Is that Xotic BB preamp ?

[Nuts]

http://ramalhais.com/files/amp/L.A.BoutiqueScreamer.PDF
?

[O]

Yes...

[Nuts]

O !

[slideman82]

Nothing from another world, I think... does it sounds as good as some people says?

[Nuts]

I'm hearing it as an un-muddy tubescreamer

[Nuts]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiW22O914Cg

[ayayay!]

So it's a TS with an amplified tone stack for treble & bass boost/cut?  Not genious by any means, but definitely useful.  It sounds cool.

Do they (Xotic) "dope" the guts of this pedal too?  Seems a little trivial, since reverse engineering this one only exposes they fact they reverse engineered a common circuit themselves.  Am I missing something there or is it really as silly as it seems? 

[Fender56]

So it's a TS with an amplified tone stack for treble & bass boost/cut?

Exactly what Digitech did with the Bad Monkey!!

[ayayay!]

Exactly what Digitech did with the Bad Monkey!!

Except the Bad Monkey is $140 less!!!!!!   


Hmm, makes me want to get a Bad Monkey now.  HA! 

[analogmike]

I don't know the circuits used but by listening to them the BB preamp does not sound like a TS at all, more like an SD9. The AC booster would make sense to be based on a TS, and the RC booster too (without clipping). Don't believe all you read on the internet, use your ears.

[ayayay!]

I wondered the same thing too, Mike.  Are we sure this isn't an AC Booster, and not a BB Preamp?

I mean, the schem is obviously a TS, but I don't know if we've properly identified the right pedal with this schem. 

[soulsonic]

That scheme in the original post is the BB preamp (with a mistake in IC1A - shows signal going to inverting input - should be switched with non-inverting). The AC Booster is slightly different, but still fits the general mold. The biggest difference between the two is that the BB has two opamp chips with four total gain stages, and the AC booster only has a single chip with two stages. With that in mind, you could make the argument that the AC Booster is the one that's closest to a Tube Screamer, but the big difference is that the clipping stage of the AC Booster is an inverting opamp, and main distinction of a TS-type circuit is the use of a non-inverting opamp clipper stage. And that would be a difference between the AC and the BB as well, since the BB uses the TS-like non-inverting clipper stage.
It would be more fair to say that the Xotic pedals aren't necessarily TS clones per se, but just opamp/diode distortion circuits in the long line of opamp/diode distortion circuits which everyone has been making for ages. Definitely nothing new, but I wouldn't consider it a clone - just common. That's all it is; a very common circuit, much like you'd see in hundreds of other pedals.

[MadMac]

I don't know the circuits used but by listening to them the BB preamp does not sound like a TS at all, more like an SD9. The AC booster would make sense to be based on a TS, and the RC booster too (without clipping). Don't believe all you read on the internet, use your ears.

I have the AC booster and one of the biggest differences that I notice about this pedal compared to a TS is that the AC is so dynamic!  When played at stage volume the touch sensitivity of this circuit is amazing.  I can never get that with a TS.  The AC booster is even more dynamic than my Fulltone Fulldrive 2 and that is supposed to be a TS808 clone.

So if these Xotic pedals are TS clones there has got to be something about these circuits that improve the dynamics and tone.  They definitely sound different to my ears.

[ayayay!]

That's good info MadMac, especially about the dynamics.  But I think you may have missed what we were saying earlier, in that this schematic is a modified TS, not a full on clone.  Yeah it's obvious the AC/RC/BB pedals each sound unique, but they're variants of common circuits.  That being said, I like them and they sound cool.  I don't have a problem with using those common circuits as building blocks.

Read soulsonics explanation again.  It's accurate.

And just to reiterate, Inever said it was/wasn't a BB preamp.  I've only looked at the schem and commented on that.

...and from AnalogMike:

the BB preamp does not sound like a TS at all, more like an SD9

If that's the case, I need to check out an SD9.    I bet I'd like it.