OrangeJuicer wrote:I never used the boost switch, because it makes the sound more mid-rangey... dont like it.
Aha. Going to have to try to change your mind on that OJ!
It isn't as simple as that. In fact I wondered at first exactly what the boost switch was doing. It certainly isn't just a normal preset boost, and certainly not just a midrange boost either. As I discovered by really messing about with the amp it is something
way more interesting and
way more useful than that.
If you just ignore it you'll be missing (some of) the amps best sounds!
The effect you get when switching it in is like having - for every different EQ setting - a whole new set of additional tones which you can easily dial in with just one control - the treble. What effect the 'boost' has depends strongly on where the tone controls are set at the time and most specifically on the treble control.
Think on it this way. Some amps (like many old Fenders, some Marshalls) sound best when everything is opened up, right? I'm not so much talking volume / gain here but the tone controls. Any standard passive tone controls are cut only, meaning that using tone controls at anything less than full on will always lose you some signal, gain, and basically tone too. And on this amp like many Fenders with all EQ's set on 0 you'll get virtually no signal through, so the tone controls are effectively both tone
and gain controls. Only when everything is at ten will you get the maximum signal through, effectively opening the amp up to give its full natural tone.
This is exactly how the (footswitchable) 'boost' switch on the old Custom Shop AD50 / Retro 50 and the much better named 'EQ Lift' on the new Custom Shop 50 works. It take the EQ fully out of circuit to increase gain (well,
decrease gain losses!) and give you the amps full open tone. How much extra gain you
then get depends on how much you were losing by using partial EQ settings. If you had the EQ's set with quite a lot of cut then the jump in gain and volume will be dramatic. If they were already nearly open than the jump will be much smaller.
Some amps don't sound great fully open of course, it depends on the circuitry and voicing. But others do, and IMO the C.30 is definitely one of them. Except that, unlike on the CS Oranges, on the C.30 it isn't just an all or nothing switch. You can control it perfectly with just one rotary control, the treble control. Which handily enough sits right next to the boost switch!
What the boost control on the C.30 effectively does is to give you more gain (less tone control network gain losses!) the higher you set the treble control. With the treble control on minimum you'll get just a slight gain increase. (Though the sound will be way more open than normal treble on 0!) As you increase the treble setting the gain will increase, and the effect of the other two tone controls will decrease. Wind it up to full and the bass and mid controls have (virtually) no effect any more - they seem to be basically out of circuit. So wherever you have those two set if you max the treble you'll always get the amps full on straight through sound (for whatever volume / gain settings you have set anyway). And of course by backing it off gradually you'll head nice and progressively back towards wherever you have EQ'd the amp..
So yeah, what I discovered is that these two controls - boost and treble - go hand in hand. I think it is a
great design feature, and effectively it gives you not two but four channels as it works equally well on both channels. (The clean channel full open is
well addictive.) Should it have been footswitchable? Not really - you'd still need to tweak the treble on the amp itself. I find it no hardship at all to tweak both on the amp, especially since the only two controls you need to touch are right next to each other. It really is a quick and effective way to radically (and repeatably) change the amps sound. And since you are only twiddling the treble you can just as easily go back to exactly where you were before.
So go on, hit that boost and max the treble - see what your new amp can REALLY do! And play around with it on a couple of your favourite EQ settings - you'll get a whole host of new sounds too. Just make sure you don't have the amps volume too high at first or you might get a real shock. Sweet wee amp, but that boost switch is it's secret weapon. Enjoy!
Andy.
They take up 4 screen widths on my lap top. I can't even read that post. 
!