PDA

View Full Version : Bad Monkey is a Good Monkey



Robert
September 24th, 2005, 08:56 AM
Have you tried the Bad Monkey? It rocks! Another must-have for the GAS-affected musician on a budget. They are under $40 USD I believe. It may seem just like yet another TS-style OD pedal, but this one is better than most. I have also a BD-2, which is good too, but right now the Monkey is da thang! Very smooth overdriven tones without harsh midrange - Digitech got this one right!

I have a review on my website, and some demo video clips.

Tone2TheBone
September 26th, 2005, 08:16 AM
Robert,

Been using the Monk on the Boutique Overdrive setting on the Vox. I turn the gain down on the model and use the pedal to create my drive. Really nice and smooth and pretty "realistic" sounding. The Monkey's cool. I'd really like to try one of those new Vox pedals with the tube...the Cooltrons. No shop in town has them yet.

Robert
October 2nd, 2005, 02:01 PM
Interestsing, I'll be using my Tele a bit more now that I have new strings. I'll experiment with some pedals again through the Vox AD50VT.

I haven't heard anything about these Cooltrons - tell us more!

Nelskie
October 21st, 2005, 08:38 PM
I agree, Robert. The Bad Monkey could also be called the "poor man's Tube Screamer", although I, too, think it has a personality all its own. I like using this pedal with my little Epi Valve Jr. tube amp, as it really brings out the warmth and definition of the lower-volume clean tones, and fattens up the signal as the amp starts naturally over-driving at higher volumes. Best of all, it remains almost "transparent" to the inherent characteristics of your guitar / amp combo, unlike a lot of other pedals, which seem to suck the tone right out of a rig. At $40 clams - yeah, it's a must-have.

Tone2TheBone
January 20th, 2006, 10:54 AM
I wanted to revise this post because now that I've had awhile to really see what the Bad Monkey does I can only say that it is one hell of a pedal! The overdrive it creates is UNSURPASSED. I would venture to say that it's juicier than any boutique pedal out there. Period. I've finally found some great settings on it on both my amps and it just smmmmmmokes. So clear. So buttery smooth. So brown. When needed so raunchy...but still brown. It's the ultimate OD pedal ever!

warren0728
January 20th, 2006, 11:21 AM
i love my bad monkey too! especially through the epi jr.

Haven't tried it much with the ad30vt....gonna trt tones suggestion though on the Boutique Overdrive setting on the Vox

ww

Robert
January 20th, 2006, 11:37 AM
I love it too! Mmm, Monkey good!

Tone2TheBone
January 20th, 2006, 12:02 PM
Warren,

Try the Monkey with the UK70s model on the Vox. Really nails some nice Marshall Plexi sounds with both single coils and humbuckers.

warren0728
January 20th, 2006, 12:06 PM
will do....tonights gonna be fun

ww

Tim
January 26th, 2006, 01:58 PM
I ordered the Bad Monkey yesterday from MF. I have no idea what to do with it, but I think 5 minutes after I hook it up I will have the house to myself. I will try it on the UK70s model on my Vox as T2TB suggested.


T2TB - Can you give me a starting point on where to set the knods?

warren0728
January 26th, 2006, 02:09 PM
hey tim....here is the link to the bad monkey page on digitech's website. Click the demo button in the bottom left hand corner. It will show you 4 starting points and the sounds it produces.

http://www.digitech.com/products/BadMonkey.htm

Just have fun with it.... is a great pedal!

ww

Tone2TheBone
January 26th, 2006, 02:33 PM
Tim,

Well you can start out at everything set to noon (12:00) on the pedal and tweak each knob till you like whats coming out. Vary the level, low, high and gain on the pedals...12:00 is always a good starting point. On my pedal for this model I think I have the level at 12:00, lows on 12:00, highs at 3:00 and gain set at like 2:00 or something. With the Les Paul it rocks and rocks well. Give it a whirl.

Tim
January 26th, 2006, 05:38 PM
Warren - Thanks for the Digitech site. The pedal really sound good. Now if I can do the same !!!

T2TB - Thanks for the starting point. I would have turned them all fully counter clock wise for starters. It would have been a bad start right out of the shute.

Spudman
January 27th, 2006, 12:12 AM
Man! You guys got me too!
All this monkey talk and I went and got one too. Should be here next week. Like new from a guy on Harmony Central $30 shipped. I justified it by not having lobster for dinner this week. Ya, that's the ticket.

Tim
January 27th, 2006, 05:12 AM
Lobster in Idaho? Those must be fresh water Lobsters! LOL!!!

