BBE Mind Bender

I bought this at PedalGeek.com on a Monday and was playing it the next day. AWESOME customer service & shipping. Ease of use? SUPER easy. Just depth and speed are variable ... piece of cake.

Using this with a mexican strat (with all humbuckers) into a mesa/boogie lonestar. This pedal sounds thick & fat. VERY nice. I have no idea why some reviwers complain of noise. I have this in my amp's effects loop with no noise whatsoever.

n/a - I only bought it this morning, but it appears very sturdy.

pedalgeek.com is my go-to store for pedals. They are friendly, helpful, and have super-fast shipping. Their website is full of reviews & demos, and they only carry the good stuff.

I also own a barber LTD, barber tone press and fishman AFX delay pedal. I have all my pedals connected to my amp via a Pedalsnake. Amp is a mesa/boogie lonestar 1x12. I've been playing 24 years semi-professionally. I play classic rock and this is a great pedal for "badge", "bad love" and ANY tune that has a slow moody passage that needs something with a little bit of "motion" in the clean sound without sounding gimmicky. I also do a lot of David Lindley (El Rayo-X) stuff, and just a HINT of this pedal cops that Mr Dave clean sound.

Easy as pie! AND VERY USEABLE!

What's wrong with you guys that don't like this pedal? I think the bad reviewers need to stick to their digital multi FX units. I honestly wanted to hate this pedal thanks to all the false reviews. Well, turns out it kick major butt! Here's why you should trust my review. I use tube amps only and top line guitars. Chorus pedals I own are (1) analogman clone chorus (2) 1981 EH small clone mn3007 IC (3) Boss ce-1 (4) EH poly chorus. THis pedal gives me exactly what I want. I think it is just as good if not BETTER than the overpriced analogman clone chorus. Yeah I said it...... So what? Both modes are very useable. This pedal sounds very good for what I need and want. The vibrato mode reminds me of an old clone theory without the hiss and the chorus is clone chorus.

I have had no problems at all. To the gentleman who said it has cheap components well.... YOU ARE WRONG!!! I opened mine up to see top quality metal film resistors and the same panasonic caps as in the analogman chorus. Same switches as the top boutique pedals too. Also guys what part of the 5 year warranty did you not understand? Send them back if they are messing up. I will tell you this.... I have recently had problems with menatone and foxrox pedals which are top notch too. I sent them back to Brian and the other to Dave and got them fixed. I do know that pedal makers are not making the components and some will fail. There has been some bad batches of 3pdt switches which are used in almost all new $$$ pedals.

NO NEED. To those with pedals making noises there is a 5 year warranty. Fill it out and send it in and stop your *******! I have had pedals by analogman, fulltone, foxrox, menatone, E-H ETC all malfuntion. I did have enough sense to fill out the warranty card and send them back. Remember that these companys just design andput the pedal together. They don't make the components.

Thanks to all the bad reviews of this pedal, I was able to get mine cheap on the bay and I love it. I am an ole school analog lover and have no need for a sterile chorus pedal. I like this better than the analogman I will be selling soon. I also love the 2 timer analog delay too.

two knobs, two switches, very easy to figure out. For me, it took about 2 seconds to get the exact sound I was looking for. Didn't read the manual, but in my opinion, it couldn't get any more user friendly

For what I use this pedal for, it gets the EXACT sound I'm looking for. I'm running this into the effects loop of my Retroman Kopy Kat delay pedal. I use it to add modulation to the delay signal (or the dry signal, if I feel like it). It sounds AMAZING. I was trying to go for a Deluxe Memory Man type sound, but with a little more versatility in the modulation. While it is not exactly the DMM sound (nothing can do that except for a DMM), it is a very haunting. beautiful, musical delay sound. I use the vibrato setting keeping both knobs at noon and BAM, I'm good to go. I use the chorus very infrequently, but when I do it sounds as good as I expected it to. I've heard better choruses, but This chorus sound goes great with my delay signal as well. Very 3-D, lush, and wacked out if you need it to be. The real selling point of this pedal for me was the vibrato. SOUNDS GREAT. The only reason its not a 10 is the popping noise when you bypass it, I don't care for that at all.

only had it a month or so. Can't say

This pedal is one of the few stand alone vibrato pedals on the market and, though I haven't tried any others, I don't think I'd be interested in buying the alternatives (at least for now). this pedal is great. Does exactly what I need it to. Haunting, lush, spacious, doesn't overly color your tone. If you are looking for a pedal to add modulation to your delay--this is it. I would buy another if this got stolen. A great price. What more could you ask for.

