channel) and the Bad Monkey. The sound is near what I am looking for (tube-vintage-warm overdrive). The low and high knobs let you a lot of sounds. The "mixer" output (a very rare option on this price range) works fine.

It is very reliable, hard as a stone.

I have not use it yet.

I like to play rock (Grand Funk, Uriah Heep, Led Zeppelin, etc) and Blues, and this pedal is perfect for both stiles. With a high gain pickup it also can be used for hard rock.
I am very very happy with my BAD MONKEY!
And don't forget the price, it is very cheap.
Perhaps it is hard to find in Spain, but you can buy it on the web.

4 knobs cant get much easier

my setup:gibson les paul studio>wah>bad monkey>digitech rp300>marshall mg50dfx.
this pedal has a lovely warm overdrive that lets all notes on chords ring through with impressive definition.i bought this because i wasnt getting a convincing enough tube sound, and this just was perfect. it sounds at its best when used direct into an amp, but with a bit of tweaking sounds great with multi effects pedals. this sounds good with bluesy solos and also sounds really good with another overdrive on for fast show-off solos.

this is built like a tank

if you are looking for a tube sound but are on a tight budget i recomend you try this pedal.also if you are into blues or want to boost another overdrive for lead playing check this pedal out

4 knobs, , one input, two outputs, all labeled, if it's not easy to use, there's something wrong with your brain and/or eyes. The manual is a nice tidy padding in the bottom of the box. So, YES, it's easy to use.

WOW! Ok sure, it's only a 29.99 version of what some call the "best" (Tube Screamer). I am using this in front of my THD univalve. And HOLY CRAP! let me rephrase that because that would imply it completely was a shock. The bad monkey doesn't do a whole lot for the Univalve-the univalve pretty much rocks all by itself. The HOLY CRAP comment was more because i couldn't believe i finally got something that did exactly what I (personally) wanted. I wanted a gentle push up and over without ANY coloring whatsoever...why would i want to reshape a Univalve anyway. Well this does it. The gentle push without losing the voice of the guitar or the amp. Yes i can boost the lows a bit or the highs which is also cool...with that flexibility, i can take the 6l6gt i usually run in the univalve to new ground. So the sound quality rating, because it didn't CHANGE my sound, it just buffed it up a bit, is high.

It's new but it's a brick. I'll gig, practice, play fetch with my pet griz with it, drag it behind my truck down a gravel road and let a 2 y/o play with it. if the two y/o can't figure out how to break it, it's RELIABLE!

Hmmmm...the age old question...if you build a good product, you don't have to have good customer support do you? Well, digitech does both!

Awesome. If you have a univalve, old fender or any tube amp that doesn't have enough front end push, try this. It's not for everyone (metalheads for instance will say it's not enough gain)..but it is the coolest overdrive/distortian pedal i've encountered.

Look at it this way, it's only 29.99 at GC and sounds like a 300.00 (ebay price) hotrodded OLD tubescreamer. What a DEAL!

Thanks digitech, i see now that you actually make something that isn't crap!

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!

Standard model, 4 knobs Level,Low, High Gain, piece of piss to use, easy to get a good sound out of it high and low knobs very useful for cutting or boosting frequencies.

Awesome

This is my setup

Epiphone SG Vintage (not the standard model real nice, inexpensive guitar) into Korg DT10 tuner -> Crybaby 535Q -> DOD FX40B Eq pedal -> Bad Monkey into a Marshall DSL50 thru a Hotplate attenuator into a 1960AV cab with vintage 30s

I really like this pedal, its got a great sound which is not heavily saturated so you can still hear the individual notes of chords coming thru. I generally run the amp on clean and the Bad Monkey with the gain at full and level at half with the bass and treble slightly boosted. I can get a lovely, buttery ACDC shook me all night long esque tone or run the level up into the amp with both pickups and get an eric clapton blues breakers sound or even a SRV sound. The pedal is versatile to a point, it wont do heavy metal however I found that by running it through the classic gain channel of the DSL with the the gain full and level halfway its really meaty.

If you've got a good setup to begin with its difficult to not get a good sound out of it, its never buzzy or harsh and i rarely turn it off now, nothing gets a 10 however its really a 9.5

Nice solid metal body, switch seems tough im pretty gentle with my gear I would depend on it

Never dealt with them

This pedal is a fantastic bit of gear and for the price I dont think you can match it, the tone is great its easy to use and I get laughs out of my mates when i tell them its called 'Bad Monkey', I'm tempted to but another before digitech cons on to wat great pedal it is and pushes the price up. Dont be ignorant and elitist, go try one out with a good setup and you'll be very happy

Pretty easy ( as most pedals are ) but your need to take a bit of time to fiddle with the bass/treble controls as they add quite a bit of versatility to the mix.

OK, here is where the rubber meets to road. Do I give it a 10 based on it's price/performance ratio, or should I judge it on sound quality alone regardless of price?

If you check out some of the gear pages ( other than HC ) out there, the Bad Monkey is getting some great press from seasoned players who have the boutique/vintage/keeley/am modded stuff...so they know their tone imo. I actually bought mine when they first came out before all the hub-bub started. I didn't care for mine to begin with. I tried it out a few times, but found it rather flat and fizzy sounding compared to my other o/d pedals...so I stuck it back in the box and forgot about it till all the posts started flying. From reading the posts, many people stated how the treble and bass controls set this pedal apart from other offerings out there. Pulled the ape back out and started tweaking the b&t knobs and it really opened up the tone. I prefer the low gain tones over the high gain, but I do believe that is what the pedal was designed for. Still, for a $40 pedal, it get's an 11. As a stand alone, I'll give it an 8. I lucked out and got mine for $26, so I feel blessed. Run into another o/d pedal, really sets the sparks a flying.

Its a pedal.

