Bluesbreaker build report

[snoof]

I'm sure this pedal has been hyped before, but I'm really diggin it!  I've never been a tubescreamer fan, so I've kinda been luke-warm on opamp based OD's, but this one is very nice.  It doesn't have the midrange hump that the TS has, and goes from clean (gain knob all the way down, vol up all the way) with about unity gain, to fairly heavy dist if you want it.  The other cool thing is that it sounds great right out of the box, so to speak.  With all the other OD's I've built, I've had to alter cap values to get rid of the bass cut, but the BB is good to go as is.  I find it real close to the Boss BluesDriver in that it doesn't really alter the sound of your rig too much.  But I like it better than the BD in that it sounds better at higher gain settings, and it doesn't mess with pedals that come after it like the BD does.  The only sub I made is that I'm using a TL062 instead of a TL072.  I tried a 2272, 5532 and a 4558, but the 62 won out.  It sounds real close to my English Channel, but it's eaiser to dial in.  The BSIAB is a close second, but at really low gain settings, it can't get to unity.  I was surprised that it sounded quite similar to my FET based OD pedals.  Overall, I'd say it's an awesome low to mid gain OD!!     

[96ecss]

+1 on the Bluesbreaker being an excellent low to mid gain OD. I have a bunch of pedals that fit that description but the BB is my favorite. It handles all my lower gain OD needs on my pedalboard while my BSIAB2 handles the higher gain stuff.

Dave

[Hanglow]

Yeah I like mine as well. under rated pedal in general I think