(February 2, 2021) — In the early days of the pandemic, Chris set up a remote workspace in an eighties RV and got to work designing a pedal based on a concept he had kicked around for over ten years … a germanium fuzz pedal that could regulate its own temperature to always sound consistent. After trying out a few different things he hit on a design that draws hardly any power, and was temperature stable from freezing all the way to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and most importantly sounded fantastic! This (patent applied for) idea has many applications with germanium transistors, and the Germanium Fuzz is just the first in line.

The Germanium Fuzz also seeks to fix the other issues that plague guitarists who come seeking the rich sound and character that germanium devices can impart:

• Input impedance has been solved: a class a buffer that is followed by a pickup simulator coil network has been built into the front end…so the circuit always “thinks” it’s being driven directly from a guitar, but can be put in line with any number of buffers or effects with no issues.
• The Germanium Fuzz doesn’t care what power you feed it…it can be run off of normal 9VDC center positive power and can be daisy chained, which is in contrast to many PNP germanium based devices.

Since the correct germanium transistors are difficult to source, the Germanium Fuzz will only be built when there are parts available. They are available at www.bensonamps.com and dealers worldwide until supplies run out.

For more visit: Benson Amps