Favorite Booster projects?

[Bornhorst]

Hey all!
Im new to building stompboxes, and would like to start with a nice booster pedal. 
What is your opinion on the best sounding booster?

Im using a strat into a homemade tube pre-amp with a SS power amp.

Thanks

[petemoore]

  Im using a strat into a homemade tube pre-amp with a SS power amp
  >You want to try a different one...?
I was about to say...something about he Shaka Tube, [second half w/out Oa Section], which I whipped out the today, it seems you have a tube pre...
  What about hammer the pre's input? Something with a Jfet or three would probably give you some 'clean fill dirt' [thicken up the tone]/ fairly EZ build W/Great tone.
  Tube into SS output amp seems to have established a reputable track record, tube inputs have always worked well for me.
  ...ie assuming you're leaving the tube into SS amp as 'amp'.
  For a better answer I like to ask...
what don't you want it to do?
What's the setup...you've covered that I think.
what else will it be used with?
  Rangemaster is a fun little build, and if your amp and everything get along with it, and you get lucky W/noise/biasing/matching it can be worth the trouble...it took me years of voicing, testing Q's, rebiasing, different amps...before I was figuring out how to...or how I like a Rangemaster..it would seem sensative = finicky sometimes.
  It now does one widely variable effect thing for me w/volume knob of guitar.

[lethargytartare]

I go on and on about the sparkleboost (by Dragonfly, member of this community) -- very clean, very potent, very simple build.  Get's an A+ from me.
I recently built the sekova power boost -- I give it a B -- excellent output, very fat and tubey, extremely simple build (basically an LPB1 with different caps).
I also just built the DOD 201 Preamp -- another B there -- very good output, also very fat and tubey and simple.  I liked it a bit more than the sekova since it seemed to be a bit brighter.

So, I highly recommend trying the SB for a build -- not too complex, and if you want a booster, I don't think you can go wrong there.

best of luck!!

ltt

[seanthomas46]

what about the AMZ MosFET booster?
  Thinking about starting that project

[lethargytartare]

I've heard good things about that, but don't have one built yet.  But I actually have latched onto this interest in getting a good "clean" boost, and the next three I'm going to try are the AMZ MosFET booster, the Shaka Boost, and The Crank -- and I'm very optimistic about The Crank -- that may be a pretty sweet booster.  Later I plan on building another sparkleboost...unless one of these other three wows me...

[jmusser]

If you want something that does good clean watery boost, and never goes to distortion, that would be John Hollises Titan Boost.

[Mark Hammer]

The MosFet Booster is nice.  I've built two.  One of the nice things about it is how easy it is to add boost presets.  Since the amount of boost depends on the value of the resistance in series with the source cap to ground, switching between unity gain and degrees of boost is as simple as using an SPST switch to shunt a big resistor (e.g., 100k) down to a much smaller resistance by adding a parallel resistor using a pot.  Since that cap always has a path to drain to ground, the switching is pop free.  Moreover, you could even use your switch to select between two *different* presets by selecting between alternate pots in parallel with a default resistance.  That convenience is something you can't creat quite as easily in other sorts of boosters, using the stockdesign at least.

What's convenient about that aspect is that you can simply leave the circuit "on" all the time and benefit from the buffering aspects, and use a cheaper DPDT stompswitch to bypass the effect and turn on a status LED, or select between two prest levels and their respective indicator LEDs.  Of course the usefulness of that would depend on how you wanted to use a booster in the first place.  In my case, I find it handy for getting a slightly better S/N ratio and getting a little more squish out of a compressor, as opposed to having it be my de facto overdrive.

[pi22seven]

+1 on the Rangemaster. Nice treble boost. Easy build, easy to mod and PCBs avaiable. A solid first build.

[petemoore]

  Rangemaster is a finikky one, depending on the transistor, amp, guitar, voicing...etc. bias drift...
  That thing gets lotsa use though...it's on for 'clean' last night, off for 'plain guitar' on for 'heavying up and mid boosting the Fuzz to perfection'...1 spot for booster is used by me most all the time, the RM has occupied that spot for a good while.
  I should note socketting the input cap...I used something 5x-10x larger value there...like .01uf or .022uf...It took me years before I really like an RM though...and certain amps just hate the thing, the 5e3, a 15w tube amp I built just happens to Love it though...
  Other than that it's mostly Jfet[s/opamps for boost/sorta cleaner tones...and I don't have an NPN Boost for about 5 years [it like fell apart, cause it was built like junk]...need to try that one again.
 

[vanhansen]

I've built so many boosters I've almost lost track of them all.  Not all of them made it to perf though but many have seen the breadboard.  My faves are the Rangemaster, my own Marsha Valve, ROG's Fetzer Valve, and an op-amp booster that eventually become my Slapshot circuit.  Being a Marshall nut I'm pretty partial to the Marsha Valve.    And it definitely reacts well to different JFETS.  You can really hear the difference between a J201 and a NTE458 and a MPF102. 

[toneless]

Electra Overdrive and Electro Harmonix LPB-1 are nice first time projects.

[Doug_H]

Unidrive. Fat, big, loud, unique. Cleans up well with guitar vol.

[Johan]

..Talentboost... http://www.angelfire.com/yt3/redtele/

..sorry..couldnt help it... 
johan