BBE Green Screamer

three knobs and a foot switch, super easy to use, no worries here

I generally run the Green Screamer with a Strat(ej maple neck) through a vintage 63 vibrolux or the low setting on a Sovtek Mig60(bassman, give or take) with a marshall 1936 2x12 cabinet. I bought this pedal at guitar center, after testing it through a pretty nice pro junior. I compared it to the ibanez ts pro 808, and admittedly, the ibanez did sound better, according to my personal preference, but it didnt sound 125$ better. The green screamer can almost nail most of the ts 808 tones, but in all honesty, its a different kind of animal, and if you treat it thusly, itll sound just as good, because i love the thick, meaty overdrive i get out it, as well as the ts style dirty boost you can work out of it.

the first one i got was admittedly broken, but i understand that that does happen with pedals from time to time, and it was probably broken when a customer yanked on the battery cable or something(power issues).

that being said, the second one i got is built like my sovtek big muff pi. its a tank.

i havent had to deal with BBE, but the pedal has a five year warranty, i believe. Im not concerned about it, at all.

I normally play blues, rock, country, etc, and this pedal is definitely suited for most every style of music. If it was lost or stolen, i would either buy a new one or just spend the money on a maxon od808 or, preferably the Keeley modded ts. If your new to the TS design, or you dont care about impressing your friends with your expensive pedals, get the green screamer, because its almost as good, although admittedly different, at a fraction of the price. It immediately changed the way i play, and i love playing with it and finding new tones

3 Knobs, which do what their names indicate. Big switch, bright LED, low current draw. Included power supply is nice, but it's not a very good power supply and the battery life is so long that you won't need it unless you're one of those who leaves their pedals plugged in all day.

I mostly play telecasters (new and old- 69 thinline which is mostly vintage and 06 James Burton) and Fender tube amps (new and old- 72 Super and 99 Twin). The one pedal out of the thirty-odd I own which I alway gig with is a Duncan Twin Tube.
The BBE is a gorgeous sounding and exceptionally well built tubescreamer type. I've tried dozens of tubescreamer variants, this one is among the best sounding, the best constructed, and the best price-to-quality ratio of any pedal I have ever bought. Excellent. Plays well with others (When I break the power supply for my twin tube, which is about every nine months, I use the GS into a proco rat as a substitute.)
One thing I've noticed about the green screamer that no one else has commented on is that it is easily the best sounding overdrive for bass guitar I have ever used. I do not consider it beneath me to play bass now and then, and when I do, I use this for dirty sounds. Low frequencies actually pass through it; I think this is one of the reasons it is better than average for guitar as well.
Sound quality is 7-8 for guitar, depending on what amp you use, 10 for bass.

Super dependable. I've got the one with the airplane on it, and despite that this pedal comes along to shows and practices, even the paint is perfect. Even though you don't need to open the back to change the battery, do it anyway. Jacks and knobs are mounted to the chassis, switch not part of the pcb, powder coating. Even the BBE pedals which don't sound good are built better than anything short of Keeley or zvex.

Never had to deal with BBE directly.

I love this thing. Bar none, the best guitar pedal a bassist should own. And considering how cheap these get (if you keep your eyes open) a no brainer for anyone who owns a tube amp, particularly with 6L6s. Out of my many pedals, there are three which I would replace in a heartbeat if I lost them- the Twin Tube, the MXR Carbon Copy, and the Green Screamer.

Three knobs - Level, Tone, and Gain. You can't get much more simple than that. Honestly, you don't need the manual if you just use your ears.

I'm incredibly impressed with this pedal. It has a great voice all its own, and you can't really go wrong with this pedal. It's not that noisy, even when all the controls are dimed. I mean, it's not dead quiet, but what OD pedal is when it's cranked? You can achieve just about any good rock tone out of it. I've gone from SRV to Zakky Wylde to Jeff Beck. Keep in mind that this is an overdrive pedal; it won't give you a Smashing Pumpkins type of fuzzy grind.

For me, I tend to go for more of the classic sound. I'm actually using this thru a Line 6 Spider 2x10 combo, and it totally redeems the amp. I set the amp clean with its internal effects on certain channels and let this be my dirty tone. I'll turn this on with the effects and it's very transparent. When I want to get a David Gilmour sound, I'll run my guitar with the chorus and reverb and viola I'm there.

If there was one thing to 'complain' about, it would be the switch. It pops when you engage and disengage, but it's bearable. My main guitar is a G&L Climax Plus (H-S-H) and I can get all kinds of sounds with this. I'm thoroughly happy with this pedal. I run all of my pedals with a OneSpot power supply, so that keeps things on the up and up.

