Saturnworks Clean Boost

The Saturnworks Clean Boost is a small clean boost pedal from Saturnworks, a maker of compact pedals. Saturnworks describes it as a "clean booster provides a clean boost, or a volume cut," meaning it can either push the signal louder or turn it down, without adding drive or color of its own¹. It sits in the wider family of Boost Pedals, which raise an instrument's level without changing its tone, and it is a simpler alternative to Overdrive Pedals, which add their own grit as they push the signal.

What it does

The pedal has one job: change the overall level of the signal passing through it. Turned up, it boosts; turned down, it cuts. Saturnworks suggests one common placement: "It can be used at the end of a pedalboard to boost or cut the overall signal going to your amp"¹. In that spot it works like a master volume for the whole board, useful for kicking up a solo or trimming level between songs.

Because it is a clean boost, it does not shape tone the way a drive pedal does. Players who want grit from a boost usually look at Overdrive Pedals, Distortion Pedals or Fuzz Pedals instead, or pair a clean boost with one of those.

Ways players put a clean boost like this to work, per the maker's description of boosting or cutting the overall signal¹:

• Kicking up the level for a solo without changing tone
• Trimming the overall level going to the amp between songs
• Acting as a set-and-forget master volume for the whole pedalboard

Size and placement

The pedal is built in a 1590A enclosure, which is the smallest standard pedal enclosure size¹. That makes it easy to fit into a tight board, and it suits the pedal's role as a set-and-forget level control rather than an effect you adjust while playing.

Related Saturnworks pedals

Saturnworks builds the clean boost circuit into other pedals as well. The company's A/B Reversed with Volume Controls + Clean Boost combines switching and level control, providing "a clean boost on one input channel and a volume trim/cut control on the other"². The maker also lists a Saturnworks Peppermint Boost and a Saturnworks Booster Looper among its boost-type pedals.

How it compares

Other makers approach the same job differently. The Walrus Audio Plainsman Clean Boost is described by its maker as a pedal where "Clean Boost will increase the volume of your instrument signal when employed"³.

Both are clean boosts in the sense of raising level without adding drive, and neither is a substitute for a Preamp Pedal or Equalization Pedals, which shape tone rather than just level.