fdesalvo
Hero Member
- Messages
- 3,609
This is my second and final post - this am I spent 30 minutes of my life writing a glorifying review of the Xotic Effects BB Preamp only to lose the entire thing in one feld swoop.
Here's the skinny:
1. Amazingly transparent and clear - if you don't like your amp or guitar, you won't like this pedal.
2. Doesn't get saturated, only get's sweeter and smoother. Even at it's lowest gain settings, I was able to pull off harmonics I normally couldn't before.
3. Sounds good enough to kick the Timmy off of my board - and I love the Timmy.
Ok, the one thing I hate about these types of "boutique" OD pedals is that when your attack is too hard, you can hear a separate, clean note above the overdriven tone - sort of gives you the attack and feel of the clean amp and the sustained note is the overdriven signal in the background. The vintage Marshall Bluesbreaker does this, the Full-Drive 2 does this, the Timmy does this, but this one barely does it - and that's good enough for me.
The BB sounds like it integrates with my existing rig, becoming a true additional channel and it feels like a natural part of the amp. Some pedals I've owned in the past sound great alone, but when I added them into the mix expecting to augement my amp with a native sounding second or third channel, I got a tone that stood out on its own, not really blending in with the feel of the amp. This isn't one of those pedals. The damn thing also plays nice with the rest of the boys on my board. I have no complaints and love the growl it adds.
This pedal is the only one I've played through that sounds as good/if not better than the BKB Tubedriver. What puts it over the edge is the lack of wall wart, small footprint, and user friendly layout. It's probably impossible to get a bad sound from it. I started my settings with the bass/treble at 12:00 (the knobs tucked themselves into neat lil' center detents), the gain at about 9:00, and the volume about 10:00, which IIRC was unity. I took my amp off of standby, rolled up my guitar's volume and BAM! I was instantly in love with the tone and feel. I can see why Timmons loves these lil guys. If you want to know how distorted the pedal gets, listen to the Police's "Secret Journey". Do you hear that palm-muted hook that Andy Summers plays for the intro/verse? That's the upper limit, and for me, that's perfect for my needs.
Here's the skinny:
1. Amazingly transparent and clear - if you don't like your amp or guitar, you won't like this pedal.
2. Doesn't get saturated, only get's sweeter and smoother. Even at it's lowest gain settings, I was able to pull off harmonics I normally couldn't before.
3. Sounds good enough to kick the Timmy off of my board - and I love the Timmy.
Ok, the one thing I hate about these types of "boutique" OD pedals is that when your attack is too hard, you can hear a separate, clean note above the overdriven tone - sort of gives you the attack and feel of the clean amp and the sustained note is the overdriven signal in the background. The vintage Marshall Bluesbreaker does this, the Full-Drive 2 does this, the Timmy does this, but this one barely does it - and that's good enough for me.
The BB sounds like it integrates with my existing rig, becoming a true additional channel and it feels like a natural part of the amp. Some pedals I've owned in the past sound great alone, but when I added them into the mix expecting to augement my amp with a native sounding second or third channel, I got a tone that stood out on its own, not really blending in with the feel of the amp. This isn't one of those pedals. The damn thing also plays nice with the rest of the boys on my board. I have no complaints and love the growl it adds.
This pedal is the only one I've played through that sounds as good/if not better than the BKB Tubedriver. What puts it over the edge is the lack of wall wart, small footprint, and user friendly layout. It's probably impossible to get a bad sound from it. I started my settings with the bass/treble at 12:00 (the knobs tucked themselves into neat lil' center detents), the gain at about 9:00, and the volume about 10:00, which IIRC was unity. I took my amp off of standby, rolled up my guitar's volume and BAM! I was instantly in love with the tone and feel. I can see why Timmons loves these lil guys. If you want to know how distorted the pedal gets, listen to the Police's "Secret Journey". Do you hear that palm-muted hook that Andy Summers plays for the intro/verse? That's the upper limit, and for me, that's perfect for my needs.
instead of doing it on the amp. I keep telling myself 'man, I bet I could do a gig with any amp in the world if I just could have my BB in front of it...' and though that is probably not the case, I like the thought... :toothy10:
