Marshall BB-2 Bluesbreaker II

The manual is a bit basic but straightforeward enough.After plugging in and a bit of experimenting i soon got the tone i was after.

There are two modes on this pedal, blues and boost.THe blues mode played through my amp on clean really gives me an AC/DC style crunch and is perfect for my sound.The boost mode though not as effective as a Tube Screamer, still gives a good edge to your soloing.Dial in a bit of extra gain and some volume from your amp and your guitar will be squealing and popping with the best.I am running it through a Line6 Spider jam 75 at the moment ,until i can afford a decent valve amp.My guitar is an ESP LTD EC 100qm.

I have not gigged this yet but will.The thing is built like a tank and will stand up to most knocks(i've dropped it twice).

Have not had to deal with the company as of yet,so cannot commment.

I play 70's style hard rock and metal,and have been playing on and off for ten years.As well as the ESP LTD i own a Yamaha Pacifica 112v.If this pedal was stolen i would get another one,for this price you can't go wrong

I never got a manual with this pedal, I bought it used. It is pretty easy to use this pedal if you have an ear for getting the sound you like. If you can't get the sound you like, then this pedal is probably not for you. very straight forward pedal.

This is a very good sounding pedal. I use it through my marshall tsl 100 half stack(t75's). I put it through the clean channel with the amps master volume cranked at 10. You can get some plex-ish sounds with this pedal. Good imatated sounds. If you want a plexi sound buy a plexi, or better yet make your own plexi with the "metro amp plexi kit". The effects i use with this are:
Guitar...tuner...marshall bb2....boss fb1...boss dd7 delay(effects loop)
soon to be added brent mason hot wired pedal by brian wampler
& rc booster by exotic pedals

this pedal is not noisy, even at loud levels, you do get a pop low noise when you didengage the pedal or engage it. i think of jimmy page guitar sound when i use this. i used it friday night at a gig for something different and new...i loved it and so did my band mates. if you like plexi tones or that sort of sound, try one.

very reliable, built very tough, steel casing, no worries here.

never had to deal with marshall...i own alot of marshall stuff.

I play blues, rock, bit of jazzy stuff, nothing too heavy.I have been playin 23 years, and i;m 33 years old. i don't like the boost on this pedal, i think it sucks, but i never bought it for that. i never use it.

Well I found this to be easy to use. The knobs are kinda close together But Other that Very easy to use, If your using the boost channel you have 1 knob that will function. That is level. On the Blues channel you will have the functions of drive tone and level.

I bought this pedal for one reason, That is to use the boost channel, I play a Gretsch 5120 and a Frnder Blues Deluxe. At the level I can play at my APT I cannot get the drive out of the amp i need, so I got this, For this purpose alone it was well worth the money. It does not change my tone it makes it sound like I have it cranked all the way and it sounds awsome. I did try alot of pedals before this one I.E. All the Boss, and Tubescreamers, and they just didn't work for me. This pedal did, and I bought it without even trying the Blues channel. I got home and did use the blues channel. While it's not the best on this channel for me, It did give me That Marshall Bluesdriver sound, witch isn't bad, I am sure if I wanted to make it sound like I have 2 differant amps I could use it, But for me the boost channel is what it is about. I will say this, If you have a solid state or crappy tube amp using the boost channel will sound like crap. it does what it says, it boost your natural tone into overdrive. For what I bought this for I am giving it a 9 noting deserves a 10. that would be perfection and to me perfection is not needing a pedal.

Well it is a Marshall and I am sure if something went wrong I could exchange it for another one.

I have never needed to call cust support so I wouldn't know

I play a strange mix of jumpblues,rockabilly and roadhouse country. I have been playing for a few years and believe in something alot of people have forgotten about TONE. I love my tone and I love what this pedal does for me. If you are looking for a distortion pedal to give you that Meatl tone look elsewhere. This pedal is great for classic rock and blues. Right up my alley. The only thing I hate about this pedal is calling my friends and telling them I bought a marshall pedal. HAHA! but after they hear it they cry with envy. I can't campare this to other pedals because I don't know of any other pedal that does what this did for me. Once again I wish it had a little bowl because everybody has cried when they heard this trough my set up. Once again everybody is differant this may not work for you like it did for me.

It is easy to use, but not to get a good sound out of it! This requires a little work... I bought it from a friend so there was no manual.
It has two modes, boost and blues, and three controls, drive, tone and volume, with the first two working only with blues mode.

