NPD - Bee Baa w/ video

[phantasmagorovich]

Many of you know it already, I have fallen in love last autumn. She is one of the most beautiful vintage fuzzes ever to receive my quarter inch plug and mangle what I put inside. She just takes whatever I give her and lovingly shred it to pieces. Like a wildcat on coke. But she's a classy one, likes the big chrome and she ain't cheap. So I thought what if I could replace her and find another wildcat, equally loving but younger and thus less fond of chrome shoulderpads and not sitting on money I would be able to spend otherwise? She's japanese, as old as me and her name is Roland AF-100 Bee Baa.

This is the second attempt at replacing the vintage unit actually. The first one was to replace the Roland with a Barge Concepts BB-1. Here's a written review with video:
viewtopic.php?f=149&t=27437&p=478671
^ You might want to read this, because I won't explain some things another time that I have already explained in there.

So after that failed, I called upon coveted vintage fuzz wizard Ian of Ghost Effects to see if he couldn't trace my OG unit and build me a replica. He does one-offs under the monicker Black Country (I'll call it BC). One of the most important things for me was to have it in a pedalboard friendly size and keep the character of the original. We talked about it and decided on a couple of specs:
1 - to get rid of the volume difference between the two tone settings, we decided to ditch the tone stomp and make both settings blendable on a knob. The original's tone knob was omitted. It did not have a dramatic effect anyway.
2 - Keep the Treble Boost. But I think Ian has changed the way the Boost and the Fuzz work together. I think the OG cascades them and the BC switches from one to the other. Might be the other way around too. He clarifies it down below.
3 - LED and whatnot



The BC sounds a lot like my vintage Unit. It is louder in comparison though and reacts more to the volume knob on the guitar. I would not call it a clean up, but it is less gated than the original when the guitar is at the same volume but it can get almost to the same amount of gate with the volume rolled off. All in all there seems to be more doom in the BC and it's easier to dial in. The old lady still has a certain character that the young 'un doesn't have. There is this fuzzy aggression this ripping apart the notes to shards of sexy metal flying at your ears just below supersonic speed.

See for yourself:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDwSaKQHKkw[/youtube]


I really like this one and I think I am going to keep it, put it on a board with the SS/BS Super Puzzle and the DBA KillKillFilter and it will sex up my tone for good. Now I will only have to think hard if I really want to sell the vintage unit. Damn. "Decisions decisions to make."

[ghost_effects]

brilliant, will have a good listen in a bit (i'm working!), but just to say i'm pretty sure the footswitches are exactly as the original (apart from no tone switch, the tone knob deals with this), one switches between bypass and effect, the other switches between booster and fuzz (fuzz being the booster slammed in to the main fuzz circuit!), to complicate matters the booster on its own is a treble booster while the booster slamming into the fuzz is more full range, same booster but the switch deals with the filtering of the booster as well as switching to the fuzz if that makes sense haha! ; )
We did talk about setting it up like a shatterbox for eg, where you could switch off the booster and fuzz independently but went with the 'beebaa way'!
Oh and here's the video i did...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dppYU2fslhs[/youtube]

[Holy Schnikes]

FUCK that's awesome!

Also, that first paragraph is a real winner Mick! Def gave me a good laugh this morning before work.

[12XU2A3X3]

phantasmagorovich, your are the shit! your are solving so many problems for me.

[Chankgeez]

Awesome. BC sounds great. Ian did a great job (as to be expected).

[theavondon]

Ugh. Gorgeous sisters.

[kosta]

Sounds great man! And that Bastin!!! (Them shoes ain't bad either. ) Awesome work, Ian!

[LaoWiz]

Goddamn! So good!

[kurge71]

Nice. Appreciate the write-up and demo. Gotta pull my Bee Baa out of storage now...

Imma fan of Ian as well. His Dizzy Tone is so beautiful freakin fuzzy

[rfurtkamp]

The Bee Baa is the one fuzz I don't have in my collection that I still want.

I can get very close with a few things, but like the Fender Blender and its ilk, I just love them.

That and I'm keeping the Roland dream of the 70s alive with a JC-50 and RE-150 already.

[osbornkt]

Damn. Thanks for reviving my desire to build one of these!
So.Good.

[MEC]

Them shoes ain't bad either

[sylnau]

FUCK that's awesome!