BBE Pedals: fair reviews

darcym

Based on the Vertex wah sham, it seems the BBE pedal brand in general has taken not only a reputation boost (to be honest it wasn't that bad in the first place, I rate their trem pedal) but a price boost.

If you own a BBE, which pedal do you have and how would you honestly rate it in terms of quality/fair price.

allicio

I thought you'd left????

not_the_dj

I briefly had a Mind Bender Chorus...very noisy pedal (yes I tried it just on a battery) unusable, maybe it was faulty but I have since seen other people mention it online.

I took it back.

exocet

I bought the Ben Wah after the profile boost that it received via the Vertex scandal.

I'm very impressed - it's exactly as described in the reviews. The sound is very smooth "vintage vocal style" and the build quality appears to be very good.

As for the price - it cost me £130 shipped from Thomann. Not sure what price was before the recent shenanigans but I consider it to be fair value rather than "cheap".

FelineGuitars

Maybe Vertex were always a subdivision of BBE - quietly waiting to enhance the rep of the BBE product

exocet

I like your thinking

FelineGuitars;359756" said:

Maybe Vertex were always a subdivision of BBE - quietly waiting to enhance the rep of the BBE product

Heartfeltdawn

FelineGuitars said:

Maybe Vertex were always a subdivision of BBE - quietly waiting to enhance the rep of the BBE product

...and Behringer do the same for Boss... 

Dave_Mc

exocet said:

As for the price - it cost me £130 shipped from Thomann. Not sure what price was before the recent shenanigans but I consider it to be fair value rather than "cheap".

I haven't tried them, but yeah at European prices they aren't exactly what I'd call "cheap", either- at least compared to what they go for in the USA where they probably do qualify as that (or at least as "reasonably good value").

dogload

I used to have a Green Screamer TS-alike. It was OK but had too large a footprint to justify a place on my board. I sold it for the same as I paid which was a rather good value 45 quid.*

I was rather disappointed that it wasn't as goods as the software version (I have a virtual suite of all the BBE stomp boxes), although I think I'd like to try it now that I am using my Selmer T'n'B rather than a tranny amp.

As an aside, I thought it looked fantastic with the Roy Lichtenstein graphic.

*I think they do seem to be rather over-priced over here.

TheMarlin

The Boosta Grande is one of my favourite boost pedals ever.  Nice clean boots, capable of driving the amp really hard, all with silence and no change to your tone.

Fab pedal.

Marlin

Paul_C

TheMarlin said:

The Boosta Grande is one of my favourite boost pedals ever.  Nice clean boots, capable of driving the amp really hard, all with silence and no change to your tone.

Fab pedal.

Marlin

ThePrettyDamned

darcym;24080" said:

Based on the Vertex wah sham, it seems the BBE pedal brand in general has taken not only a reputation boost (to be honest it wasn't that bad in the first place, I rate their trem pedal) but a price boost.If you own a BBE, which pedal do you have and how would you honestly rate it in terms of quality/fair price.

I have tried the chorus, it's a super seasick one. The first one I tried was an early one with no graphic and was noisy as all hell, the second one was fine though. Great sounding chorus, with a vibe switch, fully analogue and really thick.

However, try before you buy - lots of noisy ones around apparently, although BBE say it was just the early ones.

I've also tried the black one that's a metal distortion. Not a terrible pedal for super saturated, tight crunch but not my first pick. Not ampy sounding, more like a rat but higher gain and tighter.

The green screamer is a tubescreamer.

They do a twin delay pedal that's really nice, the two timer. Not my kinda thing but a wonderful sounding pedal.

gubble

Tried a mates green screamer and it complimented my ac15 better than any other drive pedal I owned at the time

Voxman

I have a bbe boosta grand and a bbe sonic stomp maximiser. Both excellent pedals although they are a little larger than standard boss stomp boxes. I did have a problem with the bbessm in that the jack sockets literally fell apart and a friend of mine at Vox very kindly replaced the sockets for me.

daveyh

I have a Tremor trem pedal, nicely built and sounds great.

John_A

Used to have a green screamer, worked fine, well build and sounded like every other tubescreamer copy but was twice as big

monquixote

I didn't realise they owned (or were owned by not sure) G&L. 

I always hear good stuff about BBE, but don't see much of their gear around.

Does anyone know what the Sonic Maximiser actually does?

ThePrettyDamned

I really want to try a Ben wah.

The reviews of them were mostly good, and the reviews of the vertex axis were that it was the best wah ever - so even if you average the two styles of review (lol impartial my arse) it comes out as an excellent wah pedal - at any price point.

I actually had a right laugh reading the axis wah reviews, and comparing them to Ben wah reviews (best wah ever vs sounds good for the money).

exocet

The YouTube clip that shows the Ben Wah is very representative of the tones produced with a clean amp.

Voxman

monquixote said:

I didn't realise they owned (or were owned by not sure) G&L. 

I always hear good stuff about BBE, but don't see much of their gear around.

Does anyone know what the Sonic Maximiser actually does?

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It's kind of like an EQ but different.  My understanding of the theory behind it (and I'm not a tech) is that guitar speakers are inefficient from the perspective that they are trying to handle all the frequency ranges thrown at them at the same time ie highs and lows and even with the best amps/speakers the speaker response is essentially a 'compromise'.  What the BBESSM does is to slightly alter the speed at which high and low frequencies are  processed and reach the speaker so that the speaker can distinguish and better 'process' those frequencies. Its essentially a speaker 'phase' correction pedal.

Whatever the 'science' (and its a very clever piece of kit)  the BBESSM works beautifully. It's like taking a blanket off your amp that you never knew was there.  It gives way better clarity, definition, and punch, and a bigger more '3D' type tone (its hard to describe in words).  It can be used either in front of your amp or in the FX loop.  I tend to use mine in the FX loop of most of my amps because I think it works better there but YMMV.  Its the type of unit that you don't actually realise is on until you turn it off.  If you incorporate it into a pedal chain, it should go right at the end for best results.  Re settings, there are 2 controls 'Lo Contour' & 'Process' - I tend to find best results are with both set between 5-7.

A lot of folk sometimes struggle with getting their amp to punch through the band mix and think their amp doesn't have enough volume when in fact its not the volume but the tonal definition that's the problem ie the amp is 'muddy'. They can spend a lot of money on changing tubes and speakers to improve their tone and sometimes still struggle.  The BBESSM can provide a huge uplift in tonal quality in a reasonably priced compact unit that can be used easily with any rig.  There are demo's on you-tube, some better than others, but here's a couple.  The 1st vid demos the tonal difference better than the 2nd but the 2nd vid explains the pedal better.  It's hard to come across in a video but the difference 'in the room' and in a band mix is very significant and IMHO would be a pedal everyone could benefit incorporating into their rig.

TheMarlin

I've got a sonic stomp, but if I add too must treble, it gets really noisy.  The one in the video doesn't seem to do that.

Still a great pedal though.