Two knobs- speed and depth. Two switches- on/off and chorus/vibrato. It's easy.

Why the low scores? Are people not used to analog chorus and vibrato sounds. While the chorus is a bit "syrupy" for my taste the vibrato is just excellent.

Still, both are very useable. I got a good "Come As You Are" tone in seconds and have since got some other good settings. The tone is thick and gooey for both effects, very anlog-sounding and I like it for that reason.

I have seen and heard several reports of these things giving a crackling, "frying bacon" sound. Time will tell. Build quality is excellent, though.
I also owna BBE Sonic Stomp which has been on for about a year and a half straight with no issues. I also have a Soul Vibe and Freq Boost and have problems with neither.

No experience as all the BBE stuff I own works perfect.

This pedal does what it claims to do. I have no personal experience with either the Way Huge Blue Hippo or Boss VB-2 Vibrato so I cannot say how close it resembles them. I will say its sounds great in its own right and for what I paid its worth every penny (even at full price it would be).

BBE really can't be beat for high quality but affordable effects. I'll take them over Boss any day. From the high-quality enclsures and switches to their meticulously wired boards I really can't finid much fault with the company. Of course, the sound of the product is key and they have always come through for me, the Mind Bender being no exception. (Plus they include an AC adptor AND battery with every pedal. Anyone need half a dozen BBE AC adaptors?)

I'm not a huge fan of either chorus or vibrato in general, but I bought them to round out my board, for the occasional Nirvana cover, etc. I find that bothe effects are very musical, however, with the edge going to the Vibrato side. If you have ever wanted your guitar to sound like a rubber band, this is the pedal for you.

The BBE Mind Bender Vibrato/Chorus pedal is pretty straight forward in design and is easy to use. If you have trouble figuring out how the things works, the instruction manual will take care of that quickly.

I play a Fender Jaguar and a Schecter Ultra. Pedal setup is nothing fancy, but is as follows: Digitech Hardwire CM-2 Vintage Overdrive, Electro-Harmonix Little Big Muff, BOSS GE-7 Equalizer, BOSS PS-5 Super Shifter, BBE Mind Bender, BOSS BF-3 Flanger, Digitech, Digiverb, BBE Two-Timer, BOSS DD-7 Digital Delay, Digitech Hardwire RV-7 Stereo Reverb. I use several amps: Fender Frontman 25R, Fender Frontman 65R and an Orange Crush 35R. I mainly play shoegaze/dreampop/post-punk/indie rock. With my pedal setup and the BBR Mind Bender I can get every sound from The Chameleons and The Cure to My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. The Chorus effect on the Mind Bender is lush and sounds fantastic (puts the BOSS CE-5 to shame). The Vibrato effect is great and can go from subtle to wild. There is a slight hiss when the pedal is activated, but it's not too bad. Certainly not as bad as other analog pedals I've tried. In essence, this pedal fits my needs completely.

The pedal is well built and I would expect it to be durable enough for gigs.

I've never dealt with BBE.

This pedal is ideal for the style of music I play and I'd recommend it to anyone who plays shoegaze/dreampop/ambient/post-rock. If it got stolen or lost, I'd definitely replace it unless I found a better effects pedal.

Controls are straight up - its a no-brainer in terms of ease of use. Tonally - you can get good chorus and a decent vibrato. Beware - the vibrato is a true-pitch bending experience! The chorus likewise can get real syrupy!!! The manual is good in giving starting points to "dial-in".

My rig is a simple signal chain - tuner=>OD pedal(Marshall ShredMaster or Digitech Bad Monkey) => Chorus (DOD Ice Box) => Tremolo (Behringer Ultra 110) to either SF Deluxe Reverb ('76 model) or Pignose G60VR. Wanted to try a combo pedal in place of the Chorus and Tremolo. This is where I went wrong with the BBE. Vibrato is "pitch bending" while Tremolo (what Fender actually does) is "modulation of the signal". Two totally different effects! IN MY VIEW - the chorus on the BBE gets too syrupy too quick. LIKEWISE - the vibrato is way too dizzying! I like subtle chorus and I love tremolo. SO - this pedal did not do what I had hoped. Tried it for a week and sent it packing (what you have to do when you buy online!)
In terms of what it does - great.
Bad point - can not use both effects at the same time
Bad point 2 - no happy ground for me

