Jimi Hendrix: set fire to his guitar. Keith Moon: detonated his drum kit on stage Josh Scott: got so aggressive he ripped the tip off his tremolo bar. owww, those rock stars..
I have a shed with electricity but not much else in the way of modern conveniences. I use a brooding heat lamp to keep my fuzz pedal in bias range. This technology is quite useful out on the farm.
It’s been done with things like synth oscillators, which would go out of tune with temperature. But this is why people stopped using germanium transistors in the first place. It’s a round about way of fixing a problem that just requires using a silicon transistor instead. Which is what the music electronics world did. As Josh said, GE doesn’t sound better. It’s just different.
@@DavidRavenMoon Yeah, it’s a solution to a problem that was solved in the 1960’s with silicon transistors like you say. I prefer silicon but people who like germanium for whatever reason may like this solution. I would prefer Jesse Davey’s solution with a bias trim pot on the face of the pedal and an led that lights up when you hit the desired 5.5v volts at any temp. It’s also adjustable for spotty fuzz or different textures.
Like everyone else, love the show, thanks. If you get a chance, please do a show on EVERY SINGLE pedal you can, even the ones that are not so great. If you do that we can all sit back and enjoy watching the scalpers scratch their heads as to why they are not getting rich overnight when they triple the prices on all their stuff on reverb.
The first couple of seconds playing convinced me that I need that Stonk Box. Thank you, Josh; once again you plunged a sharp knife into the heart of my bank account. I'll get you, my pretty.....I'll get you.
I bought the Germanium Fuzz today on my way home from work. I was just browsing the locally made pedals at the shop and hadn't heard of this one before. It sounds great, but every time the heater kicks in, there's some noise, not super loud, but consistent and annoying. I bought it used, so not sure if it's just this pedal is weird or something. I didn't know JHS did a video on it, but I was curious if there was one. And here we are.
Learnt that the hard way during a festival in the middle of summer, 4pm, the sun had been on my pedalboard for hours before the show, the first note I played on my Fuzz Face…wooo did that sound like crap
Is there a video showing the difference between cold Germanium and warm? Like I think I prefer cold germaniums. Does anyone make a refridgerated fuzz pedal?
The main issue is that the designers optimize the pedal for a particular temperature. This is why other fuzz pedals sound good at room temperature, and sound worse when they get too hot. Chris has made this pedal to sound good when it's hot and then just kept it hot all the time. So this pedal would sound worse at room temperature.
The idea probably came from OCXO's (Oven-Controlled-Crystal-Oscillators): Where really extreme frequency stability is required they build a quartz oscillator into a sealed metal container and heat it to a fixed temperature. These have been available for decades. (I used to deal with them when I worked for a place that made military electronics gear.) Applying the same principle to stabilizing the gain of a Germanium transistor is pretty clever. Makes me wonder if the designer has military experience.
I seem to remember hearing somewhere that Jim Dunlop devised some sort of circuit into the big red germanium fuzz face re-issue to help control temperature issues. Is that true? And if so, how is it similar, or different from what Benson is doing? Thanks!
Joan of ark needs another excuse to be there!! Also east coast meets west point of view will be nice!!! Love you all and have a blessed day!!! Happy trails everyone!!!
What about aluminium heat sink sleeve installed around the transistor ,,which will disapate the heat generated bythe operating transistor,which actually is the source of the problem heat that exists dispite room temperatures.
Love your jams. As a guitar player, I sometimes see someone doing something that I think I can do, or maybe improve on. As a guitar player and pedal builder, I bet you are always thinking the same thing when you see a circuit you haven't made yet.🤔
they sound great, but in your controlled environment the light seems to often go to amber... I imagine at a gig " wait a bit the light is not green...." so seems like still not perfected?
It says on the label on the left one that it'll INTERMITTENTY (it has a typo, missing the L) return to amber. I think that just indicated the part that heats up transistor getting to work.
