BOSS FA-1 FET Amp

The BOSS FA-1 FET Amp is a compact FET preamp and clean boost pedal from Boss, released in early 1984 as one half of a two-pedal run the company called "The Pocket Series"¹. It is a preamp first and foremost: a field-effect transistor input buffer coupled to dual operational amplifiers, with an always-on architecture rather than a footswitchable effect². RockBoard's PedalPedia describes its purpose as providing transparent signal enhancement or pushed overdrive².

A small FET preamp from the Pocket Series

In early 1984, Boss released two devices under the name "The Pocket Series", and the FA-1 FET Preamp was one of them¹. JHS Pedals describes it as "kind of a weird little series of two pedals"⁴. The FA-1 was developed in the early 1980s, and its design language carried over from Boss's rack and pedal thinking of the period: Boss's own history article notes that it "sported the same array of knobs along with a low-cut switch"³. Madbean Pedals, which makes a DIY version of the circuit, calls it "an early '80's 'pocket' effect by Boss"⁵.

The circuit is a field-effect transistor input buffer coupled to dual operational amplifiers². In practice that makes it a preamp and boost pedal: it can lift a guitar's signal cleanly into an amp or drive the front end harder for overdrive².

The controls: Volume, Treble, Bass and a low-cut switch

The FA-1 keeps things simple. Its controls are:

• Volume, which RockBoard describes as "an adjustable gain control within the op-amp feedback loop", so the knob sets how much level and drive the pedal pushes forward²
• Treble and Bass, arranged as an active Baxandall two-band equalization section, the same kind of shelving EQ found on hi-fi and amp tone stacks²
• A low-cut switch, which trims low frequencies from the signal³

Because the EQ is active, the tone controls can cut as well as boost, and the pedal's always-on architecture means it is meant to sit in the signal chain permanently rather than be switched in and out².

Who used it

The FA-1 has a well-documented list of players. Boss's history article states that "Rory Gallagher, David Gilmour, and The Edge famously used the unit"³. JHS Pedals adds that The Edge used it on U2's The Unforgettable Fire and toured with it⁴.

Status: discontinued, rare and cloned

The FA-1 is long out of production, and originals are hard to find. TONEHOME notes that "it's its rarity that makes it so desirable. There are a couple of decent clones out there"⁶. JHS Pedals agrees that "it's gotten really rare and really expensive"⁴. Among the circuits it has inspired, Guitar Pedal X has covered Australia's Audio Blend, whose builder Trevor Taylor makes several takes on the FA-1 circuit, including the Edge EQ FA-1 FET Preamp with added parametric EQ and a Flat / Low-Cut switch in the FA-1 section⁷.

For players interested in the FA-1's role as a preamp, JHS Pedals has also written about why a preamp belongs on a pedalboard at all⁴.

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