BJFE / BearFoot fx Guitar Effects Community

Yup - as Im doing final tests on them - they each have their 'cranked' song that they each have to survive a chorus and solo of with the dirt and M knob full up - SY1 is Southern Man and SY2 is China Grove ....

used the heat wave as excuse to spend the afternoon testing the twins on a variety of guitar and amp combinations:

- guitars: GVCG tele, Koll with 2 P90s, and 59RI Lp
- amps: Vox AC30CcH (el84), Kingsley D30 (el84), Carr Rambler (6L6)

Overall impressions: SYOD1 is a unique sounding pedal IMO. hear parts of SBEQ, Model H, Honey Bee in there but in a different mix. M control is pretty amazing on this one, can really tailor tone to guitar/amp combination. Beautiful sparkle throughout most of its range with most of the combinations. Remains open, less compressed until really pushed, you can hear the individual strings ring through. Just sings. Awesome.

SYOD2 is a very good OD pedal that, with HBs or even P90s can be pushed into crunch and even fuzz territory pretty easy. Really good if you are looking for a tweedy or darker tone -- did best with the Vox which is very bright amp. Again, the M pot, especially in combination with D or T, gives a pretty wide range. More compressed than #1. Really liked P90s, and in fact made both the Vox and the Rambler sound really good for overdriven tweed tone with the Koll.

I think I actually have SYOD1 #1 -- honored!. More to the point, this pedal is not going anywhere and I suspect will become close to an "always on" with most setups. Can't really think of another pedal that sounds like it with that brilliance and the OD range.

SYOD#2 is a pedal where I think other pedals I own can get me pretty close. I am not a big tweed fan and I suspect if I was, I would like this one more than I do. It had elements of my screwdriver and SFT that I like for Keef-type crunch, and could generally get there but didn't quite nail it. But if you like tweed and/or need to darken and round out a bright amp, this could be what you are looking for.

hope that helps, and as always, YMMV

Have fun!

Has anyone gotten around to stacking them into each other ???

I've done some minimal stacking but have been focusing more on each pedal individually. First, some quick additional thoughts on v1...

I still can't get SYODv1 to sound like the BJFe version I used to have. It sounds good but isn't quite as tight or aggressive as I remember and it seems that there might actually be less total gain on tap although I don't think that's a big deal as I don't use the gain beyond 3 o'clock on the Bearfoot. The closest I can get to my previous favorite setting on the 3-knob SYOD v1 is the settings I mentioned previously.

Favorite setting when I used to have a BJFe SYODv1

V - 10:00
G - 1:00-1:30
T - 10:30-11:00

Closest match on the Bearfoot 4-knobber

V - 10:00
G - 3:00
M - Fully CCW
T - 10:30-11:00

While this is the closest I can get the thing that seems different is the tightness of the gain and a bit of the EQ. Seems the Bearfoot might have more mids/low mids even with the mid knob at minimum. As a disclaimer this is all from memory so I could be wrong


As far as stacking goes I used to like v1 > v2 but I think the Bearfoot ones may work better the other way as the v2 seems to get really fuzzy when getting pushed so to keep things tighter running v2 > v1 seems to provide best results. Since the v2 EQ is definitely more low-mid focused than v1 it can be used to thicken v1 up for leads where previously I used to run it the opposite way with v2 used to smooth the highs of v1 much like the HBOD is used to smooth other pedals. Anyway, that's my initial thoughts on stacking

I missed out on ordering the twins. Too much going on, didn't have time to even search the thread for Donner's hidden ordering link.

As regards stacking, I'm getting the impression v1 will likely shine as a companion to my old v1 Model H (which I often stack into the SHOD).

Any of you guys doing the test comparisons going to treat us to some soundclips?

Thanks. Hadn't stumbled across that demo. Kinda what I expected they'd sound like - sweet.

Not that it helps much in choosing one or the other...



Easy solution of course, were I not in process of dropping significant $$ on home repairs.

So... What I would want is the ability to get a low-ish gain tone with no fizz and the ability to match my eq on a Morgan AC20 Deluxe (Vox normal channel based - I set it to be on the brighter side, while still being full sounding. It's a 1x12) when the pedal is engaged. I'm not looking to darken things up, in general. Does this sound like V1 to you guys? This will be going on a small board I'm building with Summers / Gilmour tones in mind... I don't play their stuff - I just like those tones. The board will consist of:

Cornish P2 (or equivalent Muff, while I wait... )
Bearfoot PGC
Cherry Buster
An overdrive - (SYOD v1?)
Hartman Flanger
Strymon El Capistan
Neunaber Stereo Wet Reverb
Turbo Tuner

I'm also looking to get and try the Model G in the overdrive spot, when that comes out... However, I have a feeling that one would end up on my main board! What do you guys think?


EDIT:

I just watched Nick's demo... It seems like v1 is indeed what I'm after. I welcome all of your comments, but I think I'll pick up a v1 soon.

I had a chance to run my SYOD v2 through the paces last night. MAN are there a lot of good tones in that box! The M knob makes it incredibly versatile and LOVE when the M and D knobs are dimed.. very cool fuzzy overdrive sounds.

Fav setting by far!!
V-10
D-Max
Trebl-12
M-Max


The issue I had was that it didn't play as nice as I wanted it to with my Tungsten Buckwheat which is a "tweed" type of circuit. With the M and D knobs dimed I was getting some thick lush drive tones but it was giving me a good amount of hum and feedback through my LP. A little less w/ the tele, but I have a hum in the neck too.

I plugged it into my bud's Dr. Z Maz Sr... different story altogether. It sounded great w/ all guitars at all settings.. I did have to dial the treble back to about 10a since the Maz can be a bit bright. I really dug bluesy sounds I was getting out of my LP w/ the Dr. Z. Unfortunately I don't have Z anymore!

More and more I'm learning tweeds are tricky w/ the dirt boxes. They do seem to gobble up fuzz boxes well though