Saturnworks Peppermint Boost

The Peppermint Boost is a boost pedal from Saturnworks, a small US pedal builder. It is a simple, single-purpose box: the maker describes it as providing around 25dB of boost, which is enough gain to push an amp into breakup or to drive another pedal harder¹. If you are new to boost pedals, the idea is that the pedal does not change your tone on its own; it raises the level of your signal so that whatever comes next, an amp or an overdrive, works harder. Saturnworks positions it alongside its Clean Boost and Booster Looper in the boost category.

What it does

Saturnworks describes the Peppermint Boost as a pedal for juicing amps or other pedals, such as distortion pedals¹. In practice that means two common uses: hitting the front of a tube amp harder so it breaks up earlier, or placing it in front of a distortion or overdrive pedal so that pedal gets a hotter signal to work with. Because the pedal's job is gain rather than tone shaping, it sits naturally at the start of a chain or directly before the pedal it is driving.

Size and build

The pedal uses a 1590A-size enclosure, at 3.6" x 1.5" x 1.2", which Saturnworks describes as compact enough to fit on virtually any pedalboard¹. That is one of the smallest standard pedal enclosures, so it takes up little room on a crowded board.

Saturnworks also builds a related pedal, the Dark Matter overdrive, which shares the Peppermint name and carries upgraded Japanese soft click latching switches, red aluminum control knobs, and Switchcraft USA jacks². Those hardware details are documented for the Dark Matter; the Peppermint Boost's own page describes it as a compact boost with around 25dB of gain¹.