I've had it for about a year, and eventhough it's cosmetically beat up, it still has the same great sound. I've used it in just about every application there is for it, and I just love how it can take a beating and then some.

Haven't had to deal with them, but I've heard good things.

I've been playing since I was 5, and I'm now 30. I play mainly hard rock, but I cut my teeth listening to classic rock and the blues. I know what I like out of my guitar rig (paltry as it is), and this pedal really gives me the tone and flexibility I've been looking for most of my life. I've used a BOSS OD-3, and this one definitely blows it out of the water IMHO. It's actually freeing to have this with me because I can adjust the sound to the song I want to either play or jam to. Kudos to the guys at BBE!

What could be easier then this .No problems here.

I have 4 od /dist on my pedal board.I did'nt need this pedal at all as I allready had the tube sceamer thing covered with a Bad Monkey.I'd heard so many good things about this pedal and G.C.was blowing them away for $29 I had to buy it.I figured it would take the Bad Monkeys place.Bad Monkey is still there and the Green sceamer is gone.I have a Wasabi O.D.,a Carl Martin A.C.tone,a MXR dist 3 a Bad Monkey ,and a little Big Muff on my board.I really like the Bad Monkey better than this pedal.It had more volume(a lot more volume)and it was thicker and warmer sounding then the GreenScreamer.I am using this into a Traynor YGM 3 from 1971.

Seemed to be made very well

Like I said before I really wanted to like this pedal because the Bad Monkey is silly looking but no dice.It did have a transparency that the Bad Monkey did'nt have but the C Matin ACTone more then made up for that.

P.S. I bought a BBE Free Fuzz for the same price and that was no dice also.

3 knobs, it's easy.

Not up to the tone of an OD808 Maxon.
Or a TS808.
Too bright & not enough quality tone..

Built to last..

None.

For a back up pedal that you don't care about it's more than average.
For rock, punk rock it will do the job.
That being said it lacks tonal quality big time.
It has the classic 808 mid hump, but is too bright & thin sounding.
Very similar to a TS-9 (but not as good).
Buy a OD808 or TS808.
I do like the true bypass.
You can find one on Ebay for about $40.

3 knobs - very easy to dial in a good tone. Manual is basic, but tells it like it is.

I go through: true bypass A/B switch --> modded Crybaby (made to true bypass) --> BBE Green Screamer --> Diamond Phase --> Diamond Compressor -> Fender Blues Junior.

The tone is powerful, responds quite well to axe volume, and cleans up nicely. It's a bit noisy when turned on, but it's only overdriving the hum my single coils already put out. Like the man below me said, don't compare it to the OCD (a VERY nice pedal itself), because it's just not that kind of pedal. But it certainly does nice things to my amp.

Highly recommend NOT using batteries. I find the adapter gives a much sweeter tone.

Built like a $h!t brickhouse.

Dunno.

Blues, rock, pop, blues-rock, pop-blues-rock, whatever.

Bit of country, too.

Compared it to pretty much every true-bypass overdrive I could find reviews for on Youtube, and whatever I could find in stores around here. Liked it better than the Fulltone products (tried them personally), and about the same as the OCD (which I tried personally).

If youve used a TS you can work this. Enough said!

1st of all, this pedal needs to be compared to Ts style pedals not fulltone ocd etc.

This si the best TS style pedal I have ever owned and I have owned at least a dozen.

This think just moved my Lovepedal eternity to #2! Its that good. The only thing I did to this is add a socketed chip so I could experiment with op amps. I settled on the TI 4558.


It went from an 8 to a 10+! This is the holy grail of any Ts pedal period.

It is as well made as anything out there. True bypass,quality 1% resistors!

I love how you dont have to remove the back to change the battery!

I have been playing guitar all my life for 30 years as pro for the past 15. I couldnt belive the textures coming out of my amp. I have never played ona pedal where I could hear every note in a complex chord and even overtones that ring like a cranked amp.

Outstanding.

BTW: I have compared this to keeley modded ts9,analog man silver,Lovepedal eternity,sparkledrive,zendrive and others. For the TS sound this is as good as a $300 eternity. My eternity is going on the gear page tonight.

I play Rock,jazz,blues,a chirch gig and toured with several top 40 country artists male and female. Not to be a jerk but I know what great tone is as opposed to just good tone.

Level, Tone, Gain -- Could it be any easier?

Power supply included -- Thanks!

Top-notch sounding overdrive. Better than TS-808 in my opinion -- more open, less nasal. On-par with Visual Sound, but a slightly different flavor.

Seems pretty sturdy. Made of metal with a good switch. I'm guessing I'll still have it in 30 years.

