“Germanium fuzz explosion!” Meet Electro-Harmonix’s latest fuzz pedal, the Bender Royale

Maker of the iconic Big Muff, Electro-Harmonix knows a thing or two about fuzz pedals. And the New York-based company is putting that expertise to good use again with its new stompbox, the Bender Royale.

Housed in EHX’s Nano-sized chassis, where the three-transistor Bender Royale sits on the fuzz spectrum is between the original vintage flavour of a two-transistor fuzz, and the more “over-the-top wall of sonic mayhem” that is the four-transistor Big Muff.

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EHX’s fresh take on the Germanium MkIII version of the circuit, the Bender Royale builds on a standard control set of Volume, Fuzz and Bass, with the addition of a Fat switch which adds bass and low-mids for “tonal thickness”.

Guitarists can use the Bias knob to dial in the “sweet spot for the perfect amount of rip or leave the circuit starving for voltage”. There’s also a Clip switch which can be used to re-bias the final germanium transistor for a rougher fuzz tone.

And finally, the unit’s Treble control is an active treble shelving filter for harnessing high frequencies, while its Blend knob is available to mix wet and dry signals – great for zeroing in on the perfect level of clarity, especially when stacking other drive pedals.

Elsewhere, the Bender Royale features a mechanical relay true-bypass switch, with latching/momentary functionality.

The Bender Royale is available now for $149, and comes with a standard EHX nine-volt power supply.

For more information, head to Electro-Harmonix.