TopHat Wonderboy

Like other pedals of this design the boost side has a level knob and the overdrive side has level and gain. You probably wouldn't have spent this kind of money had you not understood that, but even if you didn't it makes itself apparent very quickly. Good marks for that.

Honestly? I probably wanted to rate this even lower than I did, but I revisted the TopHat site and it actually uses the term "natural", not transparent. If you think this box will be transparent you too will be saying "my bad!".

Even the boost side alone colors the signal, robbing some highs and overall articulation. IMO it gives your tone a character similar to playing through a high gain amp. If you're playing something like a BF Fender or AC30 and just wanted a boost, this probably isn't going to be a good thing. Wasn't for me.

I didn't like the boost channel but conceeded that perhaps it was a subjective thing. I don't know if I'm willing to be that benevolent wtih the OD side. Click it on and you too will ask "what happened to my low end?". There might be a slight mid bump but I was too fixed on finding my bass frequencies to really determine that. For a MOSFET device I was surprised how little it did to enhance highs or even upper mids.

I bought this pedal confident that I'd love it, but I'm glad I got it used AND at a good price.

I owned the pedal for all of 2 weeks so this is purely speculation, but build quality did not appear to be a week area. It was very well constructed and clean as a whistle inside.

I have a group of guys I jam with about every 6 weeks or so, and we do everything from pure country to surf to hard rock to blues. And anything in between that tickles our fancy. I play a Custom Shop Donahue Tele through a '66 Vibrolux, so tone I've got even without trying too hard. One or two folks at the jam thought the boost side was OK to good, nobody liked the OD side.

In this price range of boutique pedals I think construction, reliability, and customer service should be a give. My experience says that it indeed is too. So it's all about the sound, which means I can't give an overall rating that exceeds what I gave it for sound.

very easy. 3 knobs 2 switches. Sounds best when amp is loud, and volume and gain are 12:00 or higher on the pedal. I give an eight because it could sound better. It's a little dark and has a midrange peak. It sounds better with some treble, like an AnalogMan Beano Boost in front of it.

93 Strat American Standard lite Ash. Dr. Z Mazerati 1X12 combo w/ G12V30. Adds little noise when on. Sucks a noticable amount of Tone, highend and dynamics while in the chain. Compared to AnalogMan's effects, the wonderboy is not true bypass. It's an okay overdrive and boost if assisted with another signal booster before it. On it's own, it sucks too much tone to be excellent.

Had one for 2 months, the overdrive side died. Sent it back and was replaced and it's been several months with no problems. I would not like to gig with this at all. I don't play out, if I did I don't trust it yet. My back up would not be a Wonderboy

Friendly and helpful. They seemed to "forget" about my broken pedal for 2 months. He gave me a new one, which could have happened sooner.

Rock I guess. Been playing a few years. I would not buy this again ever. It's not worth the price. Gets in the way on it's own and just by being in the chain. Wish it had true bypass or at least didn't suck out my tone. Wish I got an AnalogMan King of Tone. It has internal DIP switches that allow one to choose different levels of gain and maybe volume.
The wonderboy is still better than lots of overdrive's, but every AM effect I have is excellent and does not suck tone from your signal.

3 knobs (vol 1, vol2, gain 2), and two switches (on/off)

I use this with single channel amps (Matchless Clubman, KJL Dirty 30), and various guitars. There are 2 OD's in this box, one has just a volume control and is a boost with slight gain, the other has volume and gain controls and can get some serious gain. Both are independant so you can use them individually or together. Both seem to add a bit of top end, and without a tone control, this might be an issue with some. I find it a really nice class A sound.

No problems in 2 years of steady gigging and practice.

TopHat has excellent tech support and are always eager to help out.

A very versatile boost/overdrive pedal that can turn a single channel amp into a 3 channel amp.