One Control Honey Bee

The One Control Honey Bee is an overdrive pedal that aims to sound like a small vintage combo amp set to a crunch setting. It is the One Control production of a circuit designed by Bjorn Juhl, whose original BJF Honey Bee took the sound of a crunchy old Supro amp as its guiding light¹². The One Control edition gathers most of Juhl's improvements from two decades of revisions and adds a Vintage/Modern mode switch, all in a regular compact stompbox with a golden aluminum enclosure¹².

Delicious Audio describes it as "renown for it's warm overdrive crunch which is easily adjustable by a twist of a knob"¹. Premier Guitar's reviewer found it "a near perfect blend of oxygen and compression, especially in modern mode," with a distortion signature between a silky purr and a throaty growl².

An overdrive voiced after a crunchy Supro amp

Bjorn Juhl built the original BJF Honey Bee with the sound of a crunchy Supro amp as his guiding light, and the One Control version follows that same design². Delicious Audio puts it plainly: "The Honey Bee is an overdrive pedal that resembles a guitar amp that is set to a 'crunch' setting"¹. The BearFoot FX version of the circuit, a sibling production of the same design, is described by its maker as sounding and reacting "like small vintage combos with nicely worn tubes and speakers"³.

What that means for a player is an amp-like overdrive rather than a pure boost or a heavy distortion. Delicious Audio's buying guide calls the Honey Bee "a tonally and dynamically transparent overdrive that is said to behave exactly like an amp," with builder's notes referencing a small Tweed amp and a Supro combo⁴. Premier Guitar's reviewer found it "dovetails more seamlessly with a given guitar's voice than most popular overdrive types," and also noted it "makes a fantastic low-gain boost"².

Related One Control pedals in the same BJF family include the One Control Baby Blue OD, the One Control SUPER APRICOT OD and the One Control Persian Green Screamer.

The controls

The Honey Bee keeps it to three knobs plus a mode switch⁵:

The Nature knob is the one that surprises players coming from a standard tone control. BearFoot's product page for its version simply says "Nature adjusts the EQ"³, and Premier Guitar's reviewer called it "a more wide-ranging EQ control" than a conventional tone knob². Aion FX's technical trace of the original circuit found that the Nature control was wired differently across early units: on the first unit it connects to lug 3 of the volume pot through a 4n7 capacitor, while on the second it connects to the Q1 source through a 220n capacitor with a 4.7k or 5.1k resistor, the latter wiring appearing on the Bearfoot and One Control versions. The One Control version has both Nature connection options switchable⁶.

Vintage and Modern modes

The mode switch is what sets the One Control edition apart from earlier Honey Bees. Premier Guitar's 2017 announcement called the pedal "especially unique due to the Vintage & Modern mode switch"⁷:

• Vintage Mode: the original sounding Honey Bee OD, with a mild and classic overdrive tone and a unique high frequency response¹.
• Modern Mode: Revision 2+3+4 of the circuit, with a gain increase especially in the low ends and a wider Nature control range compared to Vintage mode¹.

Revision 4, the last of the gathered revisions, contains all the earlier revisions plus a 6dB gain increase, giving the Drive control more range¹. Premier Guitar's reviewer noted the "+6 dB boost in modern mode" as part of the package².

The mini version of the pedal, the One Control Honey Bee OD Mini Standard, keeps three knobs and the Vintage/Modern toggle but moves the switch to the side of the case, and swaps the Nature knob for a Treble control that adjusts the high frequencies⁵. A limited-edition Custom version of the mini was offered in a crimson red finish⁵.

History and versions

The Honey Bee debuted in 2002 as the BJF Honey Bee, and "has moved through many iterations" since². Over the years there have been several revisions of the pedal, and it has remained a sought-after design⁷. The One Control edition, announced in December 2017, was presented as containing "all the revisions and improvements from previous" versions⁷, and Premier Guitar's 2023 review describes it as "built by Japan's One Control (and redesigned with Juhl)"².

The family tree includes several productions of the same basic design:

• The original BJFe Honeybee Overdrive, designed by Bjorn Juhl and debuting in 2002²
• The BearFoot FX Honey Bee Overdrive, whose latest main version adds the Nature knob for tone⁴
• The One Control Honey Bee Overdrive in its regular compact format¹
• The BJFE in Your Hand series Honey Bee OD and the One Control Honey Bee OD Mini Standard in mini formats⁵
• The Drunk Beaver Okhtyrka Honey Bee Overdrive, a take on the design inspired by a heavily beaten-up 60's Supro amp⁸

Aion FX traced the original circuit after its Procyon project was released, and notes the official Moody Sounds Honey Bee kit was designed by BJFe⁶.

What reviewers said

Premier Guitar's 2023 quick-hit review summed up the pedal's strengths and one drawback²:

Pros, as the reviewer listed them:

• "Beautiful combination of oxygen and compression."
• "Useful variations in vintage and modern mode."
• "Makes a fantastic low-gain boost²."

Con:

• "Compression at highest gain levels in modern mode sucks air and dynamic range²."

On price, the reviewer wrote: "Sure, it's expensive." But the verdict balanced that against the build and the design: "On the other hand, you get a well-built pedal, derived from a truly great design that could relegate all your other low- to mid-gain pedals to the shelf"².

Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson, reviewing the Drunk Beaver take on the circuit in 2025, offered a view of the design as a whole: "The Honey Bee is still a little under-appreciated nowadays, alongside Mentone's Red Snapper - those are both top-tier overdrive" flavors⁸.

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