Crazy Tube Circuits Vyagra Boost

The Vyagra Boost is a booster from Crazy Tube Circuits, a full-range clean boost that can lift a signal by up to 25dB, with or without a tonal change. MusicRadar's reviewer Trevor Curwen summed it up as "A versatile booster - stomp hard and stiffen your tone."¹ The pedal later appeared in an updated form as the Vyagra Boost MkII, which Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio described as "a unique full range clean boost featuring an independent parametric eq section."²

What it does

The pedal has two footswitches: an overall bypass switch and a separate one that engages the parametric EQ section. That split lets a player keep the boost and the EQ under independent foot control, so the EQ can be brought in or out without touching the boost itself.¹

The boost itself ranges, in Curwen's words, "from just a tickle to take things up a level, to enough to drive even a clean valve amp well into disto". In practice that covers two common boost jobs: a subtle lift for solos or level matching, and a hard push that overdrives the input of a clean amp.¹

The parametric EQ

The MkII's EQ section is a single parametric band, cutting or boosting +/- 15dB across 120 to 1200Hz, engaged by its own footswitch.² That midrange span is where a boost pedal can do more than just get louder. Delicious Audio lays out the uses:

So the EQ can reshape the voicing of a pedal or an amp, cutting mids or adding a mid-hump, and the pedal can sit before an overdrive or distortion to push them for gain and sustain, or at the end of a chain for a volume boost and amp input overdrive.²

Beyond the boost

The MkII's circuit centers on what Delicious Audio calls "a high quality mosfet opamp that enhances your tone."² The same source also describes the pedal reaching further than a straight boost: dialing the sensitivity control turns it into what they call "a highly customizable envelope filter," and plugging in an expression pedal extends it further, putting it in filter and wah-wah territory as well as boost.²

What reviewers said

MusicRadar's review credits the pedal with versatility, and names the practical parametric EQ, the separate switching and the gain on offer as reasons to buy in its overall verdict.¹ Delicious Audio, covering the MkII update, frames it as a unique take on the clean boost formula thanks to the independent parametric EQ section.²

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