I first discovered the utter sonic joy that is BJF Electronics last June when I had the pleasure of meeting both BJ and Donner at Chicago ToneFest. At the time I was using a JTM-45 style amp. BJ took about an hour out of his day to give me a personal demo of a DRD and an EGDM. Both are amazing pedals (for different reasons), but the DRD was hands-down the best-sounding distortion pedal I had ever heard. I still think it's the best. And BJ is an extremely nice guy, who is passionate about what he does and only too happy to help people take the sounds they have in their heads and make them a reality. We became friends shortly thereafter.
As the summer was going by, BJ and I had kept in touch via email. I had been using a Klon Centaur for more of my "classic rock / blues" overdrive tones, but I was unhappy with it only because I had to turn my amp up so loud for the Klon to do what I wanted. The Klon is a great pedal, by the way...not Bill's fault...he did warn me that it works best with an amp that is already getting into output tube distortion. Needless to say, my Plexi just wouldn't give up the goods easily enough. So BJ and I had exchanged several emails about what types of solutions could be had for my problem.
Knowing what my amp was, and that I was already using a DRD, he devised a custom overdrive for me (the Dynamic Amber Overdrive), a prototype. With this pedal, I was able to get many of the "classic" type tones that I had wanted from my Centaur, but over a much more flexible volume spread. And the DRD worked as my hard rock crunch rhythm. And then, the real magic happened when stacking DAOD > DRD. That sound was over-the-top, arena rock stardom-tone!!!
The Klon is long gone. But I also ended up having to sell my Plexi and my DRD because I came across the opportunity to get my hands on a used Guytron GT100, an amp that I had GAS'd over for YEARS. I couldn't pass it up, but didn't have the $$$ to buy it outright. So, the DRD is gone...but I still think it's the best distortion pedal ever. I now use my DAOD with the Guytron set to a mild overdrive on it's "clean" channel...and am even happier with my tone. The DAOD is perhaps my favorite pedal ever.
There are certainly more BJF's to come for me. I have never encountered pedals of this caliber before. I will be a lifelong customer and friend to BJ.
Thanks for reading, if you made it this far....
Doc