Blind Panic Devices' B2 is the ultimate Swarming / Droning / Drunk Bee - Buzzy Bee Fuzzy Delay - with Extras

I’m a huge fan of these types of Fuzz Texturizers really - where the delay further expands the Fuzz vocabulary. This essentially Fuzzy Beelay V2 edition is a lot more than your typical Fuzzy Delay. Further to the more standard functions you have an incredibly versatile LFO Modulator, Pitch Modulation Flutter, and a Feedback Micro Looper - which grabs snippets and feeds them back through the loop. It’s a classic example of being more than the sum of its parts - even though its parts are already exceptional.

Combining all those elements together is really where it’s at - which is why the ’Fuzz Texturizer’ moniker is the most apt in the circumstances. This delivers all manner of Fuzzy Bee sounds - Swarms, Drones, and with the Flutter and Modulation various modes of Bee flight sounds - including a somewhat Drunken Bee sound with the Pitch Modulation Flutter engaged.

I’ve long been a fan of Fuzzy Delays - where most of mine are courtesy of Fjord Fuzz Bifrost variants. I also always meant to get the Pelican Noiseworks Binford 6100 too - but kind of forgot about it until the B2 came along. I feel the B2 would very much be up my street - as I am something of a fuzz fanatic - and any unusual take on fuzz is always likely to pique my interest!

Controls - LEVEL = MASTER VOLUME; DELAY } Mix, Time; LFO } Speed, Wave(-form) : Triangle > Squiggly Saw > Square, LFO Intensity, Wave Depth, LFO Switch : On/Off, Mode : Heavy (Intense) / Normal; FUZZ TEXTURE; FLUTTER } Pitch Modulation Flutter, Flutter Switch : On/Off; FEEDBACK MICRO LOOPER } Feedback Intensity, Feedback Looper Polarity : v/^ Footswitch function End Loop / Hold Loop, Feedback Footswitch; Right Engage / Bypass Footswitch.

There are all manner of special applications here which you achieve by mixing up all those different elements. And Matt indicates that a number of those are better suited to Humbucker style pickups. For instance with the Feedback Intensity / Mix mini knob rolled back to the left - you can generate a pseudo octave mode - which is highly interactive with your guitar volume - where rolling that off delivers glitchy, and synth-like low-octaves.

It’s the kind of pedal you need to patiently explore each and every group of settings - often tweaking several in tandem - to discover all those unusual in-between sweet spots where you get an unusual or interestingly glitchy output texture.

Matt tells me that the modulation section is loosely based on that found in Mid-Fi’s Pitch Pirate pedal - which I’m sure a few of you are fairly familiar with!

There’s certainly a lot going on - courtesy of those 14 controls and dual footswitches. But it mostly snaps into place once you’ve figured out what each setting relates. As far as Fuzzy Delays go - this is surely the King Bee!

So it’s fantastic that you get all this for the very reasonable price of £229 (c $290) - of course courtesy of the Blind Panic Devices webstore.

Blind Panic’s Matt Valentine is definitely one to watch - and I look forward to supporting his many upcoming releases!

I’m hoping to have a few of his in the reference collection - in due time of course!