Yea, these guys got to me too. If I keep reading these threads and getting GAS, my wife may put me out in the street. I kind of figured out how to use the Delay/Echo and the Graphic EQ pedals. The Chorus is giving me some difficulty though. Maybe I need a new Chorus pedal. I hope the Bad Monkey is also easy. From what Warren and T2TB stated, it should be mastered in a short learning time. Now all I need to do is learn how to interrogate them all for the different sounds and tones.

Spudman
January 27th, 2006, 10:58 AM
More GAS problems going on. Urmph! Scuse me.

Digitech is doing it again. Check out the sounds at this link. The pedal came out this month.

Enjoy.
http://www.digitech.com/flash/EX7demo.html

Tim
January 27th, 2006, 11:09 AM
You guys are killing me. I believe this forum could be hazardous to a married man’s health. I really dig the Space Station, Uni-Vibe, Leslie and A/DA Flanger sounds. I would not mind learning the licks also. That includes the Intro music. After listening to all the sounds, it is obvious the entire Intro was recorded through the pedal.

Spudman
January 27th, 2006, 11:22 AM
Way cool huh Tim?

I think all the intro was done with it too. And just think, what we are hearing are only a few of the combinations available.

I just plugged in my RP2000 to see if I can get anything that I like out of it. I haven't used it for a while. Around the house I use my secondary analog board instead. Maybe the 2000 can get me interested again. It is just so difficult to program though. Too many options maybe.

Anyone else use the Digitech RP2000?

Oh, if your wife boots you you can come live with me "in my van down by the river."

Tone2TheBone
January 27th, 2006, 11:23 AM
Hey the Leslie sounds on that demo are really cool. Wow $200 bones huh? It would be worth that just for the Leslie sounds. Hmmmmm.......

Tim
January 31st, 2006, 06:24 PM
The Monkey has arrived. It is totally untrained at this moment. I will need to spend lots of time with it to get it to obey my commands. The training manual did not have very impressive instructions, so I will need to experiment with it to gain it’s respect. When it’s bad … it’s very bad, but when it’s good ... it is a very good Monkey.

Nelskie
February 1st, 2006, 05:14 PM
That pedal is a cinch to work, Tim. Plus, it sounds GREAT! You should have no problems at all getting the hang of it, or dialing in useable tones. I've also heard that eating a banana before adjusting it also helps you to focus on the task at hand. You might want to try that, too. :D

SuperSwede
February 2nd, 2006, 09:50 AM
I thought that the banana was meant to be a reward when it had been a good monkey.
Sour Monkey? Have a lemon!

Hmm.. Sour Monkey.. I would have bought that pedal instantly if there existed one ;)

Tone2TheBone
February 2nd, 2006, 10:06 AM
haha.....or the Dizzy Monkey (Leslie rotating model)...

SuperSwede
February 2nd, 2006, 10:10 AM
Librarian Monkey - Noise Gate

Spudman
February 3rd, 2006, 09:01 AM
Librarian Monkey!? That's a good one. I'm chuckling.
Most of these monkey things would make great mixed drink names. Especially Dizzy Monkey. Yee haw!

SuperSwede
February 3rd, 2006, 11:10 AM
Yeah I could just sit here and talk about these monkey jokes all night... or not ;)

Transvestite Monkey - Pitch Shifter... Sorry I couldn´t help it, it just slipped out of me... too tired I guess..

Spudman
February 3rd, 2006, 07:00 PM
SS
If a Transvestite Monkey just "slipped" out of you then you might have more problems than monkey jokes. LOL

OK. I've been listening to all the monkey stuff for a while and I had to find out what the big deal was all about. I FOUND OUT!

I pulled out my monkey and I've been playing with it like a fiend. First I play with it one way, then another, then another. My eyesight is starting to go, but I'm not worried. Jeff Healey and Ray Charles seemed to have done alright. I CAN'T QUIT PLAYING WITH MY MONKEY! It's really fun. It's really noisey right now playing with my monkey. It makes me scream and wail. Oh how I love playing with my monkey. I haven't had this much fun since puberty.

Thank you guys for turning me onto playing with my monkey, but what does it have to do with the "pedal" thread? :D

SuperSwede
February 4th, 2006, 04:21 AM
Spud, the humor quality assurance section of my brain is underpowered when I am tired.

frankencat
March 15th, 2006, 11:24 AM
Count me in with the Bad Monkey club. I just bought one from GC last week and it's replaced the TS-10 and Turbo Rat I had on my #2 pedalboard. :)

Tone2TheBone
March 15th, 2006, 11:33 AM
SS
If a Transvestite Monkey just "slipped" out of you then you might have more problems than monkey jokes. LOL

OK. I've been listening to all the monkey stuff for a while and I had to find out what the big deal was all about. I FOUND OUT!