@@brian-baker yeah, I saw the label, and again it sounds incredible, jsut wondering why Josh's was so intermittent with the light. For me it always sounded good,even on amber...
You don't have to wait for it to go green. As you said, the pedal sounds fine when the light is amber and it's in a heating stage. It's not telling you don't play, it's just telling you that it's working currently.
Mmm cool (no pun intended..) that in this design the transistors are pre-warmed, but what about other components? Every normal resistor is also influenced by temperature variations, as are capacitors, and even resistance in wire and print materials so just warming transistors is just part of circuit and tone variations …
Nice record time selection, as soon as I heard you mention Ben Howard and Andrew Bird you peaked my interest. You should give Daniel Norgren a listen. I think you'll enjoy his music.
Nice technology and good thinking behind, but let's get to the basics: does this pedal need more current in the heating phase? And why does the heating starts when you press the footswitch? I think it would have it been smarter to make it start when the pedal is connected to the power source.
Bcuz the temp control is a circuit that runs off the B+ provided by the voltage regulator IC. There are 2 1 watt carbon comp resistors across the metal case tops of the transistors coupled with heat sink paste. The circuit sends current thru the resistors by sensing the transistor bias voltage, the current switches on and off, hence the green/amber LED. It's calibrated to keep the transistors at 95°F, then the fuzz circuit is biased at that temp. If you fiddle with the trim pots inside you void the warranty in fact and you have to pay Benson to set the bias again.
Tragic to discover now that Germanium SINGS in the right circuit. Pity the Benson Germanium boost is not available ATM. That is serious transformative juju in a box. Cheaper too. Must be the first germanium boost that actually does low end as well as high end equally well with any thermal stability. I really like this boost. It has @ least to my jaded ears. A unique and pleasing contribution to the signal chain. I WANT one!
He did but it is not automatic as this which not necessary is a bad thing because you have the option the set it over or below the “ideal” gain to get a gritty or a velvet sound. I love all KT pedals for their tone, intensity, and its options to control.
I had the germanium fuzz. It barely did anything even cranked/maxed. Was like the lightest overdrive pedal ever, and very expensive. Moved it on very quickly.
all germanium falls apart above about 120 F, but I'm guessing most guitar players fall apart around 100 F, which is the nominal temperature at which it will still work fine.
@@BensonAmps thank you for your answer. I have a Ge fuzz (not a Benson) that doesnt works well over 82 F. At that temp even the gain control seems out of its action range. Maybe the ones that work well up to 100 are military grade ?
A friend of mine complained about a black Benson fuzz farting out on him on a sunny gig. We opened it up and were quite disappointed to discover that the "temperature control" feature is just a resistor glued on top of the transistors... Pretty underwhelming for the proud price tag for a fuzz circuit.
Analog Man Sunface NKT 275 has a bias trim on top of the pedal that I belive is for the same reason, though it's not automatic. You have to use your ears.
Kingtone Guitars has the same thing on the mini fuzz but is has a light that lights up when you hit the right voltage at any room temp. Dial will be in a different spot for different ambient temps.
Not hearing any difference in sound when the light is red or green. I don't understand why the light goes back to red midway through playing, does that mean you should stop playing and wait for it to go green. The pedal sounds cool but this added "feature" seems like a gimmick
Germanium always sounds better than silicone. Germanium has a smoother richer organic sound with more in it as to where silicone has a more choppy thin sterile sound. I've done recordings comparing them back to back and germanium sounds significantly better when listening with good quality headphones however, if you listen to the recording with a low quality speaker such as a phone speaker the speaker can add color to the sound making the silicone sound almost as good. If you want the best, get germanium. I posted some of the videos on my channel recently if anyone wants to check them out.
I don't think you actually have to wait for them to heat all the way up. It's just an indicator light, like when a compressor comes on just to tell you it's working. The light being on indicates it's on. The orange is just telling you that it's in a heating cycle.
