In 2010 Analog Man started making this pedal ourselves. They have been available with hand stamped graphics like our switch boxes until late 2013 when we came up with nice graphics like the original, but in heavy duty epoxy ink instead of a fragile sticker. In June of 2017, we made the logo full color, adding red like Robbie's original!

The Bad Bob pedal is a booster based on the famous and much copied mini-booster "JFET mu-amp" design of Jack Orman (check out his site to learn more). This design was also used as the basis for most other boutique boost pedals.

It is a class A booster that is capable of driving your favorite tube amp into tonal nirvana! With well over 20dB of gain, the Bad Bob fattens up even the cleanest high powered tube amp.

Do you use a lower wattage amp already on the verge of breaking up? The Bad Bob pushes it over the edge to obtain rich sustain.

Do you like a vintage or modern 30 Watt Class A tube amp cranked to the hilt? If so you will love the Bad Bob...

GOOD BOB - in 2024 we got some FETs that work great but are lower gain. They take away the dirtiness of the Bad Bob, and sound great as a clean boost. It's similar to an MXR Micro amp but more natural sounding as it uses FETs instead of an opamp chip. You can order any version as a GOOD BOB but the DRIVE knob would not make sense, as it's already clean.

Here are some of the features:

• Cast aluminum enclosure with baked-on silver hammertone finish.

• Metal Switchcraft 1/4" input and output jacks.

• High quality double sided PC Board.
• New Old Stock (discontinued) Fairchild 2N5457 FET transistors, selected for low noise and high gain.
  

• True bypass switching with special wiring to minimize external noise.
• Power Jack Standard
  

• LED indicator.

• 2.1mm DC power jack for use with most standard regulated 9VDC adaptors (Boss PSA-120 or Voodoo Labs PP2 recommended).

• Low power consumption! Under 1mA when off, under 3mA when on, no IC chips, so battery will last a LONG time.

• Capable of running at up to 18VDC for a cleaner, punchier tone with more headroom!!
• Awesome after fuzz pedals to add more focus and cut
• Awesome after tube screamer type pedals, brings some low end back.
  

• Metal Film resistors and coupling capacitors for optimum tone.
• SIZE : 2 5/16" x 4 5/16", MXR size 1290 or 1590B enclosure.
• Mini Bad Bob size is 1.5" wide, 3 1/2" long, and 1 1/4" tall.
• Mini Bad Bob with battery option is 1.5" wide, 3 1/2" long, and 1 1/2" tall (about 1/2" taller).
• Junior size is approximately 2" wide X 4" long X 1 1/4" tall.

New in late 2018 : Drive knob option

New in 2013 : MINI BAD BOB

Some people really like the tiny pedals, especially when used with switching systems or on boards with very little room. So we can make the Bad bob in the tiny box, with power jack only as there is no room for a battery or the Drive knob.

New in 2013 : MINI BAD BOB with battery room

New in 2021 : Top Jacks Bad Bob Junior

We can use this "cough drop box" size to make a mini with top jacks. No battery or buffer room though.

We can also use TOP JACKS on the standard size Bad Bob, just put a note in the order comments area or check the box. Power jack can be on the right or left, add a note if you have a preference.

Bad Bob in Ernie Ball Volume pedal



We can build the Bad Bob into an Ernie Ball VP Jr 25K volume pedal (6181), with a bypass switch and a power jack. The Bad Bob is a great buffer so when it's ON, you don't need any other buffers before the 6181. No power is needed if you turn the toggle DOWN to bypass the Bad Bob. Why have an expression pedal insert on your booster and have two pedals on your board, if you can do it in one? For ordering, see our Ernie Ball 6181 page.

There is a short demo on Facebook. The delay is being used for a buffer when the bad bob is off. It�s not needed when it is on as the bad bob is a very good buffer. Note the sparkly Bad Bob clean-up when the guitar is turned down:



DUAL BAD BOB

In 2018 we made a few DUAL BAD BOB pedals by request. You can crank the first one up to add distortion, and turn the second one down as a master volume. We can build these as below with red hand-stamped graphics. Put a note in the order comments area if you want the large/wide (Large Bicomp style, see yellow one below) box, or large narrow (like Bi-Chorus layout) or the small narrow (Mini Bicomp) one, and a color preference. We can also add our FOUR JACK option on the large bicomp style box. This allows using the 2 pedals separately or by using the two outer jacks just like normal.

Small : Sunface Gold, Mini Chorus Blue, CompROSSor Grey, Yellow, or bare metal,

Large: White, Red, Blue, Purple, Light blue, Green, Light grey, or bare metal.







BOOST COMPARISONS

KLON : The KLON Centaur is not as clear as Bad Bob, it is more compressed, even at minimum gain. Also the KLON is not nearly as loud at it's clean boost setting. The tone difference is really noticeable with the guitar's volume and/or tone turned down a bit - it makes the KLON sound dull in comparison.

Z Vex Super Hard On : This pedal is much cleaner than the BB, if you need just a totally clean booster the SHO is probably better. Our optional DRIVE knob allows the Bad Bob to get ALMOST as clean as the SHO. The Bad Bob has nice grit/drive even at the same volume setting as OFF. But the sound is not very useful at a unity gain setting, so it's not a great buffer pedal like the SHO. At medium boost, the SHO is sharper and cleaner sounding, the Bad Bob is not as bright, has a thicker, richer tone. The SHO is just as loud when turned up all the way, and the two pedals sound more similar when cranked up loud as the amp is really running overloaded by that point. The Bad Bob has a bit less hiss when cranked, I was surprised by this but maybe due to some high end rolloff. The Bad Bob is sort of like a Rangemaster clone (our Beano Boost ) but without the tone change and emphasis of certain frequencies.

Beano Boost (not really a clean boost) : The Beano Boost is a Rangemaster clone. It will give an amp nice cut and focus, and add a ton of crunch, depending on how high you have the level set on the pedal. The Rangemaster pedals change your tone, boosting the selected frequencies. If you are going for a classic rock tone, it could be awesome and I like to run my Beano Boost into a dirt pedal as my amps are usually set clean.

Manual

Manual is available on my manuals section .