The JHS 1966 Italy Tone Bender — a Sweetwater Exclusive — is a very limited edition classic germanium fuzz pedal, handwired by JHS owner Josh Scott using his own new-old-stock components. The classic "Tonebender" circuit of the 1960s, produced in Italy by a certain well-known English amplifier company, captured the tonal imaginations of a generation of electric guitarists. The earliest production runs were particularly aggressive sounding, while later versions sounded thicker and woolier. In the opinion of many players and engineers at Sweetwater, the JHS 1966 Italy straddles the middle ground; delivering a powerful — yet articulate — fuzz tone that's tweakable to suit a wide range of musical settings.

Remaining true to the original, Josh employed high-grade carbon composition resistors, oversized capacitors, and two germanium transistors that he hand-matched to the circuit. Italy is being handcrafted in small batches — each of which will use different transistors (it's a challenge to find reliable sources of germanium transistors in larger quantities). The Italy is identical to the original except that Josh adjusted the taper of the pots to feel more intuitive. He also added a single power supply filter capacitor to help lower noise. The switching is true bypass. Each pedal will have an identical form factor; however, due to variables in component tolerances and a slight variance in the transistors, they will all be unique! The JHS 1966 Italy is an extremely Limited Edition