Fuzz seems to be the only pedal effect that's being made these days. There is something like ten new ones every week! I like a decent fuzz but I sure would like to hear about other flavorings of the effect spectrum. All Fuzz and nothing else makes Jack a dull boy... 🤗
Benson pedals are really good. I already have a condition for too many OD pedals. I bought Muffuletta pedal so I didn’t have same issue with Fuzz pedals. This video not helping me! Lol
OH, and I notice that that damnable Pearl Jam poster is still in the background. When will this madness end? And how will it end. Not well if it keeps up!
Okay, and my Trifecta post of this video: I've noticed in the last few 'heavier' videos you've done, you've swamped your drum machine's volume with your distorted guitar volume. Such small volume differences are dispositive when it comes to volume relationships when in proximity to the perfect zone. Obvs we don't really wanna hear the sterile, characterless drums, but we need to for the rhythmic sense, but when you swamp the drums with guitar volume, their rhythmic function is lost, and then they are just unwanted noise, and we'd be better off without them. Your playing is dynamic so you may start in the perfect zone, but you often get heated and then the drums are just distracting rhythmless noise. Trying to bring you a solution to this problem. I know you don't want to compress/limit or anything really, the guitar sound so wwhiwwg, but I'm sure there is some automix plugin that could sit on the master and the guitar and drum tracks, feeding volume level information to the master buss plugin, and the master buss plugin could maintain that perfect volume relationship between drums and guitar no matter how 'loud' (square/cliipped) your guitar signal gets. This might sound complex, but no, not really if you find the right vst for the job, sorry I'm decrepit and poor so am still working on my win 98 system, so I try not to look under the skirt of new plugin tech, but somebody must have made some volume autolever that simply maintains volume relationships without using compression or limiting? Didn't mean to go so long, but give Addison a call, I'm sure he'd have something for you right off the top of his head. And you wouldn't have to faff about during the live, just give the drum volume level as much attention as you do now, and the vst would do the rest. It'd be a set it and forget it type situation, not extra complexity. This is constructive criticism, I'm not talking sh!t trying to bring you down, just noticing an issue with a fairly easy solution that would make these YT Lives that little bit more compelling/valuable. IMO, which counts for so close to nothing it's debatable whether I even exist.
Not many humans speak of this pedal I am about to reveal. An epoch boost and…..wait for it, a Keely 30ms are my always on pedals. Anyone else out there have an earworm that gets down with the 30ms?
Interesting! The John Hollis Rock Face (pre 2001 as far as I can tell) which we cite as prior art in our automatic thermal bias patent, does something like that with a vactrol and comparator. Brilliant design if you haven't seen it. We tried to implement a servo bias set up for fuzz as well, but that didn't translate to fuzz very well (or we gave up)...we put it in the Germanium Boost instead. My experience is that the germanium transistors have higher gain at hotter temperatures (which I suspect is what is actually affecting the bias) and different leakage as well, which is why we opted to go with heat instead. No pressure to give away secrets, but I'm curious how you did it?
Josh, please, please stop making me want to buy more pedals. I don't even play good enough to need the ones I have. I already have too many. I might be living in my van soon. Thanks.
Brian Wampler or Jamie Stillman should be your other judges... just saying Great episode though. I have a EQD Tone Reaper fuzz thats a hybrid Silicone and Germanium. Love it to death, will never part with it
Ummm... This doesn't help Phil Mcknight, where the temperatures in Phoenix are over 100°F in the middle of he night for 6 months of the year. 🤣🤣🤣 I lived for 40 years in that God forsaken desert and I am never going back! Even ice cubes boil on their surface there in the summer! 🤣🤣🤣
Well it is more than ambient temperature . . . If sun hits a dark colored pedal case, the germanium craps out. If the sun hits a white case, it does not. I have experienced this playing at festivals where it is 32 celcius and the sun is hitting the white colored Soul Bender, and the germanium does not crap out. No doubt the white pedal case here quietly factored that in. Also Germanium reproduced even-ordered harmonics (like tubes). Where regular transistors do not. Living creatures communicate with even ordered harmonics. This is why we prefer it if we notice it on some undefinable level.
