Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster review

Not only the home of a huge range of retro-fit pickups, Seymour Duncan has, in recent years, produced some rather good stompboxes.

Its original pedal was the Pickup Booster, which has been out of production for a couple of years; now it's back - slightly upgraded, but essentially the same.

Now assembled at SD HQ in Santa Barbara, aside from a lighter, more generic rectangular box, the new spec offers a footswitchable gain boost from 0dB to a pretty substantial 25dB lift.

On unity gain (0dB), with the resonance switch set at 0, it's a low-impedance line driver that'll clean up long cable runs, or simply raise gain to add crunch to the front-end of your amp and/or a full-on solo boost.

Flick the resonance switch to position 1 and it changes a single coil to the smoother, rounded top-end of a vintage humbucker.

In position 2, the effect is enhanced, simulating a darker 'bucker - in either position, you still have the full range of the gain boost.

With a vintage-spec Strat, for example, it's like adding a humbucker to your guitar - in vintage or high-gain flavour - while the boost potential will really get you heard.