Welcome to my website; my name’s Shane. We are reviewing the Caline G-013 Shark Boost overdrive and boost pedal in today’s review. At first glance, you might think this overdrive circuit is a Klon Clone, but it’s not. Caline has done great with this new range of effects pedals, offering a great price-to-performance ratio. 

How to use the Caline Killer Shark Boost Pedal

The Killer Shark boost by Caline can be used as a standalone overdrive or in conjunction with another overdrive or distortion pedal in the signal chain. 

Compact Design

Caline has designed the G-Series to be a space-saving pedal range without being too small.  This pedal is larger than your standard mini-pedal but not as tall as a typical Maxon, Wampler, or Boss Pedal.  I am a fan of this new mid-sized effect pedal and it will no doubt appeal to players who don’t have much real estate left on their pedal board. 

Killer Shark Boost Review Video

Hear the potential of the Caline Killer Shark Boost/Overdrive pedal through my Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue Amplifier below. 

Buy it online:

Artist Guitars AU | Walmart USA| Amazon De | Amazon UK | Amazon Canada

What does the Killer Shark Boost Do?

The “Boost” in “Killer Shark Boost” does what you expect. It will drastically boost the front end of your amplifier or another effects pedal in the chain. Better yet, it offers an off-clean transparent overdrive tone that will get you more overdrive without the excessive coloration you might find with other effects. 

Also, suppose you already use an amplifier or higher gain sound on the overdrive. In that case, this pedal can get you more volume and sustain by cranking up the volume and gain control. 

Killer Shark Boost Controls

The Shark Boost is loaded with three simple controls. The gain control in the center controls how much drive the pedal produces. The Master control is the output volume control, and the tone control shapes the pedal’s brightness or warmth. With the Tone, volume, or gain control to the right, you will get more of each in contrast to having them set to the left (or lower). 

Power Requirements

The Caline Killer Shark Boost pedal can only run on 9vDC power. Therefore, power can only be provided from a 9v DC power supply. I highly recommend this one-spot power supply if you consider buying pedals (Sweetwater Link). This power supply will be able to power multiple effects pedals from this series or others safely and effectively. This is the same power supply I use personally. 

Power is supplied thanks to the 9v input on the top portion of the pedal, as you can see from the photo of the controls above. The Caline Killer Shark Boost pedal only draws 50mA of power, which makes it very efficient in the signal chain.

Build Quality

Usually, when a pedal is inexpensive, it has build-quality compromises. This quality drop was the case back in the day with some brands. I’ve said for years that Caline makes great stuff, and this series of effects, including the Shark Boost, are built like tanks.  

The enclosure is metal, we get proper metal shaft potentiometers, and the pots feel great to move. The jacks on the side are excellent quality, and the footswitch is the real deal.  

My only critique about the build quality is the laminated decal on the front. While the decal looks fine, it’s not the highest resolution. I would love to see this improved in the future. However, regarding physical build quality, I have no complaints regarding this effect. 

What’s in the Box?

Each pedal from this series comes boxed with a strip of velcro included and an instruction manual/brochure. 

Is the Caline G-013 Killer Shark Boost worth it?

When it comes to affordable pedals, Caline is hard to beat. Not only is the Shark Boost robust and built extremely well, but it is also functional and flexible, depending on where you have it in your signal chain.

While the visual styling might not be for everyone, this pedal offers a massive bang for the buck without the larger footprint of many other brands.   This is one of my favorite pedals from the Caline G series offering great tones in a wide range of use cases.  if you want a great companion overdrive pedal, check out my Caline Green Mamba review. 

Caline Shark Boost Pedal Best Prices

Find the best deals by shopping through my affiliate links below. 

Artist Guitars AU | Walmart USA| Amazon De | Amazon UK | Amazon Canada

The G777 dual overdrive pedal is the latest offering from Mason from Greenchild.  This pedal is made in the USA and features two music channels that can be used on their own or together for extra drive, sustain, and gain.

Features

• Two mechanically isolated channels
• Transparent buffered input/output
• Boosted power supply with 30 volts of dynamic headroom (+/- 15V)
• Symmetrical soft clipping
• Versatile tone stack
• Unique gain and EQ topologies
• Boost (Channel #2 ) with up to 18dB of non-distorted, post signal volume control

How does it Sound?

To my ear, the left side of the pedal sounds very Vox like in tonality.  It definitely has a class A sounding tone.  It’s not based precisely on a Vox by any means, but that’s the closest approximation of sound I can compare it with.  The right side is more of a boost/low gain overdrive that can pretty much do anything you like in terms of EQ thanks to the Mid control.  You can scoop out the mids or add them in for a fatter sound.  The Tilt control adds more or less top end, so, between the Tilt and Mid control, good things can happen.  The right side of the pedal is also pretty low gain in terms of dirt too, but it packs a punch.

