The Watering Hole

I think that's what it's called...

I love this thing.  It's got that special EH thing I love, every EH pedal I own does something weird in addition to some standard stuff.

The Germanium 4 has an overdrive section, and a Distortion section, which can be run separately or together, each uses two germanium transistors.  The overdrive is mild, not a lot of crunch per se, but the character--this is not a smooth or sweetr overdrive.  It's spitty and just a little nasty.  And the distortion side ranges from ugly crunch to rectified fuzz, again, without any smoothness or tameness.  This is a creative tool, not your go-to-distortion pedal--but I have at least 4 go-to-distortions already.

The best part is that you can adjust the bias on both channels, bringing the voltage up towards the rail or down towards the ground.  And on the Distortion side of the pedal, you have a Volts knob, and you can go full out or starve the voltage to a blippy fractured mess.  Not pretty sounding, but it is definitely the coolest tone toy I own.  Combining channels is really where it's at... running the overdrive with the bias all the way down, and the distortion full up, is like AM radio fuzz. There is spittiness and throatiness to be had galore.  There is no tone control on the distortion side (the better to hurt people) but when you run the sides together, the distortion side runs into the overdrive, so you get a tone control there.  

A thing of beauty.

Clips tonight.

pics??  I haven't seen or heard of this one.  Want to see what it is.  Sure sounds cool!!!

ok, all tracks have the germ on them...
first guitar is distortion + overdrive with some starved volts and mid bias on distortion side, mid bias on overdrive side, bridge humbucker
second guitar is just overdrive side with bias past the middle, neck single coil
third guitar is bridge humbucker, just the fuzz side, voltage in the middle, bias all the way down to ground, 1 oclock gain, bridge humbucker
1st through pod farm plexi
third through pod farm ac30 (yeah it's late)

I love that sound, it gives that lovely "amp about to explode" vibe.

Reminds me of an old valve radiogram I had when I was a kid. I wired a guitar input into it and added a clean boost preamp and it had that lovely thick juicy about to explode tone that I've never been able to find since.....might have to get me one of these !

Edit: Just ordered one  :)

cool demo by PGS

http://www.ehx.com/products/germanium-4-big-muff

I like this pedal.

GAS is alive and well in the BertCave!  ;D

I like this one because one guy tweaks while the other plays guitar... also they use the heil pr40 which is my new go-to guitar amp mic...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByzOAJsrPCY

charger — Aug 25, 2011I like this one because one guy tweaks while the other plays

Sounds like some kind of gay porn flick  ;D

;D ;D
One of my take was sounding like 70's porno film while this one reminds you a gay porno film..
Now the question: How many porno films have you seen ????

;D ;D ;D

Ciao !
Marco

Haven't seen that many....been in a few though  ;D ;D ;D
(not the gay kind I hasten to add)

I like that type of vid too, where one guy tweaks while another plays.  Gives you a much better idea of what all the pedal will do.  

My Germanium4 arrived today.

Here's a quick wank that I just recorded with it.

No amp at all here, this is just the guitar into the pedal and then into Reaper > impulse cab and then added a big room.

Jon that sounds eerily like my old Super Lead did turned way up. Anyways That seems like a great pedal, a keeper.

It's my favorite pedal... sounds like you are enjoying it too!

hmmmm, just got my weekly update from Tonefactor. I hadn't looked at the price, but being basically a dual pedal, I assumed it was much more.  This thing is only $99???   Might have to try one.  

Here's a clip of the Germ4 overdrive channel in a jam setting.  What we all love about it is the way it cuts through and makes a killer sonic imprint without being overly harsh or bright.  This is  me > japanese strat > germ4 > tweaker combo (there are some other instruments in the jam but the germ is pretty distinctive I think).  The Tweaker is set clean, gain up about halfway, master up a little below half.

Only a snippet...

Sounds good.  A lovely thick sound without being overpowering.