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Boss LMB-3 Hissy? Is the BC-1X better?


Jean-Luc Pickguard
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Anyone else found a boss LMB-3 to be a very efficient loud hiss generator, even with no signal present?

 

I was having a loud hiss issue with my rig at rehearsal last week and although I suspected that the cab's tweeter had got switched on in transit, on checking the cab at rehearsal today I found that wasn't the case.

 

Then I unplugged my pedalboard and plugged my mustang straight onto the amp and the hiss was totally gone. Only the LMB-3 was  actually active on the pedalboard when it was plugged in, with all four knobs at 12 o'clock.  I have recently started adding in a bit of extra mids and treble on my ABM600 amp which I guess is exposing the LMB-3 as a bit of a hiss generator whereas it wasn't as noticable when I ran the amp with a flatter eq.

 

I've brought the pedalboard home, so will try to reproduce the issue with my practice amp and investigate further. I've also just ordered a (secondhand) BC-1X so I can also investigate whether that might work any better than the LMB-3 and not add loads of hiss.

 

Edited by Jean-Luc Pickguard
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45 minutes ago, SumOne said:

Turn the 'enhance' knob right down on the LMB-3, it's a hiss enhancer! 

 

Yes, definitely turn the Enhance control down below 9 o'clock, anything above that just adds noise. No Idea why Boss think it was a good addition to the pedal but there you are 🤷

 

I've had a play side by side of the LMB-3 and the BC1-X and they are different in how they react to the bass, at least with my ham fisted playing! I'd describe the BC1-X as more transparent and possibly a bit 'bigger' sounding for wont of a suitably vague description. It's also virtually impossible to get a bad sound out of. The LMB-3 is a little more obvious sounding and the more punchy sounding of the two. It's fixed attack is also inherently faster than the BC1-X. My preference was for the LMB-3 but they're both great units and you can't go wrong with either depending on what you want from your compressor.

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I've had both and kept the BC-1X.

 

I also found the LMB to be a bit hissy and actually a little whiny too.

 

The BC-1X is the best compressor I've ever used, including Cali76 / Empress / DG etc etc etc. It's magic is the multiband approach behind the scenes. It's definitely impossible to get a bad sound from it. It has not volume pumping that many analogue compressors suffer from, especially with high output pickups. It is very neutral sounding.

It just works every time and so farm with every bass. I've got vintage output / tone stuff and mad active stuff.

 

That being said, I did like the LMB-3 a lot and if it wasn't hissy / whiny then I probably would have kept it too.

 

But the BC-1X stays on my board, and I'm planning on buying another one for when I don't want to take my board and I don't want to keep pulling it apart.

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Turning the enhance right down on the LMB3 did reduce the hiss a bit, but there was still too much. I'm hoping the BC-1X will work better for me. My new (secondhand) BC-1X should be here tomorrow, so I'll be able to put it on my board and do some A/B testing

Edited by Jean-Luc Pickguard
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