Best boosters around

[bancika]

Yesterday I found interesting steel chassis at military scrapheap, it's about 50cmx8x3. I plan to shorten it a bit and put quite a few different boosters in it with bypass stompswitch and toggle switch for each booster separately. Which one would you vote for? I don't need overdrive, only different boosters (thinking 4-5). I'd like to give new Omega try.
Cheers

[stm]

The Omega will cover Range Master and LPB-1/2 sounds and in between.  These sounds will have from a hint of OD (at the RM setting) up to thick OD (on the LPB setting).

Based on the above, I'd recommend some clean boosters, like a clean AMZ-FX's clean MOSFET Booster (which I understand is very transparent), and a Fetzer Valve, which is clean but with its own coloration; presence cap recommended on this one.

You'll cover a lot of ground with the above.

[MartyMart]

That sounds like a cool sized project !
Mosfet Boost
Fetzer valve ( new improved one )
Titan Boost - fantastic and not built much from what I read !
Cream Pie ?
Omega
Fat boostered - if you have room for the 4 x knobs ,,,

MM.

[KerryF]

^-You forgot a few.

If I could suggest:

*Omega
*Sparkle Boost
*Cream Pie (If you have it)
*Rangemaster
*MOSfet Boost
*AC/RC Boost if you were lucky enough to find it in the last disaster of a thread 

Kerry

[db]

I posted a JFET treble boost some time ago which sounds great IMO through my set-up.  If you want it please pm me (that goes for anyone).  It's very simple BTW and I have a tiny vero layout for it.

[Tuemmueh]

What about Mark Hammers The Crank?! I'm about to build this one, just waiting on my parts ...

Also, I like the MXR Microamp! Can be modded to a klon-like sound, search the musikding.de-site for infos and schematic.

[Pushtone]

I did this same thing too.

For awhile, the all-in-one-box thing made it handy to test different boosters on amps at friends homes. 
But in the end all the boosts were busted out and put into separate enclosures.

Here are some details on the boosts I selected.
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=50028.msg373326#msg373326

[Hiwatt25]

I may be showing my noob colors here but I really like the Gus Smalley boost.  It's the "start with this" project for beginers but I built one for a friend of mine (added a bypass cap) and he just goes on and on about it.  Why not chuck one of those in there as well?

[Mark Hammer]

I find this thread confusing.

By definition, a "booster" is supposed to be a simple circuit that simply increases the level of an incoming signal without significant coloration.  A gain stage, pure and simple.  Where they may vary is in:
a) the range of gain available from the stock circuit
b) the amount and type of coloration provided at higher gains
c) the extent and type of tonal shaping
d) the extent to which they are intended to interact with an amplifier
e) the extent to which they are intended to clean up the guitar signal by overcoming loading effects
f) the extent to which there is some post-build "set-up" involved
g) the extent to which they are comfortable, stock, with supply voltages other than 9v,

Pretty simple criteria, and usually addressed in the description of the circuit.  With very few exceptions, any single one of them can be tweaked to mimic any other.  Because they almost always involve a single semiconductor component, whether transistor of op-amp, they tend to be a bit sensitive to component choice, so one tends to see/hear unit-to-unit variation which can mistakenly be attributed to the design rather than to the specific build.

[petemoore]

  Pick a transistor and a bias arrangement, then voice it !
  To try a Power Mosfet, see Gus Smalley's Mosfet Overdrive.

[db]

I find this thread confusing.

Why?  The guy wants to try out a few boosters.  Simple.  And as you say, they all perform the same basic function but have some individual characteristics.  So, it's worth the experience I think. 

[Mark Hammer]

Agreed.  What I find confusing is simply the perceived need to make a choice between them.  I agree with pete.  Pick a tranny or chip, and build.  Satisfaction generally guaranteed.

When I used to teach university, I'd have students come see me who were disappointed in themselves as learners.  Their mistake was that they didn't realize that their poor performance was not due to their own intellectual inadequacies, but because the textbook simply wasn't pitching this concept or that one exactly the way they needed to hear it at that moment for it to make sense to them (and neither was I, as teacher).  So, I'd loan them one or two of the freebie texts I got from publishers, with the advice that they should check out the other glossaries or chapter summaries when they felt like they were running up against a conceptual wall.  Ironically, it didn't matter how crappy the text was that I loaned them.  They consistently came back singing its praises.  They were so happy to get past that conceptual hurdle, they thought there was something special about the text, besides just saying things differently.

The same is true of all the simple clean boosters.  They pretty much all provide decent impedance buffering, and make suitable use of the amp's available headroom.  People are just so tickled to have that happen, they start to feel like the specific booster was magic.  It wasn't.  It was a booster.  They needed a booster.  And it was there.

So build one.  You'll be happy no matter what you make.

[Ben N]

I think a lot depends on where you want it in your signal chain. A booster that drives an amp input may be different than one intended to go in front of other pedals (see Yun's Rocket Boost). A high input Z, like the Mosfet Boost, makes a big difference right after the guitar; probably less so further down the chain. OTOH, the low inut Z of an LPB-1/2 is a problem at the beginning of the chain, but may be a plus further down the line. If you have a lot of gain stacked up ahead of the boost, then headroom is essential to a good clean boost--think in terms of a low noise opamp design with an 18, 24 volt or bipolar supply and maybe a rail-to-rail chip, something along the conceptual lines of Barber's Launchpad. Whether you need eq with your boost is a factor, too.

I would just keep it very modular, so you can swap stuff in and out.

Ben

[bancika]

Yeah, I just need to boost tube amp. I'm loaded with homerew amps so I'd like to play with some boosters in front. No other FX before amp

[col]

you can get lots of different sounds from the same basic set-up by swapping the transistor and the caps. I did it with a circuit based on the JHS booster with the input and output caps socketed and the transistor. I replaced the CB  (or DG) resistor with a 100k trim pot and socketed the E (or S) cap as it was polar.
I could then swap between CBE pinout bipolar transistors (Si and Ge) and FETs as long as the pinout was DGS such as a BS170 and 2N7000. The trim could then be adjusted for each transistor to get the best sound. I could also use pnp transistors by swapping the Emitter to eath cap round and the power supply wires on my test rig.
Despite the simple circuit all transistors used sounded different. I also ended up soldering the input and output caps into place as too many variables made it difficult to evaluate.
If you'd like a stripboard layout of what I did please pm me with your e-mail and I'll send it.
BTW I like the Rangemaster which is my usual live choice, the Brian May treble booster, the Crank, Dragonflys sparkledrive, Sekova Power Booster etc. I didn't like the Orange treble and Bass booster I built, It had unity gain and I wasn't keen on the sound anywhere on the tone control. I even built a second in case it was my build but that was exactly the same. The EH screaming tree clone I built was like an icepick to the ear! You'd have no problem cutting through with that.