Baby Blue?
Dyna Red?
Baby Pink Booster?
Mint Green Mini Vibe?
Little Red Trebler?
Pink Purple Fuzz?
Candy Apple Fuzz?

Try the Treble booster LAST as the noise it adds is multiplied by ever gain pedal after it.................... and Id agree on the BBOD description,,, Im finding more depth inthe pedal the longer I play it, especially learning to make good use of the touch dynamics........and it sounds very good in FRONT of a tube screamer too..............

also picked up a Dyna Red and Im very impressed - it kind of picks up were the BBOD left off, great lead tones especially- complex AND still has the touch dynamics I love

I recently recieved BJFEs new bass overdrive- its called the Blue Berry Bass OverDrive, or BBBOD for short - not to be confused with the Baby Blue OverDrive or BBOD as we usually call it here ( Made by the same company though)...
So how many times have you tried to get a good overdrive sound out of a bass rig and failed; and with the possible exception of Dusty Hills self proclaimed 'fart in a trashcan' rumble, most bass ODs sound like a compromise mainly because while they do a fine job of overdriving the signal, they also do a fine job of kneecapping the low end at the same time...
FINALLY, this little box with the big bottom sound,,,,,at first I tested it with guitar just to make sure it worked without disturbing the neighborhood with the bass rig....... and its a very good guitar overdrive as is, but would be exceptional with a little more headroom, nice warm Fendery/SVT overdrive,,,,,,,so when I got around to running it with the bass rig, I was a little diappointed at first because I set it up the way you would with a normal overdrive - tone on about 12-2 oclock,,,,, oh did I mention I neglected to read the directions ???? this unit has a special tone control that is truly tailored for the bass and after being whelmed I finally for some reason turned the tone control fully counterclockwise, and boom- big bottom, it actuall scared me as i wasnt expecting anything like that , I figured it would just roll off all the treble.......wrong, i was actually able to roll in the exact bass contour I had on the clean sound and then adjust the gain and drive so eventually I had the exact EQ and loudness, clean and dirty only differnce was the dirt................Jalapena !!!,,, well if youve messed with bass overdrives before you know why Im jumping.... most are lame, and thats why most people just dont use them,,,, I had and dumped the Fulltone bassdrive,Rats, Boss and a couple that never even came home with me,,,, the only one I ever liked was the Tech21 Bass Driver, but as good as it is , it still changed the sound I had...................anyway this is pretty amazing for a three knobber ( its the same box and layout as the other BJFE pedals) and if it had a DI like the Tech 21, it would be all over...... but you can still use it with your favorite DI...........
And to literally top it off, it looks very cool, BJ managed to get it to look like translucent Blue Berry Juice--- beautiful, the other BJFE pedals are opaque paint, this is very cool just to look at, it looks like a Purple Goldfish color (work with me here).......and its very solidly built like the other pedals he makes........... thanks BJ for another very useful pedal....
its Berry nice

Mint Green Mini Vibe

The Mint Green Mini Vibe is a Vibrato pedal with Velocity and Amplitude
Controls (Like Speed and Depth), True Bypass and 9v Battery or Adapter Power.
Enclosed in a Sturdy Cast case and painted Mint Green with hand painted
control markers. The Red LED indicates on or off and pulses with speed.

To my ear the MGMV is a blend of a Vibe like device and a Tremolo. The MGMV
will pulse like a Trem, but rather than pulse in and out of low volume, it
pulses in and out of a mixed vibrato. The top of the wave seems pretty
nuetral, while the bottom of the wave seems like a blend of pitch shift and
slight volume modulation.

The Vibrato Effect is subtler than a Vibes Vibrato, especially on the higher
freq notes. And it doesn't bend out of pitch as extreme, its not at all "out
of tune". In the lower freq notes the effect is much more audible and has a
swirl/throb sound, but not phasey or out of tune. It also doesn't add bass, or
get muddy, thank you. The output is factory calibrated, and mine is a touch
over unity, which in my opinion is great for an effect like this. So many
modulation type effects will have a perceived loss of level when
engaged......not my MGMV!

The velocity (speed) range offers a fast speed nearly as fast as my white
Deja, and a low speed of around 2 pulses per second. The Amplitude (depth)
goes from a pretty deep pulse to very subtle blend. In fact, at lowest
amplitude setting the unit doesn't even seem to be "on" and is very
transparent.......KUDO's to transparency!

