Beetronics Swarm Limited Edition "Donatello"

The Beetronics Swarm Limited Edition "Donatello" is a limited run of the Swarm, an analog fuzz harmonizer pedal. Beetronics describes the Swarm as a pedal that "sounds like a thousand killer bees coming to get you," and the Donatello is the same circuit in a limited edition finish¹.

Underneath the bee-themed names, the Swarm does something fairly specific. In Beetronics' own words:

That makes it part fuzz and part pitch effect: your note gets squared off into a buzzy fuzz waveform, and the pedal then generates harmony intervals above and below it that you can blend in. It sits closer to the octave and pitch family than a plain fuzz box, but the fuzz character is central to how those harmonies sound.

What the Swarm does to your sound

The Swarm's core idea is the square wave. A square wave is a waveform rich in odd harmonics, which is why fuzz and synth-style tones built on it sound so aggressive. The Swarm takes that fuzzed-out square wave and then multiplies and divides its frequency, producing nine possible harmony intervals spread across two octaves¹.

Modulation is then applied to those harmonies, and this is where the pedal's character lives. Beetronics says the modulation takes the harmonies "from a nearly perfect tracking harmony, to a wild and uncontrollable" sound¹. In practice that means you can dial in anything from a tight, synth-like doubled line to something unstable and chaotic, all from one control.

The controls

The Donatello carries the Swarm's six controls, each with a bee-themed name. Here is what each one does, per Beetronics¹:

The pairing of Queen and Drone is worth noting: the two harmonies sit one octave apart, and each gets its own level control, so you can favor one over the other or balance them against the fuzzed dry signal from Worker¹.

Sting and Flight work together on the tracking side. Sting sets the attack speed of the harmonies, how quickly they latch onto your notes. Flight then shapes the modulation on top, from tight tracking at one end to the wild, unstable territory at the other¹.

Power and bypass

The Donatello runs on a 9V DC power supply with center negative polarity, drawing 7mA¹. That current draw is low enough that it is easy on most isolated power supplies.

The pedal is true bypass, so when it is switched off your signal passes through without active circuitry in the way¹.

The Donatello among the Swarm limited editions

Beetronics has released the Swarm in a long series of limited editions, and the Donatello is one of them. The pattern is consistent: same analog fuzz harmonizer circuit, same true bypass and 9V DC center negative power, different finish, each in a limited run¹²³⁴⁵.

Other Swarm limited editions include:

• Swarm Fuzz Harmonizer Limited Edition Bambee⁶
• Swarm Fuzz Harmonizer Pink Lemonade Limited Edition⁷
• Swarm Fuzz Harmonizer Limited Edition Majin Bee⁸
• Swarm Limited Edition Royal Series⁴
• Swarm Fuzz Harmonizer Limited Edition Cream⁹

The Silver Limited Edition gives a sense of how small these runs can be: its product page noted "20 units available on this first batch"³. Beetronics does not state the Donatello's run size on its page.

Availability and pricing

As of late October 2026, the Donatello is listed as sold out on Beetronics' product page¹. Several other Swarm limited editions are in the same state, including the standard Limited Edition, the Silver Limited Edition and the Royal Series²³⁴.

The product page lists the Donatello's regular price as £192.00 GBP¹. No US dollar price is given.

Beetronics offers a 30-Day Hive Happiness Guarantee on the pedal, with shipping not included¹.

Questions