The monkey is a low to medium gain OD pedal suitable for bluesy lead and rhythm tones. It has a noticeable midrange voicing that is similar to the tubescreamer but is less nasal and more useful with a wider variety of guitars and amps. The distortion quality is VERY smooth and does not suffer from any fuzzy, buzzy, gritty, spitty, transistorized weirdness at any point from the initial pick attack to complete decay to silence. The gain knob produces useful tones at both ends from almost no grit to singing blues leads. The eq is very useful and different then most OD pedals. Both the treble and bass knobs CUT their respective frequencies when left of noon and BOOST when turned right. Also the bass knob seems to add a fair amount of gain when boosted. I hear some bass rolloff when its kicked on and boosting the bass doesn't really get it back. As someone else pointed out the "Bass" knob is really more of a "low mid" knob and does fatten up the tone but it gets a little tubby after a certain point. The treble boost is useful even up to max and unlike most Boss OD's you will find yourself adding treble because of the smooth nature of the sound. The volume knob has ALOT of available gain so you can easily use this pedal as a booster with the gain down and the volume up. Lastly the damn thing is quiet even at max gain.

Appears to be "strong, like bull". Similar construction to Boss units. Heavy enough to stop a drunken marine rushing the stage.

Overall I consider the pedal to be very musical. By that I mean it produces a wide range of musically useful and pleasant shades of overdrive with a well voiced mid range emphasis. If it has a drawback it may be that it is TOO smooth and lacks the rough edges that some players prefer. However, for blues and other styles where you want a lower gain thick smooth tone for rhythm or leads this pedal is the real deal. A bargain at any price.

Just a note that may help some of you. Try using the mixer out into your amp. Suprisingly it sounds better into a tube amp than the amp out does. Should sound muddy since it's supposed to be a cab simulator out to send to a mixer/PA. But try it and see. Much much better ! Richer and fatter w/o being muddy, dark or losing articulation.

2 band eq, gain,volume.a 10 simply because most other mass produced OD's only have one tone knob. Also has a cab simulator out so you can go into the PA, which is very nice if it works well, which i don't know since i haven't tried it.

I use it mostly as a clean boost, and to me it sounds a lot like a tube screamer with a bit less of that mid peak and a bass control in this context, which by the way is how i'm reviewing it. The treble control feels and sounds a bit different, but not much. Is there some kind of magic to the tone as some reviews suggest? not to me. I find it to be a good tube screamer alternative, especially if you like them but wish they had more low end. to that end the monkey is the choice. But other than that i doubt you'll find it much differnt. It could very well depend on the amp tho. So this could accont for the glowing reviews. Maybe my amp doesn't bring out the magic in this pedal.
In short i would say that if you have a tube screamer you should probably not bother with this pedal unless you need the extra low end. If you don't have a tube screamer and are looking to get something along those lines, then i'd say check it out. The basic character of the tone of this and the tube screamer all things being equal (as in EQ amd drive/volume set to sounds as similar as possible) is different, but to be honest not enough to call either the better pedal.

if you intend to use it as a distortion pedal instead of a clean boost, there too the difference isn't huge. But the momkey has a little more drive. i don't care for either pedal for this use.

Gotta be good.....all metal with good old metal jacks bolted to it and a strong housing. In a pedal like this the only thing that can go wrong would be the switch. taking the pedal off as you do to access the battery you can see it's a circuit board mounted switch. One of those typical tiny momentarys. These are not perticularly reliable, but then most every mass produced pedal made today has the same switch. So it's as good as any other at least. So as solid as this thing is i'll take off 1 point for the switch since many botique pedals have a real DPDT footswitch that is not only more reliable but is total bypass.

?

As i said, the features make it a slightly better alternative to a tube screamer, which is the category it's definatly in. But the thing is, the features are not enough better to make it the better choice if the tube screamer has a bit better tone to your ears. After all, thats the bottom line. And also consider as noted earlier that if you like screamers but more low end is a big one for you, then the monkey is without a doubt your pick.

But in summation i can't honestly see what the big buzz i read here is about. Good pedal at a price that makes it a great buy if you're in the market for a TS type unit. But if you have a TS or the like then no matter how cheap it is it's not worth buying unless you find the tone to be much better or the bass boost a major concern. personally i'm still using the screamer as much or more.

All pedals are easy to use

I use mainly a Tele or Strat thru a SF Deluxe Reverb and I lean towards blues and classic rock with funk, R&B, and reggae excursions. The Bad Monkey is a Tube Screamer clone with bass and treble controls. Compared to my modded TS-9 it is smoother, and has a wider less nasal midrange peak. It has more gain than the stock TS and it is mostly quiet even with the gain maxed. As with any TS circuit the original bass from your rig is rolled off and cannot be dialed back in. The "bass" knob is really a "low mid" knob and can add some additional fatness to your tone but becomes muddy/tubby by about 3 o'clock on the dial and is uselessly thin left of noon. The treble control never gets raspy and is useful from noon to max depending on what you like. The gain provides useful tones throughout its entire range and maintains some dynamics at most settings

The build quality is on par with the Boss line and the knobs, jacks and switch all feel solid. I don't forsee any issues.

I really like the midrange voicing on this pedal and the tone knobs allow for an extra degree of control that never existed with the original TS design. That said, I have found only one use for TS style pedals and that is to add midrange thickness to single coils for leads. The Bad Monkey sounds very good in this capacity and will be replacing my venerable TS-9 which I always thought was too nasal. Overall I find this pedal to be superior to any offering by Ibanez (including the 808 reissues which are merely marketing hype) and as good as some of the "booteek" TS clones/mods I have heard. If you've always wondered what the fuss was about the TS then give the bad monkey a try.

