JHS Bender Vintage-style Fuzz Effect Pedal Reviews

I have never been a big fan of fuzz, always seemed to overwhelm the sound too much, but that was my experience with Big Muffs and such. I had never tried a Tonebender style pedal and took a shot in the dark on this, as I have had good luck with JHS pedals in the past. I have been incredibly pleased with it so far, to the extent that it has become an "always on" pedal for me. I do need to roll off the guitars volume to clean up the signal a little, but it sounds fantastic. Very much that early Zeppelin sound (think 4 Sticks or Out on the Tiles) through my Dirty Shirley Synergy Module. Get a good sound on both my Les Paul and Telecaster with very little adjustment to anything. As with all my other JHS products, the construction is solid and durable.
My signal chain is very basic for those who are interested. Crybaby Wah-Bender-Morning Glory OD-Fender Marine Reverb. Yes that is actually all I use. All to the Synergy and then a Two Notes Cab M. Sounds glorious through the PA. (or leave out the Cab M and run it through my Marshall)

This pedal cleans up super well and super clear no matter how gritty it gets. Very fun!

I've been searching for the right fuzz pedal for the past 20 years.. i must have gone thru at least 10 different pedals. the Bender, all knobs at noon, that red button disengaged - is the perfect fuzz for me. i have it going into a crunchy plexi - actually i have it going thru the send/return loop of my noise gate that goes directly into the front of the amp. and i am good for now - no more searching.. kudos to jhs

Excellent pedal. This stomp box does everything it is suppose to. When looking for a fuzz pedal I was looking at fulltone a while back and now that they have gone out of business I was not sure which one to get. I talked to my sales associate Chris Arnold about one he suggested this one. I was not disappointed at all. Thank you Chris and sweetwater. I will say again This is my go to store for all my musical needs. Chris is a great guy and always helps me. To anyone one looking for that vintage fuzz sounds I do recommend this pedal. Thanks again.

First and foremost, thanks to my sales engineer, Justin Wofford for suggesting this pedal! I told him what kind of fuzz I was in the market for, and he recommended this one and nailed it perfectly!! If you're looking for a really classic fuzz pedal, look no further- this is the quintessential golden age of fuzz. It's especially amazing if you're playing 60s and 70s rock, blues, psychedelic soul, garage rock, funk, punk, shoegaze and really anything that needs a little crunch (or a lot of crunch). There's a ton of great tone combos in here too; I've yet to get a bad sound out of it. You can hold back and you get a nice sizzle. You can turn up the tone and get some cool solo sounds. You can turn the volume and attack up and it absolutely roars! I was a tiny bit worried that I'd want something more intense, but the Bender has all the intensity I could want and hope for, and then some! It gives your guitar tone that satisfying little potato chip crunch at the beginning and end of the notes that is truly soul-feeding! It sits super well in mixes I've recorded so far, and it fits great on my board too (big, but not as big as I thought). It sounds great with my Earthquaker Westwood overdrive and my MXR Mini-Phase 95. I'm currently making a lot of psychedelic stuff and this pedal is the ingredient I've needed for a while. As far as the knobs go, yeah they could be a little easier to see, but I'm sure I can easily figure out a way to mark them when I take it out for live performance, so no complaints there at all. JHS really crushed this one! I could ramble on and on about this pedal, but I won't. It's going to stay on my board for a very long time (maybe forever?). Also, the price is so good for the quality. Okay that's all. Thank you again Justin Wofford and Sweetwater!

This is a great Fuzz Pedal. Not over the top like some others. I bought this to go with my Supro Black Magic. It brings the amp to life!!! Can't say enough about it. Give it a try.

This pedal is fantastic! I've played several fuzz pedals, but this is the first tonebender style pedal I've played. It is the tone I've been searching for out of a fuzz! The build quality is fantastic just like everything JHS makes.

JHS killed it with this whole series of fuzz reissues. The Bender is my favorite, though I love all of these. I've owned a couple of SolaSound Tone Benders, and sold them all because of the inconsistency and unreliability of vintage fuzz pedals and the old transistors. The Bender has all the good things about the original, and none of the bad. This thing will sound consistently great regardless of how hot or cold it is outside

This is a great fuzz pedal especially for those that are starting to get into fuzzes. Quite a few tonal options and cleans up really well with the guitar volume knob.

This thing rocks. Sounds good with Les Pauls and Strats. Cranking it up through a Fender Blues Deluxe and it sounds great. Get you one and crank it up... it will make your singer sound like Robert Plant and your drummer sound decent.

How did I go so long without a fuzz pedal? I don't know but it's ridiculous.

I did my homework and settled on the tone bender style fuzz out of the JHS Legend series. When I ordered the JHS Bender I was hopeful it would be a fun, good sounding pedal. What I got instead was nothing short of rock apotheosis. The tones are divine; from Muddy Water's "Electric Mud" to Pete Townsend "Live at Leeds" to Mick Ronson "Bowie at the Beeb" to Freddie King "Going Down" to Tommy Iommi. It's a ridiculously fun, awesome pedal.

Now look up the term "apotheosis" and kneel at my electric alter!

Can be rough and ragged and can be smooth with great sustain. Looking forward to more from
jhs.

Monstrous tone, this thing rips

This this is awesome !.. Finally an old school real fuzz pedal that give me the vibe/sound /groove that I've been trying to get from a pedal at lower volumes or cranked up !..

