DigiTech Bad Monkey

So easy...(ahem)...a monkey could use it. The manual gives all the necessary information to operate the unit, just in case you're a first timer. The real trick is knowing what you're looking for. That takes time/experience as a musician. Just turn the knobs and use your ears.

Alot of people have said many good things about this pedal and I intend to do the same. I have been a long time user of Ibanez Tube screamers. They're great pedals but there is a slight loss of low end frequencies. Still, they were the best fit for me. About a year ago I had to sell some of my equipment for financial reasons but now that the crisis is over (and we are doing well) I am replacing some things and exploring new things. I tried (and purchased and returned) quite a few OD pedals over the last 6 months including Jekyll and Hyde, MXR Wylde Overdrive, TS9, some Danelectro products, a Boss or two, and a few others. I don't remember them all. Now, most of the pedals I tried were great pedals but not getting me quite where I wanted.....Enter the Bad Monkey.

I stopped in at a local guitar shop that was going out of business and while chatting with the owner I noticed some ridiculous prices on his pedals. Most of the usual "good stuff" had been picked clean but I noticed a Bad Monkey sitting there and had heard some positive mentions of them. I have always turned my nose at digitech in the past but I figured "Well...I heard some good things about these and for 20 bucks, how could I go wrong?" So I brought it home. I plugged my '96 G&L Legacy into the monkey and then right into my Blues Junior (retubed with Mesa SPAX7's and Mesa EL-84's and a "well-broken-in" speaker). I listened. "Hmmm....It's warm. Smooth. Transparent. Natural sounding. Impressive. I'll give it some time...". After a month or two, this pedal has earned it's way onto my board. In fact, I bought a second one to daisy chain!

Like most of us, I am constantly on my own personal quest for THE sound. These pedals have gotten me the closest I've been yet. I get transparent, chunky rhythm sounds and creamy, smooth, sustainful lead tones that let the sound of my guitar/amp shine through with just the right amount of bite. All with my low end still fully intact! Used with a humbucking setup the sound gets even warmer and the sustain and overtones become more pronounced. My only other effect is a Carl Martin "Red Repeat" delay and both my monkeys and "Old Red" play well together. I hear no noise until I engage both monkeys and then it is very slight, just the line noise you'd expect when chaining OD pedals. It's not audible while playing, barely noticable when not playing. Very quiet pedal. The seperate bass and treble knobs let me massage my tone to get it right where I want it. No noise when turning it on/off.
My only complaint is that they don't clean up quite how I'd like when I turn the volume down on my guitar. Not bad, just not a perfect "10", but I seldom make those kinds of adjustments. My rig gives me clean, slight OD, heavier OD and a 6db boost on my amp (foot-switchable) so no problems with that.

Oh, as a side note. There is a second output on these that has some sort of cabinet simulation. I tried it straight into the board for some recording and it sounded surprisingly good. Actually, better sound (for my taste) than I was able to get out of my line 6 POD 2.0! Useful for late night recording and I think that if my amp ever broke down at a gig or if volume was an extreme issue I could get through the gig using this feature through the PA. Good job Digitech!

So far...so good. I haven't had them all that long, but the one I bought at first was a demo model from the Digitech display so I'm sure it took some in-store abuse and it's holding up just fine. I plan to by a third one in case one of my two "first-stringers" acts funny but they seem extremely solidly built (they weigh a ton!) so I don't anticipate any problems. Time will tell.

No Contact. No need.

I am 33 years old and have been playing for the last 20 or so years. I have owned quite a bit of gear over that time and am currently "happily down-sized" to:

1996 G&L Legacy
Tacoma DR-28
Some off brand laminate-top acoustic (my "beater" for camping)
Fender Blues Junior

I gig 3-5 times a month and these pedals finally made their debut in my live rig a couple of days ago. I was extremely pleased with my tone and got alot of compliments on it. Mostly from the guitar players from the other act and some from the audience. I play mainly blues, rock and some popish-rock, but also some more progressive stuff. We cover (among many others) The Verve, Jeff Buckley, Cold Play, Goo Goo Dolls, Pearl Jam, Hendrix, Sublime, John Mayer, Bob Seger and a bunch more. We also play some originals.

I originally took this pedal home based on the 20 dollar price tag but I bought the second one because of the sound. I am quite happy with my pet monkeys and expect to see them on my board for a long time to come.

Not that hard to get a tone. But a good tone? forget it. The manual was ok.