Couldn't be easier, twiddle the knobs to get what you want. I'm sure you're all familiar with that concept :-)

I just wanted to echo what so many others have said below, this pedal is GREAT, and what a ridiculous price! All I wanted was a bit of a boost for my solos, and this does exactly that, at a fantastic price. I've just come back from a recording session with my band, and I used the Bad Monkey on all the lead parts.

I play an American Strat through a Peavey Classic 30. I also use a Boss Flanger and Super Octave, and put the Monkey at the end of the chain.

We have 2 guitarists, and I just wanted something to help my solos cut through the mix. This pedal gives a really nice kick in the pants to your tone (and BIG sustain!) and holds on to your amp's natural sound very well, if you want it to. With the Level and Gain up high, it did create some hiss through the amp - but not noticable at all while you're actually playing.

I've only used this for one session with the band so far - but it's built like a tank. A very heavy tank. I can't imagine anything short of TNT breaking this thing.

No idea here. If it ever did break, I'd just buy another one. Or two!

Our band is kind of like Queens of the Stoneage/Soundgarden in style, and this pedal is just right for it - not too "fuzzy" or death-metal sounding. (See www.duffry.com for basic demos).

I've been playing for 18 years, and earn my living as a guitar teacher. I usually don't bother with many effects, but recently got into them, and I'm super impressed with the value for money of this thing. Anyone wanting a harsher METAL distortion isn't going to be happy with this, but for boosting up a valave amp, it's the bees knees at this price.

Get DOWN wid yo BAAAAD MONKEY!

A rather simple device consisting of 4 knobs: level, low, high, and gain. Not much tweaking required as the controls respond as you would expect.

I've played it through my quality equipment that I've collected over my 30+ years of playing: new and vintage tube and solid state amps with a real Tele, Strat, Les Paul and others. I play mostly blues, rock and honkey tonk. With this pedal I desired to achieve a mild overdrive to fluidize solos and crunch up rhythm. The Bad Monkey gets close, but no cigar. I thought that the individual high and low eq knobs would set this pedal apart from competitors in the $40 to $60 range..... but I was wrong. For example, I locate a clean and beautiful tone with my guitar and amp. Then, I use the Bad Monkey to layer some bluesy drive while trying to maintain the unique personality of the guitar and amp. Doesn't happen. The janglyness gets lost as the high's get sucked away. It you adjust the pedal's eq knobs to compensate, you compromise the true tone of the guitar and amp. I also have a Boss Blues Driver in which the Monkey is in direct competition with. The Blues Driver is superior in maintaining the sparkle in your tone compared to the Monkey.

It's heavey for it's size and appears solid in construction.

I have no idea.

A good pedal for the price that does the mild to medium overdrive thing well and has good flexibility for tone shaping. Without jumping to far in price there are better pedals though. Wrapped in a green case with yellow lettering, DigiTech has created the ugliest pedal ever........but this only adds to the vibe.

4 knobs Level ,and Gain,but the High ,Low knobs in the middle really help.LED ,and stereo out.

I play a Les Paul Special with P-90s,and two Telecasters ,with various parts, and PUP's (Duncans,all single coils) Dunlop Crybaby,MXR Dyna Comp,DigiTech Bad Monkey threw JMC 800 50 watt combo.This pedal is great,for my Marshall. I had Fender Blues Jr, but Distortion boxes sounded to high and "tinny" threw that amp (sold it) but the Marshall is really my tone of choice for 5 years, I had a fender bandmaster head and cab before that. This effect is great for a tube amp; it gives the right amount of gain, or boost to my single with out changing my tone. I was using the Dyna Comp before to boost my single, but I got the unit second hand 6 years ago so its starting to cut out ,and it hums. Now the Bad Monkey does not hiss, or buzz, there is of course the boost in volume level, but that's what I was looking for. You can boost the level to get it to push the amps gain, or boost the gain knob to make a more distorted tone. The best part of the effect is the High, and Low option, I can get a great tone with the high at 6 o?clock, a heavy warm tone, and together at 3o'clock an overdrive sound. I have had the box for a week and tried most of the knob positions, and haven't found a bad one yet.

The housing is very heavy,built hevier than both Boss ,and MXR pedals.
Easy pop pin setup to get battry in ,better than Boss again on that one.I would gig with out a back ,I don't see any way I could break this baby.

I regestered online ,and didn't hear back from DigiTech,I really don't see having problem .I'll let ya know if I have to contact DigiTech.

This pedal is not for everyone,(Metal nu or old)it's not a heavy sounding tone changer,which is what I have found most OD/Distrotion pedals do. I have had MXR Dis Plus, Boss BD-2 ,they were great ,but they sounded to close to my Marshall?s Muddy gains, so they ruined the tone. I have also had a Boss Overdrive, and Distortion, DOD FX56, and an MXR Blue Box. lot of these OD/Distortion Units colored and changed the signal to much for my taste's ,and the sustain would decay to hiss and microphoinc feed back ( In the case of the Blue Box ,cool Fuzz and Octava,but Zero sustain even with Dyna Comp)I was going to purchases an Ibanez Tube Screamer TS9,but saw the review on the Bad Monkey, and at about $57 cheaper ,why not give it a try. Its anolog,it won?t suck the life out batteries ,and it was designed to work with a tube amp, I like allot of the other reviews by tube amp owners agree on this. I have been playing guitar since 83 (Acoustic & Bass) I have played out ,and been in bands cover and original playing bass from 93 to 97,from 98 to 99 went to sound & recording school, so I have heard allot boxes, and when I started to build my electric guitar rig, It has taken many guitars to settle on telecaster's as my guitar of choice ,and Marshall as my amp of choice. I hope that this box will stand the test of time and use.

Blindingly obvious

Ignore the prank reviews, this is one outstanding pedal at an absolute steal of a price - and this comes from one who has always been dubious about Digitech products.

