“Takes the splendidly saturated sound of the original and opens up a world of fuzz tones”: Electro-Harmonix adds switchable clipping, bias and Fat switch to a bona-fide classic of fuzz with the Bender Royale

Electro-Harmonix Bender Royale: the new Tone Bender-inspired fuzz arrives in a black enclosure with orange graphic and has six knobs for precise control over your tone.

Electro-Harmonix has served up a hot take on a stone-cold classic with the Bender Royale presenting us with a souped-up modernised version of a vintage Tone Bender fuzz pedal.

This is a second (or third?) generation Tone Bender-style fuzz with heaps of features on a compact enclosure. For a start, there are Treble and Bass knobs for fine-tuning the EQ, always helpful with a fuzz, especially when there is so much range on that passive Bass control. The Treble control is an active shelving filter that can take out some of that top-end sizzle to taste.