NPD Behringer Fuzz Bender
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I finally got to try out my Fuzz Bender briefly and somewhat tipsily yesterday, with an ES-335 into a clean tweed Princeton clone, which has a 12" Jensen, until I was told to stop on pain of divorce.
Intial reactions are that the Orig mode is a decent vintage-voiced fuzz circuit, which cleans up OK, and isn't too bassy with humbuckers, at least with this amp. I can't say that it sounds very different to a germanium Fuzz Face I once had, perhaps it's less woolly, and cleans up less abruptly with the guitar volume control.
The Mod circuit sounded awful with Attack up full, and was really only useable with it dialled back quite a lot, which put it in overdrive with slight cocked wah territory. It's nice to have another sound, but I doubt I'll use it for live stuff.
I really need to try the FB with my gigging amps - Marshall Bluesbreaker and Vox AC15C1 - before deciding if it's going to be useable. It will also need to play nicely with P90s.
So far so good however, and I'm really impressed with the build quality, and even the quality of the packaging. I've never had a Behringer product before, but this seems to be on an vastly higher level than the plasticky boxes I've seen on other players' boards. There's a fait few through-hole components on the PCB, which surprised me too.
Don’t knock the plastic Behringers - they’re much tougher than they look, and don’t break as often as many metal-cased pedals. Their weak point isn’t the casing anyway, it’s the jacks - and this new one doesn’t use the same fragile type. I wouldn’t have any concerns about the build quality at all.ElectricXII said:So far so good however, and I'm really impressed with the build quality, and even the quality of the packaging. I've never had a Behringer product before, but this seems to be on a vastly higher level than the plasticky boxes I've seen on other players' boards. There's a fait few through-hole components on the PCB, which surprised me too.
ICBM said:Don’t knock the plastic Behringers - they’re much tougher than they look, and don’t break as often as many metal-cased pedals. Their weak point isn’t the casing anyway, it’s the jacks - and this new one doesn’t use the same fragile type. I wouldn’t have any concerns about the build quality at all.
Indeed. For some reason, people keep bashing their plastic enclosures, but I've never seen someone break its ABS plastic.
I'd add pots and knobs to the list of (sometimes) their weak points.
I’ve seen a smashed Rocktek - I think, or maybe RAK, I can’t quite remember - and also a Boss! A friend had a DF-2 which he landed on after doing a stage jump (he’s a big lad) and broke the rocker and the panel under the knobs - but never a Behringer.
I haven’t seen any with broken pots or knobs, although I don’t doubt it could happen. People just see ‘plastic’ and think it’s weaker than ‘metal’ - it isn’t, not least because some metal alloys, including the ones often used for die-casting, aren’t very strong at all.
I haven’t seen any with broken pots or knobs, although I don’t doubt it could happen. People just see ‘plastic’ and think it’s weaker than ‘metal’ - it isn’t, not least because some metal alloys, including the ones often used for die-casting, aren’t very strong at all.