Comments on: Review: DigiTech Bad Monkey

By: Karl

Karl — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 19:00:21 +0000

I could never quite get into the Bad Monkey. But that was a few years back……maybe it deserves another shot.

By: goofydawg

goofydawg — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:26:44 +0000

HAHAHAHAHA!!! ROFL! Thanks for the tip, Andrew!!!

By: Andrew Taylor

Andrew Taylor — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 02:58:24 +0000

Musicthingz just sell parallel imported goods without a genuine NZ manufacturers warranty so I’d go to one of your local shops to buy as it’s safer.
PS Charli just works for Musicthingz so is just doing some blatent self promotion.

By: Charli

Charli — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:39:55 +0000

Bought it , great pedal. For those of you who aren’t satisfied. It’s only $50

Smooth, dynamic overdrive to boost your sound.

The Digitech Bad Monkey Tube Overdrive effects pedal produces the smooth, natural character of an overdriven tube amp while maintaining your guitar’s distinct tone. Low and High tone plus Level and Gain controls. Dedicated output with cabinet emulation to run direct into a mixer or recorder.
DigiTech Bad Monkey Tube Overdrive Pedal Features:
High, Low, Level, and Gain controls
Amp and recording/mixer outputs

Where can I buy?
http://www.musicthingz.co.nz

By: goofydawg

goofydawg — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:38:38 +0000

A drive pedal is always going to produce a bit of breakup. The amount of breakup you get depends on a variety of factors:

1. The Gain/Drive knob on your amp
2. The volume knob on your guitar - if it’s cranked, you’ll go into breakup a lot easier
3. The drive level on your Bad Monkey
4. The pickup selector setting you have on your guitar.
5. Last, but not least is how hard you dig into your strings.

Given those 5 things, you have to find the right balance between them. Personally, I’d set my volume knob on my guitar about halfway (set the volume of your amp to the appropriate level for where you’re at), making sure that everything’s clean. Then, activate the Monkey with no drive at first. Set the volume level at unity (that is, there’s no difference in volume when the Monkey is off or on - that will ensure that when you introduce drive, you’ll get a bit of a volume boost, which is what you want), then dial in increasing amounts of drive until you can strum a chord normally, and have it just break up.

Then while you’re playing, you can use the volume knob on your guitar to create more or less breakup. You can also play lighter or strum harder to get less or more breakup. This should get you started…

On another note, most people think that in order to do screaming, sustained leads that you dial in a lot of drive. If you listen to some of the best rock guitarists, you’ll notice that they’re normally just at the edge of breakup so that they maintain the tonal clarity and definition between their notes. In other words, they play A LOT cleaner than you’d expect.

By: Carl

Carl — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:17:44 +0000

I love my Bad Monkey. Its the first overdrive pedal I have ever tried, and the first pedal I have bought that I like. I use a Fender Blues Jr. And there are a lot of great sounds. The problem is, I just can’t figure out how to dial in a tone that doesn’t break up when you play chords. Any ideas on set up for a total newbie? I’d like a ZZ Top or George Thuroughgood type of tone.

I started playing guitar to play surf, but all I need to do for that is cut the pedal and crank reverb up. That tone was easy. Blues/rock is a little harder to find a sweet spot…for me anyway.

I play a Strat>bad monkey>blues jr. (I have a selection of cheap Dallectro pedals that were fun for 10 min but do not use in tandem). Maybe I need another piece of equipment to get good tone?

By: Introducing a New Gear Rating System! « Guitar Gear

Introducing a New Gear Rating System! « Guitar Gear — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:50:48 +0000

[...] 12, 2008 by goofydawg After I wrote my last review on the DigiTech Bad Monkey, I realized that I needed to change the format of my reviews, so readers could get an at-a-glance [...]