I pulled out my monkey and I've been playing with it like a fiend. First I play with it one way, then another, then another. My eyesight is starting to go, but I'm not worried. Jeff Healey and Ray Charles seemed to have done alright. I CAN'T QUIT PLAYING WITH MY MONKEY! It's really fun. It's really noisey right now playing with my monkey. It makes me scream and wail. Oh how I love playing with my monkey. I haven't had this much fun since puberty.

Thank you guys for turning me onto playing with my monkey, but what does it have to do with the "pedal" thread? :D

*dies laughing* The people in the hallway think I'm nuts laughing out loud I think.... :)

Tim
March 15th, 2006, 11:53 AM
Ever hear of “pedaling” your monkey? Beside I stomp on my monkey all the time. Sometimes by mistake, other because I want to or need to. But I agree with Spuds. It is fun playing with my monkey while turning this and turning that. But the best part of all this monkey stuff is when the gain gets turned up and the monkey really begin to wail. My wife gets pretty angry when I am monkeying around and making it scream. She normal comes in and tells me to turn my monkey off and play by myself. What do women know about playing with a turned off monkey.

Tone2TheBone
March 15th, 2006, 12:05 PM
hahahahahahaha

Spudman
March 15th, 2006, 12:50 PM
Tim
Don't they usually start with a turned off Monkey?

Tim
March 15th, 2006, 01:13 PM
I don't know! It depends on where they look.

SuperSwede
March 15th, 2006, 02:52 PM
Hmm.. I think that you have a monkey on your back.

Tone2TheBone
March 15th, 2006, 02:54 PM
As Peter Gabriel used to say..."don't you monkey with the monkey".

Tim
March 15th, 2006, 08:28 PM
Hmm.. I think that you have a monkey on your back.

That's Ok ! Some one turned his gain up too high. He will tone down.

tot_Ou_tard
November 4th, 2006, 06:54 PM
I just bough my first pedal.

A Baaadd Monkey!

I'm amazed at how smooth it is & how easy it works with the Valvetronix amps.

It's made think about getting another pedal. Spud mentioned the Tonebone Classic & I know that Vood has both the Monkey and the Tonebone.

So what are the differences in tone between his Badness & his Boneness (surgery reference intended ;) )

I am particularly interested in Vood's opinions on how they differ in front of the AD30VT. Which one do you use more often and why.

Later...it's time to go back to the basement & spank the monkey.

...still wondering if Tone will have a monkey to spank when he gets out of the hospital.

Spudman
November 4th, 2006, 07:20 PM
TOT

I actually have the Hot British. Nelskie has the Classic.

The Tonebones have WAY more gain and distortion than the Monkey.

Monkey=mellow, smooth Tonebone=grit and out of control madness (and way less money in the pocket)

If you want distortion ask Robert about the Digitech X Distortion.

tot_Ou_tard
November 4th, 2006, 08:00 PM
TOT

I actually have the Hot British. Nelskie has the Classic.

The Tonebones have WAY more gain and distortion than the Monkey.

Monkey=mellow, smooth Tonebone=grit and out of control madness (and way less money in the pocket)

If you want distortion ask Robert about the Digitech X Distortion.
Ahhh, I understand. Do the Bad & the Bones play well together? If so which would push which?

In other words...Bad2TheBone or Bone2TheBad?

duhvoodooman
November 5th, 2006, 12:46 PM
Spud mentioned the Tonebone Classic & I know that Vood has both the Monkey and the Tonebone.

So what are the differences in tone between his Badness & his Boneness (surgery reference intended ;) )

I am particularly interested in Vood's opinions on how they differ in front of the AD30VT. Which one do you use more often and why.
What a coincidence! I posted just yesterday in a thread on Patchtronix.com on exactly this subject. Here's what I wrote:


"For what it's worth, I like to do the same thing you describe with my AD30VT, i.e. play through the clean models and add distortion/overdrive with an external pedal. Since the AD30VT doesn't offer the built-in distortion modes of the 60/120 series (other than just pushing the gain), a pedal was really my only option.

For a nice warm, restrained overdrive, I've found the Digitech Bad Monkey to be very effective, and you can find used ones in excellent condition on eBay for $25 or so. Not really very flexible with the range of OD tones it offers, but what it does, it does very well. And cheaply!

However, if you are looking for a pedal that will give you tremendous flexibility and an almost limitless range of distortion from mild to extreme, take a look at the Radial ToneBone pedals, which are based upon a 12AX7 preamp tube. The model I bought is the Classic, with "American style" distortion, but they also make a Hot British model that's supposed to give Marshally overdrive sounds. In any case, the thing has several dials and slide switches that let you play with the degree and character of the distortion over an amazing dynamic range. I've been very impressed with it, and use it with both my AD30VT and my Peavey Delta Blues tube amp. Great results with humbuckers or single coils.