Did not give a very pleasant warm tone. Th treble knob added a harsh high end and I didn't like the frequencies it modified. Same with the bass knob. I ab'd this with my Ibanez ts-9 and ts-9DX and there is no comparison. The tube screamers are ALOT Fatter and warmer sounding than this pedal. More "meat" in the tone and not so brittle and fake sounding. Did not boost my amp as well either. In fact it thinned out the tone as opposed to beefing it up like the tube screamers did. This is a wannabee pedal that just doesn't cut it.

Seems very solid and well built

They have always been good

I play all types of rock, blues and metal. Peavey 5150 amps. ADA mp-1, JSX amps and OLD Marshalls. 27 years of playing have given me a superb and keen ear for tone. I didn't like this pedal at all. It's sound quality is second rate to ibanez. The Ts-9 kicks it's ass and the BBE green screamer does too. For $40.00 I guess it's ok but your tone does suffer for it. Stick with the real thing. There is a reason they are the best.

Very easy, it has the typical volume and gain plus a treble and bass tone stack.

I am not one to recommend gear this way but this little box is the best deal going for a tubescreamer OD pedal. It is every bit as good as TS-9s with the bonus of having a knob to shape the bass. It goes from very clean with the gain turned down to good rock/blues crunch with the gain past noon. It is quiet and doesn't seem to suck tone turned off. I use this with my '72 Deluxe Reverb and Les Paul ('57 classics) or PRS HBII. I sprinkle in other effects sometimes but sparingly. I havent heard better but I imagine there are some $300 booteek pedals that are a bit better.

So far so good but then I am easy on gear. Seems like real sturdy construction.

Never tried.

I like to play classic rock, blues and pop. Importantly, I play rhythm often where I need some light OD without loosing string definition or the sound of my guitars or the Deluxe. This little box delivers that. If it were stolen I would cuss and then bust out another big $40 to replace it. Take it from me, get one of these and check the tubescreamer box (for cheap). They dont come much better. Use the money you saved for a better amp, tubes, guitar or(gasp!)lesson.

very easy, small manual

I got rid of a TS-9 for this pedal. Alot more tone shaping available than the tube screamer with the bass a treble controls which are active by the way. Talk about a fat boost of juicy tone. I push the crunch channel of my 5150 head with this thing. I leave the crunch switch off and boost with the bad monkey. Full on van halen brown sound! Sounds almost exactly like his tone on Women and Children First. Incredibly fat yet biting as well. Just working the preamp gain gives you a huge variety of sounds ala EVH. Not overly dirty on the crunch channel, just big and warm. Engage the crunch switch and you have yourself a Soldano! Very cool> It takes the gain to almost uncontrollable on the lead channel. Loads of fun. Don't use that too much.

seems very solid

good people

I traded a Tube screamer for this and had some extra money left over. Sounds practically the same with added tone flexibility. Does Brown sound to a tee. The controls are VERY sensitive to movement and it takes a little dialing in to get your tone. Changed my 5150 from an average sounding amp to a blazing tone machine. I'm not ashamed to use a pedal either. Vai and Satriani both get help from pedals to get their fabulous sounds. Why shouldn't we?

Pretty basic; level for output, eq controls, gain control. Anyone looking for an overdrive box will probably know what these are in the first place. Good call on the battery compartment, its a pretty nifty system. Manual explains everything straightaway.

I've been blown away by this pedal. For 40 bones tone just does not get much better than this. My rig is not superior by any means: Ibanez RG3EX1 through Fender Frontman 212R, usually not any other effects to speak of (occasional Digitech RP). Even with this modest, solid state setup, I have been able to craft amazing tones using the Bad Monkey. Warm, crystal clear chords that ring out beatifully abound with the gain at about 12 o'clock and the highs at 1 (Lows at about 1 as well). Crank the gain and highs to 3/4 o'clock and throw on the neck pickup and you've got a fantastic lead boost that induces some of the most incredible tones you've heard in a while, everything from trey anastasio to hendrix to clapton with some tinkering around. No brittle, dry distortion to be found here. There are limitations to be found with this kind of effect, but that is inherent to its purpose; its an overdrive, not a distortion, so you will not find death metal thrash anywhere in this machine. I can attest, however, that even if you only have a decent solid state amp, this pedal will improve your tone sigificantly if you are looking for a soulful, warm distortion tone.

Well I bought a $10 warranty before I had picked the thing up,"just in case." The second I paid, the guy put it in my hand and I nearly fell to the floor. The thing is heavy. Real heavy. I don't see any need for a backup unless you're really neurotic about these kinds of things. I guess I haven't had it long enough to give it a ten, so it gets a nine with an asterisk.