Thats why Benson on their first release the Germanium Fuzz is made in white and black colors. The Black is for the indoor player and the white is for the person playing gigs outside.
We can't make em all white, going forward we're going to opt for reflective lighter surfaces, which works almost as well as white. The matte black was a bad one to start out with (we didn't know at the time)
Crap. I thought I was done buying pedals for the year....also, STONK must be a new mortar team term. When calling in a mortar barrage we just said "fire for effect".
Given the recent disclosures by high level US Intelligence (NRO) Officer(s?) that the US is in possession of at least 12 nuts and bolts vehicles from non-human intelligences, what are your plans to incorporate extra terrestrial technology in JHS Pedals? Aliens must have the SICKEST guitar pedals, and guitar pedal technology, like even better than current and former premier studio level sound processors in stomp box form factors. Imagine that! The first pedal company that incorporates that alien tech is going to win the pedal market, foreva. What is the adjacent possible to that alien tech JHS?
Put the toan in the coconut and drink it all up Put the toan in the coconut and drink it all up Put the toan in the coconut and drink it all up Put the toan in the coconut and drink it all up
@Josh/JHSDo you ever think that Stan Cotey & his team of designers @Fender will ever get the recognition that they are due? For creating the least cost expensive pedals that they could make for the public? While still designing some of the greatest sounding pedals that will most likely ever be made by Fender. I'm not even talking about the Hammertone pedal line they created. I have not had the opportunity to play any of those yet, but I really haven't felt the need to go play any other pedals at all, after purchasing The Fender Treadlight Wah Pedal into The Pelt Fuzz, into The MTG Tube Distortion, into The Santa Ana Overdrive, into The Pinwheel Rotary Speaker Emulator which I use in conjunction with the Fender Treadlight Volume/Expression pedal to control my speed ramp up or down & then finally into The Fender Reflecting Pool Delay & Reverb pedal. I plug all of these into my Fender Hot Rod Blues Jr. IV model. I purchased all of this gear plus an American Professional Telecaster during the pandemic & I really for the 1st time ever. I was able to really concentrate on learning how to play the Electric Guitar. After about 3 years or so after that I was finally able to purchase my very 1st Gibson Guitar. I got a 1950's Gibson Les Paul Standard model. Between those 2 Standard guitar models & all those pedals. I feel like I am able to get just about any sound that I hear in my head. Being very blessed to have all of these pedals & guitars & amplifier. I truly feel that these pedals seem to have fallen on deaf ears. I hope that in the future more people will catch on to these crazy good sounding pedals. Have you played any of these pedals? If so what do you think about them? Are they as good as I believe them to be?
That doesn't really seem like a solution. The solution (while using the same transistors) would be to regulate the temperature to room level or what ever level one likes. With this "solution" that you have demoed, you are gaining consistently, but running the transistors in an environment where the temperature is suboptimal (too hot). Just lower the temperature. A cooling fan with a heat sink might be enough. There are a couple of other methods if that isn't enough.
Check out the Kingtone germanium fuzz and how Jesse Davey solved this problem. There’s a bias pot on the face of the pedal that give the transistor the correct voltage at any temp and you know you’ve hit the voltage by the sound obviously but by an LED that lights up when you hit the correct voltage. You can also dial in gated or spitty fuzz tones. And the pedal has silicon and germanium switchable.
Jimi Hendrix: set fire to his guitar.
Keith Moon: detonated his drum kit on stage
Josh Scott: got so aggressive he ripped the tip off his tremolo bar.
owww, those rock stars..
lol
*SRV had melted pieces of pick on his guard from strumming so fast lol. You ever heard that one??
"...unless you are playing on a beach in direct sunlight at the equator..."
"Bugger" - Me in Malaysia :)
looooooool
I have a shed with electricity but not much else in the way of modern conveniences. I use a brooding heat lamp to keep my fuzz pedal in bias range. This technology is quite useful out on the farm.
