BJFE Flametop (FLT) Review
Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 10:11 am
The FLT comes in an enclosure that is the same make and model as used in other recent BJFE research/prototype pedals; BJ normally uses ELFA K430 enclosures for his production pedals but recent prototypes, including the FLT, come in NSC die cast enclosures. The FLT also follows recent research/protoype paint themes by having one color/style on the lower part of the pedal and a different color/style on the top of the pedal with the two layers separated by a horizontal white stripe. So far this white stripe technique has been used in the Model H and Sparkling Yellow Overdrive research pedals and on quite a few custom painted versions of BJFE pedals, such as used on a special Candy Apple Fuzz, some Folk Fuzzes, some Folk Phasers, the Sparkling Blue EQ, the Sparkling Orange Overdrive, the Sparkling Red Fuzz and even on the BJFE re-boxed Big Muff. In this instance the FLT has an overall red/amber color with an aged white strip separating the colors at the bottom from the colors at the top. The bottom part of the FLT is painted in a red/amber color speckled with black, a bit like a dark amber gemstone, with the face of the pedal being a much darker intense red/amber with what looks like a heat wave effect in the paint finish. This heat wave effect is referred to as a "flametop" effect, hence the name of this pedal, and has been used on a number of other BJFE pedals including a spectacularly looking special "flametop" BJFE Honey Bee Overdrive (HBOD) owned by Donner (Don Rusk).
As always, there is a story to the name and look of this pedal. The HBOD was created by BJ as a special pedal for the 2002 Swedish Guitar Show. He wanted something unique and eye catching and it happened that at the same time Donner was working on making pedal boxes inspired by guitars and in particular he was working on making one look like a Cherry sunburst Les Paul (a.k.a the "Flametop"). BJ mentioned that rather than the Cherry sunburst he preferred the Honeyburst Les Paul, the "Honey B". Based on this the name gradually morphed to the Honey Bee, because a honey bee is fat and buzzy but also sweet, and hence the final pedal became known as the Honey Bee Overdrive. When designing this new pedal BJ wanted to invoke the spirit of the HBOD and therefore decided to to go back in time and base the name and look on the Cherry sunburst "Flametop". In fact, if you look at the FLT paint work complete by Donner you can see that the side of the pedal looks strikingly similar to a Cherry sunburst Les Paul (see the two photos below provided by Eskimo_Joe).
As with my previous reviews, I connected the pedal to numerous amps and guitars (it was tested with 9 amps and 12 guitars). In all cases the pedal was the only device in the signal chain, that is guitar->FLT->amp, and I was using Evidence Audio cables to ensure that the signal was very clean. My first act was to test the pedal using a custom 1962 Fender Stratocaster with a reissue 1959 Fender Bassman. The pedal does not have any text on it so I assumed that the far left knob was the Volume Control, the middle knob was a Tone Control and the far right knob was the Overdrive Control - these assumptions turned out to be reasonably correct, except for the "tone" control. I then set all the knobs to 12 O'clock and played. My first reaction was that (a) I definitely detected a volume boost but there was almost no overdrive at all and (b) the tone was virtually unchanged from the tone normally coming from my amp. The tone aspect was a surprise because BJFE pedals usually impart some kind of artifact on the tone. I then reduced the Volume Control to unity, which was just below 9 O'clock, and then turned the Overdrive Control to full. With this new setting there was still no change in the tone profile (excellent) but that there was still almost no overdrive or distortion at all (not good). This really surprised me. I could tell that there was a slight increase in compression but there was hardly any overdrive at all. I was very confused about that and was wondering if there was a problem with the pedal. So, I unplugged the 1962 Stratocaster and plugged in a reissue 1957 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop and as soon as I played the guitar there was a dramatic increase in distortion - just I would have expected. Ooohhh, of course, I understood now. My 1962 Stratocaster has special very low DC resistance pickups and so the output is exceedingly low for a guitar whereas the Les Paul, by its very nature, has considerably higher output. The FLT is so sensitive to voltage input (player dynamics) that the extremely weak Stratocaster pickups could only stimulate the pedal to provide a very, very light overdrive whereas the Les Paul was able to illicit the full overdrive range. That is excellent. I love that. On further experimentation with different guitars and playing styles I have to say that the FLT is the most dynamic BJFE I have played to date. The compression and distortion is totally down to the guitar you select, the pedals you have in front of it and the playing style that you employ. People who own a Les Paul will think that this pedal has a lot of overdrive and distortion and people with low voltage single-coil pickups will think that this is a light almost gentle overdrive. What more could you ask from a dynamic pedal.
This experimentation with dynamics lead me to discover the second interesting feature of the pedal and that is the "tone" control. We all know that the "tone" or "nature" controls on BJFE pedals are not standard simple controls and on the FLT that continues to be the case. The Tone Control on the FLT has a very minimal (if any) impact on treble or bass roll-off. In fact, I would not even call it a "tone" control. It seems to me that the FLT generally supports the mid-range from an EQ perspective and that the "tone" control does something different and that as a side consequence of its actions it impacts the tone but it does not do it directly - it is not an EQ knob. Therefore, so as not to confuse things, from now on I will call this the Mix Control instead of the Tone Control. The Mix Control definitely impacts the tone of the pedal, it does get brighter and it does get more mellow, however it does not do so in a big dramatic way and it does not seem to do it directly. This "light" approach to impacting the tone is exactly the same approach as taken to the overdrive - you can make adjustments but the changes are subtile and interesting and not heavy and hammer-like. The Mix Control impacts the overdrive; as you turn the Mix Control clockwise the overdrive becomes somewhat more intense and the tone gains more presence and gets brighter; as you turn the Mix Control anti-clockwise the overdrive become less intense and the tone becomes more mellow. So, with the Overdrive Control and Mix Control on full you will get a lot more overdrive, intensity and brightness than if the Overdrive Control is on full but the Mix Control is set to 12 O'clock.