I've used this pedal with a Gibson SG '61 reissue, and three amps: a solid state marshall mg 30dfx, a solid state marhall 30 watt cd and a tube fender twin reverb combo. The marshalls I mentioned are crappy amps, so I won't judge the sound out of them (it is very bad indeed)!
With the fender twin reverb so...
In the boost mode, with the clean channel of the amp, you can get a mediocre I could say crunch sound, but with a little work it gets better. It can even sound like the retarded twin sound-bother of the sound of Rory Gallagher in Bad Penny!!! When I used the overdrive channel of the amp, with the boost mode on, it had a boost indeed in the gain. It can sound bright, with some sparcle, but not always. It can sound very muddy is some times too. That is not bad at any occasion, because it sounded like early cream, or blue cheer, so I liked it!
The blues mode is a disaster. The balance of the volume between the two modes is terrible, the volume for blues mode is LOW, very low compared to the volume of boost. So you can't use both modes in the same song I suppose. The sound is terrible, I think it reminds me the sound of black metal bands from poland, in their demos... Holy crap!

It is a very reliable pedal, metallic cover and all, so no back up is needed (who uses a back for a pedal anyway???!!!!).

Don't know, never contacted with them.

I play blues/rock, and it's a good match... I 've been playing for 10 years, and I use this pedal with a Gibson SG '61 reissue. The review made with a tube fender twin reverb combo, but my amp is a solid state marshall mg 30dfx, and the sound is crap, either with the pedal on or not. If it was stolen I think I 'd buy another overdrive pedal, or nothing at all... I don't use pedals often.
With my crappy solid state marshall it helps really, and makes the sound a bit better, I can't even hear this amp without this pedal! So my opinion is that this pedal is quite an option for someone who owns a crappy amp, and doesn't have the money to buy a decent amp. The pedal is cheap, so the value for money is good.
My favourite thing about this pedal is that I can get a cruch sound out of an amp that didn't have this feature (crap marshall solid state's!!!)
BUT I would never use it in my tube Laney VC30-212 combo...

4 knobs which all are easy.

BAD sound quality! It adds a tad of distortion, but it destroys your tone, man! Please go try a tubescreamer instead of this one, as you will regret buying this pedal the moment you fire it up with a band. Your guitar will sound like a piece of crap..

Very heavy and sturdy built, although it looks a little cheap (and it is)

I don't think Marshall knows what Customer Support means.

This pedal gets in the way. I liked the tone in the beginning, but when I tried it alongside other pedals, it really fell through. I'm sure this pedal could serve you if you like playing easy classic rock riffs like AC/DC or that kind - but then you're playing a lot of tones and playing them with your band, your tone will destroy the whole musical image of your band. I'm sorry..

Very easy to use. 4 knobs. 2 settings for distortion- "Boost," which acts as simple overdrive, pushing the guitar's signal into the amp rather than creating its own artificial distortion, and "Blues" which emulates a distorted tube amp.

Tone knob, Level, and drive are all pretty self explanatory.

I use a variety of guitars into this- Fender single coils (Tele and Strat), but most often use a Les Paul or Gibson 335.

There is some slight noise on high level settings, but nothing unreasonable. I primarily use this pedal through a Vox AC30, Blackheart 5W tube head, or a custom built 60W tubs amp.

I think there are a lot of people with misconceptions of what this pedal is supposed to be. In my opinion, it's best to consider this a "modelling" distortion pedal. On "blues" setting, it sounds very much like a driven Marshall Plexi (I.E. Marshall Bluesbreaker...hence the name). You're not going to tweak that into sounding like something else- just won't happen. I'f you're trying to find your favorite artist's sound, you won't, unless they record on a Plexi. But if you're looking to emulated the plexi sound, this pedal absolutely nails it.

On the "boost" setting, however, this is really just a signal booster. So if you're using a solid state amp on clean tones, you're pretty much gouign to get a louder solid-state sound. With a tube amp, the boost will push the power tubes to saturation, so you'll get a cruchier soudn otu of your amp, but it won't be an artificially created sound- it will be YOUR amp's sound.

I know several people who bought this pedal thinking it would act more like a tubescreamer. It doesn't. It simply is what it is- a way to boost your signal or a way to make your amp sound like a 1960s Marshall Plexi. For that, it's FANTASTIC.

I've gigged with it and used it for 3-4 years regularly. No problems at all.

Never had to use them.

I play a lot of classic rock- from Zep to AC/DC, as well as a lot of Britis indie music. Been playing for about 10 years. I own a couple tubescreamers and a boatload of random effects pedals.

I would definitely buy another one if this was lost or stolen. It's sound is great if the plexi sound is what you're going for. That being said, it's not a versatile pedal, so I won't give this a 10. It's not my primary overdrive or distortion pedal (that would be my tubescreamer).

Fine. 4 knobs and a button to step on; ordinary stompbox.

