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Reuss Copenhagen Bender

Stylish and beautiful sounding tonebender mark 1.5 based germanium fuzz-box

Sounding somewhere in-between the mellow softness of a good germanium Fuzz Face and the big, strong bite of a vintage Tonebender mark II, this is the Copenhagen Bender.

The pedal is based on the much sought-after vintage sixties two-transistor tonebender mark 1.5.

I am building the Copenhagen Benders with a pair of carefully selected and matched US made KRC brand vintage new old stock OC140 germanium transistors, which are the NPN equivalents to the PNP OC75/OC81 used in vintage original pedals.

The sound is 100% vintage authentic, and the NPN properties of the transistors makes it possible to power the circuit with modern, negative ground polarity, without the need for additional charge pump circuitry. This is a big advantage over vintage original pedals, which can be tricky to integrate in a modern pedalboard because of their reverse power polarity (positive ground). And there is no need for an isolated power supply for the Copenhagen Bender!

The new, revised version coming in January 2022 adds a few modern improvements to the output section of the vintage circuit. First, we have added a recovery gain stage to make the pedal LOUD, and second, we added an output buffer to ensure a consistent, high-quality output signal from the pedal. In the original vintage pedal, the level control was wired directly to the output jack, making the output impedance change with the level setting. Not good, really, so we fixed that. This addition to the vintage circuit in no way changes or degrades the sound and response of the fuzz effect, it just takes care that you are passing on a healthy signal to the next pedal in your signal chain.

The pedal is mechanical true bypass, so the output buffer is only on, when the effect is on.

The Copenhagen Bender also features a highly advanced power supply noise filtering circuit at the DC jack. The thing is, the vintage Tonebender mk 1.5 was only intended to be used with a battery, and the circuit is extremely sensitive to noises from modern 'switch mode' power suppliers, which can induce a high pitched whining noise to the sound. So we fixed that too, which is complicated, and this means you can use the Copenhagen Bender with almost any cheap, crappy power supply.

There is 50 pedals in the January 2022 batch, which might be the last due to the difficulties of sourcing the vintage NOS NPN germanium transistors.

Demo by Rasmus Skov

Comparison between the Copenhagen Bender and the Purple Faze (the circuits are very similar)

Here's the Copenhagen Bender in a demo by Budda Guedes, comparing it to the Reuss Germanium Bender and Purple Faze pedals (all three are the early, first versions)

Copenhagen Bender features and specifications

• Vintage 1960s tonebender mark 1.5 schematic built with ultra-rare vintage new old stock 1960s OC140 germanium transistors. Each set of two transistors are carefully matched personally by Anders Marcuslund-Reuss
• The transistors are ‘NPN’ which makes the pedal run on modern, pedalboard friendly ‘negative ground’ power polarity (contrary to vintage original pedals, and most modern PNP recreations, which features positive ground / reverse polarity). No need for an isolated power supply.
• Recovery gain stage and output buffer added to the vintage circuit’s original output. This makes the pedal much louder than a vintage pedal and it ensures a uniform, strong and healthy output signal to pass on in your chain, with no loss of tone and no unwanted interferences.
• Advanced power supply noise filtering circuit at the DC jack. This makes the pedal very tolerant with modern, switch mode power supplies, which are otherwise known to induce noise in vintage circuits, originally designed to run on batteries exclusively.
• Extremely high build quality. Completely handmade in the European Union
• Vintage-style ’through hole’ construction (SMD parts in the power supply noise filtering mini-circuit board)
• Compact aluminium enclosure with a textured white and gold powder coat finish and real silk screen printed graphics
• High quality Neutrik jacks
• Upgrade quality footswitches (good for at least 30000 stomps)
• Runs on a standard ’Boss-style’ 9V DC ‘negative centre’ guitar pedal power supply or a 9V battery
• Worldwide shipping from Denmark. Orders posted before 2:00 PM Central European Time on weekdays ships same day

Download the Copenhagen Bender manual here

Please note: Being a vintage circuit, the fuzz wants to see a high impedance input signal to sound correct. Any low impedance signal from a buffered bypass pedal (like a Boss or Ibanez or similar type) will make the fuzz sound wrong. It will loose punch and fullness and sound thin and fizzy. Not as intended. Always put a vintage fuzz-circuit (tone benders, fuzzfaces etc.) first in your chain.

ALSO PLEASE NOTE: Prices at the webshop are listed without VAT. For customers in the European Union VAT is added at check-out.