As mentioned above, the FLT is also the most transparent BJFE pedal that I have played. There is a slight change in the tone compared with a totally clean amp, the mid-range feel a bit more reinforced, but it is not really noticeable. It is hard to explain but there is a very small almost unnoticeable "BJFE tone" to the pedal but it is nothing compared to how the HBOD, Dyna Red Distortion (DRD), Emerald Green Distortion Machine (EGDM) etc pedals impact the tone. However, an interesting feature of the FLT is that the Mix Control only works if the overdrive is engaged. That is, if you set the Overdrive Control to zero you can turn the Mix Control as much as you like and you will not notice any change in the tone. However, as you turn the Overdrive Control up the Mix Control then starts impacting the tone (and distortion). So, the more you turn up the Overdrive Control then the more the Mix Control will change the tone and change the overdrive. Fascinating, you have to love it.
With regards to using the FLT with different guitars and amps this has to be the easiest pedal to review. I have already stated how selecting the guitar immediately impacts the overdrive profile of the pedal - guitars with a low voltage output will only stimulate low overdrive from the pedal and guitars with a high voltage output will stimulate a lot more overdrive from the pedal. Well, the overdrive produced is very natural, very amp-like. By that I mean that the increase in overdrive is very linear and very smooth, the compression is very light any only increases ever so slightly as the overdrive increases and is does not sound unnatural or fake. The overdrive sounds like a nicely, naturally distorting amp. This is not a high-gain, high distortion pedal; it is a light, smooth, amp-like overdrive. So the dynamics, transparency and overdrive profile means that no matter what amp you plug the pedal into it sounds like the natural overdrive of the amp you are playing. Wonderful. So, when I plugged into a Vox the overdrive sounded like a Vox, when I plugged it onto a Marshall it sounded like an overdriven Marshall, when I plugged it into a Fender it sounded like a Fender etc. It is very, very easy to review a overdrive pedal that does that. The FLT enhances your amp and the overdrive will sound more-or-less like the overdrive your amp produces. Obviously it will not be 100% accurate and of course there are differences, for lots of reasons, but it is definitely the most amp-independent BJFE pedal to date.
I have read that the FLT is supposed to be the MP version of the HBOD. To me they are completely different pedals. The HBOD has a certain sound to it, it was intended to sound like a certain guitar/amp combination. However, the FLT does not do that at all. The FLT is a dynamic light overdrive that enhances the sound of an existing amp - it provides you with a scalpel to mould what you already have. If you set the HBOD and the FLT at the same setting they sound completely different, the overdrive is different, the tone is different, they are simply different pedals. If I was to position the FLT I would place it between a MP Sky Blue Overdrive (SBOD) and a Crowther Hot Cake. The SBOD is an open, clear overdrive pedal but it still has the BJFE tone and feel to it. On the other hand, the Hot Cake sounds 100% transparent when overdriven because what comes out is the original clean guitar signal layered on top of a distorted copy and so the pedal sounds incredibly clean, transparent and unaltered even if you have a lot of overdrive going on. The FLT has some of the BJFE feel of the SBOD while at the same time having the natural tone/feel of the Hot Cake, which is why I position it between these two. The only feature that the FLT shares with the HBOD is that they are both very dynamic.
As a final note, there have always been three light overdrive sounds that I have struggled to replicate, being the slightly distorted lead guitar sound in "Get Back" by The Beatles, the distorted rhythm guitar sound in "I've Got a Feeling" by The Beatles and the introduction guitar piece in the Abbey Road version of "Gravity" by John Mayer. These sounds are hard to produce in a low volume environment using pedals because all the original sounds were produced by naturally overdriving very clean amps. With the FLT I can for the first time use an Epiphone Casino into a '69 Fender Twin Reverb and produce exactly the same distortion as in "Get Back" and "I've Got a Feeling" without overloading the amp and I can play it in my bedroom. Finally!! Although originally produced using a Two Rock, I can also produce the very light overdrive in "Gravity" using the FLT and a low-voltage '62 Stratocaster. All these delicate overdrive sounds can be produced because the FLT allows you to dial in the delicate tones and overdrives. You cannot do this with more aggressive, high-gain pedals. The FLT brings a new pallet to your guitar playing; it enables you to do delicate things that you could not have done before. A low-gain, transparent overdrive pedal where you can still "hear the string" when overdriving is a very difficult pedal to design but when done well can be incredibly useful and rewarding. This is what the FLT does and it does it very well. So, in summary, the FLT is the most dynamic, transparent, amp-like, low-gain overdrive pedal in the BJFE range and makes a wonderful addition to the BJFE world.
