Benson Amps Germanium Boost

When designing the temperature-controlled fuzz, Benson tried some weird approaches. One of the things they tried was utilizing a voltage controlled error correcting circuit to bias a single germanium transistor. It ultimately didn’t work for the fuzz, since that circuit is comically sensitive to transistor gain attributes. They did find a place for it though.

More video demos:

Andy Demos - https://youtu.be/Ns5Tau5QaRo
Jay Leonard Jay - https://youtu.be/PzeiUmNjXW0
R.J. Ronquillo - https://youtu.be/d23VIEHpFWA
Collector//Emitter - https://youtu.be/2C99icbzvYs
Mark Johnston - https://youtu.be/lzi5eLPzw74
MAS Distro - https://youtu.be/zG6X7SfdAG0
Edge If Break Up - https://youtu.be/8SDJNPXtVPw

It turns out it was PERFECT for achieving a germanium clean boost that, (like the fuzz) is impervious to component drift, leakage, and temperature....moreso in fact. Benson also fixed a couple other issues preventing the germanium transistor from being used as a convincing linear boost...they increased the input headroom (even a normal guitar signal will drive a germanium transistor into unwanted input distortion without some tweaks) and increased the input impedance (a BJT transistor would normally thin out bass frequencies and interact negatively with whatever flows into it). The result is a germanium clean boost where you can utilize a germanium transistor WITHOUT the weird artifacts that were previously accepted as part of the deal...temperature sensitivity, drift, and suboptimal input impedance and headroom.

It takes about 10 seconds when the boost is first powered up for the error correction circuit to bias the germanium transistor. After that it gets interesting....you can hear how it makes guitar signals sound more musical...even when set at the same volume as the bypassed tone. It seems to bring out the attack of the guitar while simultaneously smoothing out notes, like a compressor but different. It’s hard to describe. It appears to cut the bad parts of a signal and enhance the good. It’s killer on bass. It helps acoustic guitar pickups sound more natural. And of course it’ll push your amp into a frenzy.

POWER SUPPLY
This pedal is for use only with a 9vdc Boss syle center negative power supply. There is space for a battery which is activated when a cable is plugged into the input, and there is no power supply plugged into the DC jack. Please do not subject this pedal to more than 9vdc or the pedal or power supply could be destroyed.

WARRANTY INFORMATION:
2 years excluding modification or damage.