Friedman Buxom Boost Pedal Reviews

Great pedal, love the fact that you can dial in the boost you want and reduce the boost you may not want with the mid, bass, and treble knobs!

I have a metric ton of overdrives/boosts as I love using different boosts for my Marshall JCM800 2204. Something about a pedal pushing a crunchy amp into Metal territory just does it for me as opposed to plugging straight into a modern high-gain beehive. I have a few favorites (Boss DS-1, Barber DDSS, MXR Modified OD, etc) and it really takes something special to knock any of them of one of my boards. The Buxom Boost did just that.

This pedal excels at pushing a Marshall into high-gain territory, the Tight control is a big factor in this. JCM800s can get a little bloated in the bottom end and this tightens it right up. I set the Mids at 1:00, Bass and Treble at noon, Tight at about 2:00/2:30 and Boost at 9:00/10:00. Man does that make my Marshall spit fire! At the same time, I retain clarity and string definition without it getting thin or too bright. Palm mutes have a full, punchy thump instead of a dull thud and still have that classic Marshall "Clang" in the mids while the highs stay smooth.

I'm playing everything from classic Sabbath to Maiden, Slayer, Morbid Angel, etc. and this pedal covers it all in Spades. If you have an amp that needs the low end tamed or just needs a good gain boost this is the ticket. I've tried Graphic EQs, clean boosts, ODs, etc. Had great results with most of them but so far this has really been the most effective at getting the sound I hear in my head. Now if I could just afford one of Dave's amps, someday...

Absolutely does exactly what it is intended to do. Pushes the amp very discreetly or right over the edge to the portals of hell. I prefer it with a crunchy or overdriven amp but could see where it would work with most any application. The EQ switch is very useful and well thought out. I tried the Friedman Golden Pearl but prefer the Buxom Boost for my needs.

If you love the tone of a Mesa Dual Rectifier but it's bottom end can be too much, try this pedal. You're welcome.

The Buxom Boost took my tone shaping to the next level!!! Very satisfied and highly recommend!!

Took my sound to a whole new level. Can do a clean boost to really pushing it. Sounds great, nice sustain, eq is a bonus. Also works well with an acoustic through a PA. Thanks Richard W.!

I own the following boosts: Mesa tone Burst, xotic EP booster, xotic BB preamp, TC spark, TC Mini spark, Solodallas solo-x, MXR CAE 401, keeley mini Katana, Dunlop echoplex preamp, Boss SD1, Ibanez TS9.....And this one owns them all hands down. It makes any amp sound better, especially high gain amps. I have a Mesa TC 50 combo and a Marshall JVM 215 combo and this pedal makes both of them sound even more incredible than they already do. The ability to add some mods or lows and cut treble really opens up a lot of possibilities, and the amount of boost on tap is much more than most other boost pedals our there. I rarely set it past 11 o'clock and at that point it's making my tubes scream and cry at the same time. The tight control is an added bonus a every useful. If you have never boosted your high gain tube amp you don't know what you're missing. It's not about adding distortion, a boogie or a JVM don't need any more, it's about making everything you like about an amp have just a little bit "more" available in the tone tank. An absolutely stellar pedal that won't be leaving my board.

This is one of the most underrated boost and eq pedals. First of all, it is incredibly musical and works with any amp I have tried it with. Tons of boost on tap, super quiet and built very well. I love the tight control, with it I can make my Boogie amps sound like Marshall's, and my BE100 sound like a Mesa. This is like adding an additional amp channel to your amp. This is a super flexible pedal that can do many things. I have many boosts but this is the most flexible. Dave Friedman has great ears and knows how to build something that works with many rigs. This pedal is a Swiss Army knife of boosts.

Best boost ever. And I tried almost all of them. This with a dirty Shirley amp and you can get just about any time you could want. After spending way way too much money on mediocre gear forever I finally have the gear I am happy with. My search is over. And the search took a good 40 years and one big splash of money but I will not being buying anything else. Well, maybe another guitar now and again. But for boosts and amps. I'm done.

What an incredible pedal! Just hooked this up in front of my amp, a Friedman Runt 20, and was able to adjust each guitar/amp pairing to get exactly the tone I was looking for in my head. This pedal easily has the lowest noise floor of any boost pedal I've tried (Koko Boost, Xotic, etc.), its whisper quiet until 11 o'clock, and after that only adds a barely noticeable hiss.

More importantly, is the combo of mid, bass and treble (boost or cut) that are all extremely sensitive...you won't need to crank any of these to adjust your tone for taste. A little of the tight control goes a long way, but does help to rein in the boost from fuzzing out your tone.

I've given up most of my pedals for a Line6 HX Effects, which I am very happy with as well, but the Buxom Boost is so much easier to quickly get just the tone you want rather than fiddling with my amp or the HX Effects, its earned its spot on my board.

If you are debating getting this pedal...just buy it. It is one of those rare pedals that is well worth your hard earned cash.

I had a Koko Boost and picked this pedal up because I got spoiled by the Rockaway Archer pedal's ability to add a full EQ to a boost/overdrive pedal and it was starting to annoy me that I couldn't do that with the Koko. So I took it to band practice and had a shoot-out. 5 minutes later the Koko was on Reverb and the Buxom has a permanent place on the board. It has a TON of clean boost - I run it on 11 o'clock but there is a lot more there if you want it. The EQ is very responsive and gives you a ton of options and the tight knob is a really nice touch as well. Basically you can dial this pedal in to give you any 2nd tone you want. My only complaint - I wish the EQ toggle was a footswitch button so that you could dial in a straight boost and then an EQ'd boost and get two tones at once, but this is a quibble and I don't even know how much I'd use that since I prefer to re EQ if I am adding gain.

There's so much you can do with this pedal... Use it as a boost, use it as a tone shaper for your amp, incorporate the EQ... Or not and just use the "tight" and "boost" functions. Almost like adding another channel to an amp if chosen to do so. Better than any EQ pedal and I've used them all! Very quiet noise floor too...

best clean boost you're ever going to buy. does what the koko boost does and than some. it's absolutely fantastic.

This pedal is great! My only complaint if the EQ, the mid and bass controls only boost frequencies so they're only neutral when turned all the way down, but the treble is neutral at 12 o'clock and you can cut or boost frequencies depending on the way you turn it. I'm not complaining about the functionality of the treble control, I just wish the mid and bass controls functioned the same way. If you set it up with everything at noon like I did, you will certainly be confused about the dramatic change in sound, like I was. The bass and mid controls are already boosting at 50% at noon, keep that in mind and dial them in to taste! Once you get past that this is a fantastic unit for any high gain amp, the tight knob can make the loosest bottom end punchy and articulate, and the boost function can slam the front end of the amp just right while keeping the character of the amp itself in tact.