Bearfoot FX Honey Bee OD

AdjiAdji Frets: 142
in FX Reviews tFB Trader
I used to run a website / blog / magazine type thing and did pedal reviews demos etc. I was feeling pretty nostalgic today so decided to use way back machine to go and capture some of the good reviews from 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.




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Comments

  • AdjiAdji Frets: 142
    tFB Trader
    continued:

    I think at this point it is important to say that the nature / tone knob really has a massive impact on the final tone produced. Rolling it all the way down to the low end gives you a crunchy, almost fuzz like tone, the kind of tone that sounds like your speakers are bottoming out, about to give up on you, but never quite do. THAT is a sound that I like. Again though, even with the gain cranked you don’t quite get enough, or at least as much as I would like.
    One of the big uses I found for this pedal was actually using it to boost a rhythm tone. I already have a pretty dirty, 80′s rock style, British sounding rhythm tone and using the HBOD with the gain set just below half way, volume boosted and the nature knob in about central position it just gives your amp that extra kick and really crunches up and saturates that rhythm tone. In a one guitarist band this would be awesome at filling out the guitar sound and adding a little more harmonic detail and richness. Another plus is that this pedal could remain always on for rhythm and for a lead boost (providing you switch to another amp channel or kick in some delay or something) at this setting as it performs more than well enough to get you through a gig.

    Talking of lead tones, how does it boost? Well, very well in fact. I find that this pedal works great at pushing lead tones just a little bit more (with the gain down low) or boosting the gain up can really crack your amp wide open and just give you that blissful, singing sustain that you have longed for. This is where the nature knob is particularly useful as you can either dial in extra high end for cutting through the mix, or extra low end for phattening up (and I used p-h on purpose) your lead tone into almost that 1000lb violin tone that many people long for. Like a cello on acid, the low end will really make your balls shake!

    Okay, maybe that was a tad crude, but I swear they shook when I had the settings as displayed on the right pushing my lead tone with a reasonably loud amp; not gig volume, but too loud for my room. It gave me that kind of fuzzface-y, Bonamassa-esque wall of thick distortion that I haven’t been able to find in anything other than a fuzz. The Wampler Ecstasy came pretty close on certain settings, but nothing sounds quite like this (other than a fuzz of course, but we are talking ODS here). Just a super thick, saturated sound, but without being muddy or ‘flabby’ at the same time.

    For those who use only a clean amp but want a little more dirt out of the HBOD then don’t worry, it stacks exceptionally with other pedals (both taking and giving boost) and also responds very well to a compressor. Unlike some pedals a compressor does not totally wreck the basic tone of the HBOD. You WILL lose the touch responsiveness but for those who like that (and I do in certain scenarios) this is of course not a bad thing. It’s kind of like, I want the HBOD tone but I don’t want to have to work and pick really hard, that is when a compressor in front of the HBOD comes in very useful and this is when the pedal starts to sing at lower / bedroom volumes like I talked about earlier.


    Overall
    I’m not really sure what else to say. The Honey Bee OD is a really good pedal for certain sounds. This couldn’t be my only gainbox but then I have spoken to people in the past who have said this covers pretty much everything they need. As ever, horses for courses but I would really recommend getting your hands on one and giving it a run for its money. I have found that the low end boost combined with a substantial kick in gain gives me a great, almost fuzz-like sound without having to resort to a fuzz circuit.

    If your looking for that cranked up to breaking point amp sound then this could be the pedal for you. It is around half the price of a BJFe (if not less!) and contains all of the tone (or so I have been told, of course I haven’t been able to compare a BJF and a Bearfoot side by side). I think this one is here to stay.

    A legendary circuit that has its uses but I believe that it is actually limited by its low gain. I would like to hear how a mid gain version of the HBOD would sound, all of that sweet, unique Honey Bee sound but with just more of it on tap. I guess it all depends on what you want it to do as (like the majority of pedals) it scores high in certain areas and low in others. But, remember that reviews are of course ALWAYS subjective and this is my opinion and my experience, you may have an entirely different experience.



    ____________________
    www.adamironside.com
    www.youtube.com/Adji87
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