Product: BBE Main Squeeze
Price Paid: Australian 220.00
Submitted
04/11/2008
at
04:46am
by
Grant
Ease of Use
:
10
BBE "Main squeeze" compressor.
Now changed name to the up dated "Orange Squash" due to legal issues with the original and protected name used by Dan Armstrong.
This BBE is a copy of that ledendary Dan Armstrong "Orange squeezer" compressor circuit, but with some up-dated added features for more adjustment to the signal and compession.
The Dan Armstrong model was employed by the best studio musicians for it`s inherint circuit design that produced a very smooth and musical compression without overly squashing or taking away the low end of the signal.....like the Ross & dynacomp compressors do.
The BBE is one very useful compressor that does what all the legendary tales of holy grail compession say..!
The original Armstrong had no adjustment over comression and threshold etc, but was still very good at what it did.
BBE has added a volume and bias for fine tunning your signal.
This will run off a 9v battery or wall supply with adaptor.
Nicely built and presented.
Not noisey at all and the quality of compression is really very good.
Sound Quality
:
10
Many a wise studio guitarist plugged into the original and legendary Armstrong "Orange Squeezer".
Jeff baxter from steely Dan & the Doobies relied on one and Mark Knopfler recorded his first two Dire Straits albums with his Strat plugged into one of these units too..!!
The good thing about the controls on this unit is you can fine tune your signal which is really helpful for compensating in general and for the difference in output between humbuckers and single coils.
With a nice blackface fender amp and Strat, you can really nail the early knopfler sound & tone quite easily.
With humbuckers, you have the choice to back off the effect for a very smooth signal or you can crank this thing to get more drive & sustain to the front of the amp.
Huge sustaining distortion can be achieved easily in this situation.!
I owned the MXR Dynacomp, but that hasn`t got anything on this model.
The Dynacomp sounded thin and over compressed even when backed off on the compression pot.
Reliability
:
9
Ive had this for 6 months now and have used it quite alot.
My strat ES335 and Lowden acoustic have all had their turn with this.
The acoustic is quite impressive with the BBE plugged in.
I would have to say this unit is most reliable and very well made.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Has not been required.
Overall Rating
:
10
The best just got better with this unit.
I think BBE have done a great job here. Well made, has all the character of the original Armsrtong model but with very usable additions and up-graded housing.
I would recommend this compressor to any guitarist.
I feel it is bang-on and kills alot of others out their.
Most compressor circuits these days are modelled after the Ross and Dynacomp units...and both these over compress the signal i feel.
Do yourself a big favor and spend 15 minutes with one of the BBE main squeeze or orange squash models.
You just might love what you get..!
Most budding guitarists try compression and usually come away disapointed with the overall effect.
Product: BBE Main Squeeze
Price Paid: Canadian 115
Submitted
10/28/2006
at
03:11pm
by
Vincent
Ease of Use
:
10
Wo! 2 knobs!!! first is Level: the same as a guitar volume, turn it down to get a clean sound, crank it up to full on distortion! second is Bias: it set the amount of compression.
Sound Quality
:
10
just way to good! you gonna get huge sustain!! I mean HUGE! I run this thing first in my pedal board, so I only get compression from my pickup(h??h??!),so I use an Epiphone Les Paul with a SH-2 in neck and a SH-6 in the bridge, both split by a push-push volume knob, and it goes trough BBE Main Squeeze,Classic Crybaby,Digitech Whammy,boss PS-2 delay,mxr phase 90,boss BF-2 flanger and boss Chromatic tuner all powered by Dunlop DC Brick into a Marshall JCM 2000 dsl 100 head, Marshall 1960 cab.This compressor is noisy only if you put it at the end of your pedal chain, it will compress the hiss between pedals!You gonna love this thing but don't crank the compression too high!Subtle playing will be lost!Set the level to 9 and the bias to 6, raise the treble of your amp, lower the bass, it will burn your house!!!
Reliability
:
10
Just way too cool!!! My Main Squeeze is always turned on. My leads are way more juicy and my rythms are way more tight!
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
never had to deal with them. But this thing is a armored shell!
Overall Rating
:
10
I played rock for about 4 years. this thing is a cheat! all my picking, my legato are improved! sweep picking also!! I would buy 10 of them and start a family!! My inspiration has came back!!! BBE you ROCK!
