Xotic BB Preamp

[mentoneman]

i just set up my live rig for tomorrow and hit tol ch. 3 with the bb and MAN does it sound good!

i guess the equivalent would be eg 3 in module talk.

i have the gain on the channel realtively low...at noon...so by itself it is just starting to growl and bark when you hit it, and then step on the bb and wow it is a really great fat yet modern rock crunch and solo tone!

honestly it seems to shape the attack and the high frequencies of that channel perfectly, and it really doesn't add a ton of noise.

gain @ 9 oclock
volume @ noon
treble @ 1
bass @ 2-3

 

[MichaelG]

i just set up my live rig for tomorrow and hit tol ch. 3 with the bb and MAN does it sound good!

i guess the equivalent would be eg 3 in module talk.

i have the gain on the channel realtively low...at noon...so by itself it is just starting to growl and bark when you hit it, and then step on the bb and wow it is a really great fat yet modern rock crunch and solo tone!

honestly it seems to shape the attack and the high frequencies of that channel perfectly, and it really doesn't add a ton of noise.

gain @ 9 oclock
volume @ noon
treble @ 1
bass @ 2-3

I find that BB+ channel A behaves like this for most, if not all of my modules. It's a match seemingly made in heaven. Need to try that regular BB out though! Same experience with cusack screamer, but a tad less clarity and a softer edge to the distortion.

 

[richedie]

i just set up my live rig for tomorrow and hit tol ch. 3 with the bb and MAN does it sound good!

i guess the equivalent would be eg 3 in module talk.

i have the gain on the channel realtively low...at noon...so by itself it is just starting to growl and bark when you hit it, and then step on the bb and wow it is a really great fat yet modern rock crunch and solo tone!

honestly it seems to shape the attack and the high frequencies of that channel perfectly, and it really doesn't add a ton of noise.

gain @ 9 oclock
volume @ noon
treble @ 1
bass @ 2-3

I really do like it, but unfortunately I can't get the volume on the BB past about 9:00 because my Bassman channel A is so darn quiet compared to the other modules. Kind of a pain.

 

[Valtiel]

i just set up my live rig for tomorrow and hit tol ch. 3 with the bb and MAN does it sound good!

i guess the equivalent would be eg 3 in module talk.

i have the gain on the channel realtively low...at noon...so by itself it is just starting to growl and bark when you hit it, and then step on the bb and wow it is a really great fat yet modern rock crunch and solo tone!

honestly it seems to shape the attack and the high frequencies of that channel perfectly, and it really doesn't add a ton of noise.

gain @ 9 oclock
volume @ noon
treble @ 1
bass @ 2-3

I really do like it, but unfortunately I can't get the volume on the BB past about 9:00 because my Bassman channel A is so darn quiet compared to the other modules. Kind of a pain.

Is there some sort of problem with just turning the masters on the other modules down? I mean, why cant you just match the other modules volumes to the volume of Bman channel A?

 

[richedie]

Valtiel, that's what I used to do, but a few guys mentioned making sure the masters on all modules are above 10:00 and preferably 11:00 - noon to really help cook the power section(and I do notice a difference). But, I can't get them that high because I am limited by how quiet the Bassman channel A is.

Bottom line is, I could turn the SL2 channel master down to 9:00 and it still wouldn't fix the volume problem of the Bassman. For that reason, my BB is always stuck on volume - 9:00.

 

[Valtiel]

There are quite a few other amps on the market that have a control layout similar to the MOD50 (Gain, Preamp Volume, Maser Volume) and the consensus seems to be that running the Preamp volume higher and running the master lower to achieve the same volume as vise versa dosent seem to matter that much. And even if it did, the overriding factor here is that you say you have a volume problem, that takes precedence over any supposed tonal differences.

 

[3 Mile Stone]

Try forgetting about numbers and just set it to where it sounds good.

 

[richedie]

Thanks guys, bottom line is that the Bassman channel A sets the volume for the entire head. I set the chanel A as loud as possible and then match all the other modules and channel volumes to match. With this, the highest I can get the BB is about 9:00. So, it is what it is - it is a shame because the BB does sound more open when up to noon or so. At that level there is uncontrollable noise with the high gain modules anyway.

Valtiel, that makes sense because I used to gig with the Mod 50 and had the high gain modules at 9:00 and it sounded great!