Most transparent acoustic booster pedal for the buck

[austro1]

Thanks Dakedi for the suggestion. So that would be another confirmation to stick w/my RC Booster since it has some eq tweaking possibilties.
Then what about a plain eq. pedal?
I hear the Danelectro and Berringer are quiet. I don't think I want to mess with the Boss or dealing w/mods.
I also like those TC Sparks.

Thanks vamonter for the suggestions. Never heard of them but will check them out.

[janmulder]

Originally Posted by austro1

Then what about a plain eq. pedal?
I hear the Danelectro and Berringer are quiet. I don't think I want to mess with the Boss or dealing w/mods.
I also like those TC Sparks.

Noise is a relative perceived issue. Some folks don't seem to mind the noise, some don't seem to hear it but for others the same pedal is too noisy. So you need to know what your threshold of tolerance is ... and be wary of anyone that says an EQ pedal has no perceived noise. They all do to some extent and the boss and mxr are amongst the noisier ones.

By 'normal' EQ I assume you mean a graphic EQ pedal with multiple 6-10 bands.
The problem is each EQ band adds an OPAMP in the circuit, and the cheaper OPAMPS tend to be noisier. So, the more EQ bands and the cheaper the OPAMPs used, the noisier the EQ pedal. Boss and MXR use really basic OPAMPS and I don't see that Danelectro or Berringer would be different. They also graphic EQs so have many EQ bands ... the worst of all worlds.

A good pedal like the RC Booster has only 2 bands (bass and treble) and the OPAMPS are quite good. I would stick with a quality 2 band EQ (like the RC) ... or a quality parametric EQ pedal like the Carl Martin or Empress ... they both have 3 high quality bands and can be used to boost with EQ.

Sorry if you already know this ... just thought I'd mention it.

[austro1]

Dakedi, that helped a lot. Thanks!

[Vancebo]

If you replace your Radial DI with a Fire-Eye Red Eye you will solve your issue. It will run off either phantom power or a 9 volt battery. Boost and a treble knob. That’s it.

If you decide ever to do a full redesign of your pedal board the Grace Alix is indeed the way to go. It is the Rolls Royce of preamps. It needs AC power to run but it will power all of your other pedals.

[austro1]

The Red Eye is very nice but that's the thing. I would really prefer not to redesign my pedalboard at this point. Maybe sometime later.

All I really need is like 3 or so extra dbs of volume available to be heard over another acoustic guitar player w/ little as possible change of tone nor addition of hiss/white noise etc..

The only other cheap solution besides just sticking w/my RC Booster was maybe to try a cheap but relatively quiet EQ.

As said originally I wasn't really sure if I could get a nice acoustic sound from my RC Booster. I've heard mixed reviews about this. Some say it's not really designed for an acoustic. Others say it's great for the application. I tried mine and it did sound a bit sterile/hi fi but maybe I'll tweak it some more.

Boss ge-7 is out of the question for me if it's soo famously noisey. So is modding for right now. Don't want to hassle w/ that.

This may sound rediculous but has anybody tried out the Mooer Graphic G EQ?

I find few reviews on it. It has a level slide for clean boost and it's cheap. Some say it's pretty quiet.

I just like it because it's cheap and small and would fit well on my small board and I only need the level slider for boost.

[Tubedriven]

Originally Posted by Petty1818

Try the TC Spark mini. Very affordable and extremely transparent.

The TC Spark is inexpensive and--just speaking from my experience-- works like a charm both for my electric and acoustic rig

[JimAltendahl]

Small very transparent booster. In fact, maybe too transparent. I found when you boost the signal of an acoustic guitar it ends up being a little too much on the bright side. Luckily, the Kantana has a switch inside that allows you to roll off some of the high end.

[drive-south]

I have a Fulltone Fat boost on a board I use with electric guitars. On my acoustic board I have the MXR Line driver. Both provide very clean boost.