Let me start by saying that I am recently digging a lot of Andy Timmons' stuffs. I think he is one of only few guitarists that has great tone. Surely he plays great too (check out his new CD called Resolution)What is it?
Okay, let's start. BB Preamp is actually a gain box that has unique characteristics. It's made by the Xotic. I use this pedal for sometime now as my primary gain box on my signal chain.
Let me talk about the sound that it can produce. This thing is capable of producing a super warm fat overdriven guitar tone that is similar to a vintage cranked EL34 based tube amps, let's just say an old Marshall. Not too much gain, but quite flexible gain control that can beef up your guitar tone while you're still running clean channel of your amp.
Another gain box? Something unique?
Let's just say almost everyone that chases tone knows Tube Screamer and what it does. Well, this is not a Tube Screamer wannabe; it's far from being called a TS clone. This thing maintains the transparency of your original tone and adds warmth and impressive amount of room to your signal. I tested this pedal using a basswood Ibanez equiped with Dimarzio Cruisers(bridge) at the neck and mid, and an AT humbucker at the bridge and it works very well on all position. The single coils get compressed tone with fair amount of treble, the humbucker gets a very sweet mid based overdriven sound with no muddiness at all.
What can I do with this pedal? What's the limit?
This thing is quite flexible, when you set the gain to a very low level, it will act almost like a clean boost, something that you can step to play clean leads without saturating your signal. If you put the gain at maximum, it will sound like a pushed crunch channel of a Marshall. It's NOT enough for metal music(I used to play metal years ago, so I know what kind of metal tone that people usually want), but if you put it in front of an already saturated amp, this thing will help your guitar to cut through the mix much easier.
Word of caution?
Beware, if you are NOT looking for extra mid on your signal or even try to cut the mid, this box will not do that job quite right. The nature of this box is to add extra mid to make warmness to your tone.
Anything else you need to know
This pedal is an IC based pedal. I believe it uses op-amp much like any other gain box in its range. It's not the one that has 12AX7 or germanium diode or whatever fancy stuffs, this is just plain IC based. It's meant not just to recreate vintage tone, but it's also going to help you get more fat warm non muddy tone that every lead guitarists want. However, if you're more interested in getting a vintage creamy fuzz sound from the sixties, I suggest check out pedals that has tubes or germanium diode in them. They'll have different feel than this box.
I personally disagree with the name "preamp". It should be BB Boost or something similar. Preamp doesn't usually come with true bypass :D...(I'm talking about TRUE true bypass, not just some true bypass, that should make you happy)
Power comes from 9V battery or the usual adapters such as BOSS and MXR.
Was it worth?
Talking about price, I got mine for $170.00. Pricey !!! But hey, it's worth every penny I spent. I personally use it side by side with an original TS808 so I can switch back and forth between two overdrive tones that I want. My personal favorite configuration: Bass 1 o'clock, treble 10 o'clock, gain around 3pm and the output will depend on your signal path but mine is set at around 9am and it already balances with the rest of my signal chain.
From 0 to 10
I give this pedal: 9.5....It will be 10 if it's bit cheaper, say in the price range of the usual TS or little bit more but not too much.
check out http://www.xotic.us
for sound clip MP3: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12709731/sound%20demo/bb%20preamp.mp3
Hopefully you find this post to be informative, I will update if necessary. Otherwise, stay tuned for more reviews. CHEERS and God bless :)
p.s: if you are a truly Andy Timmons fan, go get the AT BB preamp limited edition, it's sold out already but if you check Mike Analogman's site, you'll find it there. Just google analogman :p....Oh, you can also get BB Preamp plus too, check it out, it's a twin BB preamp in one box.
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