Barge Concepts BB-Jr

Three knobs, two switches, pretty straightforward. Volume, Tone, Sustain. One switch selects between two different types of fuzz, the other shuts it off and on. The website has a downloadable manual which is nice. The switches also have red/green indicator lights which is a most welcome upgrade.

First off I own a vintage Roland AF-100 Bee Baa. I bought this because I am a gear whore, and I wanted to see how the BB-Jr. stacked up against the real thing. And I'd have to say Barge Concepts pretty much nailed it! I say pretty much....well what I did was connect the both of them and try to make the BB-Jr. sound as close as possible to the Bee Baa. I started with all the knobs on both at 12 o'clock, wound up putting all three knobs on the BB-Jr. at about 3 o'clock. And it was very, VERY close. Almost exact, in fact maybe some people couldn't tell the difference. And maybe I'm too picky but I could hear a very subtle, almost unnoticeable difference. Perhaps there was similar variations in the old Bee Baas, I've only heard the one I have. Perhaps it is the looser tolerances on the caps and/or resistors. At any rate I'm nitpicking here! The BB-Jr. sounds awesome in it's own right. The BB-Jr. may have had slightly less noise but they were pretty close in that regard. And to be perfectly honest I DID have to occasionally look and see whether the BB-Jr. was the one I was playing through!

Bought it used, seems much more solid than the sheet metal of the Bee Baa. My Bee Baa is over thirty years old, I'm sure the BB-Jr. will last at least as long.

Never had to deal with them. Having a downloadable manual on the website scores points in my book!

I play classic rock, hard rock, blues, punk, alternative. This is NOT a subtle effect. I've been playing over 25 years and this really, really works when I need fuzz. If you want just a little overdrive this won't work. From Guitar Player, June '95 (reading the article made me want a Bee Baa): "The stainless-steel Bee Baa has individual fuzz tone select, fuzz treble booster, and bypass footswitches, plus sustain, tone, volume, and booster controls. Fuzz select yields two distinct fuzz sounds: one full-range, and the other dark and midrangy. The fuzz treble booster provides a choice of fuzz or overdrive with separate boost control. This incredibly deep and wicked-sounding box has at least as much bass boost as our bottom-heavy Colorsound Jumbo. In our opinion, it's the heaviest and most demonic-sounding fuzz around."
The BB-Jr. doesn't have the treble boost but Barge Concepts offers the BB-1 Standard which is the exact recreation of the Bee Baa. I never use the treble boost on my Bee Baa so I don't miss it with the BB-Jr. For $125 new this is an INCREDIBLE value, the BB=Jr. is a most worthy successor to the Roland Bee Baa. If my Bee Baa were stolen or stopped working I'm already set. The differences noted before are hardly worth mentioning.

Anyone who has played with a Big Muff for any length of time will have no bother unleashing a whole torrent of different fuzztones in no time at all.

Quite simply the heaviest, rudest, floor-shakingest fuzz this side of 3 Big Muffs and 2 Fuzz Factories combined.
This is not a pedal to go for if you want a 'roll back the guitar volume to clean up' kind of fuzz. This IS, however, most definitely the pedal to go for if you want to make your floorboards vibrate, your eardrums explode, or communicate with elephants over long distances.
The variety of fuzz sounds available is astounding - a simple twiddle of the tone knob will take you from sub-bass thumping, thru Big Muff honking, thru MkII Tonebender shredding to Shin-Ei razor-blading. Then you switch to Fuzz B and get even more variety.
And even at max 'sustain' (i.e. fuzz) levels the noise level is surprisingly low, although no pedal with this much gain can ever be whisper quiet.

Totally sturdy and dependable, Barge pedals are immaculately constructed .

The best - a pleasure to deal with.

Another all-10 review? 'Fraid so, but this pedal deserves it. It is such a great fuzz, and there is nothing else (apart from an original Bee Baa) out there that does what this does.
Get one!

3 knobs: Volume, Tone, Sustain. The pedal came without an instruction manual, but if you know your way around pedals, you won't need it. It has 2 switches - one turns the effect on/off and the other toggles between 2 types of fuzz.

With all knobs set to 12 o'clock, you'll get a lovely fuzz tone for soloing straight off the bat. It's nice to have a pedal that you can tweak every which way, but sometimes I just want to plug in and play without any fuss and this pedal does that beautifully!

The website also gives some more info regarding the pedal's pedigree and materials used in it's construction. Runs off 9V batteries or power supply. You need to remove 4 screws to get to the battery, but that is no bother to me.

First up, I want to say that this is my first fuzz pedal, but I have been playing for 15 years and I gig regularly so while I haven't tried every single fuzz pedal out there, I do know what I like and what's useable for me.

The BB-Jr basically has 2 selectable fuzz tones. Type B gives a full-range fuzz that is thick and rich with copious amounts of sustain. With single-coils, it snarls but with humbuckers, single notes pour out like sweet honey and I couldn't stop playing single-note bends because I loved the sound so much! Power chords had that wall-of-sound character and decayed nicely. Playing Slash's solo from 'November Rain' was extremely fun!

Type A was a narrow-frequency, focused fuzz. Sort of a fly in an amp with a blanket over it. It's a sound that took a while to grow on me, but power chords actually sound surprisingly good on this setting. I like the fact that this sound is so different from Type B and just goes to show what great value this pedal is - I've actually got two fuzz pedals for the price of one with the ability to stomp-switch between the two with impunity!

In terms of noise, you can hear a slight swish in a quiet room, but at gigs, you won't hear a thing. The true-bypass switching is also very quiet - no pops!

I played the BB-Jr through a Maton MS500 with Seymour Duncan humbuckers (Pearly Gates in the neck and JB in the bridge with coil-split) and a Fender Blues Jr with a Jensen P12 speaker.

The BB-Jr feel very solid. The wiring is top notch - neat and precise with just the right amount of wiring - no more, no less. All the components are laid out neatly - refined like French cuisine! The battery is also held snugly by a bracket and doubly-secured with a foam press on the bottom lid. No rattles when you shake this baby! The LEDs are bright and large and the 3DPT switches feel extremely solid and secure. The pots turn smoothly (no crackles) and have very nice resistance to them which I dig.

I would have no hesitation in gigging with it without a backup.

I bought the BB-Jr from Barge Concepts off eBay. When I contacted Geoff, he was very prompt and courteous in his emails. It was a pleasure to deal with him.

I play mostly rock and blues. I play weekly in a church band. I bought the BB-Jr because I wanted a fuzz pedal that sounded great and represented great value for money. I don't buy on brand - only what my research and ears tell me.

I'm glad I bought this pedal and I would definitely buy it again if it was lost or stolen. I also own a Tonebone Classic, a Boss BD-2 Blues Driver, an Arion SAD-1 Analogue Delay, a Danelectro Cool Cat Chorus and an Electro Harmonix Small Stone. The BB-Jr is now a vital part of my tonal palette!