Seems like such a straightforward way to deal with this issue. I'm surprised this wasn't attempted before.
It’s been done with things like synth oscillators, which would go out of tune with temperature.
But this is why people stopped using germanium transistors in the first place.
It’s a round about way of fixing a problem that just requires using a silicon transistor instead. Which is what the music electronics world did.
As Josh said, GE doesn’t sound better. It’s just different.
One of those simple solutions that seems so obvious in hind sight.
Yeah you see it now and it’s obvious, just like e=mc2
@@DavidRavenMoon Yeah, it’s a solution to a problem that was solved in the 1960’s with silicon transistors like you say. I prefer silicon but people who like germanium for whatever reason may like this solution. I would prefer Jesse Davey’s solution with a bias trim pot on the face of the pedal and an led that lights up when you hit the desired 5.5v volts at any temp. It’s also adjustable for spotty fuzz or different textures.
I think that Midnight 30 Over Fuzz you showed on your TH-cam shorts is still the best sounding fuzz I have heard in years. That thing was ridiculous.
Like everyone else, love the show, thanks. If you get a chance, please do a show on EVERY SINGLE pedal you can, even the ones that are not so great. If you do that we can all sit back and enjoy watching the scalpers scratch their heads as to why they are not getting rich overnight when they triple the prices on all their stuff on reverb.
What a genius pedal design. Thanks for playing it Josh. That second jam was really beautiful and interesting.
I just respect the hell out of the way you and guys like wampler pimp other brand pedals so hard. Credibility.
The first couple of seconds playing convinced me that I need that Stonk Box. Thank you, Josh; once again you plunged a sharp knife into the heart of my bank account. I'll get you, my pretty.....I'll get you.
JESUS CHRIST THE INTRO IS SO DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE I was shaking my head squeezing my eyes like a maaaaaniac 😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮
We need a 'how to play like Josh' video
I bought the Germanium Fuzz today on my way home from work. I was just browsing the locally made pedals at the shop and hadn't heard of this one before. It sounds great, but every time the heater kicks in, there's some noise, not super loud, but consistent and annoying. I bought it used, so not sure if it's just this pedal is weird or something. I didn't know JHS did a video on it, but I was curious if there was one. And here we are.
I read about this in 2015. A guy used a small light bulb to maintain the temp. Simple. Effective.
All the best to you and yours eh!🇨🇦
I’m digging this format, but I miss the shows with the whole team.
Crazy tech Chris has come up with.
(Uh yea, not he same)
Learnt that the hard way during a festival in the middle of summer, 4pm, the sun had been on my pedalboard for hours before the show, the first note I played on my Fuzz Face…wooo did that sound like crap
Lovely innovation!! Josh I would like to have your pink superstrat on the wall please 🙏
Is there a video showing the difference between cold Germanium and warm? Like I think I prefer cold germaniums. Does anyone make a refridgerated fuzz pedal?
The main issue is that the designers optimize the pedal for a particular temperature. This is why other fuzz pedals sound good at room temperature, and sound worse when they get too hot. Chris has made this pedal to sound good when it's hot and then just kept it hot all the time. So this pedal would sound worse at room temperature.
I am pretty sure TPS has an episode where they heat up some Germanium.
Germaniums are such a pretty flower - who knew they were so tonally fickle?
me
Geraniums vs germanium. I want a vibranium pedal.
The idea probably came from OCXO's (Oven-Controlled-Crystal-Oscillators): Where really extreme frequency stability is required they build a quartz oscillator into a sealed metal container and heat it to a fixed temperature. These have been available for decades. (I used to deal with them when I worked for a place that made military electronics gear.) Applying the same principle to stabilizing the gain of a Germanium transistor is pretty clever. Makes me wonder if the designer has military experience.
