BBE 462 Sonic Maximizer

how simple can a sonic enhancer get? How about a bass contour knob and a process knob with an in/out pushswitch?
This is one of the best setups for sonic enhancement I've ever worked with.
I had one many years ago when they first came out, but due to the absence of cash at the time, I was forced to sell it!
Cut to a few hours ago, and I'm hunting through a local pawn shop. What do I stumble across- a 462 for $100 CDN!!!! Needless to say, I immediately grabbed it, went to the counter and paid the coin!
There wasn't a manual for this unit, but you have to be really dumb to not under stand how it works or how it sounds with manipulation of the controls!
One thing I really like about this unit is the 1/4" AND RCA plugs on the I/O jacks. It really makes this unit road and studio worthy!

I have yet to get it back into my bass guitar rig (where I originally used my first one), but just checking it out through my home stereo (to make sure it worked!) was a revelation.
My speakers on the home system are already acoustically time aligned, so using the BBE on it simply sounded hard and edgy. However, when I tried it out on my Fender M-80 practice/small club amp, the result was incredible!!! The amp took on way more presence without hardness, the bass contour control made the M-80 just sound like a bigger amp (and this amp is already WAY loud for rehearsal/ small gigs). It simply sounds like I have a couple of 4x10 cabs behind me now!
this unit doesn't bring up any hiss with the Fender's built in chorus, it actually makes the chorus sound more 3 dimensional (almost stereo sounding). Nice effect!

The only thing beef I have are the QUALITY of the RCA jacks on this product. Whoever had the 462 before me busted one of the RCA's outer contacts (try finding a replacement? Time to contact BBE I guess). otherwise, the unit is truly bulletproof!
I plan on installing this unit in my rack ASAP (rack has two Gallien-krueger 400 RBs bass amps and an Alesis 3630 compressor).

I will have to report back on this as soon as I contct BBE for that RCA jack replacement!

We'll have to see what the future holds for the 462. I haven't had a chance to use it in a live situation with my main stage rig, but it does the job in rehearsal, so I guess thats a good thing.

two knobs- basically treble and bass.

I use it in my guitar rig, but you can use it for numerous applications. It really does give you more punch and clarity, especially with distortion. My mesa screams louder, and my fender stage gets a much bigger sound now. You really have to play with the mids on your amp hen using this product.

Seems solid. Put it in a rack case, and your good.

It definitly needs to be in the effects loop of your amp. I've been playing about 10 years and have spent THOUSANDS of dollars trying to get THAT sound. Although I wouldn't say this is for everyone, I would say to give it a shot if you have a rig you love but want more clarity and balls out of it. Oh yeah, The knobs at around the 12 o'clock position seem to work best.

This thing is so simple and easy to use. Plug it in, connect your signal (left in one channel and right in the other) and power up. there are only two major controls... bass and treble. The bypass switch shows you how well it is working. The room acoustics make a big difference if you are using it to make your home theatre sound great. But that is the idea, to make the sound richer and fuller, which it does. I love playing my guitar through it or just running the internet radio through it even.

I think it sounds great with no perceivable noise or distortion. I love what it does to 'thin' sounds and how it makes a room sound so good too.

I have used it for 6 months with nary a flaw or glitch. I can't imagine there is much to go wrong with such a simple unit.

Haven't had the occassion to call support.

I bought this unit from zZounds.com and love it and low price for how much I enjoy listening to this unit. I haven't used it much with recording, but as a listening enhancement it sings.

This is a addition to a previous review of mine. I hate to tell you guys this but, one of the reasons that your tone sounds so lousy when the unit is in "bypass" is because its not TRUE BYPASS. The highs are sucked right out just like they are with a boss pedal when in its buffered "bypass mode". The BBE does make a difference but to truly hear the difference you have to completely disconnect it instead of just toggling the BBE's On/Off button. Get the next model up, I think it has true bypass when you toggle the unit on and off. Again, sorry guys,...just trying to correct the ignorance. I was there myself!

So simple even my singer might be able to figure it out...and that is sayin a lot!

This little black box is absolutely AMAZING! I remebered the old ads that featured ex-Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulik, it simply said, if the BBE is off, there is something wrong....man, he wasn't kidding. I picked this up for about $70 at a pawn shop and it has made the single most significant improvement to my sound in 22 years of playing! I run this through the effects loop of a Peavey VTM60 head that powers a 4x12 cab, and the second channel is run through a Peavey Bandit 65 that powers a 4x10 cab, the guitar is run into a Digitech RP5 that goes stereo to the amps....Phoenomenal! I have gotten so many complements on my sound...think earthshaking heavy, yet it cuts through the mix like a bell! This thing is exactly like buying a whole wall of 4x12 cabinets! Okay, maybe not like that, but it definitely is like removing ear plugs, I swear, once it is on, you'll never be able to play with out it!!!!!

I give it a 100 on a 10 scale!

Had it for about 7 years now, never a problem! I do baby it though!

Never had to deal with them.

Buy this. I'm serious, i don't care what kind of amp you play, buy this! It will open up a whole new world of amazing sounds, way cheaper and much better than an arsenal of foot pedals! This is the cornerstone of my guitarsound, and I can't imagine anything ever sounding better!

