Analog Man Bad Bob

The Analog Man Bad Bob is a boost pedal built around a dual JFET Class A amplifier, capable of boosting the guitar signal between +25 and +30 dB¹. It is based on the mini-booster JFET design of Jack Orman, and Analog Man describes it as sort of like a Rangemaster clone (their Beano Boost) but without the tone change and emphasis of certain frequencies². Even at its lowest settings the pedal still produces a tone with some break up, and the boosted signal drives an amp's front end for a thick, rich, full tone¹.

The original version was made by Robbie Wallace, whose first Bad Bob was built for Mike from the Tele forums; the name came from a coworker who always called Robbie "Bad Bob"². In 2010 Analog Man started building the pedals themselves after taking them over from Robbie².

Controls and clean sounds

The standard control is a single LEVEL knob, which functions only as a control on the amplitude or volume of the output signal¹. There are no tone controls at all. Analog Man's manual puts the reasoning plainly:

Because the pedal always adds some break up, it is not a fully clean boost at its normal settings. The manual notes two ways around this: you can get clean sounds by turning your guitar down on any Bad Bob, or, on units with the optional DRIVE knob, by dialing the distortion back¹. Analog Man recommends running the LEVEL at 12:00 as a starting point¹.

The optional DRIVE knob

In 2018, Analog Man added an optional DRIVE knob¹. It works in one direction only: it can reduce the distortion, all the way to a totally clean boost, and it does not add distortion. With the knob down all the way you get a totally clean boost; turned up all the way, the pedal is the same as a standard Bad Bob²¹.

One thing to know: like many pedals, the drive knob has a voltage on it, so it makes noise when you turn it. Analog Man notes this is not an issue while playing¹.

Bad Bob, Dual Bad Bob and Mini Bad Bob

On the Dual Bad Bob, you can crank the first stage up and back down the second one, like a master volume amp, for nice thick distortion even at low levels; the two settings can also be used one at a time¹.

Power and battery life

The Bad Bob draws under 1mA when off and under 3mA when on, with no IC chips, so the battery lasts a long time². It is also capable of running at up to 18VDC for a cleaner, punchier tone with more headroom².

Where the circuit turns up

Beyond the standalone pedal, the Bad Bob Booster circuit appears in a few other Analog Man products³⁴²:

• It can be built into any of Analog Man's switchboxes, as a buffer which can also boost the signal and add some nice overdrive to the amp, normally with a volume knob³.
• It can be installed in an Ernie Ball VP Jr 25K volume pedal, with a power jack and true bypass toggle added to the panel; when off, the pedal works as a normal passive volume pedal².
• On That Pedal Show, Mick demonstrated an Analog Man Maxon OD9/808 mod with a Bad Bob booster built in, switchable on top of the Tube Screamer circuit⁴.

Videos

Click to load

Click to load

Click to load

Questions