Benson Amps Deep Sea Diver Fuzz-Echo Fuzz/Delay Effect Pedal

Always a purveyor of great, amplified ideas, Benson goes diving with the Benson Amps Deep Sea Diver Fuzz-Echo. Chris Benson of Benson Amps first came upon the idea for this pedal through a long-standing friendship and collaboration with Jessica Dobson of the indie band Deep Sea Diver.

Dobson, a longtime user of vintage fuzzes and delays, sought out to bring these key elements of her sound to a single pedal in the way only Benson Amps can. With a slick matte finish and buckets of cooler-than-cool effect tonality under the hood, the Deep Sea Diver Fuzz-Echo is a masterclass in multi-effect design and sound.

For the uninitiated, Deep Sea Diver is your classic, proverbial indie act with all the great spacey textures, narrative tension, and vintage-inspired tones you associate with the moniker. Meeting the act’s need for fuzz and delay in a unique, one-and-done package, Benson Amps makes its mark with a pedal that is both easily accessible and in a league of its own.

The Benson Deep Sea Diver Fuzz-Echo is a two-in-one effect pedal controlling two distinct effects across six dials and one footswitch. Onboard, we have a vintage-style fuzz and a vintage-style delay. Firstly, our fuzz takes its inspiration primarily from more concentrated, chokey, “Bender” fuzzes. This tighter, sharper style of fuzz hearkens back to early English fuzz units preferred for their lasting sustain and fizzy character. Three control dials harness the power of this fuzz Volume, Bias, and Gate. These three controls, highly interactive with one another, control the overall output, character, and shape of the fuzz from a wooly, gated fizz to a thickened, enveloping distortion.

From here, the Deep Sea Diver Fuzz-Echo’s second effect enters the fray. The Deep Sea Diver Fuzz-Echo’s titular echo is an analog delay crafted from a tweaked PT2399 delay chip. This delay can run the gamut from a slapback-style response to a longer, drawn out resonance. Using the echo in conjunction with the fuzz will naturally produce your too-cool-for-school, daydreamy, psyched-out indie rock guitar tones. Choke the fuzz and inch up on the echo for responsive slaps of dirt and delay or smooth the fuzz out and punch the echo for long, oscillating trails of noise.

The Deep Sea Diver Fuzz-Echo works by rolling in the delay with the Echo control. The effect can be removed from the signal altogether by simply zeroing out the Echo control. With this design, the Deep Sea Diver Fuzz-Echo’s effect mixing is streamlined and intuitive. Additionally, this Benson creation offers the option to reorder its effects by holding down the footswitch while plugging in a power supply. Use this function to swap between fuzz-into-echo or echo-into-fuzz for wildly different tonal palettes. Operating on standard nine volt center negative power supplies, this pedal is seamlessly integrated into existing boards.

For fans of Jessica Dobson, Deep Sea Diver, Benson Amps, vintage guitar tones, all-in-one multi-effect mixing, or all of the above, the Deep Sea Diver Fuzz-Echo is a treasure trove of tone. Drop in this slick box of delay and dirt into any setup and get submerged in oceans of vintage-style noise.

• Jessica Dobson Deep Sea Diver collaboration fuzz and delay effect
• Two-in-one fuzz and delay effect mixing
• Selectable fuzz and delay effect order
• Six-dial control interface with Bias, Gate, Rate, and Feedback controls
• Standard nine volt DC center negative power operation
• Handmade in Portland, Oregon