ART BCC Bass Multi-Effects

Pretty easy to use right from the start. Owner's Manual is helpful, although, it could have included a Troubleshooting section.

I use the BCC with a Peavey Mark IV Bass Head and a 4001 Rickenbacker, sounds decent, but I have the feeling it will sound even better with customized presets. I had only a couple of days to familiarize myself with the unit before a gig, so, I only went with a few different presets that night- sounded good using a direct box. Hardly any noise, I'm using a Rocktron Power Supply. Chorus sounds either too weak or too over-the-top. Distortion isn't what I expected, either- like I said, this unit will more than likely sound better if You customize Your own presets.

I had no issues with using this unit live, it helped more than it could ever hurt.

The Help Dept. at ART was very Professional. I went to their website with a question and found the answer on their Technical FAQ's page. I also left them a question on Sat. nite, they gave me a reply Monday afternoon.

I use this unit w/ my metal band, it has all I need, I never go overboard on effects, anyhow. I've been playing over 20 years now, trust me, there ARE worse effects out there. I would replace this unit only if I could pick up another for $100 or less. I wish it had a TUNER and it's OWN BUILT-IN POWER SUPPLY!!!

the analog effects are lame only one at a time? thats gay
its easy to figure out the distortions are ok but this thing was defintitly designed for a keyboard not a bass
tuner would be good, effects loop blows

god its noiser than the roadcrew working outside, probably good for live sound not for recording to much hiss and squelch maybe its good for ham radio operators hehe

hehe no

do they even make stuff like htis anymore? give me the nightbass or give me death

this thing fuckin sucks

Patch editing is pretty easy and relatively intuitive. The sound is a little clinical, but I use it in conjunction with a tube emulator and get a decent sound. The manual is relatively worthless, but the unit is easy enough to set up. The pre-set sounds are a bit silly.
ART could have put a tuner in it. Sinners.

The distortions are pretty bad for bass(but sound great with a strat!). There's some noise if you dont get the gain-staging right, but it's not really a factor. I mostly use a custom Jazz bass through a solid state 1x15' + 4x10" set up, and use this effect in addition to other rack mounted digital and analog effects. I like the midi feature and the effects loop is clean. I have had fun with a reverb/sub-bass patch that I use with an acoustic bass guitar. It gets a very good "bull-fiddle" sound. Great for jazzy songs.

Very reliable. I did have the output crap out on me (lots of hiss) but a new 3v lithium battery on the motherboard sorted that out.
Great for gigs (built like a tank).

Never dealt with them.

I find it works well for all the stuff I do (anything from folk thru rock) and is flexible enough to work for any situation. I wouldn't really use it in a studio setting though. I probably would replace it, but I'd be sad if it were to leave me. PUT A TUNER IN IT!
Great for headphone practice and has some very nice guitar sounds. I put a strat though it and have a lot of fun.

Manual is well written and explains how to edit patches easily. Finding a good sound is difficult. (At the time I was using Fender Jazz and Peavey Basic 112)

Sounds ae ok, seem to be highly digitalized and lacking any hint of analoge. Distortions are absolutley terrible, either to weak, or just disgusting. No way of getting classic fuzz, or hint of overdrive, its either none or too much.

It lasted me for awhile, maybe a year or so when one of the pedals didn't respond, and then a LED broke. Opened it up, cleaned and fixed and was fine. Then another year of home use and the output section seemed to have died. Still works as MIDI controller or in effects loop.

I emailed the company with the problem above and they pretty much told me can't do anything but send it in and have it fixed for $60+.

I used this primarily for delay and reverbs for ust jamming out on. Took it gigging and practices occasionly. Never made it to the studio.

It isn't too tough to get the hang of it . The manual is put together pretty well . Editing couldn't be simpler once you done a few. You do have to work at getting a decent sound out of it . This thing has been discontinued

For the price I paid , it's not bad . I would be a little more critical if I had paid more . It does a lot , but none of it great .
It is very easy to get noisy slop . You have to be careful of the settings when editing . I think the distortions suck big time . The delays are good , and the octave is okay , though the tracking is a bit off , which can be usable , but not always desirable . The vibrato
is decent , the flanger is pretty noisy , as is the chorus . The EQ is good , the compressor stinks , and the noise gate is either too strong or too weak , there is no happy medium .

I have had no problems with it . I bought it used a year ago and I haven't had a problem yet . It is all metal construction , plus the
footswitches are covered in rubber , which I imagine will help keep dirt out .

I haven't dealt with them .

Considering I got it from Ebay for under $100 , it's a good deal . I usually don't bother to use it though , unless I'm home alone . I don't like to use it on gigs or to record . I just use my Mu Tron III
and a delay pedal and a crybaby wah pedal . I wouldn't replace it if I sold it or if it was stolen , too noisy for me .

I think the ART BCC is a little confusing to the first time user. I had a little trouble getting to the factory presets at first, and the book left a little to be desired. Editing the patches is relatively easy once you figure out what the manual is telling you.

I am using thr BCC with a "59 Fender Precision Bass, an Ampeg SVP Pro Preamp, a bridged Peavey CS 400, and a SWR working Man 4-10s with tweeter cabinet. I find very few usable presets. I like the Fender Jazz patch, ahd the SVT In A Box Patch. All others sound cheap and I can't find any use for them. I bought it because it had 2 "Fretless Patches, but neither of these patches sound anything like a fretless. I've tried to customize the fretless patches, to no avail. ART says that they don't even have Fretless settings, but the manual says they do. Curious...

