BBE Boosta Grande

[metalchurch]

I recently ran across this and I'm a little curious about it.
Anyone ever try one, or heard one?

I almost bought this, but I didn't see a rack version, and I don't want to have any more stomp boxes getting in the way.

It goes for $79.99 and it almost sounds too good to be true, you know?
I wonder if it's kind of like the Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster?




Here's the specs from Music123's site:

Up to 20dB of clean gain to push your preamp tubes to the max or as a line buffer/driver with multiple effects. Hardwire bypass, vintage fuzz circuit.

* 20dB of clean gain boost
* Hardwire bypass
* Single op-amp design
* LED indicator
* Non-slip rubber bottom
* Easy-access 9V battery compartment
* Includes external AC adapter

BBE Boosta Grande Clean Boost Effect Pedal
The Boosta Grande delivers up to 20dB of clean gain without changing the original signal's sound. Use it to drive your preamp tubes to the max, or as a line buffer/driver if you're experiencing degradation from other effects in the chain.

[MeYatch]

you could set your amp up with your guitar's volume at half way, and then turn up for boost. Its essentially the same thing, and it costs $79.99 less.

[onegunguitar]

you could set your amp up with your guitar's volume at half way, and then turn up for boost. Its essentially the same thing, and it costs $79.99 less.

Running the guitars volume at half way (on most pickups) will clean up the sound,really won't give much of a boost in volume when turned up,just more gain.

[metalchurch]

Yeah, but with most guitars have less bite, and clean up when turned down even the slightest bit, and that's Gain, that I cannot get back from the Preamp.

Sounds like it would work, but not for my style of playing.
I'm just trying to get just a little bit more Gain out of my shit right now.

But the price just seems really low to me.
I could always send it back if I don't like it, but I don't like doing that.

[MeYatch]

Running the guitars volume at half way (on most pickups) will clean up the sound,really won't give much of a boost in volume when turned up,just more gain.

Once your amp reaches the maximum amount of headroom any amount of boost will only make it dirtier, and not louder. Except for the moderate amount of volume boost caused by the increased compression on a distorted signal.


Joe if you litterally can't get any more gain out of your rig than a volume boost would probably provide more gain. My suggestion would only work if you still had more room to go with your amp.

[metalchurch]

Mitch,
yeah man I have it all cranked up to the max, and I'm still wanting more!
I'm damned close to the sound I am hearing in my head, (not the one in my rack) but not quite there yet.

That's why I wanted to change out the tubes to EL34's, but I cannot get a straight answer from anyone as to whether it will work without damaging my circuit board.
Not sure if it has an adjustable bias switch either. I'm gonna have to tear it apart and look.

[MeYatch]

I'm not super familiar with tube amps, although I hope to get one soon. I know that groove tubes provides ratings on their tubes that indicate how soon they break up. I believe they use a ranking from one to ten, with one being the earliest breakup, and ten being the most amount of clean headroom. Have you tried using the same kind of tubes, but rated lower?

[metalchurch]

Well the Engl has new Groove tube Preamp tubes in it. There's 3 of them.

I have been wanting to experiment with different brands and tubes sizes with the Marshall, but I'm afraid of hurting the little bitch, so I'm holding off on that for now, until I learn more about it.
But that seems to be my next logical step.

[Ron]

Mitch,
yeah man I have it all cranked up to the max, and I'm still wanting more!
I'm damned close to the sound I am hearing in my head, (not the one in my rack) but not quite there yet.

Wow, Joe. It looks to me like you're hurting the most delicate and important part of your sound... Your ears.
You really have to watch it if you're chasing a "sound" simply by increasing volume. If you're cranking any tube amp to the max, you're fighting a losing battle trying to find a sound, because if you do find it that way you'll never be able to use it live and your ears will take an unrecoverable beating. Not good.

[metalchurch]

I meant that I have my gain cranked to the max, not the volume.

My Poweramp has 2 controls: Gain and Presence.
They are both cranked.

The Engl preamp, and the Boss MT-2 both have the gain turned up all the way.

The Engl's Master volume, is essentially the Master for the whole system.

I'm trying to get some more 'preamp' gain, not volume gain.
This thing is more than enough for me as far as volume.
In fact I haven't had it close to being cranked up.

[MeYatch]

I meant that I have my gain cranked to the max, not the volume.

My Poweramp has 2 controls: Gain and Presence.
They are both cranked.

The Engl preamp, and the Boss MT-2 both have the gain turned up all the way.

The Engl's Master volume, is essentially the Master for the whole system.

I'm trying to get some more 'preamp' gain, not volume gain.
This thing is more than enough for me as far as volume.
In fact I haven't had it close to being cranked up.

Sounds like you need a smaller amp.

Seriously

You will always be able to get more gain out of a tiny amp cranked up than a large amp turned down to tolerable levels.

[Ron]

Joe, sorry about the misunderstanding.

Have you ever tried the MT-2 straight to the tube power amp or the Engl preamp without the MT-2?
The MT-2 is really a solid state preamp and the Engl is a tube preamp. More than likely your signal is completely saturated (a square wave) by the time it hits the Engl. If that's the case then it will seem like the gain control on the Engl isn't really doing much.

You'll probably find out that you've got too much preamp gain between the MT-2 and the Engl, and what you really want is to hear is the output tubes in your Marshall. When power output tubes start to distort, that's when the magic happens, so Mitch is probably right... You may desire the sound from a smaller amp. That's why some tube amps have switches on the back to knock down the overall wattage, to get the outputs to distort.

In all of my years playing guitar and dealing with just about every aspect of sound, the very best guitar sound I've ever heard was the product of the simplest rig. The guy plugged straight into a dual-rectifier with a power soak on it, used a very simple delay box in the effects loop, and it was incredible.

Look up "power soak" or "speaker attenuator" on the web. It may be just what you're looking for.

[metalchurch]

Yeah Ron, you are absolutely right about that.
I know that my Marshall is way too much for what I need right now.

And I'm trying to go around the fact that the tubes aren't compressing enough, by pre amping it to death.

I tried the Engl, by itself and i didn't like it.
I didn't try the Boss by itself yet, but that would be something to try as well.

I love the tone of the Boss, that's why I'm using it.
I also like the parametric mids that it has.

I may just get the Engl E-530 preamp because it has the parametric mid features on it as well.
I might find that it will suit my needs better, and just eliminate the Boss altogether.

I should have probably just bought the Marshall 9100 which is the little brother to my 9200, it is 50W as opposed to 100W.

Since I got rid of the ADA, my rig is much simpler now, the only other thing I am using is the Alesis MicroVerb-4.
I'm using it for just a hint of delay to fatten or round out the sound, so it doesn't sound to sterile.

Thanks for the idea about the Boss.