Played some more with the old BBE last night. I know my Roland has a similar effect for the lead voices but where I like it is how it effects the drums and bass when put online with the output signal. On some patches I use the leslie effect so there goes my one effect per patch allocation of the G1000.
I also tried emulating the effect with tone controls and compression on my mixer and its not even close.
Again its my laziness of not wanting to jump on the next greatest thing and having to revamp everything I've done.
I know a guitarist who loves his BBE so I guess its still a viable unit for some.
I'm going to try it in a live situation and continue my "upgrade the PA" quest.