Brazilian Buzz

It’s designed for Brazilian tropicália music, but this fuzzbox from Beetronics could create a buzz in any musical genre

Beetronics’ latest offering is described as a ‘Tropical Fuzz’, tropical in this instance relating to tropicália – a type of music from Brazil that merges Brazilian and African rhythms with British and American psychedelic rock and pop, and features lots of fuzz guitar. Beetronics says that the Abelha, which incidentally is the Portuguese word for bee, reimagines the classic vibe of the music but infuses it with a forward-thinking twist. A large pedal, it’s a proper work of art with an intricately engraved top surface and a large red jewelled bypass LED, as well as a ring of six smaller multicoloured LEDs that light up in different colour combinations to signify various operating states. Let’s hope it sounds as good as it looks…

A toggle switch calls up three flavours of fuzz – Polen (Portuguese for pollen), Nectar and Honey – with the sound being dialled in with knobs to turn up the output volume and the fuzz, plus high and low EQ knobs that are very effective in getting the fuzz flavour just right to suit your rig. Polen is gated, sputtery fuzz; quirky but not unplayable. Nectar is classic creamy fuzz with a nice fat midrange, while Honey has a more scooped tonality and top-end clarity. Both could pass for overdrive with the Buzz knob at lower levels, but turned up to the max you get full-on fuzzy goodness that you can roll back with guitar volume.

Further variation is available via Tropical mode, which is a high-pass filter that cuts out a whole load of lower frequencies leaving you with something really quite gnarly. You can keep it as your main fuzz tone if you want buzzy, bright and edgy, but you may just like it dropped in for a passage or a single note. A hold on the footswitch will momentarily switch between the two modes.

The footswitch, in fact, has several actions to facilitate all sorts of operation: a single tap is standard latching bypass, while a double tap selects between Normal and Tropical modes when the effect is engaged. If the effect is disengaged, a hold on the switch will momentarily turn it on, whichever mode it is switched to.

Verdict

We can confirm that the Abhela does indeed sound as good as it looks! Beetronics’ new pedal is an excellent fuzz for your ’board with wide-ranging tonal variation and performance tricks that set it apart from the crowd.

1. The footswitch actually has four operations, each with a different outcome: single tap (bypass), double tap when engaged (mode switching), hold when engaged (momentary mode switching), and hold when disengaged (momentary activation of the effect) 2. This ring of six multicoloured LEDs lights up in four different combinations to let you know when you’re in Normal or Tropical mode, both when the effect is on and off 3. The Flavor toggle switch lets you select one of three different sounds, Polen, Nectar or Honey, described respectively in the manual as “sagged low-gain buzz”, “round high-gain fuzz” and “sweet high-gain drive” 3