I seem to remember hearing somewhere that Jim Dunlop devised some sort of circuit into the big red germanium fuzz face re-issue to help control temperature issues. Is that true? And if so, how is it similar, or different from what Benson is doing? Thanks!
I think that’s just a resistor added in the circuit somewhere.
Joan of ark needs another excuse to be there!! Also east coast meets west point of view will be nice!!! Love you all and have a blessed day!!! Happy trails everyone!!!
What about aluminium heat sink sleeve installed around the transistor ,,which will disapate the heat generated bythe operating transistor,which actually is the source of the problem heat that exists dispite room temperatures.
Love your jams. As a guitar player, I sometimes see someone doing something that I think I can do, or maybe improve on.
As a guitar player and pedal builder, I bet you are always thinking the same thing when you see a circuit you haven't made yet.🤔
they sound great, but in your controlled environment the light seems to often go to amber... I imagine at a gig " wait a bit the light is not green...."
so seems like still not perfected?
It says on the label on the left one that it'll INTERMITTENTY (it has a typo, missing the L) return to amber. I think that just indicated the part that heats up transistor getting to work.
@@brian-baker yeah, I saw the label, and again it sounds incredible, jsut wondering why Josh's was so intermittent with the light. For me it always sounded good,even on amber...
@@romestant i guess it's keeping it in a certain range, and it's gotta be pretty hard to hear 10° or whatever it is.
You don't have to wait for it to go green. As you said, the pedal sounds fine when the light is amber and it's in a heating stage. It's not telling you don't play, it's just telling you that it's working currently.
100 Acres is a stunning album.
If i didn't know it already i would think that he was just joshing us! ;-)
Chris reppin’ Eastside Music Supply! ❤
Mmm cool (no pun intended..) that in this design the transistors are pre-warmed, but what about other components?
Every normal resistor is also influenced by temperature variations, as are capacitors, and even resistance in wire and print materials so just warming transistors is just part of circuit and tone variations …
Stonk now in stock!
Nice record time selection, as soon as I heard you mention Ben Howard and Andrew Bird you peaked my interest. You should give Daniel Norgren a listen. I think you'll enjoy his music.
Looks like the gray one has the rare NOS sticker on the front so of course it sounds better...
good eye
Hi John
I know you’re watching all of these. Eating your steak and steamed green beans. Bopping to JHS jams.
Me too, buddy.
Thermal compensation circuits have been known for decades, but you introduce it as if it was rocket science...
Nice technology and good thinking behind, but let's get to the basics: does this pedal need more current in the heating phase? And why does the heating starts when you press the footswitch? I think it would have it been smarter to make it start when the pedal is connected to the power source.
It starts when it’s powered on.
Bcuz the temp control is a circuit that runs off the B+ provided by the voltage regulator IC. There are 2 1 watt carbon comp resistors across the metal case tops of the transistors coupled with heat sink paste. The circuit sends current thru the resistors by sensing the transistor bias voltage, the current switches on and off, hence the green/amber LED. It's calibrated to keep the transistors at 95°F, then the fuzz circuit is biased at that temp. If you fiddle with the trim pots inside you void the warranty in fact and you have to pay Benson to set the bias again.
Is that a pink HM strat on the wall? Many internet points for you if it is!
Tragic to discover now that Germanium SINGS in the right circuit. Pity the Benson Germanium boost is not available ATM. That is serious transformative juju in a box. Cheaper too. Must be the first germanium boost that actually does low end as well as high end equally well with any thermal stability. I really like this boost.
It has @ least to my jaded ears. A unique and pleasing contribution to the signal chain. I WANT one!
Probably not on the equator, but Phuket is pretty close to the line don't you think :D.
Didn't kingtone already did this fix on their ge fuzz?
i don't know but i just got mine and I love it.
He did but it is not automatic as this which not necessary is a bad thing because you have the option the set it over or below the “ideal” gain to get a gritty or a velvet sound.
I love all KT pedals for their tone, intensity, and its options to control.
ya I think the KT Si/Ge is the last fuzz I will ever have to buy
What is the "band"? A DigiTech Trio+...?
