prophecysound system (pss) black sheep fuzz

by 44ofjuly

Between 1974 and 1976, Roland released a series of stomp boxes that pre-dated all BOSS pedals. By today’s standard, this series of effect pedal would be all vintage stuff and highly sought after. Among the effects pedals released, there’s one called the Bee Baa fuzz, AF-100. In its time, the bee baa was known for its demonic sounding fuzz.

For this month’s gear gawk, the pedal that we are looking at is not exactly the original Bee Baa. Those pedals termed “original” or anything that has to do with “vintage” in it cost either too much, or cost REALLY REALLY too much. And since I ain’t got a real oil rig, I will just settle for the straight out clone of the original.

So here it is, the Prophecysound System (PSS), Black Sheep Fuzz. Frankly speaking, there’s nothing spectacular about the look of the Black Sheep Fuzz. Especially if you compare it with the other offerings from Mike Both (Mike both is PSS, PSS is Mike Both). Namely the Infinitphase Mark II (an amazing and really tweakable phaser) and the knobs-crazy Rubber Fetish envelope filter. Although not glamourous-looking, the casing and build quality are really tough and I can see it lasting for a long while.

Without further ado, lets get straight to the standard Black Sheep Fuzz (there’s 2 other simplified versions without the boost function). Anyone interested in checking out the other 2, just check them out at http://www.prophecysound.com.

With the standard Black Sheep Fuzz, there are 3 stomp switches for the bypass, boost/fuzz and the tone select. And 4 knobs for Volume, tone, sustain and bass. All the usual features found on any other fuzz/distortion/overdrive pedal.

The boost function created a clean boost, which added presence and that slight bit of mids to the tone, that made it sound more upfront but not too overbearing. It can get pretty loud if you want it too. I had it at a moderate level where the boost signal level matches the fuzz when it’s engaged. Besides boosting, if required, it can be used to push a tube amp harder.

For the fuzz, there are 2 distinctive sounding fuzz tones that can be produced from toggling the tone select footswitch.

1st setting, the fuzz is fat, creamy and sweet sounding, having a healthy dose of mids. The range of the fuzz can get from really muddy to really dry fuzzy buzzy sounding, just by adjusting the tone knob. For best results, I like to use it with the neck or neck+bridge pickup on my guitar. The fatness of the tone is really sweet, especially when doing solo runs. Eric Johnson or Santana anyone? As for chords, due to the setting of the sustain (fuzz level) knob (the 4 o’clock position being the one I like) it’s not exactly too clear sounding. But it sure sounds huge and fat. Smashing Pumpkins, anyone?

2nd setting. In this mode, all the mids presence in the 1st mode is all sucked out in its place, it becomes a bassy, fuzzy buzzy tiny fuzz tone. You want a swarm of bees in your amp? Bet you need one of this to play with. The disappearance of the mids makes the fuzz in this mode sound metallic and thin. It’s like distortion through a transistor radio… So it sounds bad? Not exactly. Find the right use for it, and it might sound special. Other than that, I bet lots of people won’t like the tone. Who knows, it might actually make you think that the boss Metal Zone has a better tone with the gain knob cranked up…

For the sake of comparison, I have never tried the original Bee Baa before to know the differences or similarities between the two…. The closest that I can compare the Black Sheep Fuzz with is the original Roland Bee Gee fuzz. At certain settings, both pedals do sound similar. The main difference is that the Black Sheep Fuzz has more gain than the Bee Gee and the Bee Gee sounds more muted with the tone knob all the way down.

Back to the Black Sheep Fuzz, although it cleans up when the volume knob on the guitar is turned down, I find it not as clean as some other pedals. It can still get pretty fuzzy but at least it sounds clearer when playing chords through it. It’s not spectacular, but it ain’t too bad either.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:
1) It’s a fuzz, it does what it promises

2) Wide range of fuzz tone just by adjusting the tone knob

3) Sounds huge and fat when you want it to

4) Warm fat creamy tone when used with neck pickup

5) Long sustain, and I do mean LONG...

Cons:
1) It doesn’t clean up too well, traces of fuzz still pretty obvious

2) It can get noisy at high settings and when turning down the volume or tone knob on the guitar, there’s a weird overtone in the background hiss.

All in all, the black sheep fuzz does what it promises and the features of the tone select option, plus the boost function, add more variety than the usual fuzz. Since it’s a pretty slim chance of getting an original Bee Baa nowadays, I guess the Black Sheep Fuzz is the next best one to be gotten. If you are into making your own pedals, there are schematics of the original bee baa around the internet that might help you get started on your own project building one.

In the mean time, have fun with your pedals ;-)