My brother sent me a few pedals for my birthday, one of which was this mcpherson Red Boost. Looking at their website, I think this is the mk ii, but their website makes no mention anywhere of the knob on the top of the enclosure.
When I first got it, I assumed it was just a normal treble booster type thing, similar to the Saltbooster, and that the knob on the top (unlabelled) would be a tone control.
It isn't. The two knobs seem to work together, the one on the front is like a clean boost and the one on the top is a gain or dirt control, but it's not really a distortion pedal, and it isn't quite as straightforward as that. The little switch is to accommodate single coil and hum bucker guitars, but again, in practice it isn't as straightforward or simple as that. With it down, the tone is nice and thick, up, it's more singlecoily, (really useful when playing with my p-rails guitar, as I often switch between stratty, p-90 and hum bucker sounds), however in the middle position it sounds uncannily like a guitar with pickups out of phase. It's pretty cool and special.
I am thinking of contacting the maker to see if I can get more details about what the knobs are supposed to do but before I do I think I'll keep playing with it and guessing/working things out with my ears.
Quite tempted to do a demo because it's not a well known pedal and it's pretty special. It's the first time I've played a dirt pedal with the Matamp and decided it's worth keeping. Loving this.
