For a minute, we thought that L.A. via Brazil Beetronics had unprecedentedly given one of their pedals a name not related to the world of bees. How wrong were we: Abelha means “bee” in Portuguese, which, for the unaware, is also the language spoken in Brazil, the country where artists like Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil founded the late-’60s music, art and political protest movement known as Tropicália – something this pedal celebrates.
Shining in delivering sputtering vintage tones, the gorgeous-looking Beetronics Abelha is, in truth, a rather flexible fuzz thanks to its 3-way voicing switch delivering the following:
- Polen: the spitting and sputtering fuzz delivered by a starved germanium fuzz circuit.
- Nectar: offering a fuller tone with longer sustain and a rich and pleasing sound.
- Honey: a more versatile and controllable mode that can deliver a variety of classic fuzz tones.
Four knobs allow you to tailor the selected mode to your needs:
- Buzz = amount of fuzz
- Loud = volume
- Hi = tweaks the high frequencies
- Low = tweaks the low frequencies
On top of that, there’s a Tropical mode accessible by double tapping or holding the footswitch, that applies a highpass filter recreating a tone extremely popular among the musical artists of the Tropicália movement. Internal settings allow for three settings for the Tropical mode’s momentary functionality.
For those wondering about its size, the Abelha is not a small pedal, being 7″ long and between 2.5″ and 3.25″ wide.
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