I've also owned a Tubescreamer and a Fulltone Fulldrive. This little green box covers most bases that these do and at a ridiculously low price. Those who've shelled out for one of the above overpriced and over-rated pieces of kit must be as sick as a parrot. Hey! Maybe that's why the prank reviews are turning up!

Anyway, I use a Trace Elliot Speed Twin 50 watt all valve combo Fender US Strat and Tele, Hamer Special, Ibanez AM70 and a
Yamaha AES 620 and it sounds outstanding with all of them.
Lots of adjustments with the improved tone controls - way
better than the Tubescreamer, but not for those looking for screaming distortion. It sounded a little noisy into a transistor amp I tried, but was a quiet as a church mouse into the Trace.

Come the nuclear holocaust, only two things will survive, cockroaches and the Bad Monkey pedal. Solid cast metal. You'd have to try very hard to break it.

Doubt I'll have to use them!

Do yourself a favour and buy one. They are so cheap, even if you decide it's not for you, you can stick it on eBay and still get most of your money back. Must be in the running for Pedal of the Year or possibly a future classic.

Very simple, effective, more control than a tube screamer thanks to low and high controls. Dial it in for your guitar and amp, spend some time and you will reap rewards.

Very impressive, and the variety of subtle tonal possibilities makes it a very effective tool for the discriminating ear. Bang for buck, forget that notion. It's just cost effective at $40, enough to piss off the likes of "tonesnob" and other anti-establishmentites who have been duped into spending 4 times this amount for a fricking overdrive pedal built by some pothead and his buddy in their upstairs apartment in uptown. If these buttwipes spent more time learning how to caress the strings (where 99% of your tone comes from, your fingers), they could move on and get a life. But hey, ignorance is a profit-meisters playground.

Michael Moore couldn't break this thing unless he unleashed his breath or passed gas on it, whereby the wires or knobs might melt. Other than that, it's built out of steel.

They are still around after all these years, don't see them disappearing anytime soon. I hear they respond within 24 hours, and give you 5-6 year warranties. I doubt "Z-Vex" will be around in 5 or 6 years to fix your $200 piece of crap overdrive you bought from him.

Wow, bargain, replaces the overpriced TS-9 with a more shapeable and useable eq. It's a fools paradise out there guitar junkies, get off the gear buying train and start playing with simple effective tools like this. You want the ultimate tone, play your guitar. Play it ALOT.

Just like the rest say, four knobs...even a guitar player can figure this thing out.

I've run this pedal through three different setups (Digitech Legend 21 into a Marshall Ministack, straight into a VOX AD50VT, and into my Digitech 2112 w/2120 chip upgrade into a Marshall 9200 Dual Monobloc Power Amp powering a Marshall 1960A Slant Face Cab) and find that this pedal works best into a tube amp. It produces a very smooth, warm overdrive that will work quite well for what I do (rock/blues, and a touch of metal). The addition of the bass and treble knobs are quite effective and will radically alter the tone of the pedal, don't be afraid to experiment with various settings. You'll find a sound to your taste in a matter of minutes. The "Texas Tone" setting in the manual was the perfect starting point to finding mine. I will say that it does not "de-transisterize" a solid state amp, but will fatten up those circuits as well. It does add a bit of noise if your not careful. I found the noise to be worse (substantially) with the solid state setups I tried it through. Noise was not nearly as bad into my Digitech 2112. But then again, if you're not using some form of noise suppression, you'll be ablr to afford one with the money you save by buying this pedal.
I was worried about the bargain basement price tag, but then again Digitech has the means to mass produce these puppies and keep the price as user friendly as the pedal itself.

Let's see, it's built of friggin' steel and could be used in a mob hit for bludgeoning purposes. I may be biased toward Digitech as I've used their gear for 13 years, but I've always been happy with their stuff, even when I've had the occasional snafu (and I've had them, believe me...). This is a sturdy pedal, period. Go physically pick one up and see for yourself.

I've dealt with Digitech support for other products and have always gotten a quick response, usually in less than 24 hours.

No, it's not totally silent in it's operation, but it's $40 new. Some cost cutting measures were probably taken to keep the cost down, but not many. It was designed for and truly does work well with tube amps. It's a big, warm slice of tone nirvana that I'd buy again if I had to. Tone snobs will pass on it for the brand name, the price, and the fact it's a new product that is not painstakingly handwired for 6 hours. That's their loss and our gain, as the lowered demand will help keep prices down (gotta love Economics!!). If you're a kid looking for a pedal to play some "jam" type stuff or classic rock, or want to boost your amps distortion for solos, go check it out. The paper route will pay for it.
Ten years from now they'll be calling it "The Poor Man's Tube Screamer." While that product sells based on it's former glory, this one will sell on the reputation it's building right now.

Its got 4 knobs, Hi, Lo, Gain and Level. Pretty easy to get good sounds out of it.

I use a stock Gibson Explorer into a Marshall MG50DFX soild state combo, good for creating hot bluesy tones but not for what I wanted. It was really easy to get that classic rock smoothness, but cannot get that bitey crunch (i.e. Guns N' Roses) that I so wanted. Its got a really strong sound and will DEFINITELY cut through in a live scenario. Yet again, do not get this for hot hard rock tones, BUY THIS AND YOU WILL BE OOZING THE BLUES!
MY EXPERIECE WITH THIS PEDAL IS THROUGH A $350 SOLID STATE AMP. IT WILL SOUND ALOT BETTER THROUGH TUBE!

This thing was built like a fucking tank. In fact, I beat a Jehova's Witness down with it and it didn't even ding. This thing is very durable, however I'd never gig without a backup because of a little thing called Murphy's Law; Anything that can go wrong, will. I have been plagued with this last name and gear has taken a shit on me just before I really needed it, so never gig w/o a backup unit.

