tc electronic Spark Booster

I have a lot of different boost pedals so technically I didn't need this one. However, seeing the positive reviews and the great price, I decided to give it a go. The pedal is a swiss knife booster - all 3 modes have meaning depending on your setup (found uses for each of them). Clean is pretty neutral, fat gives a nice girth to single coils and mid is excellent to get a better projection. The 2-band eq is quite effective - I would really like to see a mid control as well for even more fine-tuning but it's good enough already. As others have noted, there is a volume difference when switching between the modes, with the clean being the quietest. If there is one criticism for the particular unit I received is that the bass and treble knobs don't align perfectly, which is a bit annoying to the eye but doesn't affect the sound/functionality otherwise. To be more precise, the bass and treble pots have an indent in the middle of the rotation (where there is neither cut nor boost) and setting the knob to that position, one would expect to see the knob line completely vertical. In my case both are looking a bit to the right. Nothing major, just a bit annoying if you have ocd :P

I had been looking for a good booster to add to my pedalboard, but I wanted a booster which could give you something more, that something extra which you will find useful in particular situations. This TC Electronic Spark Booster is just that thing: an excellent clean booster, but at the same time it can be used to add dirt to your signal, pushing other pedals and the amp that little bit more.

You can tell that there was a lot of thought behind this booster. As regards dimensions, it's a very compact pedal and therefore doesn't take up much space on your pedalboard. There's no way you can forget this pedal on after you're done with your solo as the LED is very bright, insanely bright. Build quality is top notch, knobs and switches have that solid feel and the housing looks like it's really durable.

Battery compartment is easliy accessible by unscrewing the lid with a small coin, but I prefer to power it through the 9V barrel connection. Powered using a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power, I must say that the TC Electronic Booster is exceptionally clean, no hiss or hum or anything else, just the guitar's tone boosted to your liking. And it can be boosted up to 26dB, much more than what's needed to make your solo cut through the mix.

The Gain section can be used to act like an overdrive pedal. You will not get any distortion out of it, but some good overdrive quite similar to a vintage tube amp. I found this very useful. In other words it's basically another overdrive pedal on my pedalboard.

The Bass and Treble knobs proved to be very functional, especially when using different guitars with different tonewoods and pickups. No matter what I plugged into this booster, I easily managed to get a well balanced tone. To further enhance the EQ section, TC Electronic put a little toggle switch which will shift this pedal in three different modes. All three modes are distinct and pretty useful.

In a nutshell, this little pedal is packed with features: excellent clean tone (and plenty of it), useful overdrive, sensitive EQ, three different modes, true bypass, and bright LED, all housed in a very solid construction. What more could I want?

The mid boost thickens the sound up wonderfully, especially if using gain or another overdrive or distortion pedal. The gain goes up to light-medium overdrive, so great for edge of breakup or some dirty Blues sound, but my main application is to further drive the other overdrive pedals on the board and combine them together to get different pallettes of overdrive and distortion. If you leave the switch at the middle position, it gives a transparebnt boost/overdrive great for solos. I hardly use the fat setting of the switch, not because I don't like the sound, but because I usually tend to not go too bassy with my sound, but to each his own. Excellent pedal regrdless of the price, and for the price even better yet!

I use this booster to boost my '72 Marshall superbass with a bit of added dirt that pedal offers as well as for boosting my Marshall DSL 100 hr.
The EQ and the three modes it offers can make this pedal really versitile for many applications. I play mostly hard rock, and with my superbass, which is a bass amp, it comes in handy the use of EQ, as I can nicely shave some of the bass off while I'm pushing the amp. It comes in handy as treble booster too. It is nice for boosting solos as well, with the mid boost setting. It can be kinda tubescreamer - isch, but with different flavor. I use this setting with my DSL for adding midrange and make solos sing.
If you are careful with level knob, it can nicely boost overdrive / distortion pedals as well. I used it in front of my vintage, the original, marshall guv'nor, and it worked nicely. It is also pretty quiet, studio use was absolutely no issue.
It really don't have any cons, it's built to last and sounds wonderful. It's just the matter of taste, as all things sound conserning. It fits my needs, it probably will yours too.

I use this pedal as purely a clean boost in the effects loop of my Friedman Runt 50 to boost the overall volume for solos. Running boosts into the front of an overdriven amp will only increase the gain, not the volume. Placing this pedal in the effects loop works like a charm.
Of course I tried all the other functions as well, and I have to say that this pedal is great value for money at 42 bucks (Oct. '19). Many tone-shaping options. Apart from the clean boost mode it also has mid boost and fat boost modes that also work well. For a tone freak like myself the multiple options are probably also its weakness. I keep tweaking.
The on/off switch doesn't look very sturdy, but I have had several pedals from this line and none have had problems with it.

A boost....I would never think this type of pedal could be such a winner.

Had the intention of buying soon a new amp but thanks to this magnificent pedal I will save a bit more for a monster amp since this little box of joy makes my amp sound like a true beast for a most affordable price. And it is just a solid state!

As soon as you plug it in, straight out of the box, the magic starts. The nobs for gain, treble, bass and boost level easily twist the sound to new heights and the little switch in between them is also is a nice quick way of getting to your sound under fat/clean/mid positions.

Was doubtful between this or the mini booster also from TC but decided on this due to the extra nobs just in case. Could not be happier with the choice, the sustain is just complete madness, I love it!

A true winner pedal, and for almost next to nothing
You will not regret having one of these boosters.