Our Benson Amps Monarch has been a staple of our studio for years now, and one of our favorite amplifiers we’ve ever played. The Benson crew occasionally dives into the effects pedal pool as well, and we’ve got their latest for you today. The Germanium Fuzz is, well, a germanium fuzz, but one like no other you’ve seen. This pedal is set up in the ubiquitous 60’s circular fuzz topology, tuned for good sound, and includes some additional oddities aimed at solving the issues that prevent more widespread use of Germanium devices…let’s see what’s what.
The Germanium Fuzz is designed around two germanium 2N527 OR 2N404 germanium transistors. The bias of the transistors is automatically regulated by a circuit that GENTLY warms the transistors to a preset operating point using analog components, and ensures a consistent sound, no matter the external temperature. When the LED is orange, the transistors are warming up to increase their hFE (transistor gain) and to shift the bias point to the correct voltage. When the LED turns green, the warmer is off because the correct bias and hFE have been set. The LED actually toggles back and forth every so often while the pedal is on…that is how you know its working. The heaters will warm the transistors enough to still be effective on a sunny stage, but far cooler than anything that would harm the transistors.
A Class A buffer has been installed in the very input of the Germanium Fuzz. This buffer feeds a Jack Orman-style passive pickup simulator circuit (an audio transformer set up as an inductor, a resistor, and a capacitor). These two additions make compatibility with other pedals possible without losing the desired sound. After the pickup simulator circuit, an Impedance control simulates rolling down the guitar volume to get that tight sparkly sound…without adjusting your guitar volume…which you can still do, and it still sounds great.
The circuit has been tuned to be used as a rich sounding clean boost, an overdrive, all the way up to an aggressive fuzz with some octave overtones. There are many colors of tone available with the Impedance and Gain controls, as they are very interactive. The fuzz tone is not spitty or harsh, and more often sounds like an overdrive or distortion until the gain is turned all the way up, and the impedance is turned down. We love this Germanium Fuzz, and all the effort that has gone into its creation. Chris and the Benson Amps crew have done it once again, creating a gorgeous fuzz pedal, one that pairs perfectly with their incredible Preamp pedal as well. Visit their website, check out our demo below and have yourself a great week!
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