I just got this yesterday, so I put it through it's paces at home for about an hour. I'm rehearsing it, and leading worship with it on Wednesday night.
This is my first Bearfoot pedal, but definitely not going to be my last. I am glad I opted for the Beest. I read a lot on the Bee and the Beest, and everything seemed to lean towards the Bee. I'm playing either a 97 Fender Telecaster Plus (Completely modified) or Walsh Guitars 60s Strat (Klein Jazzy Cat Pups), through a Suhr Badger 30 and 2x12 Cab with WGS Greenbacks, or a Fender Blues Deluxe RI (Stock).
I started out with the Beest set at it's lowest gain setting, which I've read is the Honey Bee's highest drive setting. At it's lowest gain setting, the Beest is very low gain to me. It's great, but I don't know that I would want lower gain than that. With the Pregain knob bumped somewhere between halfway and 3/4, and the drive knob around noon, it gets into the territory of my crunch sound with my BB Preamp MB. But it is so much better than my BB. I've had the BB for probably coming up on 2 years now, but my main complaint has been that it is far too compressed for what I'd like to hear, and it doesn't have a ton of range in the gain compartment. It doesn't do lower gain well, because of the compression, and above 1 to 2 o'clock on the gain, it doesn't change much. The Beest is so much more open and warm. The dynamics are there that I've been wanting, and the range from low gain to higher gain is huge. I love the fact that the nature knob is musical all the way through the sweep, and I think live I will be able to just tweak the pregain knob for more drastic gain changes.
I've never had a drive pedal that I have tweaked a lot, I usually find the sweet spot and it doesn't change much. I think I'm going to wear the knobs out on this pedal, seems like it should cover so much ground. Great, now I really want to try a Dyna Red or the Model H, if I just had some cash. Oh well, I'll post again after playing it on Wednesday night.
This is my first Bearfoot pedal, but definitely not going to be my last. I am glad I opted for the Beest. I read a lot on the Bee and the Beest, and everything seemed to lean towards the Bee. I'm playing either a 97 Fender Telecaster Plus (Completely modified) or Walsh Guitars 60s Strat (Klein Jazzy Cat Pups), through a Suhr Badger 30 and 2x12 Cab with WGS Greenbacks, or a Fender Blues Deluxe RI (Stock).
I started out with the Beest set at it's lowest gain setting, which I've read is the Honey Bee's highest drive setting. At it's lowest gain setting, the Beest is very low gain to me. It's great, but I don't know that I would want lower gain than that. With the Pregain knob bumped somewhere between halfway and 3/4, and the drive knob around noon, it gets into the territory of my crunch sound with my BB Preamp MB. But it is so much better than my BB. I've had the BB for probably coming up on 2 years now, but my main complaint has been that it is far too compressed for what I'd like to hear, and it doesn't have a ton of range in the gain compartment. It doesn't do lower gain well, because of the compression, and above 1 to 2 o'clock on the gain, it doesn't change much. The Beest is so much more open and warm. The dynamics are there that I've been wanting, and the range from low gain to higher gain is huge. I love the fact that the nature knob is musical all the way through the sweep, and I think live I will be able to just tweak the pregain knob for more drastic gain changes.
I've never had a drive pedal that I have tweaked a lot, I usually find the sweet spot and it doesn't change much. I think I'm going to wear the knobs out on this pedal, seems like it should cover so much ground. Great, now I really want to try a Dyna Red or the Model H, if I just had some cash. Oh well, I'll post again after playing it on Wednesday night.
) after having had the Honey Bee and thinking it was the best stacking pedal I've ever had, but not enough drive for me to retain it in my rig by itself, the Honey Beest is definitely where I'm leaning as well. I recall the HBOD really gelling well with my tweeds so since the consensus is that the Model H is a great organic amp like high gain pedal I will definitely be looking to once again have a nice warmer pedal.
