It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Finally! I have waited years for this to happen; Bjorn Juhl’s (BJFe) Designs are now available not only more regularly, but also a at a much cheaper price thanks to a new collaboration with Don Rusk (Donnerbox) who is a bit of a legend and known figure in the DIY guitar pedals scene. The resulting collaboration is known as Bearfoot FX. How does it work? Bjorn has sent over his original schematics (complete with parts numbers and choices) over to Don in the USA who has recreated Bjorn’s original designs with meticulous attention to detail.
As somebody who has wanted to try a Honey Bee OD for years but never been able to find one (or afford one!) I was really excited when I heard that the first release from Bearfoot was the one I had been searching for, one of the most heralded low gain stompboxes ever conceived.
Features
Three knobs. Surprised? No me neither. But before you immediately think 808 with less gain get that idea out of your head.
Volume – Needless to say ,this is the volume. There is some boost on tap but not as much as in most of my other stompboxes, still no biggie it DOES work well as a volume only lead boost.
Nature – Well, I THINK this is the nature dial. On the original BJFe models it was labelled nature but here it remains unlabelled, in essence it is a tone control of sorts. It is actually more of a bass cut control. The most transparency (to my ears at least) seems to be with this knob set at about the 11 o clock position. Rolling it further counter-clockwise seems to boost the bass fairly substantially and rolling it clockwise seems to lift the high end a little and apply a glassy sheen. Thus I have determined that (at least in my setup) the tone (or nature) knob functions kind of like a more subtle tone control on a Big Muff Pi, boosting frequencies in lower settings and cutting bass and adding a small amount of highs when cranked. Others have said different things though, perhaps it responds differently in different setups?
Drive – The dirt! The Honey Bee is a low gain overdrive and I think I underestimated just how low gain it is! Even with the drive cranked we are nowhere near tubescreamer territory, instead you get what sounds like natural amp breakup, like the cranked amps of yesteryear (Fender Tweeds and Supro amps spring to mind) with that pleasant, crunchy distortion.
So what about the insides?
Well when I first opened the pedal I was greeted with a rather large chunk of camouflage coloured material. At first I was like: ”eh?” then Don explained it: ”The one change we made was not gooping them – instead I found some camouflaged neoprene as a joke for all the anti-goopers – its not gooped but it is camoflaged so the cloners cant find it ” So it is more of a little joke than anything, but it does prevent the circuit board from touching the casing causing potential short circuiting.
Upon removing said neoprene the PCB almost pops out of the case, experimenting further I realised this was because of the ‘spring effect’ of having a spaghetti wiring system underneath, connecting the pots to the circuit board. At first I was a little concerned about this, well, not concerned, more interested why Bearfoot hadn’t strived for a more ‘professional’ and neat looking finish.
Again I voiced my concerns in the direction of Don Rusk who was MORE than happy to answer in a professional and friendly manner, this was his reply: ”We went to great lengths to reproduce Bjorn’s builds and the ‘spagetti’ wiring, like it or not, is part of it …we did go with the red wire too as he did on the first batch of BJF DRDs..and having them pressure loaded keeps things inside from moving around much …….
But seriously, thanks for speaking up, thats the only way I can know whats happening on the recieving end. Im trying my best to make BearFoot something we can all be proud of.’‘ and later: ”Right, things sound the way they do for a variety of reasons and parts selection and wire lengths and everything adds to that (whether people on other sites want to say parts selection doesn’t matter and then turn around and complain about wire lengths doesnt follow any logic I can understand )……I’m just making the most BJF sounding,looking and feeling pedals I can and I hope people enjoy using them.”
So that is actually fair enough, NOW I understand. As somebody who has never owned a BJ original or even seen the insides of one I had no idea that the spaghetti wiring was part of Bjorn’s practice. Don’s job is to recreate the BJFe originals as accurately as possible, both outside AND inside.
Sounds
So (finally) what does it sound like then? In a word ‘unique.’ Seriously! I have tried a lot of dirt pedals and none of them have ever nailed THIS tone whilst retaining such exceptional touch sensitivity. This pedal REALLY responds. Even with the gain cranked if you pick lightly you get a very slight break up, dig in more and it really drives the pedal hard and gives you all of that crunchy goodness of the aforementioned cranked up amps.
Into a clean channel at just above bedroom volumes this pedal does not really sing like you would like to. It just doesn’t scream like you would expect, but then this pedal was probably not designed for bedroom levels. You DO get some crunch but even at full gain there is just something missing. The touch responsiveness is still there and the basic, sweet tone is there but this pedal doesn’t start working until them valves are heating up, in my opinion of course.
So up the volume a bit (it doesn’t have to be stadium loud!) and try again. Now we are getting there! You get that early seventies, natural amp crunch that Hiwatt amps are famed for. This is THE sound that a lot of people are after. It is useful but it is not really what I am currently looking for.
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
____________________
www.adamironside.com
www.youtube.com/Adji87