Polarbear Effects Ascender

The Polarbear Effects Ascender is a fuzz/bitcrusher/delay multi-effect guitar pedal from the Croatian company Polarbear Effects, released in 2022 as the delay twin of the company's Drowner, which pairs the same kind of fuzz and bitcrusher with reverb instead of delay¹. It stacks three effects in one multi-effects box: a heavy silicon fuzz first in the chain, then a bitcrusher and a delay whose order you can swap¹.

How the three sections fit together

The fuzz is always the first effect in the chain and can be engaged independently with the right footswitch; the left footswitch engages the bitcrusher and delay together¹. The VOLUME knob does not affect the fuzz directly: it controls the output volume of the bitcrusher and delay at the end of the chain¹.

Two switches shape how the sections interact:

• ORDER switch: changes the order of the bitcrusher and delay in the effects chain¹
• CRUSH toggle switch: bypasses the bitcrusher entirely¹

The bitcrusher and delay can also be set to trigger each other in two ways. Paolo De Gregorio, writing on Delicious Audio, describes the two settings: "FDR setting enables you to have the bitcrusher very reactive to pick attack that further goes into delay." The FDC setting works the other way round, letting the delay's repeats activate the bitcrusher¹.

FX loop

A single FX loop output lets you put any additional effects between the fuzz and the bitcrusher/delay section. It requires a TRS Y-cable, a stereo male to dual mono TS cable, with the ring (R) as the send and the tip (T) as the return¹.

Power and size

The Ascender uses 9V DC negative center with a 2.1mm barrel connector, and current draw is about 110mA¹. It is built in a 1590BB enclosure measuring 11.7 x 9.2 x 5.7 cm, or 4.6 x 3.62 x 2.24 inches¹.

Videos

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