New/ Old Favorite Drive Pedal - Xotic Effects BB Preamp

[@dannyllerenatv8635]

I love the BB Preamp, it sounds absolutely magical slamming the front end of a Klon(e).

[@paulcowart3174]

Good to know I just ordered a BB and already have a RYRA Klone that I've been pushing with an Exotic super clean boost Thanks for the tip now I can use the clean boost in the clean loop of my old(90's) original Tonemaster The clean channel is Showman clean and it really works well Gives an edge of break up clean tone that way

[@aminorerror]

Wow good call on the higher voltage, that was like night and day! Thanks for the tip, I’m getting one next week 🤘🏻

[@TheStudioRats]

Glad I could help

[@sollyharr]

You're a good guy I can tell straight away..nice chops and info too...keep em coming!.

[@TheStudioRats]

Cheers Chris!

[@jcserrano1663]

You make it sound beautiful Paul

[@douglasnewman4163]

*Really* nice sounding pedal, Paul. Thanks for your great playing as well.

[@TheStudioRats]

Thank you too!

[@Guitar_Smasher]

Awesome pedal and playing! Xotic recommends running it on 15 volts rather than 18 volts. Their voltage doubler adapter allows you to switch between the two voltage settings. BTW, Xotic also claims that "bb" stands for "better blues."

[@jordanlaughlin4060]

Yeah 15watts on the standard version sounds great. Opens it up a bit but retains a bit of compression making it great to clean up on the volume pot without losing too much volume.

[@Bognerman14]

How does the voltage doubler run the pedal at 15v? The pedal runs at 9v and I have quite a few of those Xotic voltage doubles - but that would be 18v.

[@stevethebeeline44]

Cioks DC7 will let you pick 9/12/15/18v on any output. Handy!

[@goswo]

From the cows own mouth: “Blues Breaker” 😀

[@JohnMcGFrance]

I have the BB Comp. It has options for the BB preamp tone but also a more compressed option and a no compression option. I bought it half price in a sale a few years back. Never been off my board. Very versatile pedal. My only complaint is the position of the power input socket on the side right next to patch lead out jack. Not very convenient on a pedalboard but it’s a minor gripe.

[@MickeyMousehouse]

The bb comp switches between the bb AT ( in the video) and the less compressed version. The original bb and the At bb are more compressed, the later versions had less compression. Andy liked the older version 1. I regretfully sold my At, but managed to get the bb comp. Really, really great pedals IMHO

[@peterdvideos]

Love the BB Preamp.

[@roaddogrob9102]

Wonderfull video. Thank you. I own this pedal but this video really brings it to life. Very cool!👍

[@tomthumb4325]

Great demo sir well explained coupled with great playing greetings from Bonnie Scotland

[@ChristopherDowning]

People who've opened these up and done detailed circuit diagrams from actually looking at it, say it's based on a TS - but it has the mid boost of the TS taken out - and you can boost Bass and Treble by 15 dbs. So it will sound kinda like a TS but has more sonic range. I have both and what has been said by circuit experts sounds right when you play them. You can make this sound like a TS but, it's way more flexible as you can add more gain/overdrive and adjust the treble and bass rather than just a tone knob on the TS. But it also has quite a lot of compression that the TS doesn't have - so that's a plus or minus depending on what you want. I'm keeping mine for all time because like the Studio Rats I find it covers so much ground in one pedal. It uses more battery than a TS but you're still getting plenty of live time out of a single 9 v battery - about 30 hours at 15 ma. if the battery is something like 500 mahrs.

[@organjoe]

Nice demo - just wanted to hear more neck pickup samples.

[@alexnw1986]

The first version will take 15v. They sell a 'voltage doubler' which you can plug a standard 9v tap in to, and it ups the signal to either 15 or 18 via a little switch. Somewhere on their site there is a contents table telling you what voltages all of the Xotic pedals (including legacy ones) take.

[@xttocx]

P.s absolutely excellent demo and refreshingly wonderful playing.

[@srsanders455]

Paul that BB sounds really nice and transparent, a good match for an amp you already like the sound of.

[@TheStudioRats]

Cheers Stephen , it’s a cool little pedal.

[@ryans9029]

Definitely not transparent

[@aarontsangaris4929]

Great demo, thank you!

[@xttocx]

I run this to push the front end of a Diezel Lil' Fokker & Engl Invader 2 dual rig as a high gain boost.. Shows you how massively versatile this thing is.

