Way Huge Havalina Germanium Fuzz review

Tone Bending fuzz box

  • £99
  • €146
  • $171
By Trevor Curwen
( Guitarist )
published
The tone knob covers a wide range and gets sizzly in the top end

MusicRadar Verdict

A new flavour of Tone Bender-style fuzz - but a tasty one nonetheless!

Pros

  • +

    Tone knob offers a wide range. Responds well to guitar volume. Robust build.

Cons

  • -

    Not much.

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The Way Huge Havalina Germanium Fuzz, is a three-transistor germanium-powered fuzz box inspired by a vintage 1960s design.

A three-knob unit, based on hand-selected Russian transistors and a passive tone circuit, it's essentially a pedal in the Tone Bender vein, but not a clone.

Sounds

"It cleans up wonderfully from your volume control, with a complete range of expression straight from your guitar"

The Havalina offers a range of overdriven tones at lower settings of the fuzz knob, but you can turn it up for nice thick fuzz. Not as syrupy smooth as some vintage Tone Benders, the Havalina stakes its sonic territory with a tone knob that covers a wide range and gets sizzly in the top end.

It's possibly beyond 'tasteful', but good if you need it, and plenty to cut through a band mix. It cleans up wonderfully from your volume control, with a complete range of expression straight from your guitar.

Smartly finished in anodised aluminium, this robustly put-together pedal deserves a spot on hard-working pedalboards. You can pay a lot for a boutique Tone Bender clone, so to get something similar for less than £100 (street price) is sound indeed.

Trevor Curwen

Trevor Curwen has played guitar for several decades – he's also mimed it on the UK's Top of the Pops. Much of his working life, though, has been spent behind the mixing desk, during which time he has built up a solid collection of the guitars, amps and pedals needed to cover just about any studio session. He writes pedal reviews for Guitarist and has contributed to Total Guitar, MusicRadar and Future Music among others.