DEMO JimiLee Honey Bear (Mad Professor Sweet Honey)

This post contains an audio or video demo

MichaelW

Well-known member
Build Rating
5.00 star(s)
I posted about getting this board from our own @jimilee in the "Mailbox" thread, so cool!

Having just built the AionFX version of its predecessor the Bjfe Honey Bee, I was really interested in seeing what tweaks Bjorn did to the circuit for the Mad Professor iteration.

Continuing on my deep dive into the world of Bjorn Juhl I was really looking forward to building this today!

Components and values are pretty close to the Honey Bee with the most notable difference being the opamp, (OP275 instead of the CA3130 in the Honey Bee)
and a third red clipping led to the two in the Honey Bee.

I've read that there were some tonal differences between the pedals and after playing them I can confirm that the Sweet Honey is an evolution of the Honey Bee.
They both sound great but a little bit different. To my ears, the Sweet Honey has a bit more treble and sounds a bit more "open" than the Honey Bee.

When I built the Honey Bee there were some suggestions from Aion on how to help "open it up" a bit, which I did. But in comparison side by side with the Sweet Honey, the Honey Bee sounds a bit more "boxy". I socketed some of the alternative values in the Honey Bee and may revisit them.....or not...heh.

Of all the Juhl pedals I've built so far the Honey Bee (Aion Procyon), Sweet Honey (Jimilee Honey Bear) and the Royal Blue (PPCB Splendiferous) have the most overlap in terms of the amount of gain and general gain structure. But the Royal Blue by far has the widest gain range from low to pretty high gain.
Having said that, I may be in the minority on this, but I kinda like the original "nature" or "focus" control for the EQ. The Royal Blue has them split into Bass and Treble controls that I don't feel do as much as the way he originally did the "one eq knob".

I used my last $3 Smallbear enclosure. The Orange was one color that always had the best powder coat for me and the least "fragility" when it came to scuffing up easily. Plus I dig the color. I've used it for a number of builds but I "think" I have not repeated any knob combinations yet. I wanted something that was close to the Honey Bee I built, they're both the same Smallbear orange enclosure just different knob colors.

@jimilee did a great job on the layout of this board and it went as smoothly as a PedalPCB build for me, except for the off board wiring. After looking through all the various brand 3DPT daughterboards I had in my stash, I decided it was just going to be easier to wire the switch, so that's what I wound up doing. 3DPT wiring is not a strong area of my builds, but as long as it works.....hahaha.

Oh and white PCB's tend to really show all the flux that's left on the boards from soldering. I spent a good bit of time scrubbing the board on both sides.
On the plus side, white PCB's make it easy to know how clean I got it! Thanks @jimilee, what a cool board and fun build!

IMG_4224.JPG

IMG_4223.JPG

I made a demo of all the Bjorn Juhl pedals I've built so far (for @Harry Klippton ) and threw in a couple of other pedals that to me sound in the same vein.

In the demo below, from Right to Left:

@jimilee Honey Bear (Mad Professor Sweet Honey)
AionFX Procyon Legacy (BJFe Honey Bee)
PPCB Splendiferous Drive (Mad Professor Royal Blue OD)
PPCB Skylight Drive (Mad Professor Sky Blue drive)
PPCB Resinite Drive (Mad Professor Amber Drive)

And for giggles:
PPCB Mojito Deluxe (@Chuck D. Bones Boneyard circuit, I think it's inspired by the Honey Beast?)
PPCB ADHD v2 Germanium (Yah kinda out of left field but it really fits into this series to my ears, plus I told @harmaes I'd record a quick clip for him)

This turned into a fairly long video with some knob tweaking and some riffing across all the pedals. It's a pedal comparison video and not a "song".
I used my Tokai Les Paul Gold Top and most of the riffing was on the bridge pickup.

The demo starts off with my clean tone so all the drive sounds are the pedals doing all the heavy lifting. Any of these pedals would sound great goosing an overdriven amp or edge of breakup amp. Also in the clean sound part I showed my new dual delay sound with my very recently built (like yesterday hahah) Seabed Delay (Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay) running into my MadBean Tourbus analog delay.
I had a little reverb from my Gravitation in the loop and my "always on" General Tso Compressor set at unity in front of all the drive pedals. No boosts.

