I like the layout of the Bee
Buzz more than the original,
it’s easier to have all the
controls right on top. You
still get two distinct fuzz
circuits, “Bee” and “Buzz”.
There is a small toggle in
the middle of the pedal
to choose which fuzz.
Three of the four controls
are dedicated to the fuzz
circuits: Volume, Tone and
Sustain (amount of fuzz).
The fourth control, labeled
Boost, controls the amount
of output for the treble
boost option. There are two
footswitch controls; the fuzz
and boost correspond with
either a red LED (fuzz) or
green (boost) LED. One of
the LEDs is always on. The
other footswitch is a bypass
control for all effects.
So, how does it sound—
like an angry can of bees,
maybe? Well, yes and no.
The Bee side has a huge
scooped midrange. There
is some low end to it, then
a huge amount of lower to
upper treble with a clear
absence of all mids. The
immediate riff that comes
to mind is the guitar intro
to “Satisfaction.” After a
while though, I really grew
to like this fuzz. Its upper
end is harsh, and intended
to be that way. The Buzz
circuit was my favorite of
the two, sounding sort of
a Fuzz Face and a Big Muff
meeting up and have demon
babies together. There’s
not as much low-end thump
of a Muff, but there’s more
of a midrange impact to it,
and with the Sustain control
turned up high with the
Tone backed off, it makes
a nice creamy type of fuzz
bordering on distortion.
Now for the bonus part:
I found the treble boost
very useful. If you have a
two-channel amp, use your
dirty channel, set to a low-
to-medium crunch. With a
good treble booster, you
don’t cut low end, but
rather the goal is to just
accentuate the mids and
treble region, and that
can really make your amp
scream. In my case it made
the crunch channel come
alive and it sounded thicker
and meaner—just more of
what this amp (ironically a
Roland Blues Cube Artist)
could put out on its own.
WHAT WE LIKE
Having an improved,
recreation of a hard-to-fi nd
vintage fuzz pedal available
for the masses is a good
thing. More people should
experience this fuzz if they
have not already. Black Cat
made it better in a smaller
package with an improved
treble booster circuit,
making this pedal a killer
buy.
CONCERNS
Initially before I did any
research into the original
Bee Baa, I though the boost
circuit ran into the fuzz,
so having them separate
seemed odd to me. But
after spending more time
with it, I really liked that I
had in a sense, three distinct
tones from this one pedal.
ToneReport.com
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