The Keeley Fuzz Bender gives you five knobs, three transistors, and active EQ, and asks you to explore, whereas many fuzzes give you one voice and ask you to live with it.
At the heart of it is a hybrid circuit. It has vintage Japanese germanium for the smooth, vintage style saturation, combined with high-gain silicon for the aggressive, crunchy side.
The Bias control moves between those two characters — and into territory beyond both — by adjusting the attack and decay of every note. A smooth, compressed character at one extreme, glitchy gated fuzz at the other, and a huge amount of useable ground in between.
What sets the Fuzz Bender apart is the active EQ section.
Two gyrators (circuit elements designed to simulate a mixing console EQ) give you over 20dB of boost or cut at 100Hz and 10kHz. That’s more than a tone control.
That’s the ability to fundamentally reshape the frequency content – add or cut bass to brighten the top end or pulling it back. It means the Fuzz Bender fits into a band mix in a way that fixed-EQ fuzz circuits simply can’t.
Controls
- Level: Master output volume. Large enough to adjust with your foot on the fly.
- Bass: Active gyrator EQ at 100Hz. Over 20dB of boost or cut — add weight or tighten up the low end.
- Bias: Adjusts the bias point of the germanium transistor. At lower settings the fuzz has a compressed, sustained character. As you turn it up the attack becomes more defined and angular. At higher settings you move into glitchy, gated fuzz territory where notes cut off abruptly.
- Fuzz: Controls the gain of the fuzz circuit from light overdrive to full saturation. Also large enough for foot control.
- Treble: Active gyrator EQ at 10kHz. Over 20dB of boost or cut — add presence and air or pull back the top end.
Key Features
- Hybrid silicon and germanium fuzz circuit — three transistors
- Vintage Japanese germanium transistor for smooth saturation
- High-gain silicon for aggressive, crunchy fuzz
- Active gyrator Bass EQ — over 20dB boost/cut at 100Hz
- Active gyrator Treble EQ — over 20dB boost/cut at 10kHz
- Bias control — compressed saturation to glitchy gated fuzz
- Large Level and Fuzz knobs — foot-adjustable on the fly
- Works on guitar and bass
- True bypass
- 9V DC centre-negative, 20mA — no battery
- Top-mounted jacks
- Made in the USA
Watch the Keeley Fuzz Bender In Action
FAQs
The active gyrator EQ section. Most hybrid fuzzes use a tone control that rolls off frequencies in a limited range. The Fuzz Bender uses two gyrators giving over 20dB of boost or cut at 100Hz and 10kHz independently. This means you can genuinely reshape the fuzz to fit any guitar, amp, or band context rather than accepting a fixed voicing.
It adjusts the bias point of the germanium transistor. This changes the attack and decay character of the fuzz. It is smooth at low setting and you get more attack and a sharper and more defined sound at higher settings.
Yes. The EQ makes it very flexible.
No
Yes
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