Xotic Effects BB-preamp with Mid Boost

Xotic Effects shouldn’t be a secret to anyone that has their nose in the boutique effects pedal marketplace. They’ve already made quite a name for themselves with the BB, AC, and RC boosters as well as the often heralded EP booster.

This particular offering is from Xotic’s Custom Shop line that also features a BB and an AC with Compression toggle as well as a few signature pedals developed with Andy Timmons and Scott Henderson.

The enclosure is a standard issue brushed aluminium case with the screen-printed Xotic plate on top. So yeah, it’s pretty (if you find that sort of thing important). Its is True Bypass and built like a tank. I wouldn’t have any reservations about taking out to gig or on tour. Standard 9v DC power with negative tip but it will also run on a 9v battery as well. The BB circuit is built with the idea of replicating a Blues Breaker type overdrive sound and it does this as well as you can expect for a stomp box but that is really just a jumping off point for the BBMB. You have 4 standards knobs controlling the volume, gain, bass and treble plus, you have 1 additional mini knob for the mid boost. My only complaint is the mini knob. Its incredibly useful to coax a variety of tones but my fat fingers just can’t reach it easily enough to tweak it on the fly.

Guitar wise the BBMB sat well with my strat, tele, and SG but it really shined with my P90 equipped LP Junior into a slightly modded Marshall DSL401 on the clean channel. The tones were pure rock and roll from the outset. I started with everything at 12 o’clock and did some tweaking from there. I ultimately arrived at my favorite settings (shown in the pic). This allowed me to control the amount of gain from from gritty to ‘about to break’ with the volume knob. Xotic’s tone controls are very usable, allowing you to really shape your tone and make the pedal work with your amp and guitar selection. I bumped the mids just a shade (between 1 and 2) with the P90s but found myself looking for more with the humbuckers (settling on 3). I expected to quickly find the standard tones I love like The Who & AC/DC as well as other harder rocking sounds. The BBMB didn’t disappoint. It was a lower gain setting that surprised me a bit. Taking the gain down to 10 o’clock, I discovered a very passable Rage Against the Machine sound and coulnd’t help myself from jamming on ‘Killing in the Name’ for a minute or 3.

Long story short, the Xotic BBMB sounds great and is extremely versatile. I wouldn’t call it transparent but that isn’t always a bad thing either.

Good morning, Glory!

It’s too fuzzy, too wooly, too gainy, too Dinosaur Jr…. C’mon man!
There’s a lot of misinformation out there about overdrive, distortion, and fuzz. Which is which? Where does one stop and the other stop on the spectrum of gain? I cant pretend to answer all that in a single blog post (due largely to possessing the attention span of ferret) but maybe, just maybe I can articulate my thoughts on the matter.

We’ll start with a great sounding OD pedal from JHS Pedals

Overdrive is at the low end of the spectrum on gain. Think of a “clean” tube amp just at the point of breaking up. Sidenote: This is a sound people claim to love but few have ever actually heard it in the last several years most of the time it is being replicated by a pedal. I use BB King, John Mayer as a point of reference along with SRV. When people ask me for something in that range, I’m happy to suggest the JHS Morning Glory from the shop.

It’s a very transparent overdrive that can range from almost no grit to just a little bit. I suspect that Brad Paisley would be right at home with this little baby. This pedal falls into what I call an “always on” category. It is perfect in that you only really notice it when it you turn it off. Morning Glory is not going to color your sound or thin it out. It just adds a little “sumpthin” to the basic clean tone. It’s just not practical to crank up an 80 watt amp for most situations but the Morning Glory does the trick without angering parents, neighbors, and overly sensitive engineers.

Next time we will tackle distortion…or fuzz…or something else

-Charlie

Cusack Music Tap-A-Whirl

I don’t normally get too worked up about pedals. Wait. That’s just not true. I don’t usually get THIS worked up about a pedal. The Cusack Music Tap-A-Whirl has really impressed me!

Admittedly, I’m a sucker for a great sounding tremolo. I still dearly miss my Fender Vibrolux for this reason alone. Most trem pedals are what I would classify as “serviceable”. They sound just OK and they serve their basic purpose (which is to effect the amplitude of the signal). I’ve played a handful of slightly nice tremolos that still sound just OK but they offer a little something more option wise. Rarely do I find one that combines a great sound and a ton of useful options. The Tap A Whirl seems to be just that kind of pedal.

Options Galore: I’m a simple man. I don’t require a bunch of bells and whistles. In fact, most of the time all the extra circuitry gets in the way of a really pure signal. However, when presented with a pedal that delivers the tone and has all the knobs that we knob tweakers love so dearly, well that’s “no brainer”.

Check out the video from www.cusackmusic.com It does a great job walking through all the features and demo-ing the sounds available. The production of the video is well done so the 10 minute run time should help you avoid getting “tired-head”. Plus there’s a pretty sweet Brian May guitar featured.

Full Disclosure: I don’t own or sell Cusack Music products or receive payment from Cusack.

Enjoy!

-Charlie