XOTIC BB+

glassjaw7

Well-known member
This pedal really is two different flavors of drive/boost in one housing. Overall, the BB+ has a compressed feel on all settings, but IMO it is just the right amount. This pedal sounds great boosting most amps' dirty channels, and sounds equally great with its own gain through a nice clean channel. I especially like it through Bogners and Boogies. Because it is difficult to review the effect a boost has on an already distorted amp, I will review the BB+ as a stand alone pedal through a clean amp.

The right side of the pedal, or Channel A is your standard BB pedal with a single tone control and a compression button. When this button is engaged, the compression becomes hard and the bass response becomes a little different. The low end is more "full" with it engaged.
When the button is up or off, there is still some compression present, but it is soft with less low end, and a touch more "open" sounding. This is not a high gain sound, but can get into mid-gain bluesy breakup. It sounds sweet and 'bouncy', with just the slightest bit of grit to give it a somewhat amp-like feel and tone. It doesn't sound or feel as amp-like as say, a Fulltone OCD, but more like a cross between that pedal and a Tube Screamer.(a REALLY good one at that) It's hard to get a bad sound out of this thing, and only with the tone knob set very high does it show any hint of sounding harsh.

The left side or channel B with its own compression button and 3 band eq is a clean boost and a drive. It is punchy and has a bit more gain on tap than ch A. This side is very sparkly and with the gain set low to mid and the level up, it provides gorgeous semi-clean and in-between gain tones. This could be used for pop or country, or to give rawkers a very shimmering "almost clean" tone. With the gain dimed on this side, you can get some nice plexi-ish tones.
I actually prefer to use this channel as a boost for high gain amps as it softens the feel nicely without taking away the 'balls'.
I like this channel in itself more than channel A and more than the regular BB pedal. It has a huge range of tones with the eq and comp button, and a wider range of gain.

There is also a button which lets you select the routing of the signal. So you can choose for your signal to go from ch A-B or B-A. This changes the tone drastically and where you set it depends on how you set each channel.
Another cool feature is that you can turn both channels on simultaneously. Doing this, you can get a very saturated and compressed lead tone. You can also back the gain down on each channel to get a nice TS sound, or you can use one side to boost the other side like an amp.
Overall, this is one of my favorite drive/boosts and it will not be leaving my pedalboard (or rack shelf) anytime soon.
 
Very cool. I've been using the regular bb preamp for the last 7 years or so and it's been killer. I've often wanted a little extra at times though, so it'd be really nice to have the extra boost option. I'll have to check this out.
 
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