[@timothyjoshuapangan2675]

Thank you for the tip. I going to try mine with 18V.

[@LukasDozer]

Can you tell me how you getting such great sustain? And do you mind telling me the 304 pedals you have on your board there including the BB? I cannot see it that well and thank you for your video! Cheers!

[@luckylicks3497]

I think it was in one of their very first ads, right before the Tremendous Trio ad, the names are introduced as Real Clean, Almost Clean and Big British. For almost 25 years these pedals have been going by their initials. It didn't take long before the Korean manual translator added the words Blues Breaker where introducing the BB Preamp. This is my take on it and it took a while to figure this out, thanks to the Wayback Machine. Even Andy's Pro Guitar Shop video says this is a Blues Breaker, but even though it is an "early video" the BB had been around for quite a while. These Japanese companies don't really respond in any way to anything that's going on in the English speaking world. Who even knows about the original team that came up with these circuits?

[@murky9554]

Love your channel, great playing and great demos! ...I would point out one thing, regarding the "neutral pedal setting", these settings depend on many variables and are not directly inherent to the pedal itself nor easily transferable across different player's rigs...from the technical point of view, in many settings perceived as neutral what happens is the pedal still does something, but the particular player with their particular setup may not hear it at the very moment...example: say the pedal in the settings perceived as neutral still technically cuts some bass, but the guitar being played does not produce these frequencies in the first place...then a different player with a different guitar (maybe a bass) tries these settings and experience a very different result, maybe far from neutral...my main point is that to different players regarding their different setups, the neutral pedal settings will most probably mean very different knob placements...more often than not. Cheers from the Czech Republic :)

[@MrBossei]

Wonderful pedal!! 🤩🤩

[@petergraham9267]

LOVE my BB (mk1).....my first ever "boutique" pedal as it was back when I got mine, and it's never left my board since! It's 9V and I've never found any shortcomings in it at all! This Blues Breaker (BB) or Better Blues as they now style it, pedal led to me getting a load of other Xotic pedals (EP, RCx2, SL, AC, and the weird and wonderful RoboTalk auto wah/envelope filter thingy) all but the AC being on my board to this day - wonderful pedals, much out of fashion these days, sadly.

[@kosmicwizard]

It's not a Bluesbreaker circuit, but the baxandall eq makes it a lot more versatile than a traditional ts style od. Cheers.

[@AllofJudea]

I have the caline clone and it sounds amazing. Have to get the original now

[@kosmicwizard]

I haven't tried the caline version, but when I ABed the bb pre at with an ehx crayon, the ehx was better than the Xotic.

[@heatherdanner22]

I purchased a Duellist after your video… this BB sounds great! Knowing these two pedals, would you recommend having both, or stick to the Duellist alone? And if both, how would you use them? Thanks! Bill

[@TheStudioRats]

I would use the duellist on its own.

[@baldybonce29]

Love the tone 😎

[@TheStudioRats]

Cheers Nick. It’s a great little pedal.

[@daysleeper3910]

Just got mine out of the cupboard again tonight... I also just found out that you can run it at 18v which sounds wonderful. Klon > BB is sooo JUICY!. ;)

[@M.T.G.]

Excellent video! Does the new version "V1.5 " have a transparent boost like a BB AT? Thanks!

[@ryans9029]

Neither do

[@davidbuzzin426]

👍🇺🇲❤9 VOLTS SOUNDS BEST, GREAT DEMO.....THX & GOD BLESS ❤🎸

Great tone! Is it the surf green or seafoam green color? Thanks.

[@pedrolicks8316]

excellent demo, BB means Big British, it can make brown sound character too..

[@fidore_PJ]

Blues Breaker

[@guitarcolor]

Com certeza ele é muito mais próximo do Bluesbreaker do que do Tubescreamer muito bom vídeo parabéns

[@fastfrankblack]

What’s the amp here though? The base tone sounds amazing. Like basically everything you touch!

[@tbsq1114]

What's your signal chain?

[@jeffroq]

Great demo Paul. I have long been a fan of the BB pedal. I think the AT version has more compression than the standard. I settled on the Custom comp version with the 3 position switch, gives standard BB, no compression and AT level compression. Used prices are really good as well. Cheers for the great content.

[@TheStudioRats]

Damn I wish I knew about that one. Looks like I’ll be trading up.

[@jeffroq]

@@TheStudioRats there are a few about on used market. Xotic stopped making them a couple of years ago. I was lucky enough to get one new when there was a sale at Andertons.

