Sonic Stomp

[shartom]

Picked up a BBE Sonic Stomp today to use with my humbucker equipped Epi's. It cleans up any muddiness associated with the pickups. The bass strings really come through with a nice presence. Even my Joe Pass has a new voice.

I tried it with all five of my Epi's and am totally pleased. At about $100 CDN, it is a lot cheaper than a set of new pickups.

[copper1281734000]

Thanks for this. I was thinking about buying one. I'm still a little skeptical, but I'll try it out anyway because of all the good things I've heard.

[dmock66]

I got a BBE Sonic Stomp over a year ago. It's true bypass, which is an unnecessary feature, as I've never turned mine off. It adds sweetness to your tone that's undeniable. I've heard it described as "hearing your tone in high def", and I would agree with that. If you have tone already, this will make it sharper and clearer. It won't "create tone" from a bad sound, but it does make a good/great sound even sweeter.

 

Another benefit of it is that you can quickly and easily tweak to guitars and/or rooms. With the Lo Contour and Process knobs, which act to as a bass response and presence control, you can quickly change up your sound. If you're in a boomy room you can roll off the Lo Contour. If you're in a room with a lot of sizzle you back off the Process, and vica-versa.

 

It's really an awesome pedal! The people at BBE really nailed it with this one. I can't recommend it highly enough!

[51xt33]

Does this pedal really make each string more pronounced/more presence in the mix when you are using a distorted tone? I've thinking about getting one to run between my PODxt and the DI box. Does it alter the tone any or just clean it up and give each string more individual presence?

[m-theory]

The idea of psychoacoustic processing has been around since the mid 70's, and BBE has built itself as a company because of their "maximizers." There's no doubt that they have their place. There's also no doubt that they can easily be overused. They were designed to overcome common recording practices that tended to result in muddy, undefined recordings. They've since found their way into live PAs and even various instrument rigs. They can definitely brighten up a tone, and make it more punchy and articulate.

 

Personally, I wouldn't use one for guitar, but that's just because I'm a bit of a purist. I figure if you've got tone that requires psychoacoustic processing in order to be useable, something's wrong with the base tone to begin with. I tend to feel the same way about outboard EQ gear, to be honest. If you need to have an eq, something isn't dialed in right, either with the guitar or the amp, or both.

 

BUT, again, that's just me. Personal preferences are just that...personal preferences.

 

Yes, an "enhancer" will alter the guitar tone, and the more of it that you apply, the more affected the tone will be, obviously. Is that necessarily a bad (or good for that matter) thing? Of course not. Tone is subjective, after all. What I might think sounds awesome may be something that you think sounds like ***. That's why they make so many different kinds of amps, guitars, and outboard gear. However, excessive processing with any enhancer on any signal can cause harshness and unrealistic tone.

 

My opinion is that, if the pups are muddy, replace them with something that's not muddy. Otherwise, you're putting lipstick on the pig, imo.

 

Btw, the only way to know for sure if a mass-market-produced pedal is "true bypass" is to remove the battery and turn the switch "off." If it doesn't pass signal, it's no TB, regardless of what the marketing hype says.

[51xt33]

"My opinion is that, if the pups are muddy, replace them with something that's not muddy. Otherwise, you're putting lipstick on the pig, imo."

 

I see that you aren't a fan of the Muppets lol!!!!

 

 

Sounds like it may be what I'm wanting. I basically just want to have more articulation when I use some of my really heavy dirty patches. I like to pick the E and B strings like Alex Lifeson does in "Spirit of the Radio" but just as an accent to the barre cord and this should make the E and B string cut through. I'm not a complete purest, sometimes like to use a Vai or Satch patch but mainly like to keep things real. I have some great blues tones but my metal tones are not as good, probably because I don't play metal as much and your fingers are a big part of the tone. Hopefully this will help me out.

[dmock66]

The idea of psychoacoustic processing has been around since the mid 70's' date=' and BBE has built itself as a company because of their "maximizers." There's no doubt that they have their place. There's also no doubt that they can easily be overused. They were designed to overcome common recording practices that tended to result in muddy, undefined recordings. They've since found their way into live PAs and even various instrument rigs. They can definitely brighten up a tone, and make it more punchy and articulate.