Rock solid controls - built to go on the road. I would have gigged w/out a back up - tend to do that anyway.

no need to deal w/BBE

If it were lost or stolen, I would not replace it. That is why I sent it back. In playing guitar over the past 10 years, I've tried to keep a more simple signal chain/effects path. The pedal is for someone out there who wants the chorus/vibrato effects combo, me I'll stick with the other route - chorus/tremolo. I guess I'm stuck in the old ways.
If there is one thing BBE could have done - made it where you could have used "both" effects at the same time. Oh well - time to keep searching for the ultimate pedal combo!

The pedal was easy to use.

The pedal sounded great for about 15 minutes. After that, it made a terrible grating sound. It died on me.

Really, it died after 15 minutes of playing. I would never buy another BBE product.

I sent it back to the retailer that I bought it from, and they graciously took it back. I never dealt with BBE directly.

I have been playing for more than 30 years. I have a Boss DF-2 Super Distortion Feedbacker (pre-lawsuit) that I bought and have been playing since 1984. No, it is not for sale. I take good care of my equipment, but the equipment has to be solid enough to last. The BBE Mindbender actually died after 15 minutes of playing in my living room.

Easy and nice, only two knobs.

You can get very different sounds from light chorus to hard lesly.True bypass - is it true.But after few seconds when chorus is engaged pedal start making HORIBLE NOIZ like frying eggs.Or even sounds like bad contact somwhere inside.Then, after all pop's and frying fx sounds pedal starts working again normaly with sound of good chorus untill frying eggs comes..... and like this all the time.

It is built like tank.Hard aluminium case, but it is only good thing.Inside of pedal cheap components,but it is not so important, worse of all soldered points - they are very very poor.Seems like someone drunk soldered all inside.Absolutely LOW Quality.
With that kind of noizzzzz i can not use it on the stage and of course i will not use it in studio for making records.Better paly with easy and well known Boss instead "boutque like" pedals.
I will sell it if someone buy it.

Never dealt with BBE .
But shop where i bought it from, offered to change it for another, but they advice me straight away that all analog circuits making sometimes some noizzzz and they told me to be not so kritical.
In shop i tryed another and i had similar sound of frying eggs with little difference - sound appear after few minutes of using pedal.
Pardon my english.

I playng different kind of music from classical to death heavy.My musical expirience about 14y.Im prfessional engineer of electronics, i make my amps and guitars also, belive me that pedal was not built by professional.Probably some poor country with cheap workers who do not know waht they do.It is shame for BBE sell this kind of products. Im not sure that some one buy it from me, so one more thing i can say - GOOD BUY 120 BUCKS............

Very easy unit to use:

2 x control knobs (speed and depth)
2 x pedasl switch ( Vibrato or Chorus and on/ off)

In and out jacks inputs, power supply input and battery compartment with easy access from below pedal.

Very nice chorus sound on this pedal takes a while to get use to its parameters, the depth knob is seriously deep and you get alot of different chorus tones from this pedal.

The pedal does create some noise when activated, but most chorus pedals do; especially analog pedals.

The vibrato sounds are good but I use this pedal primarily for chorus.

Well this is my fourth BBE pedal and I have had no problems with any of them so full marks.

Never contacted them, never needed too.

Great flexability for a basic chorus/vibrato pedal.

Sound quality is good, competes with Boss CE20 for sounds.

Works well with overdrive or distortion.

Very easy to use and incorporate into a pedal board or rack setup.

Easy, no triks.

Good quality chorus and vibrato.Good bypass, does not change original sound of the guitar.
But when pedal in use , i can hear sound like waves, probably sound of clock.May be it is common and normal for analog kind of stuff?
But, anyway it is good quality pedal for good price.
I had before Boss super chorus and Electro Harmonix - both i returned to shop in next day.EH did very loud "POP" when press switch and did same clock noice , but much much louder and it was not like waves, it was like mouse kliks ;-)
Boss just was not my kind of sound and was not true bypass.

Mind Bender for a moment winer.
I woud like to give 10 , but slight waves sound will down couple points ;-))))

Quality metal/aluminium box, nice looking.Very smooth, very sexy too ;-))) Pure boutique item !