Never dealt with them, don't think you'd need to.

I play hard rock in the vein of Guns N' Roses, AC/DC, Aerosmith, etc. Unfortunately this pedal is NOT for those types of music. However, if you play the blues with that New Orleans soul or Texas spank, THIS IS YOUR PEDAL! This pedal is very transparent and lets the sound of your guitar shine in all its glory...it just wasn't my thing.

4 knobs gain, low, high, volume, pretty simple.

This absolutely blew me away. I go to Berklee college of Music and we have a tech room with literally thousands of pedals and effects. The second i played on this bad boy I had to get one. It is such a clear overdrive sound, very Santana sounding lead if you like that, which I do. This will not get a hard rock sound so don't try, but if you want a great blues/classic rock sound from a pedal you gotta try this. I would have paid $160 for this but it was 1/4 of that. Unbeleivable. I use a Standard Fender Strat (lefty) into the Bad Monkey into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, and it is not noisy at all.

Built like a tank, I would gig without a backup.

N/A

I play original stuff that ranges from jazzy sounds to full out rock sound, I use the Digitech Hot Head pedal to get a thick distortion, but I use this 75% of the time, I also do a few covers like GnR, Boston, Zeppelin, Handrix, etc. and the combo of these two pedals does it all. However, these ratings are based on using the pedals through a tube amp(Fender Hot Rod Deluxe), the analog pedals really chime through on tubes, but on solid state it still sounds good, but not amazing.

Very easy to get a good sound right out of the box.

This pedal sounds great i can get some really fat punchy od when paired with my peavey delta blues 210,Also works very well with other pedals such as od,distortion and fuzz.What i really like about this pedal is that it lets your true guitar tone shine through.

Seems heavy duty to me plus i take very good care of my equipment.

never dealt with them.

Anyone looking for an excellent od should check the bad monkey out.I play blues and classic rock and it really suits my style,I put the bad monkey first in my pedal chain and it has been there ever since.

Simply, just twist and go.

quote from another review:
"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."

First of all I have a good tube amp AND I AM ALSO a bedroom player. I hated digitech up until I tried their new line of ANALOG PEDALS. They kick ass! This is an analog pedal except for the emulated out jack. You are claiming to be a tube snob, but you don't even realize that analog is king when it comes to add on stomp boxes. You are just a crappy player or something. It's amazing how 98% of the posters love this pedal. ALSO, PLEASE DO NOT recommend Arion Pedals. They are junk. I guess you'd suggest rocktek too. LOL buddy.

Built to survive even the harshest fake tubesnobs

Emails answered within 24 hours

As long as you like it that's all that matters.

overdrive-o-riffic

TS-9s Utah sibling
really close
in fact i liked the low and high EQ

Digitech makes tough gear
and this is another

I have e-mailed digitech and their support dept. has ALWAYS came back with a response within 24 hrs.

I was demonstrating these new digitech distortion pedals for a customer at Bob's Music in Lima ohio.
ythey loved all the pedals and purchased the BAD MONKEY
for their son.
bad news I wanted one tooo and it was the LAST ONE !!!!
Kim ,the store manager said she was ordering more so i have to wait ( sigh)
But now i don't have to worry about my TS( getting broken I've found a close sounding CLONE!!!

It is easy to use, but why would you want to use the Bad Monkey, one of the worst overdrives ever made.

I was going to give it a 3 but I sobered up after reading Tonesnob's review. I can only suspect that a lot of guitar players are going tone deaf after reading these overblown reviews. Digitech makes some very nice gear,but this ain't it. The Screamin Blues in that pedal series did sound better than the Monkey. The Bad Monkey made sounds that were in every way inferior to the natural amp sound. They should have named it the Tone Turd. If you get one of these stinkers for Christmas you have my sympathy. Just exchange it for something good.
In fairness to Digitech they have other gear that is excellent.

Pray that it breaks or gets stolen. Unfortunately it probably is reliable.

Paid $0 because I wasn't stupid enough to buy one. I have seen them for $36 on the Net - $49.95 At Guitar Center. GCs policy is that they will match or beat competitors ,so if you don't ask for the good price on any of there stuff ,you just flushed some of your money away.
A better pedal IMHO is the Ibanez TS 9 DX Turbo Tube Screamer especially with a clean boost or a TS 10 in front of it. The market price for a used TS 9 DX TTS is about$60 - $80 in good shape , new about $110. Money better spent. Don't let them make a monkey out of you.

i'm not going to get into the technical features because there's nothing more to add to what's already been said. i was in the hunt for an overdrive pedal that wouldn't add a lot of high-end gain/distortion to my tone. i just wanted to drive the tubes a little bit. this pedal does that in spades. i give it a 6 on ease of use, simply because it's easy to get a good sound but takes a lot of time to get a great sound. which i guess is typical of any pedal...

my setup: g&l s-500 strat -> bad monkey -> fender blues jr. tubes

after years of playing acoustic bluegrass, i finally broke down and started picking up some electric equipment again. i like to play/write good old fashioned rock and roll influenced by everything from elvis to johnny cash, the stones and the ramones. all the good stuff, none of the garbage the kids are playing today. i dig a good, solid tube driven amp without a lot of distortion. the bad monkey does a fairly solid job of it. i needed to drive the tubes at lower volume levels in my house for practices, and that's why i got it. it took me several weeks and alot of fiddling with knobs to get the sound i wanted, but finally i think i'm there. this probably isn't the greatest pedal out there, but for the price it's fine by me. the separate bass/treble knobs let you dial in just the right sound for your tastes (and amp setup). separate level and gain knobs allow you to get the right punch and attack.

to early to say, really. but i think digitech builds solid equipment. treat it right, it'll last forever. bash it like pete townshend and it'll last just one day.

can't say much here...

if you're into nu-metal or iron maiden or something, obviously you and your mesa boogie are looking for a different pedal with more drive. but for a good 70s style overdrive (zz top, stones), this gets the job done. i like to use it for just a little extra umph on lead parts and will sometimes keep it on for a dirty rhythm sound.

