BBE Sonic Stomp Maximizer Pedal Settings
 

For anyone that owns a BBE Sonic Stomp Maximizer, what are the two settings you have on the pedal, and what kind of sound do you achieve with it?

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with my tele72 deluxe: both at 12 o' clock
with my tele highway 1 with sd lil59 @ bridge: bass 12 o'clock, process 2 o'clock

the sonic stomp is always on. it just gives my tone more presence and clarity.

IF you dont have an effects loop, its going to make your sound terribly muddy, no matter what setting you use. They really shine in an effects loop though. The nature of the effect is to alter output sound, not input sound, so its pretty hard to get a great setting out of it if youre running it into a preamp stage of an amp. I recommend trying it post everything, all by itself in an effects loop, and working your way down from 2 oclock on both knobs until you find the punchy, present, beautiful guitar sound that pedal is capable of producing.

Good luck.

I stongly agree with what Phrygia80 wrote. This pedal really needs to go in the fx loop.

I have owned one for a while now, and I don't care for it when it's in front of an amp. In the fx loop it's pure gold.

12 o'clock on both knobs is a good start. I turn the process control up when I use humbuckers compared to single coils.

BBE recommends putting it at the end of the effects chain IN FRONT of the pre-amp. That is where I use it and it increases clarity and presence.

Sonic Stomp
 

Tone Sucker

+1

i don't run it in my fx loop. just too lazy to use more cables.
and it sounds awesome at the end of my effects chain in front of the pre-amp :P

I only use it on my keyboard mainly, but I usually turn Lo Contour to about 75% and process at about 50%

im considering getting one..but i dont really understand what the controls do..

it says the "lo contour" adds up to 12db at 50hz and the "process" add up to 12db at 10kHz..

so if i am happy with my EQ before the pedal is engaged, i can just leave these two knobs at zero and it will still do all the amplitude/phase correction? or do these controls have to be turned in order for the fancy frequency/amplitude correcting to happen?
if so, couldn't we just turn up these knobs ever so slightly in order to keep the EQ very similar, but still process the signal?

i'm guessing the controls do have to be turned up, as they wouldn't have named them "lo contour" and "process"..i suppose i just want to know exactly what these two labels mean..:confused:

thanks

The secret to the sonic maximizer is finding the sweet spot between underprocessed and overprocessed (either will sound bad.) It is different for every amp so you might need to experiment on your own but as others have said 12 'oclock is a good starting point. It is very easy to overuse this effect because the more process you dial in the cleaner and tighter it sounds but at the expense of your amps overall tone and warmth.

The lo contour knob is basically a bass boost/cut, you can tweak this to taste. The process knob does exactly what the name says; it controls the amount of processing that is applied to your signal DO NOT OVERUSE IT. You definitely do not want to zero out or max the knobs.

To the guy who said that it is a "tone sucker" That is how it sounds when it is overprocessed so you obviously didn't take the time to dial it in, weren't using it in the effects loop or havn't played with one period.

As others have said make sure you put it in the effects loop and if your amp doesn't have an effects loop don't even bother getting one. BBE says in the manual the ideal place to put the sonic maximizer is in front of a guitar amp and I have no idea why. Far be it from me to call the manufacturer wrong about their own product but I have tested it in front of different amps and either gotten no noticeable results or negative results.

This is a real love it or hate it kind of effect because it works so differently for different amps. I personally think everyone should at least try one. The thing that everyone has to keep in mind is that you may need to re-EQ your amp slightly to compensate for the frequency/amplitude correction. At the end of the day it can take some work but the results are worth it.

DUDE!

... Yea, just like what he said. =D

Basically, buy one at a place that will let you return it if you dont like it. BBE says to use it in front of the amp. Ive tried it there and in the loop and I like it better in front of the amp. It makes my amp sound like it had a blanket over it before I turned the pedal on. Now some of the folks around hear say the opposite is true and that it does nothing in front and must be in the loop. No one is "right" or "wrong." We all have different gear and, most importantly, different ears! The general concensus is that the pedal works very well, but you'll just have to play around with it to find out how and where it best suits you, if at all.

nothing bad to say about the sonic stomp for me. dont be discouraged by people who say in the fx loop or nothing.

i run mine at the end of my pedal chain and it sounds great! it does take a bit of fiddling back and forth with your amp eq and the lo contour/process settings ultimately less is more with this pedal.

all of my settings are really between10 and 2 oclock on either knobs.

my current setting which i've been using for the most part since i got it. is lo contour - roughly 11:30 and process - 1:00. (AM or PM)


it sounds great i leave it on all the time. it really enhances my reverb a lot. it adds that shimmer !

again everyone should try it once.