Never dealt with Digitech

I play alot of rock music, everything from modest mouse to phish to clapton to cake, etc. Seeing as how I was in the market for a true tone box, not just some screaming, hissing, take your sound to eleven thrasher, I have found a phenomenal product (especially for the price). Perhaps a much more expensive OD would provide an even better sound, but I've heard it said that in order to match this box, one would have to go into the high hundreds/low two hundreds. This baby gets the job done in style for much less. Overall a fantastic product. Kudos to Digitech for the aggressive pricing. Now get one before they change their minds.

quite easy to get a good sound out of with the bass/treble... not so much a compromise as the overdrives with only a tone.

I am thrilled with the sound quality of the overdrive. I've spent up to $150 trying to find TONE in a good overdrive pedal and this one has got it. There is no comparison in value for what you are getting. Seemed at first like there was a bit of a mid-hump but you can easily shape your tone to compensate with the bass/treble. Actually after playing a few minutes I began to like the mids in the pedal... squawky!

Can't say yet but I've never had trouble with DigiTech before.

nope

I would recommend this one first to anyone.

Couldn't be easier, level, low, high and gain controls.

So far, so good. I have a few different setups that I like to use depending on the music being played and the size of the venue. So far, the Monkey has sounded really good with my Peavey Classic 50. The big test will be using it with my 50W Marahall half stack.

Only used it at rehearsal, have yet to run it through gig conditions. It appears to be well built, the only thing I don't care for is the switch and how it kinda sits under the foot treadle part, seems too exposed to me....

I've dealt with the crew at Digitech/DOD back when I worked in the repair shop at Sam Ash, good people there in Utah.

I play lots of different stuff, from rock to blues to fusion. I feel comfortable that I can get a good sound out of this device. Sound-wise comprable to a TS-9 with the added tonal flexibility. Still a tiny mid hump but nothing that will stick out like a sore thumb. For $40 you can't go wrong, hell, buy two and keep one as a backup! I'd put this up against anything the corksniffers can come up with, and it'll hold its own!

Couldn't be much easier.

This is absolutely marvellous sounding unit. It is by far the best overdrive I've had. Boss Od-3 was also good, but it sounded way too dark, I just couldn't get enough treble with that one. Not that problem with Bad Monkey. Very good EQ controls and very good sound. There might be better sounding overdrives on the market, but not at this price. The price could easily be twice as much and it would still be a good investment. This goes extremely well with a tube amp. If you have a tube amp and a tube overdrive that's easily too much tube things and it doesn't sound good anymore. I don't use any tube effects anymore, since I've got a tube amp. Bad monkey is also a very quiet unit and what's the most important thing: it's almost impossible to get a bad sound out of this overdrive. Just for the sound I'd give it a 9, but it's so cheap, I must give a 10.

This is heavy metal.

I was suspicious at first, because DigiTech's other products are not very convincing. Their multieffects just sound bad, digital and cheesy. So it took me quite a while before I dared to buy this thing, but I haven't regret the buying at all. I've been playing for way over twenty years and have owned a lot of different gear. I'll keep this one as long as it lasts. It's the best overdrive. Don't waste your money on that boutique stuff. It may be a little better, but it can be worse, too. Bad Monkey is a working man's choice. Buy it!

Within approximatively four seconds, I could produce an awesome tone out of this thing. The fact that there is a bass and high knob make the eq-ing easy and always right.

I bough this on impulse because I had a deal this morning and so far, I'm honestly blown away. I should have got this thing like 10 years ago.

Sounds great... another Bad Monkey rave review I guess.

I used to use a Sansamp GT-2 for distortion, well I still use it, but it produces a heavy, thick distortion rather than a milder overdrive. With the GT-2, I can't get anywhere close this overdrive sound.

So far so good. I never ever use backup for anything, it's just a bad habit I have. From all the gear I own, all my digitech stompboxes have always been very reliable so far, unlike some of my Boss stompboxes (believe it of not).

Never called, never will. As a children of neo-liberalism like most of you, if a problem occurs with this pedal, my reflex will be to trash it and buy another one.

I play jazz professionally but also some rock. I use the same guitar for both: a Gretsch 6120 strung with 11's, usually with flats but sometimes with rounds when I am more in a rock mood and need not to record. I use either a Mesa Boogie Mark IV, or a JC-120 these days, for solid state convenience and because that's what I own right now (if I'd have a Twin around, I'd probably prefer using that). When I use this pedal with a spring reverb it sounds very "rockabilly", which is the sound I am after in rock.