In use, the MGMV has a killer top end! It doesn't do anything to the thickness
of your treble strings. The meat is there, there is no phaseyness, and no loss
of treble. Depending on amplitude settings, your leads will get a very nuetral
top end with a bit of Vibrato mixed in underneath (although upper string
double notes are just killer and stand out), The middle strings start to have
a more present warble and the bottom strings have more of a throb. When
compared to wigglers from famous old amps, I'd say the MGMV doesn't shift
pitch as much on high frequence strings as much as say a Magnotone, and the
MGMV has a smoother wiggle than classic Old Fender.

The MGMV is not a vibe and does not do the phasey vibe sounds. Its a meatier
tone. So, although the MGMV may get you a do-able Coldshot, Hendrix or Trower,
your vibe will get you closer to those psychedelic Sounds. But, if youd like
a Vibe effect, just add a little chorus or Phase after the MGMV. I Tried that
with my old MXR Phase 45 and got a vibes' "chorus" type of sound (although a
little thin with the Phase 45). I bet with some experimenting with different
chorus type pedals, one could get a pretty darn good vibe with the
combination.

Those who like tremolo, but would like something with less on/off, and more
character, the MGMV is for you. For those who like vibes, but want to keep the
beef in the top and not woof out the bottom or get phasey, The MGMV is for you
(although it won't modulate as slow as a vibe). For those who would like a
subtle chorus without the phaseyness or metallic top end, the MGMV is for you.

Overall i'd characterize the MGMV as an earthy, non psychedlic tone. Its
transparency gives it a modern flare, and the pitch bend won't sound out of
tune, both of which I find exceedingly high qualities in an effect like this.
Its more of a subtle effect, but has enough amplitude and speed range to cover
all the territiry I'd use it for, and to do everything a pedal like this
should do IMO. It's earthy flavor makes it VERY Blues approved, and in lower
amplitude settings you could use it all night and no one would know, other
than the pretty sound your guitar has. Its lower amplitude mild chorus effect
is as rich as can be. In higher amplitude settings it yields an obvious throb,
without getting thin or metallic, which is great for clean leads. I could hear
the Ventures using a sound like this. Add some Velocity and an Overdrive and
get your self into Lonnie Mack Territory. Or use a medium Velocity, deep
Amplitude for some good Louisianna swamp Blues........I do believe Slim Harpo
woulda taken this one with him!

This is a review on the Dyna Red.

I've had the Dyna Red for a few weeks, playing it around the house and on a few gigs. Nice MXR size box, with level, treble and distortion knobs left to right respectively.

Although most of the guts are hidden by the infamous goop, you can tell this thing is well made and will stand up to lots of use. And believe me, this pedal will get LOTS of use.

The volume knob on mine stays fairly quiet - unity with the clean channel of my amp occurs at about 3 oclock when the pedal is engaged. Bjorn informed me that there was a batch of pedals made in this manner because a number of customers requested it so. According to BJ: "This was done to equlize the amount of gain change per degree of pot turn, to better coop with low output pick ups, upon customer request. This quickly led to confusion because people compared settings, so I returned to original taper." I bought my pedal used, and this taper doesn't cause me any concern.

The treble knob will cover everything from dark, bluesy tones all the way up to scorching metal tones. The metal I am talking about is more classic like Iron Maiden or other '80's guitar sounds.

The amount of distortion in this pedal is more than I would ever use. But it's nice to know the extra is in there. The amazing thing about the gain design is that you always get fine note definition on lead runs of any sort, yet when you lay into a power chord you get that chesty saturated thunk sound going - balls deluxe.

My favorite setting so far is with the treble backed off to 9 oclock and the distortion at around 11 oclock. This is a nice overdrive-distortion zone on the dark side, and I can get Robben Ford and Larry Carlton sustained sounds here on the bridge pickup of my Ibanez Artist (I haven't heard a dumble in person, but I would think this kind of overdrive is very very close). On the neck pickup its like a nicer version of Santana's tone - more bell chime in there and better note separation of course, not quite as boomy as S.

What amazes me with this pedal is how girthy my Telecaster becomes. This pedal is EQ'd so nicely - the lower strings are round sounding and have that chunky sound, yet they cut through. The middle strings jump out with sweet mid emphasis (soloing on the D and G strings is punch city). The highs are always present, even on the darker tones I use. As I stated earlier, there is great single note definition with this pedal, so you hear all of this wonderful eQ and complex harmonics going on.

This is without a doubt the most musical sounding distortion pedal. This pedal will teach you how to squeeze a long note, because using feedback is now so much more controllable but you can attain that "on-the-edge" sound anywhere on the guitar neck.

This pedal was made around July of 2001 (its #16), and so far no problems with scratchy pots, bad inputs or faulty switching.

If you buy one new, I would have to say it is worth every penny. This is a well thought out pedal that will most likely carve its own identity in the realm of distortion pedals.

