BJFE / BearFoot fx Guitar Effects Community

I noticed Donner revised the PGC circuit. I have been planning on picking one up once some custom finishes are available (AHEM- the Pine Green paint job would be AWESOME as a one-off finish and would probably sell boatloads), but to me the original PGC circuit was magical. I'm sure the new one is probably great too, I'd just like to hear some player opinions on how it compares and if the old sounds are still readily available too.

From the Bearfoot site...

Pale Green Compressor

The BearFoot Pale Green Compressor is an exact replica of the BJFe Pale Green Compressor - the compressor for people who hate compressors !

The PGC really shines in a live situation with a band where the heavier handed compressors, that sound good at home in a room, often sound thick and lifeless against other real instuments....

This is no squish machine or infinite artificial sustainer ... The PGC is already famous for its nearly transparent compression and dead quiet operation. You will want to leave it on all the time... You will also wonder if its on at all ~ until you turn it off to make sure and then turn it back on as quickly as possible.

The middle knob fine tunes the EQ with a stacked pot that adjusts the EQ both pre and post compression. The zero point is at 'noon' ~ to the left it adjusts the EQ to that of the classic Dyna/Ross comps and to the right it allows an increase in treble and sparkle without adding noise or hiss. And with the comp knob off it is a booster/enhancer/EQ. Especially tasty into the Honey Bee and Model H.

Voltage range 8~18v.

Where did you see that the circuit was different?


******EDIT********

Oh, on facebook...



"New, revised,updated,improved and rebalanced PGCompressor ... looks the same though ; )"

Apparently more added gain which results in more compression available and component tweaks to keep the sound the same and extend the range on the Body knob.

Yeah. I'm kind of wishing I had bought one already before the tweaks, but I was holding out for different paint job options.

Joeleo wrote:Yeah. I'm kind of wishing I had bought one already before the tweaks, but I was holding out for different paint job options.

Donner may still have some of the old ones if you act quickly?

I wonder how much more compression we're talking about...? I was going to buy an Effectrode for the small grab-n-go Gilmour/Summers tone inspired board I'm building, as I've never tried one (though it seems like it'll be good) and kinda wanted a bit more squish for those tones... I wonder if the tweaked PGC would get me there...?

I ordered the PGC on a leap of faith after reading how good Bjorn's pedal was. My understanding is that it was an exact replica of the bjfe...which I believe it is. After it was released, I believe donner gathered feedback from the users from the first batches. More sustain, for example is what I posted in my review here. Perhaps bearfoot needs to revise the description of the pedal on the website. Call it v2 or something like that. All that said, I would buy a v2 with a cool paint job...as mentioned in the op's post.

... Right, more actual compression/sustain..

A simple way to up the compression was to feed it more gain by doubling the comp pot value.... while that works, it can throw off the other controls, so since the PGC is already revered we took the time to rebalance things so now its more effective and still smooth and silent.... the sounds on the early ones are now on the first third of the comp dial --- I was really worried about this as the first ones are much loved by most , so any change would need to be all plus and no minus ..... and I think we did .... it still sounds like the PGC AND it compresses more - should be enough even for the country guys .... tho it stops just shy of the really fake sounding stuff, you may still need another trick comp for that stuff.......

doing a major rework of the site over the next week and that will be done too.....

and yes Im working up some more Glow in the Darks and doing some shine-top Pine Green looking PGCs too

Well that sounds promising. I'll hold off for the Pine Green paint then. Thanks for responding to the requests for that custom paint job! I have a feeling it will be popular.

Joeleo wrote:Well that sounds promising. I'll hold off for the Pine Green paint then. Thanks for responding to the requests for that custom paint job! I have a feeling it will be popular.

Agreed. Looks like I'll be sticking with the PGC for my small board as well! Fine with me, as I'd rather support BJFe / Bearfoot than buy something else. I love my BJFe PGC... The idea of a more flexible one with the same core sound is awesome!

So, I'm playing the v2 PGC that came in one of the TGP tourboxes, and it seems way different from either of the BJFE PGC's I have owned. Donner, am I right that the middle knob on here is a traditional 'tone' knob instead of the 'body' knob that was on the BJFE version? It's a really nice pedal and all, it's just striking me as very different from what I was expecting. Is the Bearfoot v1 pedal more directly comparable to the BJFE?