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The point I was stressing was that this thread would be all dirt, if it were not for you, who brought in a side dish of half baked philosophy.
@el murdoque I'm looking for a. High gain i.e. Distortion bass pedal. To go right after DCX BASS BOOST. MBD3 fits that bill but wondering if the regular Pantheon could or would fit that description? Or is it more of a low.to mid gain pedal?
Hello again after 15 months.
Finally I got a BJFe Blueberry Bass Overdrive Futura (3BOD4K) of my own. But mine has a different circuit from yours.
Although I cannot for the life of me find any record of the BJFe Blueberry Bass Overdrive Futura as it was offered for sale in the US by Bearfoot FX originally and briefly (5 1/2 years ago from now), I feel sure that my example has the same circuit that those did. Mine was made in 2019.
In view of all subsequent examples, including yours and others like yours, plus a BJFe Blueberry Bass Overdrive Futura X (3BODX, higher gain) currently for sale, I consider mine to be the first and transitional type of 3BOD Futura.
Why transitional? Because
1. it has the same evolutionary feature I see on a number of BJFe pedals whose circuits Björn iterates: n+1 knobs, where the +1 knob usually is called a Treble control. So 3-knob pedals become 4-knob; and 4-knob ones become 5-knob. In this case, that means that it has the original 3BOD controls (V, D, N) plus a T control.
and
2. all the 3BOD variants I have seen since this one, including the Blackberry Bass Overdrive (also abbreviated as 3BOD4K for some reason), feature B and T controls rather than N and T.
But there is more...
Haha! So that's what it is. I thought it was the packing material or the seller's scented candles.
Agreed, mostly. But I think I can explain the difference.
Before playing this 3BOD4K, I never played an actual BJFe Blueberry variant. I had the Bearfoot FX 3BOD and the One Control Blackberry; but my only BJFe pedal was a Poppy Red Distortion (PRD). Yet even my experience of the PRD was useful in framing my understanding of my 3BOD4K.
To my ear, what makes the Blueberry circuit special is not the amount of gain it applies, but the character or texture of saturation it applies at any given amount of gain. In other words, perhaps, the Blueberry magic is in gain structure; and that structure (like most things BJFe, I believe) is not uniform across a. the affected frequency spectrum, and b. the travel of a given control.
The Blueberry manifests this non-uniform saturation of the frequency spectrum as raggedness rather than smoothness. This is what players are referring to when they mention the Blueberry's "gooey" sound. But there is an additional element of raggedness. I call it "fluttering".
The combination of gooeyness and fluttering is the distinctive saturation texture of the Blueberry circuit.
In the various Blueberry variants, Björn plays with both the relationship between those two and the net spectral response, both as it is affected by saturation and as it is not.
My first trials tell me that the Bearfoot FX 3BOD has somewhat less gooeyness and even less flutter than my BJFe 3BOD4K. Also the low end of my BJFe 3BOD4K is tuned lower than the Bearfoot FX 3BOD. Those two differences alone, assuming our Futura pedals are tuned similarly, would account for the "more heft" that each of us hears in his Futura.
But there is more...
As I noted above, my 3BOD4K has a Nature control (N) instead of the newer Bottom control (B) that you refer to as "bass".
After questioning and other research, and after some soul searching, I realized that one thing I really liked in any of the BJFe circuits that featured it was the Nature control. (Examples I owned were the Bearfoot FX 3BOD, Honey Beest, and Model G.)
Also the prospect of having the additional gain in the 3BODX was not compelling to me. I already have other fine high-gain drive pedals for bass guitar.
So I chose to get the transitional 3BOD4K.
Even with the N control (tilt EQ) rather than B control, the 3BOD4K has what your are calling transparency; although I would call it "openness" rather, since mine slightly colors the high end.
When considering which variant to get, I did consider the kinds of EQ curves that the B and T controls would enable vs. the curves enabled by N and T. I was willing to forgo some flexibility to retain the classic Nature sound as a basis.
And this brings us to the first real difference between our Futuras...
Based on this description of yours and one other, I am certain that the transitional Futura has a T control that is boost or cut, whereas all later ones with a T control have a T control that is cut only.
Even with my 3BOD4K T control at its highest setting, where the boost is clearly audible, it is like yours not clanky. To my ear, this is because of tuning: it shoots pretty high. Its center is above clank, in the range of sibilance and breathiness. No joke.
Remember the fluttering? Well when T is boosted, and the source has some zing (roundwound strings played so they ring, snarl, clang, etc.) the fluttering becomes breathy.
Most striking to me was the discovery that playing with a light touch emphasizes the gooeyness and fluttering. Similarly I found that lower notes emphasized the gooeyness.
Therefore even with the T control shut, the 3BOD4K is a very tactile pedal to play through.
Since I never played a BJFe 3BOD, I cannot comment on whether my 3BOD4K has the classic sound. My guess is that it does.
However, I am willing to agree about its openness; and for me it is definitely more versatile with double-thumbing and fingerpicking. I can't play with a pick.
Here, too, I am going to have to agree.
My gear collection is pretty obscene. That includes rare and fine pedals. With that, for what it's worth: I have nothing that sounds and feels like this Blueberry Futura. It is different from my other pedals, but is as good as any of them (including the best of Menatone, which I consider to be a pinnacle of amp-in-a-box pedal making).
In my slight experience of them, Björn's hand wired pedals are like little gems. They are unique and special.
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