Burriss built its reputation on boutique
amps, including the Royal Bluesman—
which is highly regarded among tone
connoisseurs such as Jimmy Vivino from
TBS’ late-night show Conan. (Check out
our January 2011 Dirty Red review at
premierguitar.com.) But, like many amp
builders, Burriss has also branched out into
the world of pedal manufacturing. The
company recently released the Boostiest
2.5, which contains the same components
as its discontinued Boostiest II but with a
redesigned and streamlined internal PCB
and simpler graphics, resulting in a more
wallet-friendly price tag ($175 versus the
Boostiest II’s $225.)
Twice as Dirty
The Boostiest 2.5 is built around two
independent sections called Overdrive and
Boostier, both housed in a single enclosure.
Burriss designed the unit to take up as little
floor space as possible, and although there
are two pedals in the rectangular casing, if
you twist it sideways it’s not much wider
than a standard Boss pedal. The controls
are arranged across the top of the surface
area, with three knobs for each section.
The Overdrive section features Gain, Tone,
and Level controls, while the Boostier section
has Output, Highs, and Input knobs.
The latter works as a gain control, and
Burriss recommends you set it and forget
it. Input, output, and power supply jacks
are side mounted.
Brotherly Love
Switches for both sections are true-bypass,
and they share the same circuit board. The
signal path goes through the Boostier section
first, then to the Overdrive section,
which picks up where the Boostier leaves
off in terms of gain and touch response. I
tested the Boostiest 2.5 with an Ernie Ball
Music Man Axis Sport using several amps,
including a Mesa/Boogie Lone Star Special
head through a Marshall 1x12 cabinet, a
Fender 1965 Deluxe Reverb, and an Ampeg
SJ-12R. And it seemed like the Boostiest 2.5
was notably transparent—enhancing and
preserving the character of the amp it was
driving rather than imposing its own voice.
The Boostier side gives you approximately
20 dB of high-fidelity, clean boost
to provide girth without significant tone
coloration or unwanted grit—performing
almost like a unity-gain buffer. Although
the Overdrive side is inspired by the classic
Ibanez TS808 circuit and even features
the same JRC4558D chip, to my ears the
Burriss sounds thicker and has less of a mid
hump than the original Tube Screamer. You
reach unity gain with the Gain control at
around 8 o’clock, and from that point until
about 11 o’clock you get a bit of extra bite
and sustain on top of an essentially clean
amp tone. From 12 o’clock on, the character
changes and you get a very smooth overdrive
that’s liquid, yet articulate and responsive
to dynamics. However, unless you’re
using a very high-gain amp, the Boostiest is
a little too polite for extreme metal tones.
The Verdict
The Boostiest 2.5 is one of the best overdrive/
boost pedals I’ve encountered. The
Overdrive’s lead sound, in particular, was
outstanding through its entire range of Gain
settings. And the transparency of the Boostier
section is a treat if you love the sound of your
amp. The fact that you get two pedals for the
price of one is icing on the cake.
Buy if...
you need a reasonably priced, great-sounding two-in-one pedal to suit your boost and overdrive needs.
Skip if...
you’re joining a Slipknot cover band.
Rating...
