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Treble Boosters: Exoneration for Brent's Nemesis thread (Pete Thorn content)


DaveH

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I found the 'Nemesis' video while I was looking for reviews/comparisons of treble boosters. So to vindicate myself of having posted that trash, I also found a video from Pete Thorn (an extremely talented guitarist with a great ear)... It has an interesting excerpt from Brian May, and Pete also talks about Glenn Tipton.

BTW, anyone here using a treble boost as part of their go-to board?

 

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Me too….always  have used one to goose an amp. I have used many over the years but I am currently using a Chris Vincent R2R Electric and a Monsterpiece MonsterDrive. Both excellent.

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40 minutes ago, DaveH said:

Which one?

HBE Germania 44. The MVP.

Catalinbread Sabbra Caddabra. Sabbath in a box? Ehhhh...I don't use the gain portion, so I cant really speak to that. Sounds incredible through a cranked JCM800

AnalogMan Beano Boost. (Seems to work better with single coils, but still pretty versatile)

Lovepedal JTM. Not a traditional booster, per se, but seems to function like one.

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Love my Lovepedal black glass bbb OC42. It does the treble boost thing but it’s not just a treble booster. It does the fuzz thing but it’s not just a fuzz pedal. Depending on how you turn the blend knob, it’ll do either or both. 

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I forgot my Lovepedals…my White Dragon has a treble booster side which then adds another transistor to turn into a Fuzz Face. I LOVE the TB side.

I also use the Super Sic Tone which has a treble booster setting. 
The R2R and the Monsterpiece are true Rangemaster clones though and they just kill. 

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I used a germanium treble boost, rangemaster type, on all guitars on our first album and had it on my board all the time up until I bought the SoloDallas Storm pedal last year.

The Storm has a bit less mids and works more like a broader enhancer of the whole register. It sounds a bit more natural, but I'd still call it a kind of treble booster. A more modern sounding one though. It's on my board right now, together with the Fulltone Catalyst set up as a mix of treble booster and fuzz. One of them is usually on most of the time.

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I need to watch this video. Treble boosters are one piece of early guitar equipment that somehow I can't get my head around. I know that Tony Iommi used them in Black Sabbath, Brian May used them, Ritchie Blackmore used them, and many other British guitarists. But, having grown up entirely in the master volume and overdrive pedal era, the idea of boosting a dark sounding amplifier into overdrive kinda goes over my head.

Pete Thorn videos are always great, and I think I've learned more about classic amplifier and guitar setups from his videos than just about anyone else. His demos are what sold me on Scumback Speakers. Also his EVH deep dives are incredible, especially the one where they stuck poor Dave Friedman at a bench rewiring guitars. That pickup shootout was incredible.

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28 minutes ago, Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame said:

Is there something wrong with his right eye?

Sure, he has amblyopia.  Pete makes no bones about it and occasionally pokes fun at himself.  To wit, the cover of his Guitar Nerd album gave witness to his openness about his looks. 

 

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1 hour ago, Biz Prof said:

Sure, he has amblyopia.  Pete makes no bones about it and occasionally pokes fun at himself.  To wit, the cover of his Guitar Nerd album gave witness to his openness about his looks. 

 

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thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, to be honest

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Well, I watched it, and certainly have been schooled on what a Treble booster is, why they were needed, and why I now am thinking of tracking one down, but I really don't have a good "vintage British amp" to slam the front end on.

Man that riff from Victim of Changes sounds awesome when I plays it.

When I hear these sounds I always wonder why people were so surprised that Marshall and others started putting solid state circuitry into their amps. It was pretty much what most of the heavier players were already doing.

 

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7 hours ago, Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame said:

Is there something wrong with his right eye?

 

7 hours ago, Biz Prof said:

Sure, he has amblyopia.  Pete makes no bones about it and occasionally pokes fun at himself. 

A great benefit to amblyopia is that he can sit at the dinner table appearing to be completely focused on his wife's conversation, and at the same time not miss a bit of the game on the tv in the other room.

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1 hour ago, tbonesullivan said:

Well, I watched it, and certainly have been schooled on what a Treble booster is, why they were needed, and why I now am thinking of tracking one down, but I really don't have a good "vintage British amp" to slam the front end on.

You don't have to have a, "vintage", anything. I've used them with Plexis, Mesa MkIIb+, Stiletto, Fender Prosonic, Yamaha T50, JCM800, VAC22, Splawn SS combo, Budda SD18 combo, Reinhardt 18 combo...

True, they were initially used to brighten up darker-sounding tube amps, but they can be used with any overdriven amp for a lead boost. That's what EQ controls are for.

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@RobBis correct ( I kinda feel dirty just saying that, ;)) treble boosters enhance lots of amps when they start cooking. BF Fenders prolly the exception. But OMG what they do to tweeds, Marshall’s, Voxs, and the like  is glorious. And they clean up so well, with the vol knob on the guitar.

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Nope. But all my amps including the EL34 monster have sufficient tone stack range to get the treble needed. And if that's not sufficient, an overdrive/distortion pedal with tone or EQ can provide whatever treble boost is needed.

For years I used an MXR 10-band graphic EQ pedal to carve out punchy sonic spectra, but somewhere along the Line of Financial Necessity I sold it. That, to me, is really the best tool to shape your guitar's sonic soul, including treble boosting.

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