Benson Germanium Fuzz Teardown
Вставка
- Опубліковано 7 чер 2024
- In this video I disassemble the new Benson Germanium Fuzz.
The Benson Germanium fuzz is the newest pedal offering from Benson Amps, joining the ranks of modern "smiley" fuzz adaptations. The Benson sets itself apart however, with a clever temperature control circuit for those pesky germs!
Be sure to check out more videos from Gray Bench Electronics in the future.
If you'd like to see more teardowns, let me know in the comments!
- Joe, GBE
Electrosmash fuzz face article: www.electrosmash.com/fuzz-face
![Hot Fuzz? The Effect Of Temperature On Your Fuzz Pedal [+ New Benson Fuzz] - That Pedal Show](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/tR3Sg2Ad1gU/mqdefault.jpg)
![Hot Fuzz? The Effect Of Temperature On Your Fuzz Pedal [+ New Benson Fuzz] – That Pedal Show](/img/tr.png)
Doing a break down of circuits that have several variations (like a tonebender or big muff) and explaining the variations/how they affect the circuit and sound would be super cool. Love this kind of stuff!
If you're interested in specifically the tone bender, that pedal show did a video going through the different versions. Check it out!
I appreciate this so much. Germs are a wild and wonderful, and sometimes cruel mistress.
To true, but when it all comes together it's worth it 😃 Thanks for watching!
Amazing videos!! Many thanks for all of them!!
Would love to see the inside of a Kingsley Page or Harlot.
Please do the Ge boost next!
I had to look at the Benson schematic to follow you, but that's a pretty nifty idea.
Very interessting!
I was very skeptical of this pedal because of that temperature regulating circuit.
Now that you have showed me how it works, I am not skeptical anymore. I literally thougth there was some sort of "cooling elements" inside the pedal. (Well I guess there technically is, but not the kind I was visualizing)
Now this pedal is on my radar again :)
Awesome!
That was neat. Have you seen any germanium treble boost or fuzz pedals that thermoregulate via solid state devices directly (peltier)? One of my students built a cooling device like that to keep his daily drive beverage chilled (no thermostat that I recall), but have long thunk that might work for those of us gigging outside in the summer down here in the Florida Keys).
What a neat design! Sure, it may be a just be a fuzz face at heart (and not even a super-fancy point to point one loaded with 'mojo' components), but that resistive heating scheme to ensure a consist sound across the temperature range is very clever indeed.
I'm really loving these videos so far! For the next (or just a future) one I'll suggest The Blessed Mother overdrive by Heather Brown Electronicals, seeing as how it's been becoming quite popular in recent months and no one seems to have really dug into it yet despite the hype. Let's see what's beneath that virgin's skirts!
Beneath that virgins skirt? What a fucking awful thing to say.
Awesome explanation
Thank you!
@@graybenchelec I bought a behringer fuzz after the famous jhs video, as many others did as well, you inspired me to open her up, well, it's bananas in there but in a beautiful way can you please do a video explaining what in the world it is that I'm seeing it looks like the city landscape of an amazing scifi
@@DavidMorales008 I'll put it on the list!
@@graybenchelec thank you
Not a lot in there! RC4558 I recognise. I'd like to see a breakdown of the VOX Satchurator.
It should work great in temperate climates, but as you mentioned in hot climates or direct sun beating on the unit, the internal temp may rise higher than the setpoint. A more complex but probably better solution was to use a peltier junction to hold the internal temperature at a particular setpoint since it could both cool and heat but of course that would raise the cost and price of the product.
Thanks for the low-down!
Question: what does the trim-pot adjust? And how could that affect the sound signal?
I'm interested in that as well. The benson site explicitly says not to adjust the trim-pot, so obviously I wanna do it^^
Hey man. What's the name of the little plastic socket wrench you use to take off the pots and switch? Also, where do you get those? I've been wanting one for a while but don't know what they're called or where to find them. They look so handy.
Very interesting video. It’s a truly great sounding pedal and the quality of life features are very nice. One minor annoyance with mine is that I seem to get a small but noticeable volume boost whenever the heater circuit is active. Anyone else find this at all and is there any technical reason this would happen?
Appreciate you taking the time to make the vid!
I thought maybe I noticed that but thought nahh I'm hearing things it's not super noticeable but there
Rocket Sockets!! Yuss thanks for your support. Got a sub from me!
Use em' all the time. Gotta get one of those knob setting tools!
@@graybenchelec Love My Switches will have them in stock soon. Just keep an eye out on the socials!!
Does that foam piece really make a meaningful difference managing the temp esp when it's not really sealed or enclosed?
Great tear down. Would love to see some more. Does this solve the transistor from being under biased but not over biased? The impedance thing is interesting, the problem is that a Strat with 250k vol pot sounds great and humbucker guitars 500k not as great as I understand it, the impedance is off with 500k. But a lot of fuzzes like analog man have a 50k trimmer at the input for this purpose. This is the only design iv'e seen with a transformer. I wonder how it works, will it adjust input impedance based on the resistance from the guitar input? Impedance is so hard to understand but it does something important
The short answer is the circuit artificially warms the transistors so that even on hot days, the temperature stays consistent.
Here is some more info on this type of pickup simulator that may interest you: www.muzique.com/lab/pickups.htm
@@graybenchelec Thanks! that link was great. With temp thing it seems like alot of power would be needed to heat them up. I have a" no smiley" germanium fuzzface, which has a thermistor in it, it's not on any circuits diagrams iv'e seen and might be a different way to do the same thing without using alot enery as heat.
@@Ebadd9 It doesn't use that much power, about 70mA when active. The warming circuit isn't constantly on, and the temperature only needs to approximate the ambient tempurature inside a white pedal on a hot day (which is why the black versions aren't recommended for that). Also, the heater is efficient; the warming resistors are sitting right on top of the transistors with thermal paste.
I hope some does the same with the Benson germanium Boost, I still wonder how it works
I'm intrested in that too
Very interesting! I have no knowledge in electronics, but would this pedal sound different if the conditions are too cold or hot? For example would the pedal sound bad if you’re playing live where its freezing at night or direct sunlight is hitting it?
This is definitely a problem for germanium transistor-based pedals, but my guess is that boss did include some type of bias regulation to compensate for temperature. The tone bender is a simple circuit, and there were a lot of parts on that PCB!
a technical question. Do I get the same functions as the Benson Germanium Boost (green pedal) by setting the Benson germanium fuzz as a clean boost?
In the broadest sense, yes. They will both be clean boosts, just increasing amplitude without clipping the signal.
But the two pedals have different circuits, and will probably sound different, even in clean boost mode.
Hey where can a guy get their hands on those green plastic nut wrenches? those look like theyre pretty slick for loosening and tightening without scratching up faceplates.
lovemyswitches.com/rocket-sockets-pedal-building-socket-set/
Looks like a peripheral board you plug into a computer port. Where's the ethernet port?
I hate these onboard mounted sockets - in particular, if they are not mounted to the housing. I know, it is very common these days, but still it's a very bad design.
On the other side, I like the idea with regulating the temperature of the transistors via resistors...
Oh, and by the way, very good and interesting channel. I subscribed :)
Thank you! The sockets have downsides sure, but if you want to be able to readily swap transistors it's still the best option.
@@graybenchelec Sorry, I didn't mean the sockets for the transistors - I totally agree, that mounting them with sockets completely makes sense! (also to avoid heating up the germaniums during soldering).
I was talking about those 9V-connectors and jack sockets, that are pcb-mounted. You just need to accidently step on a cable or plug, and the board is fucked... This is simply a very bad design.