 
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I posted about getting this board from our own @jimilee in the "Mailbox" thread, so cool!

Having just built the AionFX version of its predecessor the Bjfe Honey Bee, I was really interested in seeing what tweaks Bjorn did to the circuit for the Mad Professor iteration.

Continuing on my deep dive into the world of Bjorn Juhl I was really looking forward to building this today!

Components and values are pretty close to the Honey Bee with the most notable difference being the opamp, (OP275 instead of the CA3130 in the Honey Bee)
and a third red clipping led to the two in the Honey Bee.

I've read that there were some tonal differences between the pedals and after playing them I can confirm that the Sweet Honey is an evolution of the Honey Bee.
They both sound great but a little bit different. To my ears, the Sweet Honey has a bit more treble and sounds a bit more "open" than the Honey Bee.

When I built the Honey Bee there were some suggestions from Aion on how to help "open it up" a bit, which I did. But in comparison side by side with the Sweet Honey, the Honey Bee sounds a bit more "boxy". I socketed some of the alternative values in the Honey Bee and may revisit them.....or not...heh.

Of all the Juhl pedals I've built so far the Honey Bee (Aion Procyon), Sweet Honey (Jimilee Honey Bear) and the Royal Blue (PPCB Splendiferous) have the most overlap in terms of the amount of gain and general gain structure. But the Royal Blue by far has the widest gain range from low to pretty high gain.
Having said that, I may be in the minority on this, but I kinda like the original "nature" or "focus" control for the EQ. The Royal Blue has them split into Bass and Treble controls that I don't feel do as much as the way he originally did the "one eq knob".

I used my last $3 Smallbear enclosure. The Orange was one color that always had the best powder coat for me and the least "fragility" when it came to scuffing up easily. Plus I dig the color. I've use it for a number of builds but I "think" I have not repeated any knob combinations yet. I wanted something that was close to the Honey Bee I built, they're both the same Smallbear orange enclosure just different knob colors.

@jimilee did a great job on the layout of this board and it went as smoothly as a PedalPCB build for me, except for the off board wiring. After looking through all the various brand 3DPT daughterboards I had in my stash, I decided it was just going to be easier to wire the switch, so that's what I wound up doing. 3DPT wiring is not a strong area of my builds, but as long as it works.....hahaha.

Oh and white PCB's tend to really show all the flux that's left on the boards from soldering. I spent a good bit of time scrubbing the board on both sides.
On the plus side, white PCB's make it easy to know how clean I got it! Thanks @jimilee, what a cool board and fun build!

View attachment 41190

View attachment 41191

I made a demo of all the Bjorn Juhl pedals I've built so far (for @Harry Klippton ) and threw in a couple of other pedals that to me sound in the same vein.

In the demo below, from Right to Left:

@jimilee Honey Bear (Mad Professor Sweet Honey)
AionFX Procyon Legacy (BJFe Honey Bee)
PPCB Splendiferous Drive (Mad Professor Royal Blue OD)
PPCB Skylight Drive (Mad Professor Sky Blue drive)
PPCB Resinite Drive (Mad Professor Amber Drive)

And for giggles:
PPCB Mojito Deluxe (@Chuck D. Bones Boneyard circuit, I think it's inspired by the Honey Beast?)
PPCB ADHD v2 Germanium (Yah kinda out of left field but it really fits into this series to my ears, plus I told @harmaes I'd record a quick clip for him)

This turned into a fairly long video with some knob tweaking and some riffing across all the pedals. It's a pedal comparison video and not a "song".
I used my Tokai Les Paul Gold Top and most of the riffing was on the bridge pickup.

The demo starts off with my clean tone so all the drive sounds are the pedals doing all the heavy lifting. Any of these pedals would sound greeting goosing an overdriven amp or edge of breakup amp. Also in the clean sound part I showed my new dual delay sound with my very recently built (like yesterday hahah) Seabed Delay (Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay) running into my MadBean Tourbus analog delay.
I had a little reverb from my Gravitation in the loop and my "always on" General Tso Compressor set at unity in front of all the drive pedals. No boosts.

