Alright you pedal gurus. What's the most natural sounding boost to get a Non-MV Marshall type amp cooking at low/med volumes? I've tried the attenuator thing, and really didn't dig it too much...robbed some of the amp's presence. I have a Rangemaster type pedal, but that works best when the amp is cooking a bit already. I think what I'm really looking for is something more like a clean-boost a la' Z-Vex's Super Hardon, without the high-fi "zing" that pedal gives. (I like that pedal for an enhancer of clean tones, but not for boost with this amp overdriven) Basically, I'm looking for a pedal that will just "melt into" the front end of my amp, allowing me to acheive similar tones to the cranked-amp tone at lower volumes. Does such a pedal exist? The amp is a 30 Watt Winfield Thomas head (think 18 watt Marshall) with EL84s, but even at 30 watts sometimes I want to reach the sweet-spot of breakup without shaking walls. To be honest, I don't really mind the volume...Its those damn pesky neighbors and sound-guys that are always bitching.

got a ton of pedals but still like my Keeley DS-1 Ultra mod into a non master volume Marshall.

NVN Dino Drive comes to mind, very EL34-esque grind. If you just want a 'clean boost', try the Nick Green Sonic Boom, it adds a some low-mids to give EL84 some 'oomph'.

The SHO is definetly not a good fit for a Marshall. I have heard good things about the Time Machine Boost in Marshalls. There is a little talk about it being used with Marshalls at www.metroamp.com.

Sub-Decay liquid sunshine.Sounds exactly what your talking about.

I wouldn't say the the Z Vex isn't a good fit with a Marshall....

This clip was played by a friend of mine using a Les Paul into a 50wt non-master Marshall. Sounds pretty cool to me.

Z Vex & Marshall

Head

After much trying, I found the best (for me) is the old black Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal. Or even an old TS9, with volume up and drive down. But I play my 73 NM-marshall with a Hotplate, and find it FAR more satisfying to use just the amps dynamics and a little boost for solos than keeping the amp volume down (clean sound) and adding dirt just with boxes.... But, like others stated there are a million options out there. Two other pedals also seem to do well in boosting Marshalls:the Menatone Red Snapper and the Black Cat OD

A Les Paul, and a jumper between the two channels.

Into my Germino Lead-55 (basiclly built to simulate a 100 watt Marshall plexi with 2 tubes pulled to rate it at 50 watts) I've been getting really great results using a Keeley Java Boost into jumped channels with both volume knobs at 4 o'clock. Much over that and it gets muddy, even with the Java running.