Xotic Effects BB Preamp Andy Timmons

The Xotic Effects BB Preamp Andy Timmons, usually abbreviated BBP-AT or BB-AT, is a signature version of Xotic's BB Preamp: an overdrive and boost preamp pedal that takes a guitar signal from a clean volume boost up to a smooth, compressed overdriven sound. Premier Guitar described it as "a reincarnation of the original Xotic Effects BB Preamp," capable of "30dB+ clean boost and smokin' overdrive tones"¹. It was built as a limited run of 3,000 signature series pedals, announced in December 2017 at a list price of $168¹.

The pedal is a collaboration with Andy Timmons, the guitarist known for Danger Danger, Pawn Kings and the Andy Timmons Band, and the circuit is tweaked to his taste². Where the standard BB Preamp delivers what Aion FX calls a "warm, compressed overdrive tone," the AT version pushes that compression further, which is the main practical difference a player hears between the two³.

What it does

The BB Preamp Andy Timmons works as two pedals in one box. A pre-gain stage "allows the pedal to go from a very pristine clean to a very smooth, compressed, overdriven sound," so it can sit at the front of a board as a clean volume boost, or be pushed into overdrive to drive the front of an amp¹. Delicious Audio describes the BB Preamp family as "a pedal that can be used to overdrive your amp and fine-tune your tone's EQ"².

Tone shaping comes from an adjustable ±15dB two-band active EQ, the same approach as the standard BB Preamp, which lets a player cut or boost bass and treble around the overdrive character rather than only rolling off highs¹². The AT ships in a red casing, distinguishing it visually from the standard pedal, and the box includes an Andy Timmons guitar pick plus a trial link to Timmons's site guitarxperience.net¹⁵.

The core sound of the family, in Aion FX's words, is a "flexible tone machine that takes you from a clean volume boost to a nice smooth overdrive with a 2-band EQ to shape the tone"⁵.

Power: 9V or 18V

The BBP-AT can be run at 9V or 18V, with 18V giving more headroom¹. This mirrors the wider BB Preamp line: the standard BB Preamp's maker listing gives its power consumption as 9VDC at 6mA⁶, and the Bass BB v1.5 Preamp runs at 9VDC/8mA or 18V/11mA, accepting a regulated 9VDC to 18VDC adapter⁷. The standard BB Preamp V1.5 can also run on a 9V battery⁸.

What the two voltages do to the sound is best described by MusicRadar's Jonathan Horsley, writing about the Bass BB Preamp V1.5, which shares the family's dual-voltage design⁹:

The same trade-off applies to the AT: 9V leans into the compressed character the pedal is known for, while 18V opens it up. The pedal uses true bypass switching, so it drops out of the signal path entirely when switched off¹.

History and versions

The BB Preamp line goes back to the early 2000s. Aion FX dates the original BB Preamp to 2002⁵, while Premier Guitar's announcement of the BBP-AT says the original "first hit the market in 2005"¹. Aion FX also notes that the post-2007 circuit was later renamed Version 1.5, and that nothing in the line was ever officially called a version 2⁵.

The Andy Timmons Signature BB Preamp was released in 2009, often abbreviated AT or BB-AT⁵. Vintage Guitar reported at the time that "Xotic Effects has released an Andy Timmons signature version of its BB Preamp," using true-bypass switching and a different color scheme and packaging from the standard pedal⁴.

In December 2017, Xotic announced the BBP-AT as a limited edition: a run of 3,000 signature series pedals, priced at $168 and shipping to Xotic dealers in mid-December¹. Delicious Audio covered the same release, noting the version was "tweaked by guitar legend Andy Timmons"².

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