It's as simple as a stomp box can get.

Controls:
Level
Bass boost/cut
Treble boost/cut
Gain

I really love the treble and bass buttons. They allow you to either boost or cut the sound, and it works great.

I have it working on a 9-volt battery. It's also really easy to switch batteries. No hassle with difficult to open hatches or something, all you need is a guitar cable to click it open. You can switch a battery in less than 10 secs.

===================================================================
Ibanez RG/Fender Strat USA -> Bad Monkey -> Kustom Quad 100W combo
===================================================================

This pedal sounds great! When playing with a Strat trough it i can really get "Hendrix" sounds out of it. You know the song "The wind cries Mary"? I'm talking about that sound.

Really warm tube overdrive sound. I went to the store to buy an Ibanez Tube Screamer, and the guy at the store said: "You should check that Digitech pedal out, the Bad Monkey, it's cheaper and just as good". I compared them, and acually liked the sound of the Bad Monkey better than the Tube Screamer. When i first tried it i was biased because i've had bad experiences with digital pedals, but this one sounds as natural as it can get.

This pedal is also really quiet. I give it a 9, because a real tube overdrive on a tube amp still sounds a little better. For solid state, this is the best tube-like sound you can get though.

I just got it today, haven't gigged with it yet. It looks like it's built like a rock. It's also heavy as hell, all made out of steel. It looks like it's made for heavy gigging/road abuse.

But, i haven't got it for enough time to be sure, so i'll just put in "no opinion".

Didn't need to call them.

Been playing for about 5 years. I mainly play Blues and Classic rock. This pedal gives me just the sounds i need. I can get a warm blues overdrive, but it also gives me enough boost when playing a solo.

This pedal rules. If it was twice the price i'd still had bought it. For 50 Euro's, this is really a no-brainer. It gives a better sound than the Tubescreamer and any other overdrive pedals i've tried.

If it was stolen, i'd track down the thief and cave his head in with the pedal. If i wouldn't find him, i'd buy it again for sure.

I give it a 10. For the price, it's amazing what you get!

Beyond easy - - this pedal has just four knobs and each one really produces a wide range of effect. The truly incredible thing about these knobs is that once set, they seem to 'stick' in place - - no other way to describe it - - they just stay there and seem to get 'stickier' the longer you leave them in the one place. I love that because it means you don't have to worry too much about the knobs changing position. The other thing that's cool is the way the battery is changed, you just push in the detent bar on one side of the pedal and the whole thing just lifts off revealing the battery - - means you can change batteries beteen songs in about 30 seconds. However, the battery lasts forever. I've done four gigs of about 3 hours total playing time for each gig and the battery still has some juice left (I always pull out the input jack between sets).
The pedal is real heavy as well so it just sits there like a good pooch and barks when asked. And what a name - - Bad Monkey - - cracks me up!

Man this pedal is just wonderful. I've been a dedicated Tubescreamer TS-9 user since Noah was a boy and have also spent a bit of time with another good pedal by Boss called OD-3, but this pedal takes it all one step further. I use a 57 Reissue Strat which generally sounds a little thin and that's where this amazing pedal, with it's awesome bass boost, really kicks in and gives the old Strat a big, fat sound that gets better the more you crank it up. I A/B'd the TS-9 and OD-3 with the Bad Monkey and wondered how I ever got on without the Bad Monkey - - the TS-9/OD-3 both sounds great but still a little thin and lifeless next to the Bad Monkey.
There's one thing I discovered by accident which is if you use a Bad Monkey for your basic backing crunch (and blues solos) and combine this with one of Digitech's other pedals called a Hot Rod (X series) then you really do have tone heaven. The Hot Rod is just amazing as well because it has a 'Morph' feature that lets you change the distortion/overdrive from real full creamy sound to more of a scooped sound. Anyhow, I now use them both so my setup is a standard American 57 Reissue Strat > Bad Monkey > Hot Rod > Fender DSP 90 amp. BTW, Fender's DSP 90 amp is a tranny but I dare anyone to tell the difference between it and the best tube amps when using its clean channel. Pure bliss!
For a Strat, set the level about 10 o'clock (same as straight thru), bass and treble on 2 o'clock and drive on 'fwat out' (is there any other setting?. This will really make your Strat sound great. On the rare occasion that I use my Les Paul, I just pull the bass back to 12 noon - - that's it.

This pedal is built like a brick shit-house and no doubt will survive just about anything. They are so frickin cheap that I'll just buy another one for use as a backup though having used the little green dude for over 30 trouble-free gigs, I've never had the slightest problem. Oh yeah, it's as quiet as a mouse.
With regard to some other reviewers points, my Bad Monkey seems to clean up real well when I back of the volume so no problemo there. You have to remember that not all volume pots are the same. Fender's pots reallly drop off around '7' whereas a Gibson needs to be on about 2 or 3 to be the same so it's all horses for courses really.

I'll have to wait for the next nucleoid war before I have to get DigiTech to service this little monkey.

I've been playing for over 25 years and play mainly contemporary rock and blues - - a lot of SRV, Cream, Purple, GNR etc etc and that's where this pedal and it's tougher brother the Hot Rod really work so well together. I've collected over 56 pedals in my life, mainly distortion pedals, trying to find 'that' tone and at last, I can stop buying these things. Woo-Hoo! I'm gonna save up for a yacht now (probably cheaper than all the pedals I bought).
If someone stole it I guess I'd just mosy along and look for someone leaning up against a wall panting for breath - - they weigh a ton!

