BJFE / BearFoot fx Guitar Effects Community

I would generally put BJFE fans in the advanced category of tone seekers ....

as many of us have been at t his for awhile.....


What tones are you still chasing or interested in finding ??

What would peak your interest in a 'new' pedal ???

There are a number of tones that I can get but they require lots of hard work to achieve. I have always wished for individual pedals that could make the whole process easy; at present I have to use a few pedals and play around a lot. Here is what I have always been after:

1. An pedal that simulates tube distortion, is pick dynamic but does not color the tone at all. Most pedals change the tone in some way but hardly any pedal guarantees that the output frequency response curve was the same as the input frequency response curve.
2. The bright, crunchy, distorted rhythm guitar sound from The Beatles song "Taxman".
3. The bright, crunchy intro and lead guitar tones in the song "All Your Love" on the "Blues Breakers" Mayall/Clapton album.

These last two are simple tones but they are actually quite hard to achieve, probably because they are simple. A commonality is very bright, clean, crunchy; kind of like a brighter SYOD with more crunch.

Something else weird I have been interested in for a while, and so have a lot of other people, is something that combines the Vox MRB circuit with a Fuzz. That is a fascinating sound and there are no pedals out there that do that. Old school but I know there is demand just look at all the people asking for it on the D*A*M and Vintage Amps forums.

While I am on the subject, one pedal that combines tube amp-like distortion with a fuzz pedal. This would be a two stage design so that the fuzz circuit feeds into an amp-like distortion circuit. You could have "Gain" controls for each circuit and the "Nature" control would be used as a mixer between the fuzz circuit and the distortion circuit. Actually, now that I talk about this I reckon that this pedal could be pretty damn amazing. Can I order one, plus the ones above of course

I better stop as I can easily generate lots of ideas...

I would like to see what Bjorn could do with a Flanger--my favorite ADA!!!

Dual pedals also-oneside-cliffhangar-other side model h or your choice.......But i have not played a Cliffhangar

Dual pedal---one side snow white fuzz-other side honey bee....But i have both!!!


So i would say still chasing------ADA FLANGER

a small reverb pedal that doesn't sound like crap. really, any reverb pedal that doesn't sound like crap. i've bought just about all of them, I'm starting to doubt it can be done

I have a feel the cliff hanger would satisfy my higher gain distortion annoyance. so I'll assume that to be a possiblity.


Perhaps the most exciting thing to me would be a crunchy brighter low to middle gain pedal with dynamics. Basically, I'd love the sound of a vox right on the edge- with that super dynamic crunch and the treble bite that accompanies it- like the Edge's clean tones in many cases. I've been chasing that tone for years. I guess its a slightly higher gain honey bee with a brighter EQ and a diffferent compression feel. with that Jangly tone that shimmers and sparkles and... (sigh, even writing this has me frustrated)

I am getting close with the following stack- HBOD on with the gain in the middle, into PaulC Timmy with the gain a pinch less than 9oclock and the bass cut more than the treble into a SBEQ with a slight boost overall and a bit extra treble there as well. It gets me most of the way, but the compression still feels a bit off and the dynamics aren't as fluid cause of the stack of pedals. I tried using the MP FGC to help "clean up" the sound and compress/sustain things differently but it didn't help much. The EGDM felt too compressed even at lower gains through my amps (which are warmer by their nature, and I like that most of the time).

I always wonder if the SYOD is what I'm looking for but clips usually seem toothier (rougher?) and most open that I'd like. Ugh, grr, but yeah, I'd pay a good chunk of change for that tone. Some days I swear I'll by a AC15 or AC30 just to nail that tone. Then I remember my fiancee would kill me if I bought another amp. but a pedal? I can get away with it with some work

thiscalltoarms wrote:Perhaps the most exciting thing to me would be a crunchy brighter low to middle gain pedal with dynamics. Basically, I'd love the sound of a vox right on the edge- with that super dynamic crunch and the treble bite that accompanies it- like the Edge's clean tones in many cases. I've been chasing that tone for years. I guess its a slightly higher gain honey bee with a brighter EQ and a diffferent compression feel. with that Jangly tone that shimmers and sparkles and... (sigh, even writing this has me frustrated)

I am getting close with the following stack- HBOD on with the gain in the middle, into PaulC Timmy with the gain a pinch less than 9oclock and the bass cut more than the treble into a SBEQ with a slight boost overall and a bit extra treble there as well. It gets me most of the way, but the compression still feels a bit off and the dynamics aren't as fluid cause of the stack of pedals. I tried using the MP FGC to help "clean up" the sound and compress/sustain things differently but it didn't help much. The EGDM felt too compressed even at lower gains through my amps (which are warmer by their nature, and I like that most of the time).

