Review : Benson Germanium Fuzz

Hello readers! If you are like me and never miss an episode of That Pedal Show, you are aware of how much Mick and Dan love fuzz. They even sell a T-shirt in their store that reads “All You Need Is Fuzz”. Fair enough, but fuzz and I have never been good pals because in general fuzz pedals leave me cold or with a headache. I have found and liked the Wampler Velvet Fuzz and the Effectrode Mercury Fuzz and was very interested when I heard about the Germanium Fuzz from Benson.

Overview

Fuzzes come in two primary architectures, either built on the very stable and consistent silicon transistors, or the more unstable but occasionally more pleasing germanium transistors. The Benson fuzz uses a proprietary thermal control system to maintain the temperature of the germanium transistors to deliver consistency in sound. It also offers an impedance knob to provide the ability to not be required to place the fuzz first out of the guitar and never after a buffer. This can be a challenge as many pedals including tuners are buffered by default and other pedals like treble boosters also want to be first. Since there can be only one first, this impedance control is very freeing to the musician.

The thermal control means that the fuzz takes a few minutes to get up to temperature and the tone will change as it does. If the LED is orange it means that the warmer is running and the unit is not yet up to temperature. When the LED turns green it means that the unit is at optimum temperature. The enclosure is available in either black or white. If you play outdoors in direct sunlight, get the white version as Benson has measured a twenty degree internal temperature difference between the black units and the white units. Overheating means bad sound. While I do not play outdoors, I bought the white version because for me, it’s simply easier to read in environments where the lighting is not optimal.

The Gain and Volume knobs do what they say, and I have been very pleased to be able to get a fuzz tone that I like while maintaining unity gain for when the pedal is switched out. I do not like unexpected volume changes when punching a pedal in or out so being able to achieve unity gain is one of my success criteria for any pedal.

The impedance control lets you control the input impedance. Quite unique here.

Later on…

As I have now had the pedal for a few months, and given that it is on one board of several and that I don’t use fuzz all that much, I wanted to spend more time with the pedal to confirm that my initial impressions remained valid. I have to say that they do.

Implementation

While it does not need to be first in line, that’s a typical placed to put a fuzz since they can be so dependent on input impedance. I like it here because it allows me a quick way to tweak the response based upon the pickups hitting it. Some pickups are hotter than others and particularly when using humbuckers that can be split or coil tapped, there is an impedance change, or more correctly the sound changes enough to cause one to conclude that the impedance is different. So from my perspective, I have a very quick way to adjust the tonality without mucking with the output volume or gain unless I want to do so.

The LED is very easy to see, even under decent lighting, so you know at a glance when the device is in its optimal temperature zone. The room where it is faces southwest so it’s quite hot in the summer and because of what is basically a wind tunnel between other houses to mine, is frequently very cold in the winter. I have noticed different tones in other fuzzes that did not last related to the ambient temperature.

The fuzz leads into a Strymon Riverside (two gain stages) and then to a Strymon Sunset before moving into modulation and delay pedals terminating in a Strymon Iridium. I have an XLR switcher on the outputs of the Iridium sending the signal either to a UA Apollo or to a pair of JBL FRFR speakers. I like the Iridium for what it is. It gives me three amp simulations and three cabinet emulations for each amp. Enough choices and no option paralysis. I use it mostly configured like a Deluxe Reverb and let the pedals handle all the overdrive or fuzz requirements.

Whether for live playing or for recording the Benson Germanium Fuzz is terrific. As a recordist, I have gathered a number of fuzz plugins that came in a collection that I bought. Not being a deeply committed fuzz person, I have never found a fuzz plugin that I like, and for this use case really like the Benson Germanium Fuzz best. From a player’s perspective it is a bit less open than the tube based Effectrode Mercury, and I like it better than the only other fuzz that I have kept after buying which is a Wampler. I have tried many different versions of the round fuzz, (there are so many available - red, blue, gold etc) and I really do not care for any of them. If I were a player gigging a lot, the Benson Germanium Fuzz in the white fitout would be my choice.

Summary

I’ve said I don’t like fuzz and that is because to my ear, most fuzzes destroy tonality and harmonics as they do what they are built to do. Great for some folks, anathema to me. When I want fuzz, I want it to remain musical and that means that it doesn’t screw with the overtones, and that different guitars with different pickups produce different results. That’s what I want. If you want something similar, this is a fuzz that you definitely need to audition.