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Any experience with BBE BMAX preamp?

Y

Yeh Mon

Sep 13, 2007
88
0
Northern Cal
Disclosures
Endorsing Artist: Thunderfunk, Dr. Bass, Jan-Al Road & Touring Cases
#1
I am thinking about getting the BBE BMAX bass preamp but wondered if anyone has any experience with this. Is it worth $249.99 from American Music Supply? Also, I have a powered board for my p.a. that I use in my studio too. Will this work if plugged directly to the board or do I need a seperate power supply to play it? I can get a 600 watt Crown power amp for like $200 and thought that might be nice. If a power amp isn't needed, I won't get one. Please help with any advice you can. Thank you.:bassist::bassist::bassist:
 
#2
I owned one. My biggest beef with it was the gain. Anything past 1 or 2 sounded bad. Now, I believe they fixed the issue on the newer ones. Mine was an older one and I know guys that sent them back to BBE and they fixed the problem, but I had the chance to get a Peavy Bassists so I ditched the Bmax for it.
 
#3
There are loads of threads and posts about the BMax, search and check 'em out. It is just like any other rack preamp, in that it puts out a line-level signal. You can feed that into a power amp, into a powered mixer, into an unpowered mixer, into the fx loop return of a combo amp, or into anything else that can accept a line-level signal.
 
#4
I really liked mine but mine was an early one with some noise issues. A trip back to BBE didn't fix the problem so I moved on. Later ones were supposedly noise free. I liked it but found the BBE circuit to be kind of not necessary and did nothing more then add bass and treble. I like a mid centered tone that growls and this pre amp was designed for more of a scooped tone so it wasn't for me. I still thought it was a quality piece of gear for the price.
 
#9
I've recently switched from a svt 350h to the bmax with a crown amp. Compared to the Ampeg, the bamx was brighter and clearer and had a fantastic sound. What sold me on this piece was:

I Had a Compressor
II Had a Sonic maximizer
III Fit in a light weight 1 space

But the tone capabilities are easier and better than Ampeg
Like some one took a blanket off the Ampeg.

I'm very happy with the upgrade.

Kinda wondering if I should have went with the tube version...
 
#12
I've owned both the Bmax and currently use the Bmax-T. The tube version obviously has a warmer tone, and rolls of the highs much better than the SS version. I never liked the Sonic Maxixer, they were always off. But I found the high end available via the "process" knob sometimes smoother sounding than cranking up the treble knob. What I've never really liked is the compressor. It never treats the first attack well, though it compresses everything else thereafter extremely well. It also sucks a lot of the low end away from the signal even when not actively compressing (when the green LED is specifically on) where other compressors don't. So I always have it set to the very minimum just to help limit peaks and not to suck so much tone.

But from a pure preamp standpoint I think they sound very good. The tube version can get pretty tube-y sounding, but not a really good, fat, driving overdrive sound. At least with the stock tube. I just enjoy the general tube-y barely-there overdrive sound it gives. If you A-B the SS and Tube versions there's a definite difference in the sound.
 
#14
In case anyone is curious I snapped a 10MB collection of high resolution photos of my BMAX-T internals.

I really LOVE the Bmax-T sound. It's extremely full. I have a MESA Big Block 750 here right now, and still prefer the BMAX-T over it. Though the MESA has much in the realm of extremel gritty and full on overdrive sounds, the BMAX-T for me anyway just provides a really awesome, fat, warm "clean" sound that's not harsh and biting like most SS preamps.
 
#15
I have actually owned both.
The SS was a complete bargain and sounded great.
The passive EQ, compression and Maximizer worked easily and was very clean. The gain did get really loud at low settings.

I then got the Tube version and I don't know how or why but that 1 tube made it sound waaaay better than the SS version. Both worked and sounded perfectly IME, so choose the one you prefer depending on your budget.

After those, I got a Fender TBP-1 preamp, which I still miss.
All 3 are great preamps iMO.
 
#16
I have the tube-based BMax and like it. The semi parametric mids control changes the voice of the rig dramatically.
I put a lower gain tube in mine to fix the early distortion issue; a JJ ECC81 gold pin. Now my gain control can go up to about 4 or 5 before it starts to overdrive.

Not to hijack the thread or anything, but does anyone care to post their favorite EQ settings? I'd love to try out some recommendations.
Thanks!
 
#17
I have one. No gain/noise issues. Great little pre for Slap tones, and a lot more. However, I like the flexibility of my ART much more. Easier to set flat with EQ defeat and two 12-AX7 tubes. There was an ART tube channel just like mine for sale earlier this week in the classifieds. Under $200, IIRC.
 
#19
BBEgo said:
...I put a lower gain tube in mine to fix the early distortion issue; a JJ ECC81 gold pin. Now my gain control can go up to about 4 or 5 before it starts to overdrive.....
Click to expand...

I run passive basses and have to run into the ACTIVE jack and can only crank the gain to the second dot, or 9 O'clock or it gets annoying overdrive-ish sounds when playing the lower strings only. I actually just shipped mine back to the factory as they said it likely has the "too high of gain" issue some of the early builds had.

We'll see if that corrects the behaviour I was experiencing. The "overdrive" sound if you even wanted to call it that was very unpleasant and not uniform across the strings like most tube preamps apply. It actually was more like a clipping type overdrive which is probably exactly what the gain issue is, it'd only affect the highest amplitude signals (low strings).
 

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