Easy to use. Love having separate Hi and Lo knobs instead of a single Tone knob. Easy to dial in good settings quickly and the manual is helpful in getting started.

American Fender Strat > Ibanez WD7 Wah > Bad Monkey > MXR Phase 90 > Tech21 Trademark 60

or

Strat > WD7 > Magicstomp > TM60 or HotRod Deluxe

Depends on what I'm playing and who with.

The Bad Monkey is an excellent tube overdrive with very warm tones and slight distortions, which is exactly what I look for. I prefer it to my TubeScreamer in most situations for that extra boost at solo time. This box gives you a little more edge. Some have said it doesn't clean up when rolling back the guitar volume, but it works great for me.

I usually use this box when playing with straight blues groups. I use the MagicStomp in its place when with classic rock groups to avoid taking a box full of stomp boxes. (See my review of the Magicstomp.)

I don't really look for sounds of other artists, but am in a perpetual tweaking mode of my own sounds. I play with several groups and do solo jazz work and have played since I first saw the Beatles live in 1966. Seemed like a good job to have.

The Bad Monkey is an excellent box for those needing a great quality tubey overdrive sound. Forget the price. This box just sounds great. The fact it's cheap shouldn't factor in so much when you're looking for YOUR sound. Take some time with it and you'll be pleased.

Metal, seems reliable. Knobs firm, not flimsy. Seems reliable

No idea. Shouldn't need them.

This is an excellent box. Definitely worth a look if you're in the overdrive market. Tubescreamers are nice, but you should not turn up your nose on this one because of price. Metal box, great versatile tones, and it really sounds good. I've got a Tubescreamer and the Monkey. This box gets much more work than the Ibanez.

easy, thats all that can be said, 4 knobs, and step on the SOB.

i play a Ibanez TC-620 talman with 2 p-90s through a fender 65w Princeton. WOW, originaly i used this through my amps dirty channel, because i thought i had too little gain. but i simply ditched the processor i was using and fiddled with my eq and now this little box is my only distortion, still not for playing metal. i have the knobs set at full, except for the volume knob. this is a fairily noisey box, butif you set the volume down around 1/4, you can solve that problem.

i play hard rock/blues, with this pedal in a band, and i love the tone it gives to my p-90s. not fuzzy at all, I HATE FUZZY OVERDRIVE!!
a very transparent effect, still captures all of my p-90 tone.

this thing is toughf. it's gotta be for my fat ass to be steping all over it. i would surely gig without a back up.

never had to deal with them, and i doubt i will

man, it really is hard to find a good overdrive that matches your flavor, there a so many out there, but for this price range, this pedal may be the best for 40.00. there are much better overdrives than this, but not for less than 50.00.
truth be told, i gambled on this brand new prouduct because it stood out to me, i read lots of reviews and made a very good decision.

Four knobs, one input, two outputs....about as simple as it get's

71 tele, 78 Tokai Strat, 67 ES335, hombrew tele into a Winfiled Thomas "high power" Eliabeth...a great, blackface super type amp. I was looking for an inexpensive, good sounding, usable, blues overdrive/boost to add to the sonic flux and compliment the other pedals I use. For me, this ain't it!

I have a digidelay that has seved me well, so I guess this would hold up to daily stomping. Some people have not faired well wit hthe new digitech pedals. I've had pretty good luck with them.

I've played quite a variety of music over the last 35 years. Mostly blues these day's as that is my first love. I really wanted to like this pedal. Bought one based on all the fantastic reviews and the fact it's dirt cheap! While I'm happy it works well for most of the players, it bites a big one compared to my other overdrives. The equally inexpensive Ibanes TS-7 has a much warmer, fuller sound than the Bad Monkey and also works pretty well as a boost. My old Marshall Bluesbreaker and Vox Valve Tone send the Bad Monkey back to the forest canopy in search of shelter. I like the tone shaping options of a separte treble and bass control, but was unable to dial out the inherent fizziness this pedal produces. Now, this may just be with the amp I'm using. It may sound fine through other types of amplifiers, but the Winnie sounds excellent on it's own and I want pedals that enhance, not detract from the tone. I can't decide if I should take it back, sell it or keep it. I should keep it for a while and give it another go. Maybe I got a dud? Who knows.

Four knows - volume, gain, low and high eq.

I compared the Bad Monkey with all of the current Ibanez Tube Screamers. No contest if you're looking for a great overdrive that retains the character of the guitar/amp.

This pedal sings with Strats and Fender tube amps. It's not very noisy at all. The pedal is more overdrive or boost - not a distortion pedal. Turn the volume up on your amp. Then hit the Bad Monkey. Tone Nirvana!!

The Bad Monkey is built like a brick, whatever...

The website is pretty good for getting help and answers. This pedal will probably outlast you and your grandchildren, unless you throw it off a bridge of something.

This pedal is one of the best-kept secrets in the music world. I have been playing blues and classic rock for over 20 years. I've had a lot of pedals. The Bad Monkey certainly ranks as one of the better investments in this area.

Just don't buy this pedal and expect Megadeath or megadistortion. Use the Bad Monkey to push your amp over the edge. You won't regret it.

This pedal is very easy to use. No tricks here.

I use mostly Fender guitars and a Guild Bluesbird. Fender Deluxe Reverb, Standel 2X12, Crate Vintage Club 50 stack, and Peavey Special 130. I play Modern Country to Classic Rock to Contemporary Christian.

THis pedal sounds very good. I actually replaced a Reverend Drivetrain II in my chain with it. I run it after a Route 66 which has a low impedance buffer so there is absolutely no tone loss. I also run it with a modded Blues Driver. It's very transparent without the mid hump of a Tubescreamer. Very articulate not mushy at all.

Don't know. It looks like it is built like a tank.