That looks great, I'm glad you dig it. I did that board early on, I've standardized a little more and things look logical. I don't do a lot of white boards, but the graphics looked best on white.
 
I may be in the minority on this, but I kinda like the original "nature" or "focus" control for the EQ. The Royal Blue has them split into Bass and Treble controls that I don't feel do as much as the way he originally did the "one eq knob".
I’m with you. I like the nature control.

Great build. Gotta get me one of those boards 🤔
 
Thank you for the awesome demo @MichaelW!

I definitely hear some overlap and having a direct comparison is very helpful. Not only have you helped me discover a couple drives that I may be interested in, your demo has helped me make some observations.

1. I understand now why the MP Sky Blue OD is often said to be able to cop the "Dumble" sound. It's got that lower mids growl but seems to stay fairly articulate. Does this pedal sound exactly like Robbin Ford's ODS? Most certainly not, but I can hear elements in the EQ that remind me of those sounds.

2. The MP Amber Drive, wow. Based on your video, I think this would be a top contender for mid to higher gain in a live/band situation. Sure, it's possible to have some not-so-great sounds in there, but there are points in the video where the sound you're getting would cut through like a knife (in a good way).

after playing them I can confirm that the Sweet Honey is an evolution of the Honey Bee.
...To my ears, the Sweet Honey has a bit more treble and sounds a bit more "open" than the Honey Bee.
100% agree based on your demo. I'd have to choose the Sweet Honey over the Honey Bee because the EQ range seems more versatile.

Have you tried the Splendiferous without a buffer in front yet? If I'm not mistaken, I think the input is fairly low impedance and was designed this way to be highly interactive with your guitar's controls. It's possible that some of his other pedals are this way as well, but I seem to recall reading or watching somewhere that they talked about needing to go direct with this drive for the best experience.
 
Thank you for the awesome demo @MichaelW!

I definitely hear some overlap and having a direct comparison is very helpful. Not only have you helped me discover a couple drives that I may be interested in, your demo has helped me make some observations.

1. I understand now why the MP Sky Blue OD is often said to be able to cop the "Dumble" sound. It's got that lower mids growl but seems to stay fairly articulate. Does this pedal sound exactly like Robbin Ford's ODS? Most certainly not, but I can hear elements in the EQ that remind me of those sounds.

2. The MP Amber Drive, wow. Based on your video, I think this would be a top contender for mid to higher gain in a live/band situation. Sure, it's possible to have some not-so-great sounds in there, but there are points in the video where the sound you're getting would cut through like a knife (in a good way).



100% agree based on your demo. I'd have to choose the Sweet Honey over the Honey Bee because the EQ range seems more versatile.

Have you tried the Splendiferous without a buffer in front yet? If I'm not mistaken, I think the input is fairly low impedance and was designed this way to be highly interactive with your guitar's controls. It's possible that some of his other pedals are this way as well, but I seem to recall reading or watching somewhere that they talked about needing to go direct with this drive for the best experience.
My compressor and tuner in the beginning of the chain are both buffered so I always have a buffer on. The Skylight has the adjustable impedance and can be dialed to the MOST interactive with the guitar knob but the Splendiferous certainly responds well to rolling off the volume on the guitar as well, as the Amber. The Amber is really into the fuzz territory, like a very articulate fuzz, awesome sounding. It reminds me of the Skreddy P19 somewhat but maybe more aggressive in the trebles.
 
1. I understand now why the MP Sky Blue OD is often said to be able to cop the "Dumble" sound. It's got that lower mids growl but seems to stay fairly articulate. Does this pedal sound exactly like Robbin Ford's ODS? Most certainly not, but I can hear elements in the EQ that remind me of those sounds.
That's interesting, I didn't make the Dumble connection until you now mentioned it. Now listening back to it, I can certainly hear it.
Incidentally, I'm waiting on a couple of components to built out the PPCB Symbolic Drive (Mad Professor Simble) which is Bjorn's take on the Zen circuit. I also just finished the AionFX Viridian (MP Little Green Wonder) Bjorn's take on a YATS....build report coming......:)
 
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