First Impressions: Bearfoot FX Honey Beest Overdrive Pedal

I recently picked up the black sheep of the legendary Honey Bee pedal family: the Honey Beest.

And I’m going to get through this First Impressions review without making any jokes at all about it being a beast of a pedal 😂

What Did You Buy?

I bought a Bearfoot FX Honey Beest overdrive pedal. I got it second-hand.

Why Did You Buy It?

I’ve already got the other two main pedals in the Honey Bee family: the Honey Bee overdrive, and the Uber Bee overdrive. This one completes the set. [Well, it did for about a day, then the Honey Bee X turned up – Ed]

In the past, I’ve passed on the Honey Beest because it’s a bit different to the other pedals in this family. Compared to the Honey Bee, it’s got a lot more gain available, and it’s been re-voiced with that in mind. From what I’ve read online, some people love it, some people don’t.

My PRS Paul’s Guitar (aka The Earl) is a bit different too, and I’m slowly learning that I enjoy that guitar the most when I voice my rig specifically for it. So I’m very curious to discover whether or not the Honey Beest and the Paul’s Guitar are a good pairing or not.

This Is A Pedal For The Bridge Pickup

Through my rig, this pedal sounds big and fat on the bridge pickup of my Telecaster. It sounds really good with my Telecaster in particular. And I had no difficulty at all in dialling a really nice tone.

The further away I get from the Telecaster’s bridge pickup, though, the less it works for me. In particular, it doesn’t seem well-suited to the humbuckers on my Les Paul. The extra low-end seems to over-saturate the pedal too much. That might be of interest for any readers who love to play lead guitar?

It also really works with my Paul’s Guitar’s bridge pickup – but I did have to throw a multi-band compressor in front of it to cut out the low-end off this PRS first!

Final Thoughts

I’m glad I picked this up. It’s definitely a keeper.

Anytime I want to rock out with the bridge pickup of my Telecaster, this is firmly the pedal to beat. This pedal’s like a cheat code for that. I’ve got other pedals that do the tweed-tone thing better for my Les Paul, and I’m alright with that.

It’s also starting to grow on me as a nice option for my Paul’s Guitar. I don’t tend to make much use of that guitar’s bridge pickup. This pedal is going to encourage me to do that a lot more often.