Reading the past reviews of this product, it seems like it's mostly a love/hate relationship. My take? Get one if it's the last thing you do! I really don't know how I ever lived without it. I went from having the best guitar sound I could find (Mesa-Boogie amps, Seymour Duncan pickups, Gibson guitars) to the exact sound I've always heard in my head. Perfect!! The best money I've ever spent. I bought one for my home theater, too, and had similar results. Even my car stereo has one built in. It's brainless to use... two knobs, highs and lows (for each channel). I know that this will probably won't be the case for everyone, but you really owe it to yourself to at least try one with your gear. I'm still busy kicking myself for waiting so long!!

No additional noise (in any system in which I'm using one) that I can detect. Absolutely unbelievable benefit to the overall sound quality in any situation I've tried.

No problems so far...

Improves everything it touches... pristine clean guitar, too-distorted crunch, bass, keyboards, vocals, movies, CDs, everything... even my girlfriend sounds better through it!! (just kidding)

Couldn't be easier...two knobs, one each for high and low contour. I just bought this used and do not have a manual but I can't imagine anyone would have any difficulties learning to use it.

I use this with a Jackson guitar going into a Sansamp PSA-1 preamp (incredible product) and a Peavey power amp and finally into an old Pro cabinet with 35 watt celestions . I agree wih the other user that described it as taking a pillow off of your speakers. The guy at the music store said that he thought that they were an okay product and that you may or may not like it because it adds frequecies to your sound. Well, I can't imagine why there are so many used ones out there for sale but I only needed to hear it for about 1 minute before I decided that I had to have it. It is definatley the best $99 bucks i have ever spent for my sound. There is a button you can hit to override the maximizer and you can't believe how dull the sound is when you turn it off. Also, there was a guy in the store that was listening to me play and couldn't believe his ears. Needless to say, he went and bought one also. But like I said, there are lots of used ones out there so try it first! I used to have gearhead syndrome and now I bring my amp to the store to try out gear.

I have only had it a couple days...

Never dealt with them...

I dabble in blues (all hail SRV) and play heavy hardcore (Sheer terror, sick of it all). I've been playing for about 8/9 years. If it were stolen I would be right back at the store to buy another one..no doubt about it. I didn't compare it to anything else although I hear that Behringer (sp?) makes comparable products.

Very easy to dial in due to 4 knobs...Lo contour x2 and process x2...The manual goes into detail about their technology...They are proud people.

At first I bought it to clarify the detail of my guitar...I had money to burn and that's exactly what I did. I was using emg pickups and these pickups are too bright to begin with so the BBE just made it harsh sounding...I don't use ultra-high gain/distortion which is where the bbe stands out when used in a guitar rack. So I returned it and some other junk I collected for a thinline tele with humbuckers..

It is in a rack so....

never dealt with them...

I had this thing for about 6 months before I returned it. Now I am getting into digital recording and will probably buy the smaller 264. Now listen, these things may just be a hi frequency enhancer, kinda like a 2 band eq that is virtually noiseless...I always read the manual of stuff I buy and research it now that I am on a tighter budget and I noticed some strange things regarding the high frequency at which the high process knob on the different models of sonic maximizers are set at. The 264's knob is adjustable at 2500 hz, the 462 (last years model)is at 5,000 hz, and the 311 (which is like 6 years old) is set at 10,000 Hz. I bought the 311 used and it was Noisy! And I think it was due in part to the higher frequency on the high process knob and older technology...hmmmm, so now I am thinking that maybe this whole thing about these BBEs' phase correction might be misleading...I would like to see a electrical engineer take a look at one of these things...Yeah it does make a differnce in track mixdowns and master mixes but it just may be a very expensive 2 band equalizer. So I'd like to see. I hope I don't get sued...

" Same as Previous Review

I noticed on my: V.U./Singnal-Strength/dB-Meters when I measure
how many deciBells I have in the TREBBLE of the signal, using
this 462 will increase your TREBBLE about up to 6dB with the
process up all the way and it will leave your MID-RANGE Frequencies
to be MORE-QUIET than your TREBBLE Frequencies, mostly uneffected.
So this leaves me to believe that SONIC-MAXIMIZERS are just another
GLORIFIED-EQ

"Same As Previous Review"

"Same As Previous Review"

"Same As Previous Review"
(I have had this thing for too long!)

Not enough controls on it...So it is easy!

It sounds like it just adds High-Frequency-Trebble with the
Process-Knob and Low-Frequency-Bass with the Low-Contour-Knob
...It leaves the Midrage frequencies unaffected...Although I
fully understand that the whole concept is: "TO TRICK YOUR BRAIN
INTO THINKING YOU HEAR MORE-TREBBLE" because of its
"PHASE-RE-ALIGNMENT" by at different times you hear different things
within less than a second...More sounds that you didn't know were
even there, but I still can't hear it all...I use it with all kinds
of music: CLASSICAL, PUNK, METAL, ROCK, FLEMENCO and I still can't
even hear all the weak notes all with the help of: a COMPRESSOR and
a 31-BAND GRAPHIC EQUALIZER...I think that the outcome can just get
too trebbly and harsh instead crisp, full, and "NON-OVERLAPPING...
So I leave it off until my FINAL MIXDOWN for DIGITAL RECORDING...

No Problem!

No Problems

I don't trust using this with the PHASER effect due to a
possible PHASE-CANCELLATION...I would like to buy an APHEX
104 AURAL EXCITER TYPE C2 due to the fact that they invented
Sonic-Enhancement such as Phase-Re-Alignment way back...
I guess this thing is OK but I state that it SHOULDN'T be used
for EACH INSTRUMENT SEPARATELY OR INDIVIDUALLY for the FINAL
MIXDOWN(That applies to all Enhancers)...