RPS Effects Vitamin C

The RPS Effects Vitamin C is a small clean boost pedal from the boutique maker RPS Effects, launched in November 2018¹. A clean boost raises your guitar's volume without deliberately changing its tone, and the Vitamin C is designed to give up to 27dB of what Guitar.com's Terence Stanley called "juicy" gain¹. It is a citrus-themed pedal, described as "a lozenge of a boost pedal"¹.

Controls and how it works

There is only one knob to tinker with; it manages the amount of effect dialled in¹. At lower to medium gain levels, the pedal gives your playing a touch of zest. Keep turning that knob clockwise, however, and it pushes a tube amp into overdrive¹, the same job a dedicated overdrive pedal does, but driven by volume rather than clipping.

Buffer function

The Vitamin C also features a high- and low-output impedance, which, when dialled to the lowest gain setting, allows the pedal to double up as a buffer¹. That matters on a crowded board: a buffer at the front of a long signal chain helps prevent tone suck, the dulling of high frequencies that long cable runs can cause. Players who want a dedicated unit for that job can read more on the buffer pedals page.

What reviewers said

Premier Guitar reviewed the pedal in a "Quick Hit" in September 2023, opening with the observation that "Clean boosts seem to inspire magical thinking."² The review places the Vitamin C among the boost pedals players reach for to lift a signal without reshaping it, a category covered in more depth on the boost pedals page.

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