Contributing to a recent burst of creative releases in the effects market, BBE added a pair of stompboxes to its offerings; the Sonic Stomp Pro is a pedal version of their famous Sonic Maximizer circuit, while the Green Screamer Overdrive V2 is their reimagined version of the venerable TS9.

The Sonic Stomp Pro takes a lot of the classic Sonic Maximizer’s ideas and ports them down to a handy MXR-sized box. What does it do, exactly? In a nutshell, it’s a specialized EQ that adds a certain sheen to your signal path. Unlike a blatant phase shifter or distortion box, the BBE circuit takes naked guitar or bass sound and augments the higher and lower frequencies, yet still strives to deliver natural tones. You can deploy it as a set-it-and-forget-it unit to give your tone an overall buffing, or explore the Lo Contour and Process controls for extreme EQ sounds. The Focus knob dials midrange tones to evoke single-coil to humbucker textures. Many bassists use the Sonic Maximizer to sculpt their tone and the Sonic Stomp Pro has an added dynamic range of +14dB, so active-pickup basses won’t distort.

The revamped Green Screamer V2 professes to be an improvement on the age-old Ibanez/Maxon Tube Screamer. With the essential Output, Gain, and Tone knobs you expect (plus 4558 op-amps), it can drive just about any amp to tube-y goodness – think Aerosmith rawk or Stevie Ray blues. Fresh features include a Deep switch with three settings – 1 boosts for mid/upper-bass frequencies; 0 is a flat EQ curve; and 2 is a bass boost. Unscrewing the back reveals the Switchable Buffer, which adjusts to suit specific pickups.

The Green Screamer delivers everything from slightly dirty grit to vintage hard-rock tones – that epic sound of a single-channel tube amp cranked to ungodly volumes.

This article originally appeared in VG’s April 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.