BJFE PINK PURPLE FUZZ

Well BJ is still 'batting a thousand' - I havent found a BJFE pedal I havent fallen for yet. The Pink Purple Fuzz is no exception. I am always amazed at how much versatility his controls have. These pedals always hit me like a House that looks too small from the outside, until you get in there and find out it has a finished basement and 4 full bathrooms and a walkout deck...... this little Pink Purple box feels the same.

First is the excellent tone control. Its actually called the 'nature' control. It allows the normal treble roll off on half the turn from 12 to the right, but the other way it BOOSTS bottom which comes in very handy when going for some wilder sounds or try to match your driven sound to your clean sound....very useful.....

Probably the biggest/nicest suprise is the Fuzz control - it has a useful and smooth transition all the way thru - most fuzz pedals controls might as well be on/off switches as they dont do much, and there is little difference in between up and down. But the PPFs fuzz control has a smooth and gradual change all the way up and is especially adept at getting those inbetween tones that most fuzzes arent calibrated for - those wonderful partial fuzzdrive tones that mix so well with other overdrives or just put just the tip of the chainsaw on the leading edge of your tone without completely wrecking your EQ.

The Volume control is equally well calibrated and in conjunction with the Nature (EQ) and Fuzz (Fuzz-drive/grind-grit) controls gives a range of drives from controlled to agressive that are continually useful by themselves or to force 'normal' overdrives into flamethrower mode. And it is also very low background noise, nice dynamic response,clarity and works well with the volume control...

Once again a first rate effects device with a wide range of uses, some of which you wouldnt normally expect from a 'fuzz' of any color.......( oh and if your looking for the sicko-wacko-fuzzaholic ingredients---they were extruded and reconstituted into the Pink Purples twisted cousin - the Candy Apple Fuzz also from BJFE)

BJFelectronics Pale Green Compressor


I finally got one and have been playing it for about a week...... yummmmmmm

I have had a few compressors, but am no expert......most compressors Ive tried sound well - 'compressed'....... to my ear there are compressors that improve the natural playability of your rig and the ones that sound a bit squashed and fake like an effect.
I have played the Boss Comps (the early one with the treble switch and later with dial), the Way Huge Saffron Squeeze and the Blackbox Oxygen.
This is different.
Its easy to dismiss because of the small MXR sized box and only having two knobs.
This comp is designed to different standards and there is a great explanation on the site description. Here it is:
"It has often been said that the best use of compressors is when you cannot hear them but miss them when they are turned off; with electric guitar it is often used as an effect, by setting compression high enough to hear the signal being limited and decay being amplified.

Though compressed the tone is still in the attack only now attack is accentuated by a characteristic" chop". With compression weak parts of signal will be amplified and so a compressed signal will appear to have slightly more treble to it.

It is therefore common in compression design to cut some treble thereby noise is also reduced. This technique is not used in the Pale Green design since the more filters you have in the chain the more phase distortion, and such filtering would be virtually impossible to make unhearable in all possible situations.

It was instead voted that there should be no filtering action except that needed to secure safety against radio interference and that the use of custom parts and design should ensure low noise with preserved treble.

These are the key features that are the basis of the Pale Green Compressor design:

1. Fast attack, slow release - the most used setting by guitarists ever. Response has been optimized for the parts used.

2. Wide range of compression: from light transient limiting to massive compression at almost endless sustain.

3. No treble loss, thus pedal can be used at various places in chain (Keep compression at lowest possible to achieve desired sound, to ensure lowest noise).

4. Low distortion and good overload characteristics"

This pedal reacts as part of your tone, it doesnt add compression artifacts like most do - you wouldnt say upon hearing someone playing one " Oh thats a compressor"


This is one of those pedals that you have to check to make sure its on (LED!!)

It does what it should- it raises the lower volume notes and contains the higher volume notes to level out the overall signal and it adds some sustain to lengthen the duration of the note.......BUT it does it without adding any noise,,, you wont hear it 'breathing' and squashing and releasing ( my only dig on the Oxygens noise gate)...

This is exactly what you want in front of an overdrive to give it a 'sweet goosing' and with the comp dial down its a great clean boost with plenty of gain available....
This is the only comp Ive tried that has a slight treble sweetening per the description....even with the comp dial down, the signal sounds better ( fuller with a slight treble enhancement) and according to the description this is because of the lack of extra filtering that usually dulls the high end..... its one of those pedals that you dont hear as an effect,, but as soon as you turn it off, you want it back in there.....
This does not have a huge amount of note compression sustain,,, I think the plan was to make the note sustain as long as possible without going into unnatural noisegate squash/compression.....the Oxygen will sustain a note longer, but you can hear the noise level come up too,,,,,,, not so here and with just the 2 knobs, it will take about 20 seconds to get your best sound out of it.........
This is a compressor for people who hate compressors for the fake sound they can give... very natural enhancement of existing tone......A 'keeper' and the missing piece of my tone search.... all my drives sound better with the Pale Green engaged....