Not a cheap pedal at $190 or so new, but again, you can find good used ones on eBay for about two-thirds of that."

So bottom line, with the Tonebone you get a lot more, but you pay a lot more.

As far as which I use more....geez, no idea. Not a big difference, I don't think. Since I play mostly blues & classic rock stuff, I often want just an overlay of mild distortion, for which the Bad Monkey suffices nicely. But if I'm looking for harsher sounds or want to reproduce a particular distortion tone, the added range & flexibility of the Tonebone come in handy for that. I even use them together at times, setting a baseline overdrive with the 'Bone and kicking in extra boost and a bit more overdrive for leads with the Monk. Works great!

Last point--you asked about the Digitech X series pedals. I have one of those, too, a Tone Driver, pretty much permanently attached to my Valve Junior. It kind of falls in between the Monk and the 'Bone, though closer to the former. It has an extra control called the "Morph" knob that the Bad Monkey lacks, which allows you to change the character of the overdrive. The X Series brochure shows three "emulation" settings for the Tone Driver, designed to mimic the DOD 250, and the Ibanez TS-9 and TS-808 models. There's also a fourth suggested setting for "Blues Solo". Overall, the Tone Driver is still more of an overdrive pedal (i.e. mild to moderate distortion) than a real distortion pedal. But the other two X Series distortion pedals fill in the gap from where the Tone Driver leaves off up through extreme "death metal" tones.

Spudman
November 5th, 2006, 12:55 PM
In case it wasn't noticed...I have posted some links on this thread to sound clips from some of the X pedals. They just look like links to MF but the clips are there. Scroll down.
http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=1761

Robert
November 5th, 2006, 01:19 PM
Fyi, I have Bad Monkey, Blues Driver and Digitech Hot Head demos on my website, under "video clips".

Nelskie
November 5th, 2006, 03:28 PM
I use both the DigiTech Bad Monkey and Tone Driver pedals with all of my amps, and achieve fantastic results. Both are very solid, well-engineered pedals that do what they say they do. As DVM mentioned, they work well in a variety of situations, and with all kinds of amps - solid-state, tube, and hybrid amps like the Vox Valvetronix series. The thing I like most about them is their versatility - as in the adjustment parameters of each pedal allows you to dial in just the right amount of whatever you need - - without going into the Twilight Zone as far as tone is concerned.

The Tonebone is indeed a step to "the other side" of the spectrum, but again, its controls allow for acute adjustment, and you can pretty much run whatever you want in conjunction with it, and usually come up with excellent results.

One thing no one has mentioned is the point of "overdrive" vs. "distortion". I think this is important to understand, as the innate characteristics of each will produce different tonal effects. The Bad Monkey being an "overdrive" pedal will push the front end signal of the amp into its natural distortion characteristics. Conversely, a distortion pedal will add that effect on the front end (i.e. the distortion point), and as you increase the volume, there will be a point where that tone will stop sounding good (i.e. muddy, fuzzy). Combining these pedals with different amps, of course, will have different effects. The thing you need to realize is that there are really no rules; yet having a good idea of what each will do will certainly allow you to experiment, and ultimately, achieve success with your tone. The other thing you should be cognizant of is the characteristics of the amp models you are modifying. For example, the Tweed model will respond differently to the overdrive vs. the Marshall model (since its design allows for more gain / saturation at an earlier point in the signal chain) . . . and so forth. Adding the guitar / pick-up equation will also produce different effects with different pedals, and that shouldn't be a newsflash to anyone here either.

The bottom line is this: you can push sound any number of ways with effects pedals, and there is really no best way to go about doing it. Knowing what your amp and pedals will do is probably the most important thing, as all of our ears hear different things, and ultimately, what sounds good to me might not sound good to you.

DigiTech pedals are easily some of the best out there, and I'd recommend them to anyone in a heartbeat. In case it hasn't been mentioned, here is the link to their site. I believe most of the pedals there have sound clips, and all of them are pretty good in giving you an idea of what they'll sound like.

http://www.digitech.com/

Personally speaking, I'd recommend that you explore some of the lower cost pedals before taking the "dive" into something like the Tonebone, or even the Ibanez TS-9. You might even want to check out the Marshall Bluesbreaker II, which I've found to be another great pedal (*sound clips are under the "Downloads" section).

http://www.marshallamps.com/product.asp?productId=62

Good luck! ;)

tot_Ou_tard
November 5th, 2006, 04:37 PM
Thanks for all the info! I have read about the difference between overdrive & distortion, but that is quite a different thing from the understanding you get by playing.

For now it's the Bad for me (I like that diminutive better than the Monk) & who knows what is next?