Click here to watch Test-of-Guyatone-BB-X-Bass-Driver
This is a tube OD/Distortion box. I bought it as a possible replacement for my Ashdown Bass Drive Plus. I love the Ashdown (a lot), but the one thing about it that I didn't like was the way it really really compressed my signal, so I thought I might try something else. The BB-X has built-in clean blend, so I thought the dynamics from my clean signal would bring back some of the dynamics. It does.
Like the other Flip series pedals it's got a nice metal box with slats cut out for you to see the tube, jacks on the top, and runs on a 12V center negative power supply. No batteries. There are knobs for normal volume, drive volume, color, gain, and a concentric knob for the semi-parametric EQ (frequency and middle). I assumed middle meant bandwith or Q, but it actually sounds like it is gain. I'm not quite sure what sort of EQing the color knob does, but I like it, so I kept that knob cranked.
I'm not sure whether it's true bypass, but the bypass doesn't suck tone or volume.
There is a lot of gain available. A lot. Maybe too much. I liked it on about 3, which is a pretty serious OD. It is very difficult to dial in "just a bit of tubey grit." It might be possible, but I didn't have the patience or motivation. The parametric EQ goes from 100 to 4000 Hz, and I liked to give a little bump at 1K. I liked putting the clean volume at 4 and the drive volume at 7. That was the sound I liked best from this box, and it's what I use for the first 16 bars of the sound clip. I worked nicely with my fingerstyle and slap style.
If you put the gain past 5, then you're in metal territory. The last 4 bars of the sound sample I cranked it and used a pick. I suck at using a pick. I didn't even have a pick to do the sample, I had to borrow one. Sorry for the bad playing.
The verdict: I prefer the Ashdown. The BB-X is much more versatile, and I like the clean blend, but I just really like the particular sound I can get from the Ashdown when I distort the lows more than the highs. It's MY sound. So even though the Ashdown is a huge ugly pedalboard eysore, and compresses too much, I've learned not to mess with perfection (at least perfection in my estimation).