I always wonder if the SYOD is what I'm looking for but clips usually seem toothier (rougher?) and most open that I'd like. Ugh, grr, but yeah, I'd pay a good chunk of change for that tone. Some days I swear I'll by a AC15 or AC30 just to nail that tone. Then I remember my fiancee would kill me if I bought another amp. but a pedal? I can get away with it with some work

i guess a good treble booster is what you need. BSM has a myriad of different options, check em out and good luck!

bjf-crazy wrote:I would like to see what Bjorn could do with a Flanger

The Flanger idea is interesting. How about something even more dramatic and takes this idea one step further? How about something that does not exist anywhere? How about something that even BJ may not be able to build? The suggestion is to produce something that sounds exactly like the original 1960s EMI Artificial Double Tracking (ADT) system. There is nothing out there that produces this effect because it was only recently discovered how this effect was generated. Once you have this true EMI ADT device you can then use it to create true flanging, phasing and chorusing. There is no pedal out there that takes this approach. One could even go one step further to the ultimate by providing an oscillator (based on the Levell TG-150M oscillator) as an add-on that would be used to "wobble" the signal even further. So, a true ADT/Flanging/Phasing/Chorusing/Wobbler all in one guitar effects pedal based on how it was originally done. Now that would be truly unique and I am not too sure if it can even be done today

thiscalltoarms wrote:a small reverb pedal that doesn't sound like crap.

Reverb is interesting. Here is an extension of that idea that I have always been interested in but cannot find. How about a guitar effects pedal that simulates a Send Tape Echo / Echo Delay (STEED) device? This is somewhat complex but it does produce an amazing sound. Simply, this is kind of tape-echo simulator with a small delay which is then feed into a reverb circuit, but with some extras. It is a very unique and would make a great pedal. Anyway, here is the technical information...

Some time ago people produced "echo delay" by using simple tape-delay and then feeding this into an echo chamber (for reverb). However, they discovered that you could achieve more clarity in the sound of the echo chambers by inserting a short pre-delay into the chamber send (giving you source->tape delay->pre delay->reverb). This pre-delay created a slight separation between the original sound and the chamber reverberation allowing the dry signal to be clearly heard before the chamber sound appeared and began to diffuse it. They used to create this pre-delay by first passing the sound through a standard tape delay, creating a brief time lag before the sound was sent to the chamber. However, STEED provides a bit more complexity than this. In this system, immediately following the tape delay stage the signal is split with (a) some of the delayed signal being sent to the echo chamber (reverb) (b) an option "loop" to return some of the delayed signal back to the input again. There are two basic operations of this circuit: if no signal is sent back to the input via the loop only a signal delay would result and this would then feed into the chamber. This is your basic tape delay -> pre delay -> reverb approach. However, if more "return" signal is fed back into the input multiple echos are created, since each output echo is fed back to the device and repeated again. These multiple delays would then be fed into the reverb circuit. The quick, multiple echos reverberate with the chamber which then thickens the sound without usually being audible themselves as discrete repeats. This would thicken the guitar tone up a lot.

So, a guitar effects pedal that provided: tape delay simulation -> pre-delay -> reverb with STEED modifications to allow for feedback back into the circuit as described above. I mean, that would be unique pedal wouldn't it

- A flanger that is small and useable
- A octave fuzz that allows the octave to be switched on and off
- A fuzz wah
- A chorus that isn't repulsive

Wow, there are so many tones I am chasing right now... I'll just post my top choices -

1) Just about any tone on U2's Joshua Tree - specifically "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" and "one tree hill". Edge is my favorite guitarist - not for his chops, but for his ingenuity and tones. It amazes me that after 20 years no one has nailed the tones he achieved on that album. Also some of my favorite tones come from the War and Pop albums.

2) The ultimate "Brown" sound, aka, Eddie in a box. There are so many pedals that claim to do this, and they do a decent job, but I don't think I will ever get that sound unless I invest in a new amp and a maple-necked Charvel. Even then so much of Eddie's tone came from his hands. The DRD is a great distortion pedal but it does not contain all the characteristics of the "Brown" sound.

3) Incubus' "Morning View" album. Mostly the ambient soundscapes that Mike Einziger creates.

Lots more, but i'll save them for another time.

For Bjorn's next pedal, I would LOVE a true analog delay with modulation. Also would love to see what Bjorn could do with the traditional TS circuit and the JRC4558D chip. I know it's been done a gajillion times, but I still think Bjorn could bring something interesting to the table. A chorus, reverb, and flanger would also be amazing... OK, pretty much anything would be amazing. Also, like thiscalltoarms I think a "vox in a box" ala The edge pedal would be great - not a distortion like the EGDM, but just a boosted "chime"...

I'm not adding anything new, but my list is:

- Through zero flange in a small box (standard MXR size)
- Edge's "silver sound" in a box
- The horn-like fuzz tone on the lead of Gimme Shelter