Designing the Twin Boost Pedal
The Twin Boost pedal was the first pedal I ever designed, inspired by a concept my friend Pete and I wanted to explore - how two volume boost pedals, when stacked, could create drive. The idea was simple, the first pedal’s output becomes your gain control, and the second adjusts the overall volume. I wanted to explore this concept further and bring it into my own design.
Since I was just starting to learn pedal circuitry, the process was hands-on and involved a lot of experimentation with different components. After many trials, I ended up with the Twin Boost—a dual-boost pedal that offers two independent circuits. The first circuit has a gain control for adding grit, while the second has a bias control that adjusts the transistor’s response. This allows you to tweak the character of the boost, from a clean push to fuzz-like textures, especially at lower gain settings.
As someone who loves stacking low-gain pedals to create subtle variations in tone, the Twin Boost quickly became an essential part of my board. It’s designed to give a wide range of tonal options—from clean, transparent boosts to more saturated, overdriven sounds. With both sides engaged, the variety of tones on offer is huge. You can switch the order of the boosts for different results, and there’s a gain toggle on the bias side that adds a hard-clipping circuit for a more aggressive, rat-like drive.
Finding the right look for the pedal was a challenge - I was very aware quite how much guitarists buy with their eyes. You’d hope it’s all about tone, but the visual side of things really matters. I struggled to settle on a design I was happy with—I’d look at my pedalboard and try to find common themes in the pedals I liked visually, but there wasn’t much consistency to draw inspiration from. I went through a bunch of different knobs because the originals didn’t stay on well, and I’m planning to improve the labels with vinyl or foil stickers. I’ll share more pictures once I’ve landed on a final design.
Building the pedal was a bit of a journey. Much of it was done during late nights while my newborn twins were(n’t) asleep, which is why I named it the Twin Boost—two boosts, two babies.
Looking ahead, I’m already thinking about potential updates, like adding a tone control or maybe even an effects loop to allow other pedals to be inserted between the two boosts. But for now, the Twin Boost is a versatile, reliable boost pedal that I’m pleased to have created. It’s great for anyone who, like me, loves the flexibility of stacking low-gain pedals for different textures and sounds.
Key Features of the Twin Boost:
Two independent boost circuits for flexibility.
Gain control for adding grit and texture.
Bias control for shaping the transistor response and adding fuzz-like tones.
Option to switch boost order for different tonal results.
Gain toggle for hard-clipping distortion.
If you're interested in adding the Twin Boost to your pedalboard, or if you’d like to know more about my custom pedal builds, get in touch with me to discuss what you're after!
