First review...Stomp Under Foot Son of a Bee

[flampton]

Well here is my review of the Son of a Bee.

I have had a prototype for a few weeks now and I feel I can offer a decent review of the ped. Mine has the same guts that are going into the production version.

First of all I must say that the build quality is superb.

Now for what really matters. Hows it sound and whats it niche?

Okay this is the FUZZ to top your normal fuzzes. For my style of psychedelia this is my topper pedal. I personally run a big muff style fuzz for my main tone. After awhile though you need to push dynamics and melt faces. So you can utterly top and go beyond the muff with the Son of a Bee. Its gain and sustain are so extreme that you can play your guitar without picking. Its like an ebow w/o the stupid ebow. You can excite the string with just a little vibrato and you get fuzzy bloominess exploding out the speakers. Obviously you can do that with lots of peds at high volume, but, you can do this @ volumes low enough to have a conversation with your significant other while your left hand justs legatos some fuzzliciousness. Another thing that is useful is a mids control that will help you get in the mix. Thats always been a problem with muffs, not so here.

Oh can you turn your volume knob to clean it up? NO! Can you use the tone knob on your guitar? NO! This fuzz to me is meant to beat the crap out of the speaker cone. So if you want a fuzz that will explode minds and other body parts then this thing is a killer. I can't say I would use it as a main fuzz, but does it ever do the job to push your sound to 11.

To clarify though this is not like other 'fuzz toppers' that have odd harmonics and random pitchshifiting that are grating. This fuzz IS musically smooth. It can be a bit fizzy though so be prepared to work with it and the rest of your pedals to get it 'just right'

btw I have no affiliation with Matt at SUF. He might have other ideas for the pedal then I portrayed. Thanks Matt! keep it up!

[cuz/karl]

clips?pics?

[flampton]

Like the design Matt!!!

[spentron]

None of the player widgets work for me, although if I pick the files out from the source they play fine. Why not just have links to the files? Embedded flash garbage...

[LowWatt]

Originally Posted by mattpas

Unfortunately that is the only option I have right now. You have to give them a minute and let them load up.
I am working on linking the files.

Must be fixed. I think I just heard every clip on your site. Awesome pedals and that muff clips section is great.

[LowWatt]

Originally Posted by mattpas

Thanks.
I just added a new S.O.B. clip and updated the Screaming Panda clips as well.

When is your Violet Muff coming out? That's the one that's got me the most intrigued. And again, great work. Those SOB and Panda clips are really impressive.

[Cheesewood]

I definitely love the exploding sound!

I may end up having to sneak another purchase by the GF, though I do wish it had a smaller footprint.

[mattpas]

Originally Posted by LowWatt

When is your Violet Muff coming out? That's the one that's got me the most intrigued. And again, great work. Those SOB and Panda clips are really impressive.

Thanks. The Violet Muff is out now.

[MotorCityMatamp]

Originally Posted by flampton

Well here is my review of the Son of a Bee.

I have had a prototype for a few weeks now and I feel I can offer a decent review of the ped. Mine has the same guts that are going into the production version.

First of all I must say that the build quality is superb.

Now for what really matters. Hows it sound and whats it niche?

Okay this is the FUZZ to top your normal fuzzes. For my style of psychedelia this is my topper pedal. I personally run a big muff style fuzz for my main tone. After awhile though you need to push dynamics and melt faces. So you can utterly top and go beyond the muff with the Son of a Bee. Its gain and sustain are so extreme that you can play your guitar without picking. Its like an ebow w/o the stupid ebow. You can excite the string with just a little vibrato and you get fuzzy bloominess exploding out the speakers. Obviously you can do that with lots of peds at high volume, but, you can do this @ volumes low enough to have a conversation with your significant other while your left hand justs legatos some fuzzliciousness. Another thing that is useful is a mids control that will help you get in the mix. Thats always been a problem with muffs, not so here.

Oh can you turn your volume knob to clean it up? NO! Can you use the tone knob on your guitar? NO! This fuzz to me is meant to beat the crap out of the speaker cone. So if you want a fuzz that will explode minds and other body parts then this thing is a killer. I can't say I would use it as a main fuzz, but does it ever do the job to push your sound to 11.

To clarify though this is not like other 'fuzz toppers' that have odd harmonics and random pitchshifiting that are grating. This fuzz IS musically smooth. It can be a bit fizzy though so be prepared to work with it and the rest of your pedals to get it 'just right'

btw I have no affiliation with Matt at SUF. He might have other ideas for the pedal then I portrayed. Thanks Matt! keep it up!

i had a few barge concepts bee baa clone and i thought they were cool, but to dark for my taste. i just ordered a son of bee and thank god matt put on a mid knob, you that pedal. i can't wait to try it out with my rig.

[MotorCityMatamp]

I just got my SOB today, I know, I know, it's still the honeymoon phase, but this pedal > the Barge Concepts version. I have never had the opportunity to play an original Bee Baa so I cannot comment how close it sounds to the orginal. All I can tell right now that this has the tweek ability and sound that I was hoping for when I bought my first BB1.

[Tritone]

Old thread, but I thought I'd add my thoughts here.

I've had this pedal for a while and it took me some time to really get my head around it. There are a LOT of different sounds in here for such a simple fuzz. That's quite a compliment considering most fuzzes, I just find one or two settings I like and leave it on those.

With normal settings (mids at 50% or higher, gain around 50%, tone below 50%) It really reminds me of a Muff, to be honest, but with more gain on tap and a lot more tonal control. But just like a Muff, it's got this angry-yet-smooth silicon vibe, and a lot of compression and gain. The tone knob is SUPER useful, it's not like some fuzzes where you have to set it to a single sweet spot or it'll sound terrible. I keep it down around 25% for "wall of fuzz" Muff style fuzz, then kick it up to 50-75% for a really blistering lead tone that is just... great!

I really didn't know what I was gonna be getting with this, I expected something a lot crazier, but if you keep the gain below 50% (which I do, because it gets noisy above that), it's honestly pretty tame--compared to, say, a Super Fuzz, Fuzz Factory or any Devi Ever pedal. Over 50% on the gain doesn't even change the sound that much, it just adds hiss.

All in all, one of my favorite fuzzes! Couldn't be happier!