Electro-Harmonix Bender Royale

The Electro-Harmonix Bender Royale is an analog germanium fuzz pedal released in 2025, built as what EHX calls a "feature-rich homage to the Tone Bender MkIII," the vintage three-transistor germanium fuzz circuit¹. Where the original MkIII came with three knobs, the Bender Royale keeps that core sound and adds a dry blend, treble and bias controls, a Fat switch, and a Clip switch that changes the clipping character of the final germanium transistor stage¹².

Electro-Harmonix says the pedal "opens up a world of fuzz tones from thick and smooth, to brash and sputtery"¹, and Pedal of the Day's reviewer found it covers ground from "trashy, ripping fuzz" to "big, fat saturated tones"². Delicious Audio notes it marks the company's first serious venture into Tone Bender territory, beyond the Big Muff topology of earlier EHX fuzz circuits³.

Where the circuit comes from

The Bender Royale is a take on the MkIII version of the vintage germanium-based three-transistor fuzz circuit, the Tone Bender MkIII¹. The germanium version of that pedal, as documented by Fuzzboxes.org, "came with adjustable controls for the volume, amount of fuzz, and tone of the effect"⁷. The Bender Royale builds on those original three controls, Volume, Fuzz, and a passive Bass, and extends the range around them⁸.

Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson noted the MkIII circuit has been widely interpreted by other builders, listing takes from Basic Audio, Blammo, Earthquaker, Function F(x), JHS Pedals, Keeley, Menatone, MXR, PigDog, ProAnalog Devices, Red Noise, Tampco, ThorpyFX, and Tru-Fi⁹. The Bender Royale is EHX's entry in that lineage, and a departure from the Big Muff circuits the company is best known for³.

The controls

The control set splits between the original three knobs and the modern additions⁸.

There is also an internal impedance trimmer, which Guitar World lists among the controls and describes as adjustable series impedance into the fuzz circuit⁶.

The Blend knob is the biggest functional difference from a vintage MkIII. Because it mixes dry signal with fuzz, you can keep note definition under heavy gain rather than committing to a fully saturated output. The Fat and Clip switches together give four combinations of voicing and clipping character, which Guitar World's reviewer called "two distinct but equally useful voices via the Fat switch" plus the Ge and LED clip options⁶.

Power, switching and connections

The Bender Royale draws 12mA at 9.0VDC and ships with a 9.6VDC-200mA power adapter¹. It can also run from a battery or from 9V DC on a pedalboard power supply⁵. Input impedance is 1.1MΩ and output impedance is 660Ω, on a standard input and output jack set¹⁶.

The pedal uses true bypass with a mechanical relay, engaged by a soft footswitch¹. The footswitch works two ways: a quick tap engages or bypasses the effect in standard latching mode, and holding it for more than half a second gives momentary action, switching back when you release¹¹⁰. The momentary action can be disabled¹.

Versions: Black and limited Orange

The Bender Royale comes in two color variants: a standard Black edition and a Limited Orange edition¹⁹. Gearnews reported the orange version as a limited run available from select dealers¹⁰. Both versions carry the same circuit and control set.

What reviewers said

Published reviews were positive across the board.

• MusicRadar's Jonathan Horsley wrote that it "takes the splendidly saturated sound of the original and opens up a world of fuzz tones," and noted the choice between germanium and LED clipping lets players go "from that smooth vintage warmth to something more gnarly and aggressive"⁵.
• Pedal of the Day concluded: "Vintage tone, modern additions and all the fuzz you can handle…this one's a keeper!"²
• Premier Guitar's reviewer found it approachable, writing that "you needn't be a senior researcher at M.I.T. or the Berkeley physics department to understand that the Bender Royale is" a fuzz-tone gold mine with broad possibilities and intuitive controls¹¹.
• Guitar World's Trevor Curwen found the Fat switch "transforms the leaner basic sound to something thicker and closer to the sound of our vintage Mk II Professional," and that the LED clip option gives "a rougher edge to the sound than that of the smoother Ge setting"⁶.
• Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio wrote that it "stays true to its roots while also making improvements that are important to today's musicians," calling it a significant step in fuzz pedal evolution from EHX's earlier offerings³.

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