19 Sixty 3 clean boost pedal review

This pedal is made by Todd at GtrWrks.com, and it's a clean boost pedals with plenty of boost to show for.

The pedal is built to mimic a preamp section from a blackface Fender amp from the mid 1960s. It is very clean sounding, and in many ways it is similar to the MXR Micro Amp in sound. However, the Micro Amp distorts more when you turn up the gain.

The operation of the pedal is very simple. There is only one knob, and you crank it up as much as you need. I typically leave mine at 1 or 2pm, which will boost my volume quite a bit, and provide a good "punch" to my guitar sound.

Why a boost pedal?

Can't you just turn up the amp, wouldn't do the same thing? Well, the main point with a pedal like this is to run it in front of a good tube amp, and crank up the signal from your guitars (and pedals) before it hits the preamp section of your amp. Why is this? Because almost all tube amps sound better when they get a hot signal coming in through the preamp. I can't explain it in technical terms, but it sounds way better. Trust me. It just livens up your amp and makes a big difference in tone quality.

You should do the same with your overdrive or distortion pedals. Crank up the volume on these, so that your tube amp gets a strong or hot signal. For example, on my Maxon SD-9, I leave the volume all the way up. Do the same with a boost pedal like this, and you'll be closer to tone heaven.

You can of course use the boost pedal AND the distortion pedal together, and while my Micro Amp did not do this so well, the 19 Sixty 3 can actually do this well. I have done this with my Bad Monkey with great results. See my video clips page for examples of this.

How does it sound?

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