“This isn’t a remake. It's an evolution”: The DigiTech Bad Monkey broke the internet with its Klon-aping antics – now it’s back and badder than ever before

Badder Monkey Demo (DOD) - Raw, Real, and a Massive Tone! - YouTube

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DigiTech/DOD has re-launched the cult classic Bad Monkey overdrive pedal, two years after the humble stompbox broke the internet with its Klon-aping antics.

By now, the Bad Monkey shouldn’t really require an introduction. Its utterly bananas backstory was one of 2023’s most talked-about gear moments. But, just so we’re on the same page, here’s a brief crash course.

In the early 2000s, DigiTech launched an unassuming Tube Screamer-style drive named the Bad Monkey, inspired by a casual in-house brewery. It was a steady seller for a number of years, though was discontinued in 2015, and slipped into obscurity without much fanfare.

Fast-forward to 2023, Josh Scott of JHS Pedals published a blind pedal shoot-out that pitted the affordable Bad Monkey against the infamously expensive and ultra-rare Klon Centaur. The tones were borderline indistinguishable – and it triggered a guitar internet meltdown.

Prices for used Bad Monkey pedals skyrocketed. Some soared from $59 to $650. Gary Moore’s was put online for $12,633. Scott came out to address the events he’d set in motion. Players were reminded to listen with the ears and not to trends. It was all a bit weird.

After a while, everyone stopped monkeying around and life returned to normal. And, now the dust has settled on the Bad Monkey Bubble, the DigiTech/DOD brands – which were acquired and revived by Cort owner in 2022 – have returned with the Badder Monkey, a new-and-improved overdrive that kicks things up a gear.

As the company says, this “isn’t a remake – it’s an evolution”. It keeps the original Bad Monkey circuit, but adds two more – Behaved and Badder – which can be mixed in parallel thanks to a patent-pending new Barrel blend control.

Behaved offers smooth drive, Badder is all about full-on grit. All these voices can be tweaked through Bananas, Curiosity and Mood controls, the latter of which moves between Grunt and Screech. There is also a toggle switch for putting these new circuits in phase or out of phase with the Bad mode, as well as a ‘Troop’ setting for smashing them all together.

There’s also a firm-first two-sided StagePlate back panel. One side features a rubber skid pad, the other has a pre-installed “hook” pad for hook & loop fastenings on pedalboards.

DigiTech has gone all-in on the Bad Monkey cheese and we are so here for it. It can be quite disorientating, truth be told. There’s a screeching ape on the front. There are monkey emblems for the toggle switch. The Troop control is named after a group of monkeys. There is a knob called ‘Bananas’. It is A Lot.

But hey, if you’re buying a DigiTech Badder Monkey, chances are you’re more than willing to sign up to A Lot. It comes with the gig. Whatever the case, it looks like a worthy follow-up chapter to one of the most bizarre footnotes in guitar gear history. Someone just needs to pit it against a Klon...

The Badder Monkey is available now for $159.

Visit DigiTech for more.