BBE Boosta Grande V2

Mine is the older style BBE Boosta Grande with the Blue and White paint and not with the orange and the picture of the bull. It has a simple button switch with one knob for level.

I purchased this pedal from an ebay store about a year ago and I paid about $60. I needed this pedal for a nice clean boost. I shopped for several pedals including some of the more expensive like Xotic, MXR, AC and RC boost but reviews were unanimous that the extra money was not worth it.

The simplicity of the pedal is great as most boost pedals are. It only has the on/off switch and a single knob to adjust the level of boost. The boost works nicely for a low level clean patch and also bumps lead patches up when you need the extra volume for a solo.

This is where I disagree with many of the other reviews on this pedal. The pedal claims to give you up to 20dB of clean boost meaning that it changes only the volume of the patch you are using and not the tone. This is the case when your level is set between 2 and 4, but if your boost is set 5 or above, the tone is significantly changed. It either robs some from the tone or for some patches adds things to it. The added tones probably come from the boosted level but losing tone is another problem. In a clean setting the boost seems to boost only the mids and not the lows and highs. Since it is supposed to only boost the signal this doesn't make sense.

The quality of the pedal is more than adequate. It is in the same case that most of the BBE pedals are. It has not given me any problems in the last year.

Bottom line the pedal does do its job but I don't think that it does what it says it can do. It may be able to give 10dB 'clean' boost but I think twenty is wishful thinking. If you are not as concerned with tone this pedal will give you the volume you need, but if tone is a major concern you should probably spend the extra money and get a pedal that has an on-board EQ or just a higher end single button boost.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

BBE Boosta Grande
Produces up to 20dB of clean gain without affecting the original sound
Engineered and built to withstand the abuse of life on the road
Hardwire bypass
LED operation indicator
Non-slip rubber base
Easy-access 9V battery compartment
Included External Power Supply

UTILIZATION

EXTREMELY SIMPLE. literally one "boost" knob and a footswitch.

SOUND QUALITY

Through a Laney GH50L with a Les Paul and MIA strat.

A very simple pedal, I use it for leads mostly, it just fattens everything up and makes open chords sound HUGE. I love it for that, especially with the Les Paul. With the strat on the clean channel with just a little bit of break up this thing also screams, I LOVE it for bluesy stuff, really makes everything THICK.
Bad: with the LP if you put the boost past about noon it starts to sound pretty brittle and muddy, and that is my only real complaint, but if you want to thicken up a tele or strat, by all means, run it up as high as you want and blow peoples heads up. I also found that it pops pretty loud because of the true bypass which can be VERY annoying live, but its kind of un-helpable.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall I LOVE this thing, especially if you buy it used like I did, its seriously a great pedal minus my one complaint about it being a bit brittle and muddy. overall I love it. go buy it.

This is a clean boost pedal.. 1/4" true bypass.. I'm assuming this is an analog effect.. (durrr) Definitely NOT rackable... bulletproof construction.

UTILIZATION

Uh..1 button. 1 Knob. Wow. No manual necessary. Anyone can do this. It is a clean boost.. especially on cleans.. really enhances distortion if used in front of a dirty amp.

SOUND QUALITY

Mmm..really clean. True bypass pedal.. really quiet. Great deal for 80 bucks. Does not add artifacts, fuzz or anything else truly.. it WILL enhance distortion because it is fattening up your signal. Adds LOADS of beef to my Strat with a Dimarzio HS-3 stacked humbucker in the bridge. Using this and a Keeley TS9 in front of a Voodoo Lab Preamp absolutely SCREAMS. People cannot believe the metal tone I get with a Strat with single coils. I can get that grind from Godsmack "Keep Away".. with an even heavier/fatter lead tone.. knock off the pedals, flip to the neck pickup and and I have nasty blues... hit my clean channel and I can comp Stevie Ray Vaughn. So.. using it as a pickup booster for humbucker tones can make your Strat even more versatile. To really get this as a clean volume boost on a dirty amp..You have to run it in the effects loop. My rig does not have one.. so.. I just use it for signal fattening. Either is good.. it is a very clean effect.
More on the issue of volume boost versus gain boost. In the front end of a dirty amp this will NOT give you enough db gain to use as a boost for solos. In front of a clean amp, then yeah.. it will noticeably bump it up. With distortion you MUST run it in the loop.. (between your preamp and poweramp stages) to get a usable real solo boost. If you are just looking to increase your distortion or fatten your signal, run it into the front end.
Use this with the Strat mostly, but also with Les Pauls, Tele's, other humbucker guitars if I want to go over the top. I use this with one particular Yamaha electric with JB's in the bridgee..and I get a really close approximation to Eric Johnson's old tone (shockingly enough. It gets that chunky Fuzz Face meets Plexi fatness).
Nothing I hate about it! (except that it adds some noise.. but way less than even my Keeley TS9...

OVERALL OPINION

Using it about a year. Use it on and off... with the 3 channel preamp.. I use it extensively. With a Digitech GSP2101..I use it a bit. With my Boss GT8.. I don't use it at all.. (the solo boost function on that preamp is perfect.Just the right amount of boost.)
Mmmm..did not try anything else for this function before this..but this has the right features. True bypass and one purpose. Pretty easy to figure that out.
I think it is a great value if you need it. Does what it is supposed to.. cleanly and overall quietly for something adding gain/volume.
I would buy it again. There are a lot of pedals out there with the same features at twice the price. This is not something that I bought to color my tone...the transparency IS the desired effect!