BBE Acoustimax Sonic Maximizer/Preamp Pedal

I have rack version of this - wanted foot pedal for live performances, but this one wouldn't power up.

I have been playing acoustic guitar live for 50 years through my 1964 Epiphone Texan with a piezo pickup -- from church to rock band settings. I long ago gave up on solving the problem of low and high frequencies hitting the audience at unnatural intervals, resulting in the guitar sounding either tinny and thin or just muddy (envelope distortion). I would blend a mic with the pickup feed to compensate. That was a pain, especially live. But last year I had to perform a solo song for 10,000 people at my company, both live and over a conference line. I knew the guitar would sound like a cheap ukulele with a straight feed. Panic time, right? I tried a BBE Acoustimax based on reviews and it flat out saved my butt. The sound is much more full and consistent, especially when adding other effects such as chorus. It also ended my need for compression, which colors everything downstream. In addition, it's built as solid (and as heavy) as any stomp box out there. First-rate product. My only nit: The BBE documentation is thin. They explain what each knob and jack do, but not how or when to use them. If you don't already know what a notch filter is, you will need some education (easy to find in guitar forums).

I pair this with a Martin OMXAE, and thus far, the sounds I get from it are great. The phase correction actuall helps round out the sound of the Piezo making it much less quacky and helps it sound much better than if it was running directly into a recording device, mixer, or interface. With tweaking, you can even add a little bit of distortion for a cool sound, all without clipping, The build quality is also extremely sturdy, and I do mean EXTREMELY sturdy. I've never felt a stompbox that was as substantial as this one. The knobs all feel very robust, and overall the build quality of the unit overall is definitely very high quality. All of the built-in features and switches also make this a very flexible unit for use on other acoustic instruments aside from acoustic guitars, and its phase correction features are top-notch. Definitely recommend.

I bought this pedal to fix an issue with our band's Taylor acoustic. In certain live venues the feed back was horrible, or the tone was thin... but mostly unpredictable when everyone has different direct box setups and treatments on their stages. This pedal gives me the control of the tone quickly. I love the notch feature, scroll that around to find your problem feedback frequency and then knock right out of the mix. The sonic maximizer is a good touch for certain players I am sure, we tend to go without it. I would say that instrumental solo act guitarists would love the maximizer for more rich listener experience. It's very well constructed and eq's and gain's are very subtle and can be cranked on a bit without drastic changes. Only negative thing I could find is no true bypass, which can be maneuvered. Overall A+