It’s no secret that Analog.man chief Mike Piera has an ear for tone. His famous King of Tone overdrive can be found on a laundry list of star guitarist pedalboards, and his company builds top-quality offerings in most categories of effect types. I have been particularly drawn to his fuzz pedals; in fact, all of the fuzz on my board bears the Analog.man brand (Astrotone, Dark Peppermint, and Sunbender). Each of the pedals excels at a different sound, but for a great all-around fuzz tone, the Sunbender really stands out.
According to Piera, the Sunbender is a modified Tone Bender MK 1.5 circuit, very similar in sound to the Marshall Supa Fuzz. As a two transistor Bender-type, the pedal straddles the line between the Fuzz Face and the Tone Bender. From the pedal, guitarists can find the cleanup of a Fuzz Face, with that brighter, tube-like breakup, or that woody, more aggressive character of a Tone Bender. It can even do a trombone-like, 8-bit, squarewave sound at extreme gain and bias settings. Many fuzzes have one or two core sounds in them, with some ability to tweak the overall tone. However, the Sunbender is far and away one of the most versatile fuzzes out there. It has many different possible characters of sound, and each one of them comes across as brilliantly as the last. It can do vintage or modern, Jimi or Jack or anywhere in between.
Honestly, the Sunbender’s tone surprises me every time I click it on. It responds to every number on the guitar’s volume knob and is one of the most musically dynamic pedals I’ve used. Some guitarists I know take pride in using only fuzz for all of their drive sounds; this pedal can do that wonderfully. It has a somewhat dark quality on the whole, but there is a nice midrange so it doesn’t get lost live. You can even get away with playing it on a clean amp, and although it is much brighter this way (like most fuzz pedals), it’s not so awfully bright that it is unusable. However, run a Sunbender through a cooking amp or a nice overdrive, and this pedal will convert even a nonbeliever in the greatness of the fuzz tone.
It’s not easy to find, as Analog.man’s builder makes these fairly sparingly, and at $265 direct from buyanalogman.com, it’s not cheap either. But it is certainly worth every penny of its price. If I had to recommend only one fuzz to anyone, this would be it.
Submitted by Joshua C, Website, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook
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