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Post by guitarboy02451 on Dec 10, 2006 8:32:35 GMT -7
Hmmm. you all got me thinking now. I bought a BB but returned it, but I never really got to put it through it's paces. The amp was really at a low vol and I didn't do a good job testing.
I think I might revisit this pedal given the fact I'm very happy with my AC and RC. I wish I could here more clips cause the ones on xotic site aren't that focused.
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Post by skydog958 on Dec 10, 2006 9:51:06 GMT -7
It's definately a medium+ volume pedal. A lot depends on how the amp is set, whether you are adding the BB's gain to tube distortion and speaker breakup. Giv'er another shot!
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Post by Curt on Dec 10, 2006 13:04:29 GMT -7
The BB is a great box. A bud of mine is a music teacher and Friday night they started a deal where any interested kids could hang after all lessons for a "School of Rock" kinda thing to teach them how to play in a band. I was asked top come join and I brought my Vibrolux 'cause it's light and turned on the BB with a Tele and we did all kinds of shuffles and grooves and Blues and Rock, everyone there was like "How do you get that sound" This was all at conversation level and it still killed on tone....I opened a few young ears and eye's as they were stompin' on switches instead of listening ya know? Just set up and play ! Cool to be a part of. Oh yeah..this was about the BB..well it was a big part of my tone, love the Box.
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Dec 10, 2006 14:40:47 GMT -7
The BB is a great box. A bud of mine is a music teacher and Friday night they started a deal where any interested kids could hang after all lessons for a "School of Rock" kinda thing to teach them how to play in a band. I was asked top come join and I brought my Vibrolux 'cause it's light and turned on the BB with a Tele and we did all kinds of shuffles and grooves and Blues and Rock, everyone there was like "How do you get that sound" This was all at conversation level and it still killed on tone....I opened a few young ears and eye's as they were stompin' on switches instead of listening ya know? Just set up and play ! Cool to be a part of. Oh yeah..this was about the BB..well it was a big part of my tone, love the Box. Wow, cool idea. Wish they had something like that around here!
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swampstomper
Full Member
The only thing that really worried me was the ether.
Posts: 136
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Post by swampstomper on Dec 10, 2006 15:26:15 GMT -7
Hmmm. you all got me thinking now. I bought a BB but returned it, but I never really got to put it through it's paces. The amp was really at a low vol and I didn't do a good job testing. I think I might revisit this pedal given the fact I'm very happy with my AC and RC. I wish I could here more clips cause the ones on xotic site aren't that focused. I read over at the Gear Page that Xotic will be releasing a BB Preamp Plus in a few months. Don't know if it's true or not, but supposedly it will have a few additional features. Might be worth waiting for if it didn't seem right for you the first time around.
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Post by Curt on Dec 10, 2006 19:46:26 GMT -7
The BB is a great box. A bud of mine is a music teacher and Friday night they started a deal where any interested kids could hang after all lessons for a "School of Rock" kinda thing to teach them how to play in a band. I was asked top come join and I brought my Vibrolux 'cause it's light and turned on the BB with a Tele and we did all kinds of shuffles and grooves and Blues and Rock, everyone there was like "How do you get that sound" This was all at conversation level and it still killed on tone....I opened a few young ears and eye's as they were stompin' on switches instead of listening ya know? Just set up and play ! Cool to be a part of. Oh yeah..this was about the BB..well it was a big part of my tone, love the Box. Wow, cool idea. Wish they had something like that around here! Yeah Steve, I really enjoyed it. I'm already looking forward to next week.
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Post by hdahs143 on Dec 19, 2006 9:31:35 GMT -7
Well, I've spent a little time with mine now, experimenting with position on the pedal board, settings, etc., and here's what I've concluded: GREAT PEDAL!! ;D ;D.
After trying it in various spots on the board, I've got it first right after the tuner, and before the Keeley compressor. As most of you Keeley guys know, Robert likes the compressor after the drive pedals. I'd tried it that way, but with the pedals I had, I preferred the traditional method of compressor before the drive pedals. With the BB I like it after the BB, and before the rest of the drive pedals. The BB is very transparent, with ZERO MID HUMP and a bit more present than my other pedals, which to me at times sounded a bit edgy, and the compressor after the BB seems to smooth and warm things up a bit. So here's the order on the board: Shure ULXS14 Wireless>Strobostomp in TB>Xotic BB>Keeley compressor>Addrock Boostmaster>Keeley BD2>Fulltone FD2>Fulltone Choralflange>Line 6 DL4> EB volume pedal>amp.