Not a big pedal guy so what would seem obvious to those that are isn't so much to me. I have two cheaper power supplies and both were extremely noisy with the Bender pedal. One was unusable and one added a high pitch whistle as I turned the volume on my guitar down. Now both these power supplies worked with my various other pedals I occasional use so at first I thought it was just your standard noisy fuzz pedals. Before I returned it I tried using a battery on a whim- excess noise gone, no whistle. Pedal sounds great and I can use my guitars volume to control it.
While I've heard the "you need a quality power supply" ramblings for years, I've never experienced it. Can't say that anymore..... Just a heads-up incase you're in the same boat as me.

It is something that is hard to communicate just what Fuzz does under your fingertips. The sound on your phone or your favorite recordings/tracks might have you as the listener going "oh, that sounds cool" but plug it in and the energy this thing gives ever note. It's changed how i approached guitar playing. The headroom in this pedal is crazy. Oh, and it sounds amazing on bass also.

Never owned a fuzz. Never happy with any distortion I've had. Watched the JHS PEDAL SHOW and saw this line of pedals. Loved the sound he was getting from it and I decided to try it. Just got it Monday and I love it already. That's the sound I want.

This is exactly what I was looking for. The sound and tone is unmatched, way to knock it out of the park with this one JHS.

I received my "Bender" today and I am totally mind blown by this pedal. This fuzz is very inspirational and plays well with different pickup settings making it very easy to sculpt tone. I am very impressed with every Jhs pedal I own, and josh is very knowledgeable about pedals and tone, as you can see on the JHS YouTube channel.

Very powerfull fuzz! Punchy mids when you hit the mode button wich is JHS's signature mod. Josh really nailed this pedal! Its a must if you like a hot/bright fuzz tone! It cleans up nicely when you turn the volume knob down on your guitar or bass!

Definitely pick her up!

I am using this pedal with a bass guitar and the sound is incredible. My only complaint is that you cannot turn the intensity of the fuzz down very much at all. So it is all fuzz all the time. I wish I could adjust the magnitude of fuzz a lot more, but it is awesome nonetheless.

Admittedly, I'm not big on fuzz, but I have always wanted to try a Tone Bender circuit and decided to dive in with this. I'm glad I did, as the JHS Bender is incredible. It's very touch sensitive and is smooth without being lost in the mix. It just feels powerful when you kick it on, that's the only way to describe it. The JHS custom mode is a nice addition as well. It's a unique mode and way more of a specific niche tone, but I'm glad it's there as it kind of gives you two fuzzes in one and is something I'm sure I'll use once in a while. It's also built very well.

My only gripe is the knob placement. I get that the knobs being on top give it a cool vintage feel, but when playing live, it's nearly impossible to see where your settings are. It also makes wiring up your pedal board a bit of a pain, as patch cables are sometimes stuck at an odd angle since they cannot rotate up with the knobs directly above the input & output. I've only knocked off half a star for this though, since the thing sounds so good, these are limitations I can easily get around. If people played with Fuzz Faces, Ocatavios, Tone Benders and Big Muffs in their original awkward housings, I can't complain much about the knobs on this, lol.

This Tone Bender clone by JHS is excellent. It is everything you would expect from a MKIII Tone Bender. You can dial in great tones, and put a boost in front of it to really take it to the next level.

The reason I am giving this pedal 4 stars out of 5 is because the JHS Mod on the side (red button) is not very good, at least in my experience. JHS says it gives more mids and more gain output, however it makes the pedal really fizzy and thin sounding to me, and fairly gated as well. Perhaps that is the style other musicians might be going for, but for me it doesnt sound very useable. When I placed my Walrus Audio Emissary Parallel Boost in front of the Bender, it really comes alive in a way the JHS Mod fails to do. It provides just the right amount of highs and mids boosted, and a nice aggresive amount of gain that fits perfectly in the mix. Ultimately, I returned the pedal because of the JHS boost on the side. I decided to go with a Keeley Fuzz Bender instead. The combination of a bias knob, treble EQ, and bass EQ knobs allows you to find that sweep and "sweet spot" that the fixed position JHS mod does not.

As I said, maybe some people will find the mod pleasing, I did not.

I'll start with the good. I love the tone and sounds the bender provides. There isn't a bad sound on any setting. JHS absolutely nailed it from that standpoint.

Now The bad, and it's very bad. This pedal is noisy, there is no way around it. I've tried everything, battery (which somehow made it worse), high quality power supplies, etc. this is the noisiest pedal I own. Tap the JHS switch for more mids??? not quite. This should be called the noise button. It adds so much noise it's not usable. I really can't understand why they released the pedal like this without working on the noise floor. I have to turn the gain very low along with the volume and it's still noisy, but tolerable. Crank the fuzz/gain or volume and it's all noise.. I'll keep the pedal because the fuzz / tones are great, just wish they would have fixed the noise. Did I mention this pedal is extremely noisy? Anyway, 3 generous stars, great fuzz sounds but issues that should be fixed. Oh and my last gripe, I can not fit a battery inside the pedal because there's zero room. JHS, please improve, I want to love your gear. It's just not quite there. And yes, I own and have owned many fuzz pedals so I know that noise can be part of the equation but this is so much more than any fuzz I've experienced.