Preamp (XB-MB)

SYLV9ST9R

Well-known member
Another build boxed last night. Had limited time to play with it as I was just testing it before I deliver it to my friend.
Really nice, I was really liking the grit I was getting, and I found the eq controls really useful. Happy with the result, hope he will be too as it will be a great base for his tone. Went with a simple design to go with the other pedal I did for said friend, and with the color way of the original BB preamp. The UV print with gloss looks good on this one as the orange powder coat is also pretty glossy by itself.
Very happy with this one.

IMG_6433.jpg IMG_6436.jpg
 
Nice one! Curious about this one too! Mid control seems a great addition to original.
 
It's a great pedal and very much worth building - but the mids control is not really a mids control. The circuit is based on a Tubescreamer but with added treble and bass controls. The stock TS tone control is fixed in the regular BB so the difference between the regular BB and the BB MB is that they simply reinstated the stock TS tone control and called it mids.

A proper midrange control would be more useful IMO. But it still sounds good.
 
It's a great pedal and very much worth building - but the mids control is not really a mids control. The circuit is based on a Tubescreamer but with added treble and bass controls. The stock TS tone control is fixed in the regular BB so the difference between the regular BB and the BB MB is that they simply reinstated the stock TS tone control and called it mids.

A proper midrange control would be more useful IMO. But it still sounds good.
Thanks for the explanation!
 
Interested in building an original BB Preamp and was leery of the mid control in this offering on the notion that it might depart from my objective as heavy mids is not what I'm after. I did some sleuthing on the AC, RC Booster and BB in hopes of getting a better handle on what separates these. The gist of what I came away with is that the AC & RC are (more or less) identical except that certain key components are varied to differentiate the GAIN levels (similar to the Mach I vs Southern Belle). The BB is a variation of the same animal(s), but with a predetermined (non-adjustable) Tube Screamer type tone circuit sandwiched between the clipping circuit and the EQ circuit. Is the XB-MB the same animal as the original except that it provides an adjustable TS tone circuit rather than a fixed-value resistor? I believe this is what HamishR was alluding to above. Just seeking confirmation that I can set the "Mids" control to get a vintage BB tone.
 
Last edited:
Interested in building an original BB Preamp and was leery of the mid control in this offering on the notion that it might depart from my objective as heavy mids is not what I'm after. I did some sleuthing on the AC, RC Booster and BB in hopes of getting a better handle on what separates these. The gist of what I came away with is that the AC & RC are (more or less) identical except that certain key components are varied to differentiate the GAIN levels (similar to the Mach I vs Southern Belle). The BB is a variation of the same animal(s), but with a predetermined (non-adjustable) Tube Screamer type tone circuit sandwiched between the clipping circuit and the EQ circuit. Is the XB-MB the same animal as the original except that it provides an adjustable TS tone circuit rather than a fixed-value resistor? I believe this is what HamishR was alluding to above. Just seeking confirmation that I can set the "Mids" control to get a vintage BB tone.
Maybe @HamishR can comment on it, as I built it for a friend.
 
I'd have to go back and look at the schematics, but yes, the "mids" control is just the normal TS tone control. Other than the Mids pot they are virtually identical. In the BB it's as if the tone pot is fully up (I think). It's either up or down! So turning the pot one way or the other should give you the regular BB sound.
 
The info I uncovered stated that the orig BB Preamp's TS-like circuit is designed to mimic a fixed "9:00 setting" on a conventional TS. I wanted to compare the orig BB to the XB-MB just for grins, but the XB-MB schematics aren't up yet. The idea that the XB-MB is a conventional BB with an adjustable option here makes sense on the face of things as long as that classic setting is in there somewhere.
 
Last edited:
That's correct, the difference is a variable tone control vs fixed.

There's no reason you shouldn't be able to dial in the exact same sound on the XB-MB.
 
Back
Top