The BB does the heavier, saturated stuff very well, but it has an unbelievable clarity to the grit of the distortion, you really hear separation of notes and its not muddy at all. It is also a great lead sound, with or without any of the other pedals. The Keeley BD2 on after the BB is especially nice. I've also found myself turning the compressor OFF for leads at times, and am amazed at how good that sounds.
This pedal does one thing that I wasn't expecting. With a strat type neck pickup, this pedal gets the best pushed neck pickup sound (ala SRV) that I've heard short of playing a great old fender amp dimed. It's really magical, and you dont want to stop playing. This is really a great pedal!
Thanks to everyone posting their opinions on this pedal, and especially Dan Weller for his detailed reviews that gave us all GAS
Merry Christmas to all and God Bless!
Harold
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messenger
Full Member
life is good!
Posts: 194
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Post by messenger on Dec 19, 2006 10:16:10 GMT -7
hdahs143, noticed that you had your volume pedal last in the chain.was wondering if i was missing somthing.i have mine at the frontend.can you enlighten me please.thanks
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Post by hdahs143 on Dec 19, 2006 10:46:48 GMT -7
hdahs143, noticed that you had your volume pedal last in the chain.was wondering if i was missing somthing.i have mine at the frontend.can you enlighten me please.thanks I have mine last before the amp so that when I'm using the volume pedal, all I'm doing is raising or lowering the the whole system volume. If you use the volume pedal first, you constantly change the signal level being fed to the pedals, which changes gain levels, how distortion sounds, etc. It's the same effect as using the guitars volume knob. At the end of the chain, when you have a sound you like, i.e. how much drive, grit etc., your not changing that at all, you're merely adjusting how loud it is. Besides, having one volume attenuating device right after the other (guitar>volume pedal), is a bit redundant, and diminshes the effectiveness of either. Since I've always used an amps clean channel, and pedals for dirt, this has always worked well for me. Of course, opinions vary! Hope this helps Harold
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messenger
Full Member
life is good!
Posts: 194
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Post by messenger on Dec 19, 2006 13:28:22 GMT -7
hdahs143, that sounds a whole lot better than what i did.makes sense. thank you & MERRY CHRISTMAS
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Post by (8^D) on Dec 20, 2006 12:48:33 GMT -7
There's always plasma donation. ;D
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Post by Strato on Dec 21, 2006 11:49:34 GMT -7
There's always plasma donation. ;D Is that the one that pays? Exactly how much $$ are we talking about here? ;D
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Post by guitarboy02451 on Dec 23, 2006 9:13:25 GMT -7
It only takes money, right? I just blew alot of money on an Xbox 360 Strato, got to get the priorities straight. ;-)
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Post by skydog958 on Dec 23, 2006 10:32:10 GMT -7
I stopped playing video games shortly after getting serious with guitar (I used to be a big gamer). Now with all these new systems coming out I'm feeling the pain, so I don't blame you Strato! At least you didn't blow $600 on the PS3.
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Post by mudskipper on Dec 23, 2006 11:05:51 GMT -7
i've got 2 Wii's sitting right here in a box.
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Post by skydog958 on Dec 23, 2006 11:18:02 GMT -7
DANG! I want one. I've actually watched people play the new Zelda game for several hours (I was playing poker at the time) and it looks amazing. Haven't played a Wii yet myself.
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Post by mudskipper on Dec 23, 2006 12:05:08 GMT -7
DANG! I want one. I've actually watched people play the new Zelda game for several hours (I was playing poker at the time) and it looks amazing. Haven't played a Wii yet myself. yeah, it's pretty fun. good luck finding one at retail stores, though. i think the shortage still continues. i'm affiliated with Nintendo, so i pulled the string to get them. i actually didn't get them for myself. a couple of friends wanted them but couldn't find them anywhere. so i figured i'll help them out.
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Post by skydog958 on Dec 23, 2006 12:25:05 GMT -7
That's my excuse on not considering getting one! That's quite a perk you've got being affiliated.
P.S. you'll definitely make your friends happy!! Invisible karma!! ;D
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Post by skydog958 on Dec 23, 2006 12:26:38 GMT -7
Oh and I still love my BB. It sounds pretty aggresive with my amp though because I set it to crunch. The G12H30s also sound gritty when pushed.
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Post by jakeddy on Dec 23, 2006 18:06:42 GMT -7
Try a clean boost in front of the BB. I use a MXR 401 (whatever, it's the Bob Bradshaw thing) makes that BB even MORE!!!!
