BBE Boosta Grande

Super Easy

Fantastic Sound. Orig. Purchased b/c of Guitar Player's Editor's Pick. They were dead on. A must have for tone freaks. I am running it in a variety of set-ups.

For electric I run a early mod. PRS<Ernie Ball Jr. Vol Pedal<Dunlop Crybaby wah<Boss Tu-2 tuner<Boss Cs-2 Comp.(The good one says Monte)<Keeley mod. Vintage Tube-screamer<Elect Harm small-clone chorus<Digetech Digiverb<Boss dd-5 w external tap tempo<B.B.E. boosta grande<modded Peavey classic 30 amp. This is held together in a Boss Bc-60 pedal case.

For acoustic I run a similar setup but at the end of the chain, after the boosta grande, I run an L.R. Baggs Para D.I. box. into the P.A.

I have used the pedal in both electric and acoustic live settings. Orig. I wanted just a signal boost at the end of my chain b/c of all the pedals. It does a great job of that, but it also seems to add warmth and overall quality to my tone. It's kind of like when I figured out what compression can do when used correctly. It was a tonal break through. I feel this is the same kind of thing.

The mandolin player in our group runs a Fishman bridge mounted pickup, into his Baggs Para Di, into the board. His tone is a little weak, so I tried the boosta grande on his unit as well. It completely changed his thin sound to a warm tube preamp kind of tone.

The box itself is Built like a tank. The housing width is a little larger than I anticipated, but no big deal.

The rubber pad on the back of the pedal came off, after less than a day. It was held by this resin that I am still trying to clean off. That's the reason for the 8. The jacks, gain knob, housing, etc. are all top notch.

I'm a 27 year old full time musician. I play a couple of roles to support my family. I'm a resident guitarist at a large church in B'ham Al. I play with a well known Christian staff writer. I also play in a New grass band. I run a small music school. I do a recording session every other month or so. I've been playing 18 years. I play electric and acoustic guitar, dobro, mandolin, and lap steel. Favorite players are Eric Johnson, Dan Huff, Lincoln Brewster, Brad Paisley, Chris Thile, Monte Montgomery, Sean Watkins, Bryan Sutton.

Check out my website's www.griffinstrings.com & www.myspace.com/actofcongress

I have really been searching the last few years for good professional tone on a budget. That has led me to a host of pedal, amp, and pedal chain combinations. The Boosta grande is a great addition to a variety of applications. I compared it with the Seymore Duncan model. I have no regrets.

Turn it up more clean gain turn it down less. Pretty simple!

This does what it is supposed to. Nice clean boost when you need it! I am currently running it Chafin custom volante (Primary axe -- bye the way an awsome axe if you have not checked one of these out Ben Chafin is doing some amazing things for under $1000) / epipone dot / Gibson LP --> Boosta Grande --> Qtron --> Cry baby wah --> Tube screamer x2 --> sonic stomp --> fender blues man. Mostly I play Jazzy Garcia type stuff. In the vain of Jazz is dead. This thing sounds great no noise. I would be lost without it. I liken it to Emeril --> let's kick it up a knotch --> Bam!!

Built like a tank, not one of the current little tanks I'm talking WWII sherman.

Good price nice pedal! One of the most cherished pedals on my board. Never knew I needed it until I got it and now I can't live without it. In a word awesome! I would by another in a minute just give me the. Hopefully I won't need to. My only complaint is the battery door is in the wrong spot and a little cheesy.

Easy to integrate into your setup, put it last in line before your amp. Has some nice features like true bypass, high input impedence, included AC adaptor (you get a battery too), easy access battery compartment, nice looking box as well. Feels solid. Put it on 10 and leave it there.

I run it into a single channel class A tube amp. At lower settings (25% volume) it overdrives the amp nicely for recording, like Angus on steroids. At high volume (WFO) it makes for a perfect lead tone that's not only a little louder but also fuller and more ballsy. It doesn't color your tone at all. I run the Boosta at full gain (10) always. I kinda wish it had a little more boost although 20 db is nothing to balk at. It has a clean, ballsy sound and I love it. I used the MXR Micro Amp for a while and thought the sound of it was a bit cloudy. This sounds clearer and seems much more solidly built thatn the MXR (it's about the same price too) although I think the MXR had more gain. I'm sold on the BBE though; it's a keeper.

This is my first BBE product (I don't need a Sonic Maximizer - my f*cking right hand is a sonic maximizer!!). I've gone through 2 Micro Amps 'cause the switches suck. The Boosta seems very well built and I applaud BBE for getting it right!