[@metalfather8139]

thanks for the 18 volt tip

[@TheStudioRats]

No problem 👍

[@j.b.4867]

Hi Paul, GREAT Video! What's the difference between this version and the older, black knob version.? Also, I will be using whichever one I go with on a SSS Strat, so would one be "better" than the other?

[@MickeyMousehouse]

The BB Andy Timmons pedals ( both original and the reissue) are based on the original Bb that had more compression. Xotic reduced the compression in the later bb pedals. The bb comp can switch between these circuits as well as no compression.

[@MickeyMousehouse]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/rnisdYOYd7eAetU

[@djc5897]

I don’t know but mine seems to produce a lot of white noise in the back ground coming through my amp it’s kind of annoying

[@endezeichengrimm]

Oooh yeah. Max gain is the way to go! \m/

[@Felipe-pb9gu]

It's based on a tubescreamer not a Bluesbreaker, that's what his circuit says

[@TheStudioRats]

The BB stands for Bluesbreaker. It's not a Bluesbreaker pedal circuit, but rather a nod to the sounds of the Bluesbreaker amp which was a JTM45

[@ryans9029]

​@@TheStudioRatsit is LITERALLY a tubescreamer circuit, with added output stage and two band EQ. But you are correct.. it imitates a Marshall more than a TS does. 👍

[@mikormichele]

What setup are you using for this pedal tests? maybe the boss gt? cheers!

[@TheStudioRats]

I was using my divided by 13 rsa23 into the two notes torpedo studio

[@paulcowart3174]

@@TheStudioRats great amp

[@rajeshhkkapoor8549]

will it chug on bass????

[@EWhite-95]

Anyone else had experience of using one of these at 18volts? I can’t find anything from Xotic themselves saying you can run it at 18v. Don’t want to risk blowing mine up when I get it

[@CentaurusRelax314]

Does it make sense to get one of these to run into a Kemper? Or do you get the same result from an RSA amp profile and adding gain or using a built-in boost? Although this is sometimes a ‘transparent’ boost, it seems like the pedal adds it’s own character (some of that ‘Timmons Tone’) when the gain is up a bit.

[@Jamz9132]

Any good with the katana? Been thinking about this one. But only just bought electro harmonix Glove. Can you have too many drive pedals?

[@TheStudioRats]

I haven’t tried it with the Katana yet, but your right you can’t have too many drives.

[@timolsen8252]

My favourite has always been the original BB. How does the AT compare?

[@TheStudioRats]

It sounded more or less the same to me.

[@ryans9029]

The AT BB is the reissue of the original black knob BB preamp

[@fr201]

@@ryans9029 Why would they reissue the BB Preamp if it never went out of production?

[@ryans9029]

@@fr201 it's the early version... They tweaked the circuit... For less compression. Then re-named the original circuit the AT BB preamp...

[@niltoneduardoalayochavez4395]

Greetings. Did you have the opportunity to play the bb preamp standard (orange)?. Could you tell me what sound differences are there between this and the AT version?. Thanks for answering.

[@TheStudioRats]

Yes I did, it sounds more or less the same to me.

[@Bognerman14]

It's a tweaked tube screamer circuit.

[@barukpj6020]

I really thank you for the tip cause I HATE WITH ALL MY HEART compressed drives at all... My complain with bb preamp standard version(orange) is that it is change the sound a lot, much coloration and not a transparent drive, not organic, but this version BB AT seems doesn't color the sound seems to be very organic and I can fix the compress tone with a 18v. THANKS A LOT DUDE I really love your demo and hints.... God Bless you

[@paulcowart3174]

Yes good to know seeing how I just ordered one a couple days ago Someone commented that Xotic recommends running at 15V so will see

[@wilsonpicket8505]

I have the exact guitar, same color too. I don't sound like you, though....ha ha

[@Ihsan_neff]

Very similar to the sd1

[@TimothyGonzalez-i5c]

Cummerata Stravenue

[@BeverlyHoltman-h6e]

Beatty Villages

[@BITESIZEJONES]

BB is my least favorite it's a little too hot and boxy. The AC is perfect when dialed in correctly.

[@dougsmith6648]

Dont be fooled ....Just examine the "High $$ " amps and Cabs he is using....its a $180 "pedal" played about $4000 worth of Amp and Speaker Cab.....How about just the Pedal going through a "Simple" Amp....like a Fender ....it doesn't sound anything like it !!!!

[@TheStudioRats]

No one is fooling anybody Doug.

[@ryans9029]

Wrong