Saraceno's Germanium Boy

[nooneknows]

Hi,
I friend of mine bought a Saraceno's Germanium boy and he kindly let me see inside the box.
It's a one germanium transistor boost, with a bunch of caps at the input, like the Afro Tweak fuzz, maybe a bit more.
I couldn't trace the circuit but it seems a sort of Dallas rangemaster type of circuit.
Anyone did the tracing?
thanks,
bye

[Bernardduur]

I thought it also had a silicium transistor (next to the germanium) and the Tweak Fuzz was a "cheap" version of it (w/ two silicium 3904's)

Check my schem here

[cd]

I thought it also had a silicium transistor (next to the germanium) and the Tweak Fuzz was a "cheap" version of it (w/ two silicium 3904's)

Check my schem here

You're thinking of the Afro Fuzz.

[Bernardduur]

Ah,  woops

[grolschie]

Ok, I know I am replying to a very old topic. Just wondering if people have found out anything more about this pedal?

[nooneknows]

The only news are my friend sold it, I thik he didn't like it so much at last
He bought a Bmf Fat bastard and it seems he's much happier (I think the sound is way darker now to my ears, maybe a bit too much, but it's a matter of taste).

[grolschie]

Did it sound anything like the samples?

[ambulancevoice]

...silicium transistor...

you mean silicon right??? 

saying that would probably sound like Sil - Lis - E - Um

[nooneknows]

dunno, maybe, samples are always cheating
What I remember is the pedal sounded good, with a slight distorsion on the mid-high frequency in every position of the switch. Maybe it's a bit too expensive for what it is, you could build yourself a simple single germanium tranny or a single FET (for example, a ROG Fetzer valve) boost playing with input and/or output cap value and get something closer.

[birt]

...silicium transistor...

you mean silicon right??? 

saying that would probably sound like Sil - Lis - E - Um

in dutch it's silicium.

[ambulancevoice]

...silicium transistor...

you mean silicon right??? 

saying that would probably sound like Sil - Lis - E - Um

in dutch it's silicium.

wow sweet
stange i didnt know that, i know shitloads of dutch chellovecks

[Dragonfly]

NPN Rangemaster with variable input capacitor most likely....in fact i'd give it a 99% chance of being correct, having seen internal photos. Input caps are on a (12 way) rotary switch, though I thing the Gagan "blend" control is far more useful and elegant.

[nooneknows]

+1 Dragonfly. Anyway a rotary switch is cooler  than a simple pot in marketing terms

[moro]

This pedal is the reason I started this thread:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=63135.0

As Dragonfly points out, Joe Gagan's blendable cap is much more elegant. Mark Hammer describes a cap switch in the thread above which, IMO, is also a better alternative.

[culturejam]

I've wanted one of these since way before I started building pedals.

So you guys are saying that the Germanium Boy is more-or-less a Rangermaster-style boost with a rotary switch input cap selector?

Damn, I'm going to make one of these.

[grolschie]

Does a Rangemaster have this kind of tone? The clips description says: "All clips played by Blues Saraceno using a $99 stock Squire Strat and a $150 Sears Silvertone amp w/10" speaker!" Unless that's just valve amp distortion goosed by a clean-ish boost right? I don't know much about Sears Silvertones, but there was a 10" valve combo.

[analogmike]

Old silvertone amps have massive amounts of distortion and sound great. Check out Jack White (the White Stripes).

[moro]

Also, Blues Saraceno is an awesome guitarist. I'm sure I would sound like crap through the same setup

[grolschie]

Thanks analogmike and moro. So the pedal in question might just be a clean boost with variable frequency response, and not have it's own dirt? So I could make a germanium npn rangemaster and tweak to get the same effect (minus the tone that's in Blues' fingers)?

[drewl]

Crap....now I gotta build something else......
Anyway, I used a larger output cap for my Rangemaster build as I wasn't really looking for just a treble boost and it turned out sounding great.
So, I have a mini 6 position switch, I could wire up different cap values to......