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BJFE Guitar Effects is a company which manufactures effects pedal for use with instruments such as an electric guitar. These pedals are commonly used by guitarists to modify the sound of their guitar before it passes through the amplifiers speaker system. The company is located in Sweden, and was founded in the year 2000 by Bjorn Juhl. "BJFE" stands for Bjorn Juhl Forstarker Elektronik (which is Swedish for Bjorn Juhl Amplifier Electronics). Pedal types include distortion, overdrive, "vibe" (vibrato), compression, and equalization (EQ). Due to the limited production and handbuilt nature, these pedals are considered "boutique" guitar effects.
BJFE pedals are all handmade by BJ and his wife Eva Juhl paints the lettering and pictures. BJFE pedals typically follow a "color" naming scheme, and an adjaective to describe the sound. See below for examples. Customshop models are usually painted by Donner Rusk (aka "Donnerbox") in the USA.
BJFE drive pedals designs also tend to lend themselves well to "stacking", or cascading several pedals in successive order. Bjorn has written a guide on this here.[1] Also, the drive pedals typically are very dynamic in nature- showing different EQ or distortion depth as the input guitar level changes. For example, the Honeybee overdrive may sound nearly clean with guitar volume at the lower range of its sweep, but gritty and overdriven with the guitar volume at its maximum setting.
Bjorn Juhl began creating models for production sale upon founding the company in the year 2000. However, he began building effects units for guitar as early as 1981. In the year 2000 Bjorn was displaying his repair skills at a guitar trade show, and made three pedals to demonstrate his skills. Here he teamed up with Harri Koski from Custom Sounds in Stockhold, to begin a partnership distributing guitar effects which Bjorn designed to a worldwide customer base.[2]
BJF Electronics initially started in June 1999 as an amp repair business. Bjorn repaired all kinds of things from a Tubon (a kind of early synthesiser used as an electric bass by pop bands who couldn't afford a Fender Bass or a Hagstrom Bass), to a Music Man amp that had been used to test how to take the live and neutral currents out of a three phase connection. Bjorn handled the extreme and difficult cases that other repairmen wouldn't touch because they thought they'd take too much time or were considered hopeless repair opportunities.[3]
BJFE pedals are enclosed in a 110x60x30mm chassis, in an ELFA K-430 enclosure for most pedals.. The circuit boards are wrapped in neoprene, which is a kind of rubber used in diving suits and capable of withstanding heat, water, and other fluids as well as to provide cushion for the electronic components inside. The circuit board is also sealed to provide protection, and to preserve trade secrets.
The first BJFE pedals were painted in nitrocellulose—beginning in 2002 the pedals are handpainted in oil. Oil is much more durable, and ages well.[3] Bjorn Juhl states that the colors are chosen to provide a pleasant palette. Each model comes with some unique artwork inside the back pedal cover, which is painted by hand.
Current models listed here, along with a description. A more full description of all the BJFE pedals complete with their history can be found on the independently maintained BJFE Pedal Descriptions[4] thread on the BJFE Forum
BJFE overdrive pedals overdrive pedals in particular can add a pronounced "touch sensitivity" to the distortion in most cases- picking lightly or slight movements in your guitars volume knob position can clean the sound up.
Bjorn was asked by his BJFE pedal distributor, Harri Koski, to consider designing amplifiers. Bjorn was fairly busy building and designing pedals for the BJFE line, and did not have the time to also build amplifiers. It was suggested a new company be created where Bjorn could design the effects and amplifiers, but they would be constructed and distributed under the name Mad Professor Amplification. These are pedals and amplifiers designed by Bjorn but not hand built by him.