Björn Juhl's BJFE ODS34 is one of the very best Dumble Style Overdrives - particularly in Compact Enclosure Format
It seems a long time since I did my Howard Alexander Dumble in memoriam article back on January 26th. At the time I voiced that I would very likely add a few more - and for sure they would include the ODS34, Menatone Dumbstruck - and probably MXR Shin-Juku Drive. There are certainly some great examples of the genre and back in January I had actually just 5 - the Cornerstone Gladio SC, Custom Tones Ethos Clean Fusion-II, Demon Pedals Kondo-Shifuku, Mad Professor Simble, and Wampler Euphoria.
Since then I’ve obviously added the J Rockett Melody, and now this BJFE ODS34. I think I would like to end up with around 10 eventually! Which means a few more from the aforementioned January selection as pictured below :
Controls - Volume, Drive, Edge (Character / Bite), Treble, Body (Low-End Frequencies).
My current preferred settings are Volume @ 4 o'c, Drive @ 10 o'c, Edge @ 10 o'c, Treble @ 3 o'c, and Body at 9 o'c.
Björn Juhl has a real knack for these kind of drive circuits - with that special character on the edge of breakup. I first witnessed that on his Emerald Green Scream Machine Distortion - and here that sort of textured character - with even more of a fuzzy edge is very much in evidence - the classic kind of Dumble ODS Rock voicing - very mids-forward and cooly accentuated.
Readers will of course ask me how it compares to my long-standing Dumble favourite - the Kondo-Shifuku - which has one less knob, but three key voicing toggle switches in addition. The pair of them basically go about the task in quite different ways - but both have a huge amount of range and beautifully textured output.
I would put them on a par really - possibly one is very slightly easier to dial in than the other - but each yields extraordinary results.
I only really got to know Björn Juhl relatively recently - he specially made my 4K Honey Bee for me - courtesy of mutual friend Sebastian Nylund (These Go to 11), while more recently I've been getting my BJFE fix from good friend Joe Light - and his Joe's Pedals Boutique.
For Joe's first BJFE order the 2 ODS34's in that selection were already spoken for and I was determined to get in on the next round as it were!
Joe fortunately just recently took delivery of a fresh shipment of BJFE's - featuring :
- Baby Blue OD (Dynamic Tube Amp Style Distortion)
- Blueberry Bass OD
- Bone Bender 1 Fuzz (Tone Bender MKI)
- Candy Apple Fuzz (SuperFuzz)
- Dyna Red Distortion (MIAB)
- Honey Bee 3K (Based on old Broken Speaker Supro Combo)
- Fuzz 109 (BC109 Fuzz Face)
- Little Green Wonder OD (TS808)
- ODS34 OD (Dumble ODS Style OD)
- Model GA77 Preamp (Gibson 1977 Lab Series Amp)
- Silver Bee OD (Sparklier / Brighter Honey Bee)
- Sparkle Face (Gainier Fuzz Face)
- Super Apricot OD (60's Supro)
He also has the following in stock :
- Emerald Green Distortion Machine (Marshall / Vox Tone Machine)
- Model H Preamp (70's Hiwatt)
- Mint Green Mini Vibe
- Poppy Red Distortion (Plexi Style Overdrive)
Prices range from £249 to £369 - with the ODS34 at £329, the Model GA77 is the priciest edition!
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In fact - I was so impressed with Joe's Instagram demo (above) of the Bone Bender 1 that I had to have that too - even though I already have the Barefoot FX version of that pedals - so a comparison article should be coming up real soon!
I still have a few more BJFE's to acquire - where I will certainly be adding the Model GA77 at some stage - and the Silver Bee too, and possibly a couple or so more!
Are any of you Björn Juhl fans - and which is your favourite pedal of his across all his brands?
There still don't seem to be any demos of the new 5K ODS34 edition - so the below demos are of the older 4K Model D predecessor - where its controls were Volume, Drive, Edge and Body - so missing the later Treble control addition!
Demos