Change the name from BJFeffects to WOWeffects, Im hooked.........

Hope I LIVE before I get old!!!

Well Ive had this for a little while now and am still getting a handle on it......

Amazing variety of fuzz 'options'.

Its just a 3 knobber but....yikes.

Volume - Fuzz- Nature controls

The volume and fuzz are as you would expect......

but the Nature control is kind of a 'Fuzzes Greatest Hits' control - or it goes thru the various 'natures' of different fuzzes...
When turning the dial it goes from gated thru standard and chainsaw fuzzes to a controllable octave, theres even a touch of ring mod tail out at one point and one place where it sounds more like a high velocity organ.

I got this to have as kind of a Trick pedal - I dont use fuzz too often, but wanted something for 'spice' and inspiration.......of course thats the same reason I originally bought the Pink Purple Fuzz but that turned out to be such a good Drive that it gets used more as an extra drive option than a Fuzz......so Im trying the other side of the BJFE Fuzz Duo...

Theres no mistaking the CAF for anything other than a fuzz - there is one point where it has a good distortiony 'rip' but its mostly all the cool and fun fuzz sounds that have been on countless records since the 60s....

But its not as unruly as those fuzzes (the few I tried) - this is pretty controllable and the Octave is wonderful and is usable down to the lower positions rather than just above the 12th fret like on some others.....

And one thing I really like about it is that it does NOT clean up much when rolling down the volume knob on the guitar. The volume goes down and the fuzz intensity lessens a bit - but the basic sound is still there which is really nice when using the Octave and playing dynamically.........Some folks like a fuzz that goes from fuzzout to totally clean between 10 and 7 on the guitar knob - this aint that.

It sounds phenomenal into its brother the Pink Purple Fuzz as it rounds out and beefs up the over all sound - but they are very different pedals - I dont think there is any setting on either pedal that you would find on the other ---- kind of like if you took all the possible Fuzz sounds and put them in two separate piles and then made those into a pair of pedals.......

And it does a very cool 'reverse' kind of thing into the Dyna Red - I havent found any other combination that does this as well yet - it sort of swallows the attack of the guitar and then slowly releases it, and by varying the pick attack it does a convincing 'reverse tape' effect...

And the CAF has a cool paint finish - its see thru Candy Apple Red and has a Blue Led - very fitting.

As crazy as it gets, its still very playable, usually remaining focused even when its doing the harmonic roll and decay on sustained notes.....and you can still hear the character of the guitar, and the differences in pickup positions.....

If you like a variety of 'real' fuzz tones, but need them to be useful and controllable this would be of interest to you....

Ohm,Ohm on the range...(8~}

I recently spent some time using number 000 (prototype) of the Emerald Green Distortion Machine, by BJF - the Swedish custom FX pedal maker (see it on http://custom-sounds.com/). It's the best OD pedal I've ever heard. I immediately ordered one. The Volume knob is loaded with boost - serious volume boost that simply does that w/o driving up the grind. Then there's a Voice control that is different from any I've heard. It's a true sweep of voicings from very deep violin-like OD to very sweet vocal-like chimey drive. The amazing thing about the Vocal control is the abscence of mud and shrill. It doesn't thin out on the high side or become flabby and indistinct on the low. it's definately not an EQ knob. Then finally there's a Distortion knob. Surprizingly, this control does not function as the "distortion" knob, as though it is responsible for adding distortion like an effect. Rather, it's more like a complexity control, adding increasing degrees of harmonic complexity to the drive.

These controls all work synergistically to create a wide pallette of OD options. Most Drive devices I've heard have their "thing" they are famous for and then there are spots in the pedals that you just need to stay out of. Not w/ this one. It's like a dream OD device strapped together with a high dB transparent boost and a sweep-selectible voicing control that allows you to dial in any OD voice you want to suit your gear or target your sound. The overall net result of using the Emerald Green is a huge open sounding drive.

Finally, this is truly a non-tone-sucking pedal and when engaged it doesn't take over your amp and turn it into a radio. I use early JMI AC30s and 50w Plexis, so I have a definate sound that I can't afford to ruin with a bad drive pedal. I tried out the Emerald Green Distortion Machine on the following amps with equally pleasing results:

'60 AC30/4
'62 AC30/6
'67 Plexi 50w / '68 412

I used a Strat and a '68 SG Sp'l (P90s).

a brief review of a few BJFE pedz:

reviews