I play many styles and could see this fitting into any style. From adding a boost with a bit of edge, to driving a distorted amp into high-gain, to a bluesy-rock overdrive tone in front of a clean amp.

I've been playing for a very long time and own way too much gear to list. My house looks like a music store.

If it were lost or stolen, I already have a back-up... I bought two of these.

I compared it to other overdrives that I already own: Hughes & Kettner Tubeman, Seymour Duncan Classic Tube, Visual Sound Jeckyl and Hyde, Danelectro Daddy-O, Boss SD-1, Ibanez TS-808, Ibanez TS7, Boss Blues Driver, and probably a few more that I have forgotten about. I really like the open-ness of the BBE. It holds its own against anything.

I love this pedal. I have a great sounding tube-like overdrive sound from this pedal. The thing only has 3 knobs, so how hard can it be? You just fool around with the knobs until you get the sound you like, and fortunately there are many sounds that you can get.

Just to give you an idea of my setup, I use a custom Epiphone Les Paul w/ Fralins and a Jimmy Page wiring set up. If you don't know what that is then look it up. I use a Fender Blues Jr., which is enough power for what I do and it sounds pretty good.
When I turn the Green Screamer on, I feel like my tone gets a jump start and just starts taking off. It sounds great for rhythm and lead. I haven't really used many other tube screamers, but this one sounds so good that I doubt I will. I really like how versatile the gain knob is. You can turn it down to just beef up your tone, or you can crank it up and get great sounding overdrive. All around good tone. Still, I give it a 9 b/c there are too many others out there that I haven't tried, so I can't say if it's the perfect overdrive or not.

Well, I bought this used at a price I couldn't pass up, so it did have some scuffs, but nothing major. The only thing I can find wrong with it is that the tone knob seems to grind a little when changing it. I played around with a new one, and it didn't do this. So the previous owner must have screwed it up. It still functions like it's supposed to though. Everything else is solid.

I have dealt with them through email about another one of their products, and they got back to me the same day, so it really doesn't get much better than that. I've never had a defective unit, so I don't know about returns and warranty and such.

This is basically the perfect overdrive for me. It does what I need it to do. It can give my tone a big push upward, and it can make my guitar sound great when the gain is up. I can't really give a higher recommendation for such a simple pedal. It's also true bypass, so you don't get the tone suck when it's off. All around, one of my favorite pedals.

Level, Tone, Gain. Easy. The knobs are nice and fat (look and feel like Telecaster knobs). Has a bright blue LED that is visible from space. Er, I mean, outdoors in broad daylight.

The power jack is located on the top of the unit and accepts any Boss-style powersupply

My rig:

Epiphone Sheraton II >> MXR DynaComp >> Vox 847A Wah >> mXR 10-Band EQ >> BBE Green Screamer >> EH Big Muff Pi (Russian) >> MXR Phase 90 >> Boss TR-2 Tremolo >> EH Holy Grail Reverb >> MXR Carbon Copy Delay >> BBE Boosta Grande >> BBE Sonic Stomp

The GS is true bypass, no effect on sound in bypass mode that I can hear. No noticeable hum when engaged.

This unit is great for lightly distorted rhythm (some examples are Good Love is on The Way by John Mayer, The Revolution Starts Now by Steve Earle, Daylight Fading by Counting Crows, Mary Jane's Last Dance by Tom Petty, etc. etc.) and with a few adjustments for blues lead guitar. It really shines with a boost in front of it (I have used an EH LPD-1, MXR 10 band EQ, and Boosta Grande) for leads or if you want to effectively have to different gain settings for the pedal.

Like most ODs you lose some lows and gain some highs. I suppose if I need to use some adjectives to describe the sounds I get out of the GS I would go with "crisp" and maybe "jangly". In short--it's a classic, vintage-sounding overdrive.

I demo'd a new TS9 at the same time as the GS, and the TS9 couldn't even hope to keep up.

I had never heard of BBE until a couple of months ago (and I found out that's because they've only been in the pedal business for about 2 years), but they make some extremely high quality product in terms of construction and reliability. The switch is smooth and responsive, the knobs are not too loose or tight, the bright blue LED is great.

The battery cover on the back does look a little flimsy; I tend to forget about it because I power most of my pedals (including this one) with a 1Stop.

I did email their customer support once to ask a question about serial numbers (answer, by the way: there isn't one) and didn't get an answer...... but I think that might be because of spam filter on my email.

In any event I'm going to give them a free pass here because I know better than to email when there's an 800 number.

Great for blues or any light distortion sound, really shines with a boost. Also, using the GS before a distortion box can create some cool sounds.

In short I'm very happy with this purchase and I haven't found a better pedal for the same or price cost.