A Clipping Boost that Rocks!

This review is happening because of the recommendation of my young friend Brendan over at The Arts Music Store. I say young, because he is younger than I am, which is true of so many people. He’s also a brilliant guitarist and his playing reminds me of Danny Gatton. This man has skills.

Anyhow

I was in picking up a decent used older Epiphone Joe Pass jazz box (it’s really quite awesome) when Brendan asked if I had ever tried a Sure Shot from Greer Amps. I honestly said I was not aware of the pedal, but readers know that I have a lot of respect for Greer products, particularly their Lightspeed Overdrive. Greer is out of Athens Georgia and is a small company founded by Nick Greer. They build what they like and have developed a very healthy following of customers..

The Sure Shot

This is a new (to me at least) pedal from Greer Amps. It is designed as a Clipping Boost. While some boost pedals are designed primarily as clean boosts, and some try to put a foot on either side of the line, the Sure Shot does only one thing. It pushes the pedals and the amps that follow it. It is capable of significant volume boosts but does so in a way that encourages clipping orient overdrive from the amp, from other OD pedals that follow and inside itself via a pair of dedicated clipping diodes.

My Testing

I used my PRS CE 24 for my initial playing tests. Amps were the Tone King Imperial Mark II, the REVV D20 with a 4x12 Two Notes cab sim and my hardwired VOX AC30.

I used it on its own, but also in front of my Nobels ODR-1 Mini which was set for a very light and very transparent OD. I am a fan of gain stacking with the right pedals and for the kind of tones that I like, this worked out well. I also put it in front of a JHS Morning Glory just for fun.

There’s a thought chain that says a clipping boost on its own could act like a treble booster. I’m not aligned with that because I don’t detect the high pass filter effect of a treble booster. My evaluation board in this room has an Analogman Beano boost and there is really no similarity there. The Analogman and a guitar with hot single coils does what you would expect into the VOX but that’s a different goal from what the Sure Shot is designed for.

While it is a clipping boost, I did not notice the feel of a strong high cut filter as I have encountered with other clipping style boost pedals. There is only one knob which I like for simplicity sakes. It is labeled LOUD and that’s what it does. The more you turn it up, the louder things get and the more clipping boost happens. I found using the PRS set at about 8 both volume and tone with the ODR-1 Mini running in light overdrive sounded great for rhythm but some punch was needed for lead lines and bringing the Sure Shot online delivered exactly what I wanted for single note work, a small volume boost accompanied by more grit. Step it off and back to rhythm and you don’t feel that enormous disparity that you get with some overdrives that have a boost function. It’s not completely linear, but also doesn’t dump highs or turn the lows to mud as I find happens so often.

The effect is still very usable with the PRS coil taps in use, and it also sounded great when I switched the PRS to my Sire S7. The Strat in the room is a very customized build and also sounded great. Finally I used it with the Les Paul Axcess that has very hot pickups. In every case, the Sure Shot fits in and makes a positive contribution.

The layout is a mini pedal with in and out and power in. It takes a 9V supply. I ran it off an isolated CIOKS supply and there was no extra noise when engaged. The pedal does not take batteries, the same as every other mini pedal that I have ever encountered. The knob is big, and the changes do not require big sweeps of the knob. Small changes give you lots of variance. Since I tend to use OD a fair bit, I might be inclined to set the Sure Shot in “fire and forget” mode and just gaffer tape the knob where I like it for a particular guitar and amplifier and punch in or out on demand..

I also like very much that the Sure Shot is not natively a noise generator. We have all run into pedals where as soon as you activate it, the noise floor rises substantially. I did not find this to be a big issue with the Sure Shot.

In Summary

I had never really looked into a clipping boost seriously. I use clean boost pedals on most of my boards, and in different positions in the chain depending on what I want the boost to deliver. The Sure Shot is simple. Put it in front of your overdrive or distortion and the effect is both palpable and highly flexible. Sometimes when I evaluate a product, I come away so impressed that I buy the product. The Sure Shot is one of those products and it is staying on the board where I tested it. The price tag on the box is $206 CAD and while not priced in the realm of some pedals from overseas, is not unreasonable for a pedal built in a small factory in the USA. I bought it, so I do recommend it.

Thanks for reading and until next time peace.