The video above is a very detailed video of the pedal and how it sounds in all positions on the controls. The video below shows how simple it is to get a very usable sound with very little to no tweaking.

Who is this pedal for?

Players who are looking for a 2 in 1 that is different will appreciate this effects pedal. The Greenchild G777 is best suited to folks playing rock and roll or classic rock.  The reason why its best suited to those styles is the voicing of the left (red) channel.  Being it’s also very class A, it would also work great for country pickers who are looking for that class A sound matched with a Telecaster.  It will, of course, do blues, but I feel it would be more of a classic rock and country style pedal.

Being that the left side of the pedal has a lot of clarity means it will work great for both humbucker pickups as well as single coils.  This pedal is an excellent addition to the Greenchild line up, and it’s also made it into my top 5 pedals of 2016.  Great job, Greenchild!

I’ve had a chance to test hundreds of overdrive pedals over the years.  I’ve also owned and tested many dual overdrive pedals but many of them fall short for several reasons.  Either they are too complicated, they feature weird and unnecessary switching, they have a noise gate that doesn’t always work, or they simply don’t sound very good stacked.  I wonder sometimes if people put enough thought and real world testing goes into these dual pedals sometimes.

Take all the issues mentioned above and reverse it.  The VS Audio Royal Flush pedal is a dream for folks like me who believe simple is better.  The pedal features two channels which are in theory very similar to each other.  The right side of the pedal is where the “off-clean” tone lives.  It reminds me somewhat of a Tubescreamer without the high end roll off but with a lot less overdrive.  The right side makes it very, very easy to get the off-clean tone that you can’t get usually without cranking your tube amp to 8.

The Right channel kind of takes off where channel one ends.  You get a very similar tonality but with more gain.  If you’re like me then you’ll probably want to start with a great clean tone and have an overdrive pedal that doesn’t re-eq your amp.  You can literally get a great off-clean tone without having to modify the settings on your amp.  This is one thing I can’t say for a lot of other pedals on the market.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvmEXHdkXf4

The left channel then kicks your tone into overdrive (literally!). You’ll get more gain, more sustain, and overall a lead tone that is perfect for blues, classic rock, and also some modern rock sounds at higher gain settings.

The tone controls are musical without being shrill or weird.  Trust me, you’ll get a killer tone with everything set to even 12 O’Clock on the Royal Flush overdrive and then you can shape your top end with the tone controls depending if you use humbuckers or single coils.

Overall

This a very easy to use, versatile, and great sounding dual overdrive pedal.  The attention to detail in the gain staging, build quality, and overall design is amazing.  This pedal is in my top 5 favorite pedals of 2016 without question.

Do good things come in small packages?  In this particular case, the old saying is true.  The Bright-Eye clean boost pedal from Fire-Eye Development is an essential pedal for doing any number of good things to your sound depending on your mood or requirements.  There’s a few ways you can utilise the Bright-Eye:

• Before another drive or fuzz pedal as a gain boost
• After another drive or fuzz pedal as a volume boost while retaining the tone
• The two options toggle switch can change the vibe from straight clean boost to vintage clean boost
• The buffer will fix any top end loss by running longer cables

Features:

• Input: high-impedance, 1 million ohms, maximum of 2 volt peak-to-peak level.
• Low-impedance output, 600 ohms, will drive all guitar pedals and amps effectively.
• High-Quality Switchcraft 1/4-inch input, output and power jacks.
• Boost button with volume control and boost light.
• A light beam and photocell control boost to eliminate all button noise and popping.
• A Mode switch selects flat or shaped frequency response.
• Uses standard 9-volt pedal board, Boss-style, power: (center-negative, center-ground).
• Internal filtering to reject radio-frequency interference from neon lights and cell phones.
• Small Size: 1.25 x 1.5 x 3.75 inches.  Weight: 6 ounces.
• Internal filtering to reject radio-frequency interference from neon lights and cell phones.
• Small Size: 1.25 x 1.5 x 3.75 inches.  Weight: 6 ounces.

So far, I have really only tried two volume boost pedals that I would gig with and the bright eye would be one of them.  The other volume boost pedal I really love is the Maxon Dual Boost pedal which is also a two in one clean boost.  The benefit of the Bright-Eye is the small footprint of the pedal. I could fit it on my pedalboard no problems at all and for those interested, I am running it after my overdrives for a volume kick.  This is a great pedal from Fire-Eye Development.

Buy it here on Amazon

The brand new (as of July 2016) Greenchild K818 ticks all the boxes in terms of functionality, tone, and design.  Shane and Ric from the intheblues channel on YouTube put forward an idea to Mason at Greenchild to try his hand at a new dual pedal that featured highly sought after tones that were tried and tested for the working musician.  This great combination of overdrives not only sound great on their own but they also sound amazing stacked together.

