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Listen to the Beetronics’ Fatbee, a made-in-USA, tube-like overdrive
The Fatbee is a JFET-powered overdrive that displays tube-like characteristics.
Image: Press
NAMM 2020: Beetronics FX has announced the first member of its all-new Babee Series of effects pedals: the Fatbee Overdrive.
The Fatbee Overdrive features an original circuit design courtesy of Howard Davis, which uses JFET transistors to generate tube-like behaviour. Players can vary their pick attack and manipulate their guitar’s volume knob to control the amount of breakup delivered by the Fatbee.
Three forward-facing knobs are responsible for the Fatbee Overdrive’s tone-shaping capabilities: Weight (master volume), Flavor (tone) and Honey (gain). A volume boost can be achieved by keeping the Weight up and the Honey low, while doing the inverse will introduce more saturation and clipping to the signal.
The Fatbee Overdrive is the first model of Beetronics’ new Babee Series, which features a lower price point and smaller enclosures.
The Californian effects brand has made a name for itself for its wild, cacophonous dirt pedals – in particular the Royal Jelly, which has become Beetronics’ bestselling pedal. In our review of one of its newer pedals, the Swarm, we called it “a box of chaos with honey-sweet fuzz at its core […] It’s the pitch-mangling modulation that makes this pedal one for the hardcore noisemongers – it soars, swoops, whines and whoops, while you’re playing and sometimes after you’ve stopped.”
We also spoke to Beetronics founder Filipe Pampuri about the origins of the brand, his love of blending drive and fuzz, and how Robert Keeley played a big role in forming the proudest moment of his pedal career. Check out our interview here.
Pricing and availability of the Beetronics Fatbee Overdrive TBC. For more information, click here.