This pedal frustrates me. I can't get the right sound out of it. On the blues setting, the drive is always thin and weak or too muddy. The tone isn't too responsive either. Wherever it is, it sounds quite scratchy.. if that's the right word to describe it. No power etc.
I tried having my amp on clean and using the boost to push it into overdrive and using that for my rhythm playing. But, as someone else described it on here perfectly, i found it very 'shrill' - although it was marginally better than the blues.

Fine. Doesn't seem to falter or anything.

I think that you can't ever go for a cheap stompbox with a drive pedal; if you want a great sound, then you have to pay up a bit more than this. This is more suited to a teenage garage band practice.

I've had this piece for a couple of years. It's a stock one. It's pretty easy to use and it's pretty easy to get the most out of it(believe me i've tried every possible setting, and nothing sounds horrible). Easy to use and good sounds are fairly easy to produce, not perfect but close.

I've gotten past trying to sound like anyone in particular, but i suppose it's good at getting those early 'zeppelinish' tones, not at all the same level of quality, but again it's getting there.
The overdrive is rather open sounding imo, not at all a bad sounding pedal by any means, i quite like but still it won't be producing quilty overdrive like that of a good tube amp, then again i wouldn't expect it to. Unfortunately this unit suffers from lack of definition. This both with my Les Paul and Tele. The tone knob isn't very responsive and the quality of the drive decreases as you turn the drive knob eastwards. Unacceptable.
Another point that makes me wonder if the guys at marshall really know what the heck theyre doing. TRUE BYPASS?! in a drive unit?! you must be kidding me. The unit makes quite an audible 'Pop' when switched on/off.
Furthermore it has a tendensey of getting rather noisy even with drive at 12 o' clock. Sounds are ok, not bad not great. The boost on the other hand can be horrible, shrill and thin, very uinspirering.

Has never failed me, and with its record so far won't for a long time. Everything on the casing is very solid, it's metal. Though something could allways fail, never gig without backup.

Never dealt with them.

I play rock and blues. Fine match, though don't expect to use it for shredding. I've been playing for around four-five years(i think). I have an LP and an american Telecaster as mentioned earlier on. I play through a rig consisting of a guitar-> Dunlop Crybaby fasel-> BB2-> TS9DX -> Emma Reezafratzitz(stupid name but the best distortion money can buy)-> Boss DD3-> Fender Blues Jr.-> Homemade 2x12 cab made to matchless specs.
I deffinetely like it better than my POS TS9DX, but i wouldn't buy it again, i would probably buy a Carl Martin drive unit, but for now it's an allright solution def. good value for the money, by far better than boss units i've previously owned.

Extremely easy to use, 3 effect knobs and 1 function knob.

I'm using this with a Vox AC30 and an old Acoustic Control amp. I was looking for a higher gain pedal to get some really good distortion out of my AC30, and this has fit the bill perfectly. I prefer the 'Blues' setting rather than the 'Boost.' The boost is a little shrill in my opinion. It's useable, but it's not really what I was looking for. The drive on the pedal is very focused, and really gives the Vox a Marshall sort of tone. I keep the gain right around 9 o'clock, which gives me a great crunch and some decent sustain on single notes. I don't really dig the gain over noon, it's more than I use and gets a little out of control. The pedal can be pretty bassy on the neck pickup, but loves the bridge. I'm giving this an 8, because while it's nearly pefect for my needs, it has some short comings.

Built like a tank.

I play all sorts of music, and I use the BB-2 for mid-distortion type stuff. Compared to the Boss Blues Driver, this has much more of a mid-hump, though focused in just the right frequencies. Gives you a great crunch and does a great job of giving you that classic Marshall sound.

I dont use the blues dist. mode i only the use the boost function mainly to get that extra chunk out of my marshall valvestate overdrive channels since i like the natural sound of a distorted amplifier other than that it's your basic od/dist pedal w/drive,tone and vol which i dont go past 6 it just clutters up the overall sound making alittle too muddy.

I use a les paul w/active pickups(EMGS) running through a AVT 150 watt marshall which sounds pretty beef up on its own using the OD2 channel.I also crank up the amp gain no more than 6 with that combination with the pedal i get a super overdriven sound with clarity which add some tightness chugging on the low E/heavier notes and it can get kind of noisy i just turn the pedal off during pauses when im not playing.

I've play numerous gigs with this pedal never broke down every now and then the screws get loose from constant plugging in and out it just a matter of tighten them back or put some tape around it which works just as well sometimes the tape can get loose at times.

I play rock and metal if it was stolen i would try out some diffrent type of boost pedals to see if theres anything better if not i'll just hold on to this one or hopefully one day they'll make a marshall valvestate with even more heavier type of gain so i would never need a pedal lets hope.