The Vintage Overdrive Channel

On the left is the vintage overdrive channel with a point of difference you’re going to love.  What makes this left side of the pedal unique is the tone/voice control in the centre.  What this control does is adds more presence/tops with the control to the left and adds more body and warmth with the control to the right so you can basically get this to sound like your amp with a bit of dirt or use it to transform the clean tones of your amp.   The left side of the pedal was designed to be used as an off-clean tone for stacking the right side but in the end with the tweaks from Mason it became it’s own fantastic and usable vintage overdrive channel.  This particular channel is more open and less gainy than a Maxon OD-820 and also has less noise floor.

The Klon-ish Overdrive Channel

If there’s one pedal that stacks well into any vintage overdrive it’s the Klon.  This right side of the pedal features all the tones of the Klon KTR but improves upon it by reducing the overall noise floor of the pedal.  One of the inherent problems with stacking a Klon can be the overall noise floor is raised but through some nifty designs Mason has done some improvements with the circuit and it now stacks better than ever.

Specifications and Details

Retro style K818 with custom anodized aluminum enclosure and black Dymo lettering. Naturally transparent buffered input/output; two independent mechanically isolated channels in one pedal.

This pedal combines a K-style circuit (right side) with our own special blend version of the Tube Screamer (left side). One may stack the channels or operate them in isolation.

Gain staging with both channels engaged: Input -> K-Side -> TS Side -> Output

This pedal has a boosted internal power supply with 30 volts of headroom (+/-15V), and accepts 9-18VDC (center negative). The k818 has been designed with a very low noise floor and maximum dynamic range in mind.

Overall

For the gigging musician or recording musician this is what you need to cut the mix.  Two classic pedal designs in one with major improvements to the circuits results in an extremely usable pedal that is a blues players dream.   This pedal is around the same physical width as a Klon KTR for example, but it’s slightly taller footprint.  It will be a great space saving addition to anyone who is after a dual overdrive who likes classic tones from Maxon, Ibanez, and the Klon for example.  Being able to stack the channels or use them on their own is also awesome.  There’s no weird switching, no confusing options, and nothing to make life difficult.  This pedal does exactly what it was conceived to do which is work simply, easily, and effortlessly.

The JLD MOSFET Overdrive is a breath of fresh air when in a World flooded with overdrive pedals.  Not only is the build quality of the JLD top notch you also get tones that are unique which is a rare thing these days.  To sum up the tone it’s very, very amp like.  Imagine cranking your favorite black face up till it starts clipping – that’s what you get.  This isn’t a Fender voiced pedal by any means but for my money, the overdrive it produces is better than an amp pushed to the max.

Tone:
In terms of gain I would put this as a low to medium gain transparent overdrive.  What this pedal does extremely well is it doesn’t change the voicing of your amp.  With the pedal on you don’t lose any low end that I could notice and it doesn’t boost your mids like a Tubescreamer.  That said, it feels familiar like a Tubescreamer without the rolled out highs making this much more usable for humbucker guitars.   For those who play a Stratocaster and Telecaster, you’ll be able to get the chug you’ve always wanted without it getting too over the top.  The JLD MOSFET Overdrive also stacks really well. I ran a Maxon OD808 in front of it at a gig and it sounded great.  Due to the voicing of the JLD I’m sure it would stack in front of another pedal perfectly as well.

The JLD MOSFET Overdrive also stacks really well. I ran a Maxon OD808 in front of it at a gig and it sounded great.  Due to the voicing of the JLD I’m sure it would stack in from of another pedal perfectly as well.

A striking feature of this pedal is its dynamic, which means that the drive depends directly on your picking (footprint). Lines run with less force you grant a light drive, and employing more force, the drive will be distorted and incisive.

Controls:

The three main controls take care of the volume, tone, and gain settings.  The two selection toggle switch changes the pedal from “Low Gain” mode with the switch down to “High Gain” mode with the switch up.  Both modes sound great and depending on if it’s your only pedal in your chain you can decide which setting you like best.  High gain mode with your guitar volume controls down still cleans up really well so it’s win-win.  Another thing to mention too is if you run the gain control all the way down it will work as a true clean boost pedal.

Looks:

The JLD MOSFET Overdrive looks the business!  It’s slightly larger than your regular enclosure but it definitely has a great look and feel, without being over the top large.  It’s roughly 10-15% larger (mostly in the width) than your regular Boss pedal for example.

Overall

This is a great pedal for the price.  It sells in Brazil for $149 USD which is well worth the price.  I have this hooked up to my smaller pedalboard right now alongside my Maxon OD808 and it’s a pleasure to use.