I've heard some people dissing digitech's products. I don't know since I am no gear snob but I own a Digitech Digital Reverb and Digital delay, and this Bad Monkey, and so far I think these 3 pedals are top notch stuff sound-wise! And they were all pretty cheap.

Just one thing I am not sure is why they make this goofy looking design. I don't think it is aimed at teenagers. But nevermind.

Very easy: Level, Low & High eq, Gain. That's it. I've found that virtually all stomp boxes are very easy to operate so this category is a bit pointless for this product.

Here we go. Another glowing review for the Bad Monkey pedal... But it's quite good. I put it in front of my Peavey Classic 100 head with 410 Traynor cab and it sounds great. I use it for a gritty break up of a clean tone. It's transparent if desired and has a lot of character without being harsh. Guitars used are: Les Paul, Nashville Telecaster, Peavey Wolfgang, EBMM EVH and a dual humbucker guitar that I made. Each has their own character through the pedal which is fairly volume sensitive. So the different outputs of my pickups react differently with the drive. Volume pot adjustments react fairly well with the gain.

It is warm and by having the low and high eq it gives me the ability to dial it in to match the response of my clean channel. Activating it sounds like I just threw dirt onto my clean channel and virtually nothing more. If there is any color change to the original signal of the guitar it's just warmer.

I don't use it to boost the front end of my amp to drive it harder. I just use it to dirty up the clean channel. In the past 10 years or so I've tried products from Boss, Ibanez and Marshall without the success that I've found in this box. At twice the price it would still be a 10 rating.

Rugged. I doubt there's anything that could go wrong with it. But if it did, it's only $40 to replace it.

I have no idea. But again, I could replace it for very little so I don't really care.

This is an amazing pedal. Yes, the price helps boost the meaning of -amazing-. But at 2-3 times the price this pedal would still be great. Between the price, the dayglo green paint and the goofy name I figured this pedal was geared only for teenagers. Honestly, they could change the name to something like - Vintage Tube Drive - Make it a vintage color and charge 3 times what they currently charge. It's that good.

I'm not someone who looks at guitar gear like an Audiophile looks at Hi-Fi gear. Coloring my tone is what all my gear is about. I only care what color the tone is as it comes out of my amp. I'm quite pleased with this pedal and can whole heartedly recommend it. Don't let the juvenile packaging scare you off. It's the real deal.

The tone is much rounder, warm and organic my stock or modified Blues Driver. It's much richer and full than any Tubescreamer I've played. Before you look into modding your existing pedals take a look at this pedal. Return it if you don't like it. But there's a good chance you're modding your pedals to make them sound like this one... No kidding.

Great pedal. Strange packaging.

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

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

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

Haven't had to use their customer support.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Seems well built. Time will tell.

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

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

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

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

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

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

No experience.

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

Even a simpleton like myself can handle this.

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

Worked great for the hour that I tried it!

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

Very easy. Just four knobs.

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

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

DOn;t know

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

Good value for the price.

very easy to use indeed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

seems pretty solid

dunno

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

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

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

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

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

Who.. what?

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

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

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

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

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

Simple

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

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

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

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

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

N/A

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

Easy to dial in. Lots of bass and treble gain available. The gain control is quite nice - from subtle dirt to warm grind.

I echo what many others have said - the Bad Monkey is a fantastic sounding pedal. It works well with other pedals. It's quiet and transparent. Really a wonderful overdrive that competes with high-end overdrives. Most of us want an overdrive that adds a little girth without destroying your already-dialed-in clean sound. The Bad Monkey does it for $40.

p.s. Certainly do try the "mixer" out into your amp as well as the "amp" out. You just might like the slight punch from the mixer out. I find it adds a tiny bit of clarity to the signal.

Strat Plus
Spectraflex and George L cables
Boss CS3
Bad Monkey
Marshall BB2
Dunlop 535Q
Boss DD6
Amp (Crate Power Block or Yamaha DG80)

A solid pedal. Well designed from the bottom up.

We guitarists are a finicky bunch, so I'm not going to say everyone should get this pedal, but I was blown away by the Bad Monkey. If you are looking for a nice sounding OD/Boost type pedal, then at least check one of these out. If you like it, you can spend the other $100 you'd have spent on a boutique pedal on other gear. I have owned those pricey OD pedals before, and the Bad Monkey makes me feel a little silly for having spent so much on them.

Hats off to Digitech for a job well done.

Well covered by others on HC, so I'll skip this section.

