Bearfoot - Honey Beest

General documentation, gut shot, schematic links, ongoing circuit tracing, deep thoughts ... all about boutique stompboxes.
User avatar
daeg
Information
Posts: 30
Joined: 12 Nov 2018, 03:56
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 34 times

Post by daeg »

First time poster, long time lurker.

Image

I'm fairly confident about this schematic. The pedal was quite difficult to trace due to the spaghetti wiring, vertically soldered axial resistors, jumpers, null components, tight spacing around trannies etc... Basically the build is a disaster but it sounds fantastic. Some notes:

-- JFets are backwards from normal design. i don't believe this has any significance to the circuit.
-- The board was designed to fit other Bearfoot designs; Dyna Red, Sparkling Yellow, Emerald Green, Blue Berry, Model H etc.I included the jumpers on the schematic but excluded the opens / null components.
-- Voltage measurements are printed on the schematic. I was using a 1Spot and as many of you know, these run at a a bit high of a voltage, especially when under a light load. In my case, the 1Spot was putting out 9.2V when only loaded by the pedal.
-- Capacitor Values are all accurate. I used a Capacitance Meter to confirm.
-- I've done a side-by-side comparison of the Honey Beest, One Control Honeybee, Bearfoot Honeybee Clone (Aion Procyon) and the Honey Beest is the darkest of the bunch. Comparing the circuits, I can't explain why. I'm left thinking it's the Jfet front-end.
-- I still have the pedal if anyone has any questions.

Gutshots for reference:

Image
Image
Image

User avatar
daeg
Information
Posts: 30
Joined: 12 Nov 2018, 03:56
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 34 times

Post by daeg »

Can someone help me thumbnail the images? I've seen that on other posts and thought it happened automatically.

User avatar
daeg
Information
Posts: 30
Joined: 12 Nov 2018, 03:56
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 34 times

Post by daeg »

I forgot to draw the joint between R16, C11, D6/D7, R19.

User avatar
roseblood11
Tube Twister
Information
Posts: 1887
Joined: 23 Aug 2008, 14:21
Has thanked: 366 times
Been thanked: 313 times

Post by roseblood11 »

the Honey Beest is the darkest of the bunch
C3! It's only 470pf in the honey bee.

User avatar
bajaman
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 4549
Joined: 26 Jun 2007, 21:18
Location: New Brighton, Christchurch, NZ
Has thanked: 595 times
Been thanked: 2058 times

Post by bajaman »

schematic ????
I can't see one :roll:
be kind to all animals - especially human beings

User avatar
Manfred
Tube Twister
Information
Posts: 1937
Joined: 04 Apr 2009, 23:42
Has thanked: 1671 times
Been thanked: 1344 times

Post by Manfred »

bajaman wrote:schematic ????
I can't see one :roll:
I did not see the image either on my notebook this morning,
but now I can see it on my desktop PC. :?: :scratch:

User avatar
jalmonsalmon
Solder Soldier
Information
Posts: 212
Joined: 14 Sep 2012, 22:49
Has thanked: 97 times
Been thanked: 30 times

Post by jalmonsalmon »

Manfred wrote:
bajaman wrote:schematic ????
I can't see one :roll:
I did not see the image either on my notebook this morning,
but now I can see it on my desktop PC. :?: :scratch:
Attachments
Honey.png

User avatar
storyboardist
Breadboard Brother
Information
Posts: 104
Joined: 28 Dec 2013, 00:08
Location: Georgia, USA
Has thanked: 85 times
Been thanked: 225 times
Contact:

Post by storyboardist »

Never seen the source and drain reversed in a JFET design like this... In the pics it looks like the legs might be twisted around. You sure you got the pinout correct?

Image

Not trying to be a backseat driver here. You're the one with it in front of you, I'm just confused. :scratch:

User avatar
marshmellow
Cap Cooler
Information
Posts: 469
Joined: 16 Aug 2007, 07:31
Location: Germany
Has thanked: 20 times
Been thanked: 127 times

Post by marshmellow »

Most JFETs are symmetrical and work both ways. You can find a note in many datasheets that drain and source can be switched, see here.

User avatar
daeg
Information
Posts: 30
Joined: 12 Nov 2018, 03:56
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 34 times

Post by daeg »

storyboardist wrote:Never seen the source and drain reversed in a JFET design like this... In the pics it looks like the legs might be twisted around. You sure you got the pinout correct?
I was also thrown off by this. The board is designed for TO-18 rather than TO-92 package transistors, and the pins of the 2N5952 are awkwardly bent to fit.
The circuit is way too crammed for me to get a picture of pins. I had to do a little bending to even touch the DMM lead to the tranny pins.

Still, I'm certain about the Source and Drain being backwards. I must have re-checked this several dozen times.
If there is still serious just let me know and I'll check one final time.

User avatar
daeg
Information
Posts: 30
Joined: 12 Nov 2018, 03:56
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 34 times

Post by daeg »

roseblood11 wrote:
the Honey Beest is the darkest of the bunch
C3! It's only 470pf in the honey bee.
:slap: I figured that out a few weeks back when comparing this to the Hot Rodded Honeybee, but forgot.

