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Does anyone make a B15 in a pedal format?

#21
The closest to an actual B-15 is the '66 flip top model in Fender's new Rumble Studio 40 & Stage 800 combos. Very authentic. Audition one for yourself.

My B-15 story is as follows: I had just turned 16 and had been playing bass for all of oh, five weeks. A TV & Appliance store across the street from my high school had a B-15 in the window for sale. It belonged to the electronic repair tech. He bought it from the original owner a few months before. Went through it and put it up for sale. This was in early 1970. I tried it and hated it. Ended up buying a Kustom 200 with 2x15 cab. That amp rocked!

Hit up the '66 flip top model on my Studio 40 for the first time and it all came flooding back. It sounds exactly how I remember it. I still hate it.
 
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#22
I had an Ampeg B-15R, a reissue that featured a 40w - 100w toggle switch option. Although some say it does not sound exactly like the original B-15 amps, I certainly never, ever felt like I was receiving "less than" when I played it. But the sucker weighed 117 pounds and I've got stairs at my house so, no.

When the creation of the Broughton preamp, later named the P-15, was being discussed in a thread here on TB, I was pumped and got my order in on the first batch. I play it through the effects return on my Acoustic Image Focus amp through one or (usually) two EA Wizzy 12" cabs. I am ecstatic with the plug-and-play sound I've gotten and have never spent one second regretting selling my B-15 (to a TBer a few hundred miles up the road.) I do miss looking at the B-15 and it, also, was a plug-and-play creamy dream like the P-15 but the P-15, while not a pedal, is "smaller than a breadbox" and sounds like a B15.

I can't recommend it highly enough. But they are hard to come by as they're out of production and rarely resold by their very fortunate owners.
 
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#23
MDBass said:
I’ll give that a look, but the musical distortion and natural tube compression are pretty big components of the magic I’m after.

Thanks!
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I did not know that there was a B-15 sound when I got one. I didn't even know what it was beyond a cool little dual three knob amp made by the SVT company. Fact is, I still don't know what the B-15 sound is. It has a bunch of different great tones that can be selected with the "volume" knob and tweaked all over the place with the "bass" and "treble" knobs. (Shhh- don't tell anyone- It even works as a pretty great guitar amp)

The Z-Vex Mastotron can kinda sorta get that gurgle grit and a fair bit of pre-grit squish of my B's volume set nearly anywhere from 11:45-4:00 and being plugged into the Normal Input.

For the NI V'9:30-10:30 sounds, you're probably going to have to mix a compressor, that linden pedal, and a mild overdrive pedal all together, and maybe a speaker emulator too.

I haven't played a recent Fender emulator amp, but the ones from a few years ago were pretty good, and so they have to have gotten prettier gooder nowadays. They used to do a Multi-Pedal format emulator thing... looked it up- The Mustang multi effects pedal. I wouldn't swear on my grandmother, maybe someone else's, I very much remember seeing "66 flip top" hidden among "whitechapel" and "vulgar display" simulations.
 
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#27
Invalid Link Removed

I don't know if it will bring you the sound you're after as it's modelled after Ampeg SB-12, but it won't cost you much to try, if you're anything into DIY.

Edit: I just checked their shop. The pcb for the ROG Ginger is out of stock. :-(
Anyway it can still be interesting to have a look at how it works.
 
#28
MDBass said:
A lovely piece, but not capable of the drive sounds that an actual B15 is to my knowledge: I’ve considered replacing my REDDI with one though as it seems more versatile.
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Using a -20 dB pad on the output, I’ve been able to get my P-15 to get dirty.

I also believe that the cab is part of the sound.

Hope that helps!

Edit—after the holidays I could make a little demo if you are interested. I’ve been meaning to A/B the dirty P-15 to a newly acquired SFX Beta.
 
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#31
I own a Tech21 VT Bass Deluxe and I can get avery close SVT/B-15 sound out of it. I also own a Sansamp Para Driver which also does the job but it is not as close as the VT Deluxe. Other options I cannot comment on as I have not tried them.
 
#32
Keyser Soze said:
I had an Ampeg B-15R, a reissue that featured a 40w - 100w toggle switch option. Although some say it does not sound exactly like the original B-15 amps, I certainly never, ever felt like I was receiving "less than" when I played it. But the sucker weighed 117 pounds and I've got stairs at my house so, no.

When the creation of the Broughton preamp, later named the P-15, was being discussed in a thread here on TB, I was pumped and got my order in on the first batch. I play it through the effects return on my Acoustic Image Focus amp through one or (usually) two EA Wizzy 12" cabs. I am ecstatic with the plug-and-play sound I've gotten and have never spent one second regretting selling my B-15 (to a TBer a few hundred miles up the road.) I do miss looking at the B-15 and it, also, was a plug-and-play creamy dream like the P-15 but the P-15, while not a pedal, is "smaller than a breadbox" and sounds like a B15.

I can't recommend it highly enough. But they are hard to come by as they're out of production and rarely resold by their very fortunate owners.
Click to expand...

They are not out of production. But the waiting list is long.
 
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#37
On the Zoom MS60b there are presets, the last preset is PB OlSkool (The PB is for Phil Buckman) and it is quite a cool patch very reminiscent of a flip top..it can be edited, so you can tweak it to how you want your flip top to sound.
 
#38
Dave W said:
I came in to say the same thing.

I know you're more of a single high quality pedal guy (like me) so it's maybe not exactly what you're looking for but it will certainly do a lot of things. With the tweaking options available I'd be a little surprised if you couldn't get it to work.
Click to expand...

I was going to say the same. Mine is on the way so I haven’t tried it yet, but the amount of tweaking you can do is insane. I’d have to imagine that playing around with the amp, cab, and mic parameters would get you pretty darn close.
 
#39
Jonahlane said:
Where can you find one?
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The issue is not only where can one find one but will you be the first to see it for sale. There are quite a few people hunting it. If one was put up for sale here, reverb, or ebay I doubt the sale would last more than 5 minutes. Recent preamp pedals sold out in seconds after being listed on the Broughton site and about every page of the 500+ page thread has at least 1 question about where to find a P-15 or the impossibly long (possibly non existent) list of people waiting for one.
 
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#40
I can't say how much it compares to a B-15, but I second the recommendation for a Shaw Tube Injection Preamp, which may be the same basic preamp as the Shaw B150 (a B-15 modern clone). It will fit on your pedalboard, but will likely take up half of it or more (it's tall). You can get plenty of octal tube breakup with the Shaw (I like that better than 12-series, personally), and it has a great padding feature so you can throw a very hot signal at it to enhance/fine-tune breakup. It's not cheap ($795 new), but they show up from time to time (e.g., here or Reverb, where one sold for a ridiculous $325 within the past year). Good luck, DM
 
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