Phil O'Keefe Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 Is this little honey-colored box sweet enough to find a permanent spot on your pedalboard? [ATTACH=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","title":"honey-bee-main-fb9729f7.jpg","data-attachmentid":32286753}[/ATTACH] http://www.harmonycentral.com/expert-reviews/one-control-honey-bee-overdrive As always, if you have questions or comments about the review, or thoughts about the pedal that you'd like to discuss, this is the place for it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted July 30, 2018 Members Share Posted July 30, 2018 While I don't use effects I enjoy your reviews. This one was worth reading if only for the bee and honey puns. I was struck by the "Nature" control when I first looked at the unit. I wondered if turning it fully counter clockwise would make it sound "unnatural" (i.e., remove all "nature")? Not your father's tone control for sure. I'd like to see a series of response curves to illustrate the results in various positions. I'll never own one but it sounds like a cool pedal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Player99 Posted November 30, 2018 Members Share Posted November 30, 2018 I have one incoming. Nice review Phil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted November 30, 2018 Members Share Posted November 30, 2018 I'm guessing, that Honey Bee is another modified clone of the Mad Professor Sweet Honey Overdrive. The timing of your article is coincidental. Someone gave me a gift certificate yesterday so I went shopping to fill a niche in my pedalboard setup and wanted a low gain overdrive, one that has less gain then Tube screamer. I plan on stacking 4 different drive pedals in series beginning with the lowest gain and ending with the highest. I can then use them like you'd use switchable amp channels to change gain levels except I'd have 4 different levels of gain plus you can combine them to get all sorts of sounds. Using a TS with other pedals like a Marshall Governor has worked out well for me but having a lower gain pedal was something I'd been missing. After a half days research I chose the Joyo Sweet Baby based on its reviews and comparisons to others like the Sweet Honey. Since the pedal only cost $23 I could afford to buy it without trying it. Some reviews say the jacks aren't as good as other Joyo pedals but rehousing it is definitely no big deal if it needs a better housing. The Honey Bee looks like it uses high quality parts in comparison. The caps look to be ceramic and it also looks like it uses Transistors instead of an IC. You can push certain transistors harder then many Op amps. That's likely the reason for the added dB/gain levels. Not sure what it does to the overall sound or dynamic attack the originals were noted for. I have no need for additional gain. I typically set most pedals to a 1:1 gain so there isn't a gig drop in volume when you turn them off. Maybe a few extra dB's on a lead pedal but that's it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted November 30, 2018 Author Share Posted November 30, 2018 I have one incoming. Nice review Phil. Thanks - please let us know what you think of it once it arrives and you've had a chance to check it out for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted November 30, 2018 Author Share Posted November 30, 2018 I'm guessing' date=' that Honey Bee is another modified clone of the Mad Professor Sweet Honey [i']Overdrive. [/i] While they have somewhat similar sounds and were both designed by the same guy (Björn Juhl), they're not the same circuit. [video=youtube;VxpAMQGCeoc] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted November 30, 2018 Author Share Posted November 30, 2018 Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted December 13, 2018 Members Share Posted December 13, 2018 While they have somewhat similar sounds and were both designed by the same guy (Björn Juhl), they're not the same circuit. [video=youtube;VxpAMQGCeoc] No doubt either are better then the Joyo plus that Honey Bee has an extra switch too. I been using the Sweet Baby for a week solid now. Even did some recordings with it. It does exactly what I wanted it to do, provide low level drive and have the strings retain musical independence. When you use higher gain pedals, the dynamic peaks clip as the gain is increased till the separate strings begin to sound like a single note when a chord is played. That's find and dandy for certain things. So are clean notes. That cranked amp sound resides between a tube screamer and cranked amp is what's cool. At first use it was hard to tell if the pedal was on. I had to A/B compare turning the bypass on and off. I also had to do some tweaking on then guitars to get optimal results. Things like string and pickup height makes a noticeable enough difference where you want those set right for what this pedal does. Once I was able to get the same touch from all the strings, Arpeggio and chords began to sound fantastic. Its a sure enough bet, anyone who doesn't "get it" using these kinds of pedals will likely have guitar setup issues which prevent them from enjoying what these can do for them. So far My favorite sound from these is to use the pedal as a gain booster in front of a Marshall amps drive channel with that channel set for minimal drive. I did something similar recording. The pedal run solo into an interface is tough to use. Its a step up from a 100% clean guitar but you still choke on the silence between notes. When I ran it into a multieffects unit with a lower gain amp emulation you could see where the added gain makes a real differences. The string touch becomes much lighter when you play and the frequency response is targeted to where the guitar needs to sit in a mix to sound balanced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1001gear Posted December 28, 2018 Members Share Posted December 28, 2018 Just got a Joyo SB. Does the clean to bluesy w/sustain just like Dumble; tone and all. That alone is worth 10 X the 30 bucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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