DigiTech DBM Bad Monkey Overdrive Guitar Effects Pedal  

I bought this pedal to use as a gain/boost for my bass rig. I use a deluxe Jazz bass into a Boss TU-3, into the Bad Monkey, into an Acoustic B100. This pedal provides just the right amount of boost, and with a slight tweak, some great overdrive/distortion sounds that accentuate some of my band's songs quite well. Most people who ask about my sound are surprised to see that 'cheap' green guitar pedal at my feet. But, for the past year, I've been afraid to perform without it. Just make sure you purchase the power supply. After buying batteries 2 or 3 times, you've already paid for the adapter. Overall, a great alternative to some of the pricier bass booster pedals, and so far, I've been extremely happy and surprised!

Has both treble AND bass controls, a level knob and a drive knob, and, very unusual for a dirt box, a choice of mixer OR amp outputs. Than means you can play it through a regular guitar amp or you can run direct through a PA. Sure you can run your guitar direct through any OD pedal into a PA but most of the time it sounds awful. The mixer output on the Bad Monkey turns your high-impedance guitar signal into a low-impedance output that will match most PA setups. This is also known as 'balanced output'. That shoots the features right up to 10.

Dirtbox and DI box rolled into one for this price? Incredible value.

Seems to be very reilable so far. I'm gonna buy a second one as backup though because anything could happen. I'm very happy with the Bad Monkey, definitely one of the most exciting gear discoveries I've made this year.

I originally picked this up as a cheap DI solution for my Dad. Since he plays a Blueridge acoustic with a cheap Maverick soundhole pickup, perfoming gospel at nursing homes, let me open my review by saying it worked. So you can deduce from this that the Bad Monkey is capable of being very, very subtle if you need it to. If a decent DI was all that this pedal was about, it would be a pretty good value. But if you needed further prompting, the BM (heh) shows its plumage in green to suggest a kinship with the coveted Ibanez Tube Screamer. It isn't that, the Monkey has too much its own personality for that, but it does deliver a good, solid Classic Rock vibe. I use mine at the front of my chain, to goose my Scrambler and Tycobrahe clones with a bit more juice. Are there better, badder, hotter sounding overdrives out there? Yes. But not for this price. And if this is all the money you have to spend on a pedal in the whole wide world, Digitech will deliver your money's worth and some more.

And it's an analog circuit, too--or so I have read.

Sounds good, but there are better out there.

I recently acquired this pedal from a friend and I've been using the Ibanez TS9 for my gain needs for awhile. As much as I hate to say it, for what I use these types of pedals for, I prefer the bad monkey. I have a lot more control over my tone with the bad monkey than I do a TS9 and the quality of the tone is pretty close to the same. If you're looking for a gain boost on a distortion channel, the TS9 kicks the crap out of the Bad Monkey IMO, but if you're like me and use the pedal on a clean channel for thick bluesy or not as heavy rock stuff, it's divine and able to be tweaked a lot more.

I love the bass AND tone controls, which in my opinion makes it better than that 'other' green overdrive pedal that's on the market.

It's built like a tank. 

I've tried overdrive pedals that have cost 4X's what the Bad Monkey costs, and I like the Bad Monkey best of all.

This is definately one of the 'diamond in the rough' pedals when it comes to the budget market.  But the surprising thing is that when you compare it to much more expensive pedals, it holds its own, and in most cases is the better sounding option. 

I'm able to turn the gain down, the volume up, and use it as a fat boost for my single coils.  I'm able to dime the gain and get some great classic rock tones.  Through a cranked amp, it gives me very heavy tones as it pushes the preamp tubes hard.  When run after a distortion pedal, it works as a mid boost, which really allows your distortion to cut through the mix and adds cream and smoothness.  It's just a super-versatile pedal and can be used for a multitude of purposes. 

So many pedals have come and gone on my board, but this one is a keeper and will always be something I use.