Benson Germanium Boost featured by Delicious Audio

April 29, 2025 · 3 sources

Delicious Audio published an article on the Benson Amps Germanium Boost on April 29, 2025, describing the pedal's origin in the company's temperature-controlled fuzz design work¹. The article credits Chris at Benson Amps with stumbling upon the circuit while working on a Face Fuzz clone¹.

According to Benson Amps, the Germanium Boost is a germanium clean boost built around a voltage-controlled error correction circuit that biases a single germanium transistor². The maker says the pedal, like its fuzzes, is impervious to component drift, leakage and temperature, and that it increased input headroom and input impedance to keep a germanium transistor from distorting at the input or thinning bass frequencies². Benson states that after first power-up it takes about ten seconds for the error correction circuit to correctly bias the transistor². MusicRadar reported in 2021 that the pedal has a low-profile enclosure and one single over-sized dial, and can run on 9V DC power or a battery³. Benson specifies a 9VDC Boss-style center-negative supply and warns against subjecting the pedal to more than 9VDC². The warranty is two years, excluding modification or damage².

The US list price is $199.00². MusicRadar reported the pedal available from Benson Amps at that price in October 2021³.

Benson also claims the pedal suits bass and acoustic guitar pickups and will push an amp into overdrive². Delicious Audio describes the result as a germanium clean boost free from the artifacts previously associated with this kind of device, including temperature sensitivity, drift, and suboptimal input impedance and headroom¹.