I discovered a GREAT trick on this wonderful pedal: you can make the EQ curve on it almost completely FLAT, which means no annoying tubescreamer-like midrange hump and no bass loss. It is too simple ??? just turn the low and high controls up all the way up and turn the gain down a bit to compensate. If you want to bring back some or all of the tubescreamer midrange, back off the low and high controls and bring up the gain. I was able to nearly match my bypass tone by doing this with the gain knob almost all the way down. So if you want your amp???s sound plus a little hair, this pedal can do it really well.

I have owned a Fulldrive II, and it was a great pedal and didn???t lose bass, but I think it would benefit from a 2-knob tone control setup like the Bad Monkey has (are you listening Mike?). If Digitech put out a 2-channel version of this similar to the Fulldrive???s layout, they would have the perfect cheap overdrive pedal. Then again, 2 of these pedals only cost $80. Hmmm???maybe I???ll buy another one.

I bought this as a cheap backup in case my Line 6 AM4 dies mid-gig. The AM4 is a wonderful and truly underrated sleeper of a pedal. Line 6 amp modeling, but designed specifically to go in front of a tube amp, so it is the best of both worlds. Read the reviews on it here at HC. Line 6 stopped making it (why?!!!), and it can be picked up for less than $100 on eBay. It???s only fault is that it flies through batteries in a few hours, so that is why I got the Bad Monkey.

If Digitech ever stops making this pedal, I would bet its value would go way up on the used market. Definitely destined for legendary status.

8 Months Later...

OK...I have been spankin' my Epiphone Valve Jr. 5 watt Tube with the Monkey for the last 8 months & I can't get a bad sound out of it...it LOVES tubes & single coil Pickups fer sure..I own 6 Danelectro's which all have a different character to them & they all sound great thru the Monkey for Blues & beyond (aka AC/DC "crunch")...I bought a Snarling Dog's Blue Doo & although its tru-bypass it fails miserably as a blues pedal-too buzzy (great 6v6 tube emulation-that's it)...I also bought the Digitech Screamin Blues & it was WAY harsh & I sold it...the Bad Monkey represents VERY WELL what an OVERDRIVE pedal should sound like...both the Blue Doo & Screamin Blues (also Blues Driver etc) are very much Distortion Pedals...if your looking for a true BLUES tone look no further..."buy the monkey"
I reviewed this when I first bought it & I was not thrilled with the compression but I have found that the minor compression tends to even out & warm up the tone nicely & delivers a nice break up on my Class A amp. Also I recently bought a 1959 Silvertone Christmas Special (made by Dano) & its bright razor edge can only be tamed by adding just O' tad of the monkey...
I have found this pedal works great also as a booster in front of my Fuzz pedal & helps to get a more even Fuzz with much less noise & it also Fattens up a good Fuzz if you dial in more bass on the Monkey...
Finally just as a pre-amp pedal this will take a thin single coil tone & add some nice Mids & Lows to the Freq...

Its a Digitech-they are built well...

If your looking for an OVERDRIVE pedal this is a Tubescreamer for the 21st century...forget the re-issue Ibanez's try this first...or try the Tone Driver also by Digitech it has a wider range...even the Screamin Blues which I personally found a bit harsh is worth a shot...this Digitech line is nice & analog too boot. If the you want more transparency spend a little more & buy a "Badder Monkey" on ebay that has been modified to sound more tru-bypasslike & has even more bottom end...If you feel like Boss just isnt cutting it for you try the Bad Monkey- you'll like its response & versatility...blows the SD-1 away...

very simple to good sound from

very smooth,suprisingly smooth for solid state.I am using it with a USA tele and hot rod deluxe.One problem with the deluxe is the 3rd channel has a huge volume jump,I use this to kick the second channel up a notch and its perfect,no change in sound,just more gain.

so far so good.

Thank You Digitech,great product!

Does everything it claims to do.Excellent product at a very reasonable price,I almost overlooked it thinking it was a kids pedal.This is a great product.I would definatly buy it again and would even recomend buying it if you cant try it out first,thats usually not a good idea but this is that good!

Great pedal easy operation tone controls very are great easy to dial in a good tone

Sounds terrific does everything from a nice punchy overdrive, to a warm rhythm tone i.e. ACDC, Danzig, Jet, which can be controlled very much with high tone knob, also does convincing texas blues tone SRV
Also does good lead boost like a tube screamer similar to old school Metallica leads

my pedal board looks like this
Badmonkey-Double Muff distortion-boss oc-2-mxr phase 90-crybaby wah
Works well with the big muff overdrives it well and blends tone characteristics well

haven't had it long enough to know

haven't dealt with them

I have been playing a for about 10 years and I like this pedal about as well as anything I have ever played through