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Post by jakeddy on Dec 23, 2006 18:11:38 GMT -7
hdahs143, noticed that you had your volume pedal last in the chain.was wondering if i was missing somthing.i have mine at the frontend.can you enlighten me please.thanks I have mine last before the amp so that when I'm using the volume pedal, all I'm doing is raising or lowering the the whole system volume. If you use the volume pedal first, you constantly change the signal level being fed to the pedals, which changes gain levels, how distortion sounds, etc. It's the same effect as using the guitars volume knob. At the end of the chain, when you have a sound you like, i.e. how much drive, grit etc., your not changing that at all, you're merely adjusting how loud it is. Besides, having one volume attenuating device right after the other (guitar>volume pedal), is a bit redundant, and diminshes the effectiveness of either. Since I've always used an amps clean channel, and pedals for dirt, this has always worked well for me. Of course, opinions vary! Hope this helps Harold Amen brother! A volume after the OD's is the way to go. Wide open, with the guitar rolled back= good bluesy tones or crank the guitar and knock the pedal back and you can have cranked tones at lower volume than your cleans, all with just one pedal. Like having your cake and eating it too. Than of coarse you can always step all the way down too, ;D
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Post by guitarboy02451 on Dec 23, 2006 20:07:14 GMT -7
I stopped playing video games shortly after getting serious with guitar (I used to be a big gamer). Now with all these new systems coming out I'm feeling the pain, so I don't blame you Strato! At least you didn't blow $600 on the PS3. I played Pong and Tank once... does that count as being a gamer? :-) But getting back on subject, I have to admit the AC Booster adds serious cholestoral to my tone. My Zendrive is nice, but I think The AC is similar but different in a good way.
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Post by skydog958 on Dec 24, 2006 10:08:23 GMT -7
I've been thinking about an OD that thickens my strat's sound. It's really bright, so when I boost it with my BB it sounds clanky even on the bass strings. Does it thicken up the sound without taking away the high end?
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Post by funkyjazz82 on Dec 28, 2006 15:10:07 GMT -7
"Wow" is definitely the word to describe the BB preamp Xotic pedal, i bought mine back in May '06 and I haven't even searched for another overdrive/distortion pedal since....there's no need to, its definiltey the best for playing rock, blues, jazz fusion, even metal believe it or not, but i only use it for everything except metal. I've gotten many compliments on its tone from my fellow musicians and friends. Definitely worth the $173 i paid for.
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Post by DaSkip on Dec 30, 2006 9:31:56 GMT -7
I want to try the BB, I received my Analogman King of Tone v4 about two weeks ago and it is fantastic. I've got an Eternity and a Fab-50 on the board with the KOT. I might be able do a swap with a MagicBoy vibe with a little extra cash for a BB. I need to thin my pedals down. I post them here first at the Z Emporium when I've settled in on the keepers.
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Post by funkyjazz82 on Jan 3, 2007 8:53:07 GMT -7
I bought my Xotic BB Preamp pedal back in May and all I have to say is I'll never play/buy another overdrive pedal ever again-the BB completely took my breath away the first time I heard it. I've never looked back and I'm still playing it 3 times a week gigging. With my strat, Maz 38 Sr, my solos come flying out into the air and into peoples veins and skin.....its that good!! Definitely worth the money. If you dont have one, I suggest buying one immediately.
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Post by Lefty on Jan 3, 2007 10:28:18 GMT -7
I guess I'm the only one who loved the BB at first and fell out of love with it eventually. It just didn't "do-it" for me after a while.
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Post by Curt on Jan 3, 2007 10:45:35 GMT -7
The love is failing for me now too..so is the pedal ! my tone started sucking at sound check NYE, so much that the sound man, who's a bud, approached me and asked where I went on my Solo's??? could not figure it out 'til in th middle of a tune the BB died I reached down and cranked the Keeley BD-2 and it was cookin' through the 'Rati...guess I gotta send the BB in for warranty?? Bummer. I've had trouble with feedback ever since I got my BB, if the gain is above 11:00 it feeds back..perhaps I just got a dud?
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Post by Lefty on Jan 3, 2007 11:03:54 GMT -7
Funny, some pedals will feedback like crazy with my Maz Jr. even with buckers, others don't. Could be certain freqs that accentuated by the amp/pedal combo that just don't work. I like feedback, but only if I can control it.
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Jan 3, 2007 11:51:43 GMT -7
The love is failing for me now too..so is the pedal ! my tone started sucking at sound check NYE, so much that the sound man, who's a bud, approached me and asked where I went on my Solo's??? could not figure it out 'til in th middle of a tune the BB died I reached down and cranked the Keeley BD-2 and it was cookin' through the 'Rati...guess I gotta send the BB in for warranty?? Bummer. I've had trouble with feedback ever since I got my BB, if the gain is above 11:00 it feeds back..perhaps I just got a dud? One thing I really don't like about the BB is that black goo all over the PC board. If it fails, you really have no choice but to send it back. That's not real user friendly. But so far I'm still digging the pedal.
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