Buzzing Bugs' beautifully versatile BB04 Dual-Voiced Full Range Drive has a foot in each of the major 'Blues' Overdrive genres
Coming hot on the heels of my recent Blues Driver rundown we have here another superb candidate for the ’Adjacent’ category. Of course ’Adjacent’ meaning in the ballpark of - not exact replication - often just synergetic happenstance. And the Buzzing Bugs BB04 is actually a unique overdrive circuit which did not really set out to replicate those dual genres - but whose profile just happens to fall into Blues Breaker and Blues Driver territory!
Controls - Volume, Gain, Tone, Body (Phat).
It is named the ’Full Range Drive’ as the Tone Control (Highs), and Body switch (Lower Mids) give it a significant full range frequency extension at the 2 ends of the frequency profile, and you also have 4 opamp gain stages to give you increased gain range. With the Body switch off - you get a lighter and smoother tone - very much reminiscent of the Blues Breaker genre - of course not a 100% match - but a fantastic near match sounding profile.
The ’Body’ Low-Mids Boost is exceptionally well chosen / calibrated as it really pushes the low end - and simultaneously boosts the frequency profile into Keeley Phat-modded Blues Driver territory. You obviously know by now that I’m a Blues Driver fan (-atic) and really love that genre of overdrives in particular. While I also have a very sizeable Blues Breaker collection and so am very familiar with both those varieties.
This BB04 leans pretty much equally into Blues Breaker and Blues Driver profiles - where I actually like switching between the two of them - even though the ’Body’ Blues Driver style profile is my favourite. I tend to have the knobs set for maximum harmonics - which for my rig is Volume @ 3 o’c, Gain @ 10 o’c, and Tone @ Max. I can then flip the Body (Phat) switch on or off - when I want to step up or down in intensity / impact.
For my own preferences it would make a lot of sense to have the 'Body' switch as a second Footswitch - so you can more easily punch in the two flavours. You can for sure treat the 'Body' voicing as somewhat akin to a solo boost too. I can actually operate the toggle switch really well with my big toe! But it would be nice to have a second footswitch for sure!
This is a genuinely fantastic sounding versatile and dynamic bluesy overdrive with great guitar volume gain cleanup - just as the doctor ordered! Had I had this sooner, it would most certainly have featured in the Adjacent section of my recent Blues Driver-ology rundown!
The BB04 Full Range Drive is available for orders right now from the Buzzing Bugs Audio Devices Webstore - where it goes for a very reasonable £129.
Buzzing Bugs' Dan is the consummate professional - with a wonderful eye for detail, the overall design of everything is incredibly mature for such a young brand. I suggested the milled aluminium knobs to Dan, while he upgraded the footswitches of his own accord - to those excellent soft-click style Gørva Design ones. You really are getting a lot of bang for you buck here - dual pass UV-printing, milled knobs and primo parts throughout. I'm delighted to have this one in the reference collection.
Demos
12 Degrees of Saturation 2023 Compact Edition
