I recently picked up a Blue Bee Overdrive (4 knob version), or BBOD4K for short, by One Control.
What do I think of it? Read on for my (shorter than usual) First Impressions.
What Did You Buy?
I bought a Blue Bee OD 4K Mini by One Control. This name is often shortened to the BBOD4K for short. (There’s another, unrelated BJFe pedal – the Baby Blue Overdrive – that is known as the BBOD.)
The Blue Bee OD 4K Mini is a modern variation of the legendary Honey Bee Overdrive (HBOD for short), designed for One Control by Björn Juhl (of BJF / BJFe fame). One Control describe it as a “gained-up” version with added harmonic content and added thickness.
The “4K” refers to the pedal having four controls, labeled V, D, B and T. B and T are EQ controls, which I’m hoping will provide more flexibility over the HBOD’s single Tone control.
What’s The Backstory With BJFe And One Control?
Over the years, Björn Juhl has released his pedal designs through multiple manufacturers:
- his own BJFe brand (I believe these are all hand-built by the man himself?),
- Mad Professor (their early slate of pedals),
- Bearfoot FX,
- and now One Control out of Japan.
Have I missed any? Please let me know in the comments if I have.
As I understand it, the Mad Professor pedals are variations on the original BJFe designs; i.e. my beloved Sweet Honey Overdrive (SHOD for short) is based on the HBOD without actually being the HBOD.
The Bearfoot FX pedals seem to have started out as exact BJFe circuits; i.e. a Bearfoot FX Honey Bee OD is a HBOD. Over time, Bearfoot FX have also put out some excellent variations of these pedals too, and have continued to do so after their partnership with BJFe ended.
At the start of 2018, Björn posted that he had ended his partnership with Bearfoot FX and that he’d partnered with One Control out of Japan to mass-produce his classic designs using modern SMD parts. That’s a big deal; one of the reasons BJFe pedals are so rare is because he kept running out of vintage components to make them from.
Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the BJFe One Control pedals have become very rare too. One Control isn’t widely available here in the UK, and (at the time of writing) even Thomann (largest guitar gear store in Europe) no longer has many of the BJFe pedals listed.
Why Did You Buy It?
I bought this because it turned up on the second-hand market at the right time for the right price.
The Notaklön was supposed to be the only thing I bought this month, but after a rough time at work, I decided to take another look and see if anything interesting had been put up for sale. I would have completely missed this pedal otherwise!
Once I saw it, I had to do a bit of research. I didn’t even know this pedal existed. Finding out that it’s a variant of the HBOD that I’ve never tried before? I’m not interested in collecting every HBOD ever made (don’t see the point of owning the same pedal in different enclosures), but I am interested in collecting as many variants of the HBOD as I can (within reason – I’m not going to pay current asking prices of £800+ for the HBOD Deluxe, for example).
During that research, I also learned just how rare the BJFe One Control pedals have become. That sealed it. Definitely had FOMO vibes!
My Rig Today
Today, I’m playing:
- my Les Paul (aka GP) and my Telecaster (aka Mirage),
- the One Control Blue Bee OD 4K (BBOD4K for short), and
- the Axe-FX 3, running my 65 Clean pedal platform preset.
No sound demos today, sorry. They’ll come later when I’ve got time to do a deeper dive into the pedal.
How Does It Sound?
A Fantastic Tweed-Tone Pedal For The Blackface Sound
I’ve tried this pedal through my 57 Vintage preset (optimised for tweed-tone pedals) and my 65 Clean preset (which chases the Fender blackface clean tone), and I thought it sounded far better through the 65 Clean.
There’s something going on the mid-range that I don’t understand. Through the 57 Vintage, the mid-range just doesn’t sit right, whereas it sounds pretty spot-on through the 65 Clean.
Rightly or wrongly, my conclusion is that this pedal is voiced for the Fender blackface clean tone.
That’s probably a good decision. I can’t imagine that there’s many players out there who have a rig that’s voiced for tweed-tone. Most folks will be playing a blackface or Marshall-style clean tone.
“Gained-Up” Is An Understatement And A Half
I normally run the Honey Bee OD (HBOD for short) or Sweet Honey Overdrive (SHOD for short) with the gain up around 2 o’clock.
Not this pedal. I’ve got the Blue Bee OD’s Drive control down at around 8 o’clock, and even that’s borderline too much for me.
If you’ve ever played the HBOD family of pedals, and wished they had more gain (and a thicker sound), you need to try the BBOD4K.
The Top-End Is Tricky And Brittle
I don’t know whether it’s due to the added extra harmonic content or not, but I’m finding that the Blue Bee OD’s top-end is tricky to work with.
My Les Paul is long overdue a new set of strings, and yet I’ve had to turn down volume and tone controls on the guitar to stop the top-end being crispy and harsh. And, if I throw any effects on in post, it can get crispy again very quickly.
Turning down both the Drive and Treble controls on the BBOD4K helps too. There are sweet spots to be found, where the pedal sounds fantastic. It just takes a bit of time and patience to find them for each guitar in turn.
I have a (possibly wrong) memory that the Uber Bee also has the same problem with the top-end (it’s another higher-gain Honey Bee variant). I’ll have to dig that out when I’ve got more time and see how they compare.
The Low-End Isn’t Flat, It’s Overwhelming At Times
One Control describe the Blue Bee OD’s low-end as “flat”. I find it more overwhelming than anything.
I’ve got the pedal’s Bass control down at 8 o’clock, I’ve also had to switch IRs in the Axe-FX 3 and add a 120 Hz low cut … and I think there’s still too much low-end in the final signal for me with most guitars.
I need to try this with a Strat bridge pickup, or a very bright Tele. It might be voiced perfectly for those guitars.
I Don’t Feel The Need To Boost It With A Klon
As much as I love my beloved Sweet Honey Overdrive (SHOD for short), I’m happiest when I’m boosting it by running my Klon KTR in front of it.
I don’t feel the need to do that with the Blue Bee OD (BBOD4K for short).
The BBOD4K is plenty punchy and powerful enough as it is. I would happily use this as my only drive pedal.
I have briefly tried boosting it with a Klon klone, and I didn’t like the initial results. (Another parallel with the Uber Bee – I really do need to test them out side-by-side at some point!) I will give that another go when I have more time.
Final Thoughts
Another welcome addition to my tweed-tone pedal collection!
This pedal has that familiar Honey Bee-esque tweed tone, while offering a thicker, punchier and far more overdriven tone than the HBOD does. While I’ve found it quite tricky to dial in, once I did, I had an absolute blast playing it.
I think it’s an interesting choice for anyone who has a Fender blackface-voiced setup and who needs a tweed-tone pedal on their board. Or for anyone who has tried the HBOD and felt underwhelmed by it.
When I have the time, I need to come back and compare this to the Bearfoot FX Uber Bee (and maybe the Honey Beest too?).