 

Personally, I wouldn't use one for guitar, but that's just because I'm a bit of a purist. I figure if you've got tone that requires psychoacoustic processing in order to be useable, something's wrong with the base tone to begin with. I tend to feel the same way about outboard EQ gear, to be honest. If you need to have an eq, something isn't dialed in right, either with the guitar or the amp, or both.

 

BUT, again, that's just me. Personal preferences are just that...personal preferences.

 

Yes, an "enhancer" will alter the guitar tone, and the more of it that you apply, the more affected the tone will be, obviously. Is that necessarily a bad (or good for that matter) thing? Of course not. Tone is subjective, after all. What I might think sounds awesome may be something that you think sounds like ***. That's why they make so many different kinds of amps, guitars, and outboard gear. However, excessive processing with any enhancer on any signal can cause harshness and unrealistic tone.

 

My opinion is that, if the pups are muddy, replace them with something that's not muddy. Otherwise, you're putting lipstick on the pig, imo.

 

Btw, the only way to know for sure if a mass-market-produced pedal is "true bypass" is to remove the battery and turn the switch "off." If it doesn't pass signal, it's no TB, regardless of what the marketing hype says. [/quote']

 

I respect your opinion on the enhancer. However, I would say this about it. The BBE is not a turd polisher. If your tone sucks to begin with the Sonic Stomp won't make it good. What it does do is make great tone even better. The way I see it is if you have a really good TV with a nice, sharp picture, then you start receiving "hi def" on that TV the picture becomes even better - that is what the BBE does. It takes your already great tone and gives it more clarity.

 

For me what I like most about it is it allows you to quickly adjust in live situaitions for guitar and room changes. For example, I play primarily an 87 Fender Strat and 81 Ibanez Artist. They have different voices. With the Sonic Stomp I can dial down the Lo Contour and dial up the Process for the Ibanez where with the Strat I do the opposite. If I'm playing a particularly "bright" room I dial down the Process. Boomy room, dial down the Lo Contour. You get the picture. It allows for adjustments the quick and easy turn of a couple of knobs on pedal on my board. It allows me to keep "my tone" in whatever room I'm playing with whichever guitar I'm using.

 

Like I said, I respect your position. Just presenting a counter point.

[m-theory]

The BBE is not a turd polisher.

Sure, it is. Any signal processor is. It will improve the clarity of a muddy sounding guitar. You can't deny that. It won't make a muddy guitar sound as good as it could if it wasn't muddy to begin with, but it'll definitely help it.

 

Like I said, I have nothing against outboard processing gear, except that I personally prefer not to have to rely upon it. Again, tone is a purely subjective thing anyway, so it's all about whatever floats YOUR boat for YOU, and whatever floats MY boat for ME. Nothing else really matters.

 

BBE makes some fine products, and there's no question that this is a worthy one that many players find indispensible, I'm sure. There's nothing to knock about that. If the final result of whatever gear one uses is that it helps to inspire, then it's golden.

 

FWIW, I build pedals for friends, and one of the most popular circuits I've built is a really nice clean boost. I use it to drive the snot out of the front of my amps for lead work. Some of my friends keep it on all the time, at basically unity gain, because it acts as a beautiful buffer, cleaning up mud from non-true bypass pedals, muddy pups, and/or excessive cable length/cheap cables. Same effect...it creates sparkle, clarity, and punch that wasn't there without it. They'd likely also be inclined to run something like the BBE all the time, if they plugged into one, so I know exactly what you're talking about.

[dmock66]

If the final result of whatever gear one uses is that it helps to inspire' date=' then it's golden. [/quote']

 

Agreed.

 

I understand what you're saying. My point is that mine allows me to quickly adapt to varying conditions - different guitars, different rooms, etc. But, I do hear what you're saying, and it's a solid argument.

[shartom]

The Maximizer is a great addition to my setup. Not every room you work has the same acoustic characteristics. Humbuckers can sound boomy. You can minimize this by tweeking the tone controls on your amp or the comtrols on the maximizer. I use multiple guitars when I play. It is much easier to leave the amp settings untouched and click in the maximizer when needed.

Thanks for all of your comments.