Review: Seymour Duncan Killing Floor High Gain Boost

Seymour Duncan’s venture into the pedal market has been an impressively successful second act for a company that was known for decades exclusively as a pickup manufacturer.

Currently Seymour Duncan offers 11 different pedals, most of which have become permanent fixtures in the pedalboards of discriminating tone connoisseurs like Joe Bonamassa and Robben Ford.

The Killing Floor high gain boost pedal—one of Duncan’s latest offerings—delivers up to 34dB of boost that will push any amp into overdrive. But there’s more than a staggering amount of boost at play here. The pedal also sweetens the tone of your rig, providing natural, amp-like dynamics and responsiveness while enhancing the most musical frequencies and harmonics.

In addition to a single chicken head knob for dialing in the desired amount of gain, the pedal offers a three-way mini toggle for boosting treble at 10kHz (to add “air” and more upper-end chime), cutting upper mids at 4.8kHz (to tame harsh single coil overtones), or keeping the tone absolutely flat.

The Killing Floor significantly improves a guitar’s tone, which will inspire many players to keep it on continuously, but it’s also great for dazzling solo tones that cut through a mix and sound rich and full.

STREET PRICE: $159
MANUFACTURER: Seymour Duncan, seymourduncan.com