Cusack Music Louder

The Cusack Music Louder is a small boost pedal that does one job: it makes your signal louder without changing what it sounds like. Cusack Music describes it as offering 0 to 25dB of clean boost, and as "a small pedal that produces a big sound"¹. It is the Never-Off version of the company's More Louder, built for players who want a boost that is always in the signal path rather than switched in and out¹.

What sets the Louder apart from most boost pedals is what it leaves out. There is no footswitch, no bypass, and no battery. Cusack Music's Never-Off pedals are designed to stay powered and in the circuit at all times, which suits players running a loop switcher or a pedalboard where the boost lives inside a switched loop¹.

What it does to your sound

The Louder is a clean boost, not a treble boost or an EQ-based boost. Cusack Music says it "is not a treble boost, so it won't affect your tone. You will retain your natural guitar tone, but even Louder"¹. In practice that means the BOOST knob raises the level of everything your guitar is already putting out, evenly across the frequency range, rather than pushing one part of the spectrum the way a treble booster or an EQ pedal set for a hump would.

A clean boost like this has two common uses. Turning it up into an amp that is already near breakup pushes the front end harder, so the amp distorts more, while the pedal itself stays clean. Used into a clean amp, it simply raises your volume, which is useful for solos or for making up level lost to long cable runs and other pedals in the chain.

Controls and connections

The pedal keeps its control surface to a single knob, described in the manual²:

The jacks sit on the right side of the enclosure. The input jack is on the right side middle of the pedal, and the output jack is on the right side bottom, for running into your amp or into any effects you want after the boost². A green power LED is on whenever the effect is powered².

Because there is no footswitch, the BOOST knob is the only interaction you have with the pedal once it is installed. Players who want to switch the boost on and off from the board will want it inside a loop on a switcher, which is exactly the use Cusack Music designs its Never-Off pedals around¹.

Power

The Louder runs on a standard center negative 9V DC supply, which is not included, and draws about 9mA¹. The manual notes the DC jack has the same pin-out as standard pedal supplies, with the tip as ground and the sleeve as 9V².

At roughly 9mA, the pedal is a light load on an isolated power supply or even a daisy chain, so powering it alongside the rest of a board is rarely a problem¹⁴.

Louder versus More Louder

The Louder is the Never-Off version of the More Louder, minus the buffer toggle¹. The differences come down to switching and range options:

The More Louder's toggle switch lets you choose between buffered and true bypass while it is in bypass mode, and Cusack Music says its buffered mode keeps your amp sounding crisp and clear, which helps against tone degradation from long cable runs or many stacked pedals⁴. The More Louder also has an internal jumper that changes its boost range: with the jumper in it is 0 to 25dB, and with the jumper out it is -5 to +15dB, a range that includes a small cut as well as a boost⁴.

The Louder gives up both of those options. In exchange it is the simpler pedal: set the BOOST knob once, leave it on, and let a switching system handle when it is heard¹.

Price and where it fits

Cusack Music lists the Louder at an MSRP of $95.00, with the webstore showing a price of $75.00 as of October 2026³. The pedal sits in the company's lineup alongside the Deal Breaker Boost, which Cusack Music also lists at $95.00³.

For a player deciding between this and other boost pedals, the question is less about sound, since Cusack Music positions both the Louder and the More Louder as tone-preserving clean boosts, and more about how you want to switch it. If your board has a looper or switcher, the Louder's always-on design is the point. If you want a pedal that can sit bypassed on its own, the More Louder's selectable buffered or true bypass is the version built for that⁵¹⁴.

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