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I recently got a Wampler Tumus Deluxe for use as a clean boost and have to say it does a great job in enhancing my live Shadows sounds. They do a cheaper model as well if you should be interested.

It is based on the Klon Centur which goes for silly money (£3000 - £5000).

Although it is an overdrive pedal, you can tur n the gain up nearly half way and it still stays relatively clean.

It has become my 'always on pedal' now. It just takes your guitar sound and juices it up more.

I checked out the market to find a pedal to boost for Shads sounds and after much consideration went for the Tumus.

It is pretty much an match to the Klon for sounds and the Deluxe has 3 band EQ added and an extra drive switch.

I have tried different ways of boosting my sound and this is best I have tried. Boost is definitely part of that Sound.

Interesting stuff... and it reminds me to some extent of Roberto Pistolesi's 2006 improvement to the passive ARiAB unit. The Mk II was an active unit with a clean (and transparent) op-amp circuit and a volume control. Obviously, it was meant for balancing the output as between on and off positions, but the op-amp was powerful enough to overload the amp front-end.

A couple of years ago now, I bought a Vox Flat 4 Boost stomp-box. It comes equipped with a Vox-branded ECC83 / 12AX7 valve as well as Vol / Low EQ / High EQ / Gain pots plus a mid-boost switch. It is powered by six AAA cells. Mine is still in the box and plastic bag and the six cells untouched. I must try it out soon.

I would also add that several manufacturers do Klon Centur clones. As always there are different results in the sound. I have an EHX soul food that purports to do the Klon sound and is relatively cheap, but it changes the original guitar sounds in a different way to the original Klon , whereas the Wampler nails it.

You might find a model of a Klon in z multi effect pedal, if you want to find a cheap way of trying it out, but might not be quite the real deal.

JimN wrote:Interesting stuff... and it reminds me to some extent of Roberto Pistolesi's 2006 improvement to the passive ARiAB unit. The Mk II was an active unit with a clean (and transparent) op-amp circuit and a volume control. Obviously, it was meant for balancing the output as between on and off positions, but the op-amp was powerful enough to overload the amp front-end.

A couple of years ago now, I bought a Vox Flat 4 Boost stomp-box. It comes equipped with a Vox-branded ECC83 / 12AX7 valve as well as Vol / Low EQ / High EQ / Gain pots plus a mid-boost switch. It is powered by six AAA cells. Mine is still in the box and plastic bag and the six cells untouched. I must try it out soon.

Yes agreed, Jim, would definitely recommend experiment with Boosting. A tube screamer used with very little gain can be useful and many guitar players have one of those at hand. The tubescreamer does cut low end though and has a lot more gain than a Klon type.

When i was using my Tonelab se, I did the same thing with the boutique pedal option. Just put a little more life in to the sound.

Scott

To achieve the sound of the early classic Shadows tunes, you don't need any boosters of any type. In my experience the sound is there right from my guitar and amp, as it was for Hank in 1960 because along with the Meazzi, that's all he had.

rockinscott wrote:When i was using my Tonelab se, I did the same thing with the boutique pedal option. Just put a little more life in to the sound.

Scott

I can understand why you would do that on the Tonelab because these devices of lack the 'snap' of a real amp. You can add it back by careful use of the options available.

From TVS Manual re drive control



https://xd.adobe.com/view/153367bc-714a-4005-5900-a21201dbe235/screen/artboard3

Clearly some echo units have the ability to drive the echo output, the Strymon Volante has a similar control and it does change results.