It seems to be built well, all metal construction, but the power transformer should be built in, instead of having that tiny, thin power cord that runs from the electrical outlet to the processor.

I contacted ART and they denied ever having fretless settings on theBCC,and when I pointed out that in fact they DID have one that is terrible, they tried to sell me an outdated but new Nightbass Processor...No THanks,Art.

I play New Country, Old Country, and Classic Rock, and have been playing for 39 years. I have had many basses over the years, a Gibson EBO, Hofner Beatle Bass, Framus Star Bass, Fender Jazz Bass,and presently use a '59 Fender P-Bass, on which I have installed a Badass Bridge, and DiMarzio Vintage Pickups. If it were lost or stolen, I'd replace it with a vintage Fender Jazz Bass. I just like the way it plays and I can pretty much get almost any sound I want from it.

There's a little learning curve, but all you've got are two knobs and seven pedal buttons, so how hard can it be? One other caveat: learn how the input level setting works. It's good to know how to stay between high-signal clipping and low-signal noise hell.

I use a Carvin LB-75 bass with this unit, and it works great. Almost good enough to go direct.

I think I could use this thing to block a bullet headed for my chest, or worse yet my bass. :) I've had it for well over a year and never had a problem.

Absolutely top notch. I bought one mail order (in addition to mine, as a group present for a pal), and when it arrived, it was a old- looking unit. ART had changed the graphics, and maybe the software since then. The retailer insisted there was no important difference, even though their ad had the newer-looking one. So I called ART and *they* happily exchanged it. And the person I talked to was really nice, too.

I play rock, blues, and folk-influenced stuff, along with the odd funky thing now and then. I've been playing for 3 years. I compared this to the ME8B when I bought it, and it seemed sturdier and more transparent. The Boss had 'Boss tone,' which isn't bad per se, but seems to sometimes overwhelm a bass' own tone. I would definitely buy one again. Loves: 1) with subtle use of distortion, you can warm up your tone nicely 2) the panning is cool 3) tough as nails and easy to switch presets on the fly. Hates: 1) can be noisy if you're not careful with input and compressor settings 2) a couple of the distortions *really* suck. The only thing I wish it had is a built- in tuner, but then again, I already owned a tuner, so no big deal.

Editing the patches couldn't be easier, just push a button and twist the knob and your set. The manuel is decent, but it does take a bit of fiddling to get your sound just right.

I haven't had any problems with noise, the distortions aren't the best, but that's what stomp boxes are for. The modulations are decent, but I wish I could use more than one at a time.

This is a very solid unit. I think I could throw it against a wall and it would probably still work. There is a bit of a click while switching presests, but only very rarely.

Haven't had any problems, so I wouldn't know.

I would definetlybuy this again. It makes an excellent controller with it's built in fx loop,(which is probably my favorite feature) the EQ section is great, you can set this up as a virtual channel switcher, ie one clean preset, one dirty. My one suggestion to ART would be to make the effects loop stereo.

This is the only effects processor I have owned. I like it it quite a bit and noticed none of the things the other guy talked about, I think he got a bad unit or something. I'll agree with him that the factory presets are too flashy, and the manual does nto read easily, but if you read the manual and play with the unit long enough you get the hang of it. This thing has 7 distortions and one bypass. you can get pretty much any sound you want from them. there are two overdrives, two really fuzzed out ones that sond exactly the same, what they call rock distortion, which is okay, and bright rock distortion, which I use a lot. It also has more compression than you need, a 5 band equalizer that has really weak treble until you use distortion, a flanger, which I like to go nuts with cause you can make so many sounds, chorus, panning/tremolo, delay, reverb, a noise gate, and wah which I haven't heard yet, you need a seperate volume pedal to use it, which is my biggest gripe against this thing. If anybody reading this has used the wah on this unit, e- mail me and tell me how it sounds. Tell me if I should just buy a seperate wah instead of a volume pedal. My e-mail is glm4@buffnet.net. You can e-mail me there if you have any questions about it too.

I like the sound quality, although with the bypass switch on, it is kinda weak. All the effects are good, but the equalizer is too weak on the treble side, but the bass is really strong, and you need to turn that up with the distortions. The flanger also causes my small 30 watt amp to clip at higher volume settings, so beware. It is not always noisy, but if you wat it to be, it can give some really great feedback, especially with the pitch shifter on. I don't know what the wah sounds like, as I do not have $50 for a volume pedal. The compressor has a bit more compression than really needed.

this is a fairly reliable unit, just don't trip over the wire that connects it to the plug

N/A

My parents got this for me after the guy at the House of Guitars told them it had everything I would ever need. He neglected to tell them about the wah, and the fact that it had no tuner. I might buy it again, unless I heard something better.

The presets are too flashy and over the top-only a few are usable in real performance situations. The manual is poorly laid out-the technical data is mostly there but it is listed, not explained by example-you are left to fiddle. There is no coherent description of the presets.

This is so noisy it went back to the store. There is no way I'd use it on stage. Even the compressor hisses like a snake. The input is too sensitive for an effects loop-even with the input at minumum you can't allow any tube sauturation or the processor clips.

I no longer own it.

I emailed them a few days ago-they quickly responded that they had received my email and forwarded it to a technician. but I'm still waiting for a response. The excessive noise of the unit overcame my patience for their response.

I'm still looking for something that works under $500.