Guest Post – Bearfoot FX. …Bjorn in the USA

The following is a guest post by David Anderson. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

Bearfoot FX is a boutique guitar effects company  based in St. Louis, MO.  Headed by Don Rusk, Bearfoot FX are hand built effect pedals centered around the designs  by world famous electronics engineer Bjorn Juhl …also known as ” The Mad Professor”!

Don Rusk started in the pedal industry in the early 2000s hand painting effects pedals with his previous company Pedalworx.  Don was also a moderator and contributor of the Musictoyz forum and developed close ties with boutique pedal builders around the world. At the same time Bjorn Juhl had been gaining recognition for his BJFE pedals. Don began to help Bjorn translate posts on the Musictoyz forum and they soon became close friends.

Not long after Don relieved him self from PedalworX and started Donnerbox, offering custom painted enclosures for other pedal companies including BJFE.  Soon after, Don and Bjorn teamed up in order to keep cost down and began BearfootFX.  Bjorn is Swedish for Bear and these local built pedals are built with circuits designed by Bjorn and assembled and hand painted by Don and his team.

The line of Bearfoot FX include a multitude of overdrives and distortions including the newly released Emerald Green Distortion Machine, Honey Bee, Model H, Dyna Red, and others. BearfootFX also offers compressors, EQ pedals, and Vibrato pedals. Let’s take a brief look at a few of the most popular models.

The Pale Green Compressor is a truly transparent comp that enhances more than squishes your guitar tone.  With the comp setting dialed low the Pale Green is almost undetectable until you turn it off and hear the loss in tone with out the pedal engaged. With the comp setting dialed up, the Pale Green can give everything from a nice Nashville-esque feel to a highly compressed Dyna/Ross tone with endless sustain. The EQ on the comp offers a stacked knob circuit that works both pre and post the compressed signal. Extremely transparent!

Bearfoot FX recently released the Emerald Green Distortion Machine. Paying homage to the A class, Vox amplifier, the EGDM is packed with tons of tone! From a light break up ala Mike Campbell to full out distortion, it can be used as a crunch rhythm tone,  solo boost, or full out face melting lead tone while still keeping the clarity of individual notes in tact.

The Sea EQ is a unique pedal that can increase the bass or treble response of your guitar tone, as well as be used as a solo boost. A great choice for the player switching from single coil to hum bucking pickups, but not wanting to mess with the amp controls in order to keep tone consistent. Stacked with the Emerald Green Distortion, the Sea EQ gives a fuller tone with endless sustain that is reminiscent of an Ebow while picking single notes.

The Honey Bee is a warm natural overdrive that oozes vintage vibe! Giving the feel of a vintage tube amp cranked to a natural, warm breakup the Honey Bee is the equivalent of a comfy pair of worn in shoes. A great choice for rhythm drive as well as solo boost or to push a vintage tube amp to full tilt overdrive!

Unfortunately there are just too many models offered from Bearfoot FX to profile individually, and Don promises more goodies to be released for 2013! The bottom line is Don and Bjorn have proven to be a great team and the BearfootFX are second to none! Artist who use Bearfoot FX include Jim James, Chris Robinson, Reeves Gabrels, and others.

You can check out video demos of these pedals at bearfootfx.com  and contact Don through the web site for orders or questions you may have.

Dave Anderson is the owner of Tritione Guitars, a full service guitar repair shop based in St. Louis, MO. Dave has played guitar for over 25 years, and plays pedal steel, banjo, and mandolin as well. Dave also has over 20 years music retail experience and has done product demos for companies like Taylor guitars, Eastwood Guitars, Rivera Amps, and others.