Never dealt with them.

This is a great sounding and fuctional box and meets all of my needs for a clean boost - nice features, well built, clean full sound, good price. I don't do boutique; I need something affordable and easy to get if (more like when) I need a replacement. Highly recommended.

plug n play for sure, gain knob... adjust to taste

I play a large variety of styles, but my primary is progressive/power metal. The clean boost set to 4 (or aroudn 8db) really tightens up my amps. My main amp is a Mesa DC-5, the Boosta really helped give the DC-5 a nice tight higain rhythm tone. It worked really well with my Marshall Jtm30 as well, the only thing I put in front of that it didn't do so well was any of my LIne 6 gear (Old POD, XT, Flextone II+) in these digital amps it really made the digitalness of them present, (bad thing).

All in all I htink it is a great pedal for analog gear, but wouldn't recomend it for modelling gear.

built solid, came with power supple... but jsut got it so we will see.

Itdoes what it says, boosts the signal, very transparent, a good pedal for boosting your amps natural tone.

This pedal is very easy, as easy as it gets. in & out Jacks, Gainknob. there is a manual but you dont need it. plug n play.

I'm using the BBE Boosta Grande with:
Voodoo Lab Proctavia, Barber Direct Drive, Homebrew Treble Boost & Dunlop Wah.
my Guitars are:
Heritage H140cm (les paul)with humbuckers
50's reissue strat with single coils.
going into an early 70's Carlsbro 60w tube amp (like plexi) non master Vol. and a matching 4x12 vintage Carlsbro Cab with Celestions.
this usnit is not at all noisy. boosts the signal up to 20db.CLEAN.
when used in conjuction with the Barber DD & the treble booster, the results are sonic bliss. i use the treble booster to increase the gain on my signal, then the barber for various overdrive sounds. when i engage the BBE, it gives me great, and i mean great, lead tones. nice and liquid. if like your tone with your current Guitar & pedals, it will simply amplify that sound and push your amp into saturation. with the wah pedal engaged too, it sounds incredible. seems to work well in any position but obviously you may want this unit after your OD pedals. i also tried it on it's own and it acted kind of like the treble boost but with less grit - great if you need little effects and just want to push the front end of your non master amp and keep just the tone of guitar.
from reading up on BBE it seems they take great care when designing there products. it has true bypass too, which i think is a must, and great selling point in the pedal market today. i put my wah in an effects loop because i only want true BP in my chain. no biggie, just another small button to press. i like this because, when you press the wah to switch it on, its starts up in the hight band frequencies, i prefer it cocked back so you can swell up instead of down at the beggining of a lead passage.

this unit is solid metal ali casing. very rugged. metal knob too. bit like a telecaster vol knob. sturdy as hell. i expect it to hold up for a long time. only the switch could go in the fore-seeable future. i would use it without a backup as i can always use the barber as a boost, even though it isnt clean boost. i have this thing set at about between 12.00 noon and 3 O'clock.

i bought new off ebay from a dealer. great service. dunno about BBE themselves.so i cant really give an opinion on them. not a multi-million cash sucking corporation, so they may be alright.

i play rock, funk, blues, punk rock styles, anything really. been going for about 10 years now. play in 2 bands - one cover band, the other an original 5 piece. i own qiute a few pedals, and mostly use the ones that arnt on my board fir recording purposes. (VL Bosstone - Maxon Phase tone - Analog Chrorus) i have reverb on my Amp (Hammond reverb) i would def buy this again. no bullshit 20db of clean boost at a good price. i love the robustness of this pedal, the knobs turn nice, butter-like, and on inspection inside its very neat and tidy. 3DPT switch, good componants. i'm thinking of getting a Sonic Maximizer (Sonic Stomp) as i think that would be a great addition to my set up. makes live playing sound like a studio recording. i compared this to lots of boutique style boosters out there, from all over the globe. i was really interested in the Barber Launch pad, as that doubles up as a DI box, and a phase corrector too. in the end, the price of this unit was the deciding factor, and i didnt want to pay British import prices on the Barber. this thing def helps me make music. if you have good set up, and just want to increase the vol for leads without changing the sound of the signal - this is the pedal. I've also been tempted to get one of there compressors, but i think if i get the sonic stomp, there may no need for the Comp, unless Comp is really your bag. i think the design of the pedal (looks) is also quite cool. also, in the pic of the unit, it looks white, but reality it's actually a cream colour. dont mean shit really but i thought it looked better in reality. try it. does what it says on the tin.