“It’s a Bad Monkey, turned up to 11”: DOD Badder Monkey review

What is it?

The original Digitech Bad Monkey was a Tube Screamer clone, and the kind of pedal that enjoyed the same teenage ubiquity as the iconic Boss Metal Zone.

Like the Metal Zone, it was eventually re-assessed in light of better player information. Specifically, in a JHS Effects shootout with a Klon on YouTube, the little green box punched above expectations against the Klon Goliath.

Depending on your viewpoint, that either means that most peoples’ ears aren’t that sensitive, that most overdrive pedals aren’t all that different, or that the Bad Monkey was in fact much better than most players, let alone owners, had thought.

Possibly all three. The Badder Monkey is DOD’s capitalization on this newfound popularity, what they call an ‘evolution’ of the design, rather than a reissue.

Specs

• Price: $159 | £129 | €149
• Type: Overdrive
• Controls: Bananas (Gain), Curiosity (Level), Barrel (Mode/Blend), Mood (EQ), phase switch
• Features: Three circuits, including Classic Bad Monkey, Behaved and Badder, Troop Mode for blending all three together, includes reversible StagePlate to switch between skid pad and hook surface, also includes a barrel of plastic toy monkeys and guitar picks.
• Connectivity: 1/4-inch Input, Output
• Bypass: True
• Power: 9V DC centre-negative or Battery, 25mA
• Dimensions: 67 x 57 x 119 mm
• Weight: 280g
• Contact: DigiTech

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★★

Like most DOD pedals, it’s well-built, and even the kitschy ‘Barrel’ control is solid enough that I’d have no issue gigging it. In particular, the dual gang Grunt/Screech ‘Mood’ EQ control is excellent, and I’m a sucker for the tactile centre ‘bump’.

Under the pedal, however, is where its greatest build feature is – the StagePlate back panel. It ships with a non-slip rubber pad on the base as standard, but take it off and flip it, and you’ll find built in hook-and-loop fastening. Brilliant.

Usability

Usability rating: ★★★★☆

Unfortunately, it’s here that the Badder Monkey comes a little unstuck. Twist the knobs blindly and you can find good tones in the pedal, but it lacks the straightforwardness of either a Tube Screamer or a Klon.

Using the pedal sort of reminds me of the feeling of trying to figure out a Metal Zone in the early 2000s. Patience is rewarded, but it is required. Moreover, the cheesy graphics and naming are either going to make that dialing in period a source of humour or irritation – it will depend on your taste.

The most obvious control is the ‘Barrel’ knob, which controls the blend between the three drive paths in the pedal. The Behaved mode is sort of like a Tube Screamer set up as a boost – that is, with the gain down and level up. The two other modes amp up the amount of clipping on offer compared.

It’s also on this control that the pedal suggests what its evolution has been – marrying some of the vibe, if not the topology, of the Tube Screamer with the Klon Centaur it was favourably pitted against online.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Throwing a Les Paul and a Strat at the pedal, my first impression is that the Behaved boost mode sounds quite thin on bridge pickups. Luckily, it’s a simple fix; turn up the bass, or Grunt control, and pull back the Screech, or high mids.

It’s on the Bad and Badder modes that the pedal comes alive. The in-phase Bad mode is chunky and huge, and for both lead and chord work the Badder mode took us through classic rock and even punk up to the edge of metallic chugs.

A Troop mode blends Bad, Badder and the Classic mode that gives you the original Bad Monkey sound. But I actually found it was very close to the Bad mode, around 95% similar to my ears, if slightly cleaner with the gain knob at minimum. It’s the Bad and Badder that offer the most contrast for me.

Counterintuitively, we found ourselves adding in more bass than expected as the gain went up. Particularly for chord work, the pedal became much more resonant and fuller once the EQ was perfectly dialled in for each gain level.

As you’d expect, the Badder Monkey likes to be thrown in front of a real tube amp to push out power-tube saturation, but I had as much fun with a higher-wattage amp as a low-headroom one.

Unscientifically, we’d associate that property more with a Klon than say, a Timmy or Tube Screamer, which absolutely love low-wattage tube amps.

Verdict

All in all, the Badder Monkey very much does what it says on the case. It’s a Bad Monkey, turned up to 11.

Probably the toughest call about this pedal is its price point. It’s affordable enough to not be in the high-end bracket, and the build and feature set are excellent. However, it’s still more expensive than the average drive pedal, and edging up into the realms of exciting delay, reverb and modulation options.

Guitar World verdict: The Badder Monkey is an odd beast, not quite Tube Screamer, and not quite Klon. It’s interesting enough to stand on its own merit. However, it is worth saying that if you are in the market for a Tube Screamer, you should probably just buy a Tube Screamer. If you’re in the market for a Klon, then give the Badder Monkey a go.

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