DigiTech Bad Monkey

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!