Anybody used a BBE Sonic Maximizer?

[Noonoo]

Results? Opinions?

 

[soundchaser59]

The old rack mount maximizers are good for a main stereo out, but dont bother with the pedal. It sounds cool if you dont have anything else, but if you side by side the thing with some good modded pedals, you will find it is really lacking in usefulness.

Imo, you are better off with a modded EQ pedal and/or a clean booster like the BBE Boosta Grande.

 

[Corporal]

Had one and sold it. The loudness function makes your sound kinda "deep" which is pretty cool, but the actual 'maximizing' function ("processing" or sth.) makes your sound all crispy and fizzy when turned up.

 

[Chris McKinley]

Noonoo,

Please do a search for this topic. You will find quite a bit of detailed info in previous threads.

 

[jdurso]

Noonoo,

Please do a search for this topic. You will find quite a bit of detailed info in previous threads.

Can we please sticky one of the threads with Chris' in depth descriptions? I know i have been guilty of asking this question before and Chris' posts were extremely helpful.

 

[jab]

I like it for clean channels and acoustic guitars. It doesn't make such a huge difference when the channel is saturated with distortion (but I still like it better on than off). That said, the clarity and sparkle I get on the clean(er)/acoustic work is enough where it has a permanent spot on my pedal board.

We bought a rack mount too for $130 and have it on the PA, and the vocals and overall PA mix is incredibly better. We couldn't live without it in our PA and we don't sound like so many of those muffled bands out there. I would DEFINITELY recommend sonic maximizing your PA for the relatively small investment.

 

[t0aj15]

I own the 264, 482, 482i, and the 882i. I find them very useful in both PA and home stereo rigs, but totally useless in my guitar rigs.

 

[plan-x]

Sonic stomp? Leave it on all the time.

 

[Strategy500]

I have a BBE 322. Used it in my rig for years. Then a few years ago I took it out, and realized I was missing out on some good tone. I did like the tone I was getting with the BBE, despite all the crap I had to take for using it. But, I find my tones now to be more useful, and alive with out it. I have since adapted it to my home theater system. I works pretty well there.

 

[Chris McKinley]

The most consistent pattern I've seen with people criticizing the effect is that they all seem to have overused it, not in terms of leaving it on all the time, but in terms of turning up the effect too high. As I've mentioned before, it's like a spice. Add just a little to an already good guitar tone and it can enhance the clarity of your sound. Use even a little too much and the quality of your tone starts to go downhill quickly because you're hearing the separate frequencies that make up your good guitar tone start to separate out instead of blending harmoniously together.

Remember, it's not an EQ. In lay terms, it's a "frequency staggerer". Used correctly and judiciously, it staggers the output of the frequencies just enough so that the bass doesn't mud-blanket the rest of your sound, and all the frequencies are heard clearly.

 

[jab]

I know it's all subjective, but for those that use the sonic stomp, where do you have your settings? I'm usually around noon on both dials - seems to sound the best. I don't know if it's my ears that thinks it sounds best or I'm stuck in the "not too much, not too little" sensibility. :?

 

[MusicManJP6]

I know it's all subjective, but for those that use the sonic stomp, where do you have your settings? I'm usually around noon on both dials - seems to sound the best. I don't know if it's my ears that thinks it sounds best or I'm stuck in the "not too much, not too little" sensibility. :?

When I had mine noon was as high as I would go. About 10:30 or 11:00 was the sweet spot IMO.

 

[Chris McKinley]

Same as MusicMan for me. If I don't have an EQ in the loop, I also sometimes set the bass boost at noon to 1:00.