The Backwoods Music Dirt Burglar is a boost/preamp guitar effects pedal, a small unit intended to lift your signal and drive the front end of an amplifier. It sits in the same family as other boost pedals and preamp pedals, and it can also be thought of alongside light overdrive pedals when used to push an amp into saturation.1
What it does
The pedal's Volume control sets the boost level, and the Pedal of the Day reviewer found one thing stood out immediately: "As soon as you turn the Dirt Burglar on, there's one thing that instantly stands out: VOLUME." The review describes it as "just a great boost pedal that will push your tube amp into glorious overdrive with ease."2
The reviewer also found separate Treble and Bass controls on the pedal, giving it tone shaping beyond a simple one-knob boost.2
Bypass switching
The Dirt Burglar uses a soft switch with clickless bypass. The reviewer was struck by this at the price point: "Right away, the soft switch impressed me, for as inexpensive as this pedal was, the clickless bypass feature had me on"2. For a player, clickless bypass means no audible pop through the amp when the pedal is switched in and out.
Versions
An older version of the Dirt Burglar exists. The 2015 Pedal of the Day review notes the reviewer bought an earlier version secondhand and links to a Dirt Burglar V2 product page, so players comparing listings should expect differences between versions.2
The Dirt Burglar reviewed here is an earlier version of the pedal; a Dirt Burglar V2 also exists.2
Videos
Lance Seymour
Pedal of the Day
Sources (2)
- Backwoods Music Dirt Burglar Boost/Preamp, Pedal of the Day, 2015-08-28
- Backwoods Music Dirt Burglar Boost/Preamp, Pedal of the Day, 2015-10-20