They were nicknamed “Blues Breaker” after they were used by Eric Clapton on the now uber famous “John Mayall and the Blues Breakers” album. BB actually stands for “Blues Breaker”, an obvious reference to early Marshall amps. The result is an amazing overdrive pedal which can get quite wilder than a Tube Screamer. This also means it is a bit pricey (MSRP US$ 200) as this really is a boutique pedal, not a cheapo knock-off. Also, the BB Preamp is built with excellent components and is quite silent. The BB Preamp addresses these issues and adds some welcomed improvements such as a massive volume boost capacity and a very effective two band EQ instead of the single tone control of the Tube Screamer. Some guitarists don’t like the Tube Screamer because they feel it sucks too much bass out of their tone and also that it is a bit tame. The BB Preamp is not a Tube Screamer clone.

Used before an already overdriven amp or even a distortion pedal, it will give you more sustain and fatness.īut this is where the comparison stops.

Used with a clean amp, it will provide you with a very credible and articulated overdrive tone.

The BB Preamp, much like the Tube Screamer, is extremely good at two things:

In order to please everybody, The BB Preamp-comp features a toggle switch to go from no compression at all, to a bit compressed (current BB Preamp) and to more compressed (early BB Preamp and Andy Timmons models).

Interestingly enough, the limited Andy Timmons edition of the BB Preamp featured the extra compression of the early BB Preamp. My BB Preamp has a serial number of 526 so the video demos below show the “compressed” version. The standard BB Preamp was modified to have less compression after serial number 3643. Update Feb 2012: there is an interesting piece of info that came out following the release of the BB Preamp-comp by the Xotic custom shop. And speaking of Andy Timmons, he even had a signature BB Preamp model made by Xotic.

Released around 2005, it has become quite popular and is used by guys like Andy Timmons and Greg Howe. I have decided to start this series of posts dedicated to Tube Screamer alternatives with the Xotic BB Preamp.

Although the Tube Screamer is the king of overdrives, a few pedals that have come out in the past decade could have a claim to the throne.

Ibanez Tube Screamer Serial Number