Never contacted

In response to "tonesnob". He apparently is out to bash something. I doubt that he even listened to this pedal. I've been at this for almost thirty years and have heard alot of equipment and have owned too much equipment. I didn't need another pedal but this thing for $40 bucks is a no brainer.

This pedal sounds alot like a good Tubescreamer without the mid hump. It's more transparent as well.

This is a update to my initial review I submitted on this pedal last month. It's as easy to sue as a toothbrush!

Ok, I was very pleased what this did for my Fender blues jr. But it did sound a tad dark and did'nt clean up that well with the guitar's volume but sounded as good and better than my other boxes, some of which are boutique. I still like my HBE powerscreamer but the boost switch went out and back to the monkey I went. I also just recently aquired a reissue Marshall JTM45 head with matching 1960 cab loaded with 25watt greenbacks, this was a spontaneus purchase that will cost me a months overtime and drew a WTF! look from my wife and to crank it to get that glorius crunch will put me in the catagory with the kids who run there dirtbikes up and down the street in the eyes of our neibors and law enforcement! Our band usually plays smaller venues and rarely get to the outdoor stages. Well after bashing through a corus of the Who's, (won't get fooled again) at full power and shutting down waiting for the cops to show up, I tried the bad monkey and was able to make the amp sound and respond just as it had cranked but a much more reasonable level! And that volume issue I had seems lessened with the marshall, I was able to turn down and it would clean up! Fact is this combination is extremely sensitive to picking and volume changes! The monkey easly retained the amp's caracter and you can add bass to keep the cabinet's THUNK unlike a tubescreamer. Guitar's I'm using are a Schecter C-1+ and a S-1 elite and a Gibson 61SG reissue and all sounded excellent! This is now my ultimate rig but will continue to gig with my Vox valvetronix 60watt head and controller for sake of simplicity but again if were outdoor on big stage then this is it! as for other effects? a HBE compretro(SWEET!) a Budda wah, MXR phase 100, Dan echo, some alternate tunings and a heavy Dunlop glass slide gets everything done for me!

As I stated earlier I had a case of dumbass and left a digitec phaser in harms way and it was ran over by two cars and was seriously blemmed but continued to work! I just dont use it anymore because I lost interest in the rise fall anf step filter. Boss may have passed this test but I seriously doubt my few boutique pedals would! I have bought a second as back up and bought a third to give to our other guitar player, everyone can afford to be a philanthrapist with what digitech is charging for these greenmeenies!

It's forty bucks people!

Currently play in classic rock cover band, just handed keyboard duties over to accomplished player and play lead/rythym and Mandolin. Been playing since 1979 ahve been in original material band and recorded but always as hobbiest weekend warrior but had offers to join professional group, Ive gone through some equiptment over the years and this pedal really stands out for performance and value and in it's own way I look at it as the tubescreamer of the new millinium!

Just put her in drive and step on the gas...

Strat into a 1966 Fender Super Reverb. I loved it the moment the first few notes rang out. But the human ear can be deceived.... I can never really tell how good a pedal is until I record with it. I recorded with it! It is terrific. It is transparent and articulate. This is an overdrive pedal that is musical. It is NOT a pedal for Metal Heads so don't even bother! It is unique in that it emphasised my playing style. It allowed the tone of both the guitar and the amp to shine through. It blew me away. I've been using a Marshall Shredmaster, a Drivemaster, an Original Reverend Drivetrain and the Original Marshall Guvnor and this one is now the pick of the litter. Grab one right now...right now...get up from your computer and purchase one...yes, right now!!! I used an MXR Dyna-Comp in front of it and I was in Heaven. Do not spend your next $150.00 on that Boutique pedal you've been drooling about. Buy this, you will not be sorry.

Don't take a bath with it.

Nice people..They're from Utah...home of the Osmonds

I was inspired to write and record immediately after playing this pedal. It is just too sweet n nasty. Lay down the funk and let this mutha rip. Throw in a coupla of power chords and the sky opens up. It's a keeper! Hear it for yourself. $35.00 is a small price for this slice of happiness.

Very easy to use. Hell, my grandmother could get useable tones out of this thing with a Koerean Telecaster into a Gorilla amp with a blown speaker. If you need the manual ... you rode the short school bus. :o)

Using a custom Strat copy thru a Peavey Classic 30, the sound quality would be amazingly good even if it cost four times as much. There is no noticeable change in tone, when the Bad Monkey is put in the chain, which is kind of awesome considering that they don't claim it to be true bypass, and in light of the fact that they practically give it away. Once turned on, there is as little change in the base 'dynaics' of your original sound as any stompbox or rack effect I've ever used in twenty-five years of playing (I'm 41 ... my ass is OLD!) regardless of price. When setting this thing up, the HI and LOW pots allowed me to keep my base sound, yet easily dial in a warm, overdriven tone that sounded like a continuation of my original sound - but with more PUNCH - using the LEVEL and GAIN pots. It truly is a very warm, natural sound that doesn't get muddy, isn't noisy (Even with single coils!), nor screw up your original tone. In short ... amazingly awesome considering the price.

Dunno ... only had it a few weeks. I'm sure it's built like a tank.

Never used 'em. Which is good.

Now that I'm an old fart, I'm playing original Jazz/Bop tunes, experimental pseudo-fusion (how's that for a description?) and lots of old blues standards in a harder-edged blues style a la SRV or KWS on steriods.

Very easy to use!!

i have a 89 fender strat plus with texas specials in it running through a 4-10 hot rod deville. this pedal rocks out and is well worth the $40 price tag. Since buying the pedal i no longer use the amps distortion at all. VERY GOOD PIECE.

Built like a tank

i play mainly in a blues band and this pedal totally works well with what i'm doing...save your money buy this instead of a ts9 or 808

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.

N/A

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
<><

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.