Xotic Effects Bass BB Preamp
The very short version:
It’s a magic tone sweetener that is capable of a low gain drive.
The slightly longer version:
I tried it early in my signal chain, where the bass output is not bumped up and the signal is not very hot. With the gain at minimum, you get a clean signal. With the gain at noon, you can detect a hint of hair if you listen closely and with the gain maxed the amount of dirt I get is what most overdrive pedals yield with the gain around 9-10 o’clock.
The taste & texture of the dirt has a hint of 100W speaker driven at 120W – it’s very cranked amp feeling. The dynamics are great. The lows stay clean as long as you don’t dig in. Double stops make it sing.
There’s a two band EQ that has very useful highs, I can get a lot of definition back, but the sound result does not feel like a modern HiFi bass sound, but more like a crisp and precise old school vintage sound.
In that regard, it works fairly well with my flatwounds.
I understand why people run this as an always on pedal because “it tightens up the sound”. It could be that there’s not too much versatility in there, but if it does the one trick very very well, that’s alright.
The manual describes the EQ as a shelving one. Bass peaks at 90Hz and ends at 500Hz, treble starts at 800 Hz and peaks at 8kHz, both give you a 15dB boost or cut, the knobs have a center detent.
Turning the knobs, my taste says that Xotic has the haptics just right. You get enough friction so you should be able to transport your pedalboard without messing up the settings, but not enough that you might feel that they are stuck.
The foot switch choice on modern boutique pedals seems to gravitate towards clickless models, the BB has a more oldschool approach of a solid click model.
Back to the sound. I quickly learned that I like the pedal best with gain and treble maxed – YMMV if you’re not using worn flats on a passive bass that’s not that hot. However, plugging in a P bass with a hotter pickup
showed that this is still a pedal that maxes out at low gain drive, even my active Dingwall does not push it very far towards harder drive settings.
Playing solo, I arrived at maxing bass, treble and gain. Pleasant. The nature of the breakup really suits my ears – as I said, it feels like a cranked amp on the edge of losing it, barely keeping it together. The EQ settings will have to be tried in a band setup to see if the resulting mid scoop is too much, but my feeling tells me that it’s fine the way it is. With the full bump of everything that can be bumped, the breakup is happening a bit easier, too.
I really like what I’m getting here. In comparison to the Origin DCX, which is surprisingly similar in many ways, (as long as you have the DCX set to EQ), the Origin feels like it is geared towards a more modern sound, where the BB has more of an oldschool-y vibe to it. For those that associate oldschool with farty lows and muffled highs, don’t fret. I mean something that passed as super modern HiFi sounding in the late seventies compared to something that is super modern HiFi nowadays.
The Origin, from my point of view, feels like a surgical tool. I sense polished steel. The dynamic range is incredible, certainly among the best I ever played. The BB does not boast such range, but it goes from clean to crunchy. There is that certain something in there, that certain something that adds a bit of character that the Origin does not do. I sense no surgical steel. It’s much rather that slightly musty couch that sits in the rehearsal room. Very comfy.
Additional note:
I’ve had that pedal now for several years and it has kept its space on my board. For my taste and needs, it simply is one of the best low gain drive pedals out there. I have tried a few of them, as you know – yet this one simply has that little something that makes my ears happy.