When I go to build a clone I'll definitely be building with the 470p value.
The circuit sounds perfect at high-gain, but is just a little too dark at low-gain.
On all of the Honey-esqe pedals I own, I keep the 'Nature' control maxed.

Come to think of it, I think a miller capacitor would be more effective here. Wouldn't that accomplish less treble-rolloff at lower gain and more at higher-gain?

User avatar
HamishR
Breadboard Brother
Information
Posts: 78
Joined: 31 May 2016, 14:51
Has thanked: 6 times
Been thanked: 46 times

Post by HamishR »

I have built a Honey Bee with the nature pot split into a treble and a bass pot. The nature goes bassy in one direction and trebley in the other with ground in the middle. So all I did was take the bassy wire to it's own pot to get a bass and treble EQ. You can then make the pedal brighter and still keep all the low end you want. Of course then it's not a Honey Bee any more but who cares? :-)

BTW I was starting to attempt a layout from your schematic but I'm a little confused at one point - Above where you have the two 4001 diodes you have a 1K in series with a 10K (R16 + R19). Should they connect to the diodes and the 22n or are they separate? Why couldn't I simply use a single 11K if they are indeed in series?
Last edited by HamishR on 13 Nov 2018, 04:37, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
daeg
Information
Posts: 30
Joined: 12 Nov 2018, 03:56
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 34 times

Post by daeg »

HamishR wrote:I have built a Honey Bee with the nature pot split into a treble and a bass pot. The nature goes bassy in one direction and trebley in the other with ground in the middle. So all I did was take the bassy wire to it's own pot to get a bass and treble EQ. You can then make the pedal brighter and still keep all the low end you want. Of course then it's not a Honey Bee any more but who cares? :-)
I love the circuit despite the Nature control. It goes from woofy and unusable to a little extra treble sqeezed out.
It's a novel idea, and I appreciate Bjorn creating something new, but I much prefer how the Sweet Honey just puts a 5.6k Resistor to Virtual Ground in it's place; it's the perfect amount of Bass response.

User avatar
storyboardist
Breadboard Brother
Information
Posts: 104
Joined: 28 Dec 2013, 00:08
Location: Georgia, USA
Has thanked: 85 times
Been thanked: 225 times
Contact:

Post by storyboardist »

Here's my layout for this. Turned the JFETs the "normal" way (mostly for my own OCD) and moved the polarity protection diode to voltage to ground configuration to save a row.

Image

User avatar
daeg
Information
Posts: 30
Joined: 12 Nov 2018, 03:56
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 34 times

Post by daeg »

^ NICE!

I support your decision to re-orient the JFETs. I can't wait to see some built reports come posted in the comment section.

User avatar
daeg
Information
Posts: 30
Joined: 12 Nov 2018, 03:56
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 34 times

Post by daeg »


User avatar
HamishR
Breadboard Brother
Information
Posts: 78
Joined: 31 May 2016, 14:51
Has thanked: 6 times
Been thanked: 46 times

Post by HamishR »

Hey Daeg - thanks for the schematic! I drew this one up as well as the One Control HB (posted at Guitar FX Layouts) and again, i am sure that the 22uF cap at Nature 1 (C5) should be 2u2. I built t using the 2u2 and it sounds just like the Honey Beest I had. When building it I used the obvious alternatives for unusual values - 5K6 for 5K67 (unless that is a typo?), 2K7 for 2K6, 1N4001 for the 1N4007s... And it sounds fantastic. As you may expect, it sounds like a higher gain version of the HB. You can still get lower gain sounds from it though by putting Pregain at zero. Actually I think I like this one better than the original I had because this one seems to clean up in the low end better with the Nature control. The lows are still massive with Nature fully CCW but I can get great clear low strings by keeping it at noon.

Thanks!

User avatar
HamishR
Breadboard Brother
Information
Posts: 78
Joined: 31 May 2016, 14:51
Has thanked: 6 times
Been thanked: 46 times

Post by HamishR »

Just seeing if I can attach my layout for the Honey Beest... It would be easy to swap the 2u2 cap on Nature 1 to match your schematic if you wanted, but I love how this sounds! I also swapped the input cap from 22n to 47 as on the Honey Bee. It doesn't make a huge difference but does help my Strat out a little.
Honey Beest.png

User avatar
Ichabod_Crane
Resistor Ronker
Information
Posts: 354
Joined: 26 Apr 2016, 15:11
Has thanked: 83 times
Been thanked: 36 times

Post by Ichabod_Crane »

This pedal sounds interesting! :D
Is that veroboard layout verified?

User avatar
HamishR
Breadboard Brother
Information
Posts: 78
Joined: 31 May 2016, 14:51
Has thanked: 6 times
Been thanked: 46 times

Post by HamishR »

Yup. I built it and really like it. If you are using a Fender guitar experiment with the input cap.

Post Reply