DigiTech Bad Monkey

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.