I had the germanium fuzz. It barely did anything even cranked/maxed. Was like the lightest overdrive pedal ever, and very expensive. Moved it on very quickly.
They heat the Ge when outside is colder. But how they solve it ehen outside is hotter ? Is it a military hot resistant Ge transistor ?
all germanium falls apart above about 120 F, but I'm guessing most guitar players fall apart around 100 F, which is the nominal temperature at which it will still work fine.
@@BensonAmps thank you for your answer. I have a Ge fuzz (not a Benson) that doesnt works well over 82 F. At that temp even the gain control seems out of its action range. Maybe the ones that work well up to 100 are military grade ?
Instant Sonic Youth
A friend of mine complained about a black Benson fuzz farting out on him on a sunny gig. We opened it up and were quite disappointed to discover that the "temperature control" feature is just a resistor glued on top of the transistors... Pretty underwhelming for the proud price tag for a fuzz circuit.
If you do any research, you’ll realize you’ve completely oversimplified it. And the black ones are for sunny stage use.
@@christopherbenson2981 You mean "are not" right? The website says black ones run about 20F hotter than white on a sunny day.
I always assumed the diode heated up from the signal and went out of bias that way.
Did you assume that because your guitar cable was always red hot to the touch from all the energy your signal was pumping out?
@@waytospergtherebro no. Because I played so awesome that it created friction.
That isn't so. Germanium transistors are the active components in this circuit.
Great playing
How dare you replace Nick for a drum machine?! : D
“Hold me closer, tiny transistor” 😂 Elton John himself would laugh his wig off.
Always thought stonk was the final level of stinkiness: as in, stink, stank, stunk, stonk.
And don’t forget my favorite line of fuzzy IKEA furniture: Stönk
@emilyharpist should be the third judge
What’s he using for drums?
what guitar is that'?
They seem cool but I'm not gonna lie, I want a Stonk Box because of the name. I like that name...Say it with me: Stonk Box.
📈
Stank box
Analog Man Sunface NKT 275 has a bias trim on top of the pedal that I belive is for the same reason, though it's not automatic. You have to use your ears.
Kingtone Guitars has the same thing on the mini fuzz but is has a light that lights up when you hit the right voltage at any room temp. Dial will be in a different spot for different ambient temps.
I had a fuzz of the time fanx it was my early times I miss that sound.
To my ears, the Zonk/MK1 doesn't sound as agressive as the Macari's Tone Bender MK1.
It doesn’t sound anything like a tone bender, imo.
@@JohnAnthonyPlaysMusic totally agree. Sounds fine for what it is but I hear none of that classic mkI thing here.
Not hearing any difference in sound when the light is red or green. I don't understand why the light goes back to red midway through playing, does that mean you should stop playing and wait for it to go green. The pedal sounds cool but this added "feature" seems like a gimmick
Germanium always sounds better than silicone. Germanium has a smoother richer organic sound with more in it as to where silicone has a more choppy thin sterile sound. I've done recordings comparing them back to back and germanium sounds significantly better when listening with good quality headphones however, if you listen to the recording with a low quality speaker such as a phone speaker the speaker can add color to the sound making the silicone sound almost as good. If you want the best, get germanium. I posted some of the videos on my channel recently if anyone wants to check them out.
Happy Wednesday morning
Meanwhile the hardcore bands have played 4 songs whilst these heat up 🥸
I don't think you actually have to wait for them to heat all the way up. It's just an indicator light, like when a compressor comes on just to tell you it's working. The light being on indicates it's on. The orange is just telling you that it's in a heating cycle.
Fuzz seems to be the only pedal effect that's being made these days. There is something like ten new ones every week! I like a decent fuzz but I sure would like to hear about other flavorings of the effect spectrum. All Fuzz and nothing else makes Jack a dull boy... 🤗
This is cool, but also the idea of a the part being heated kinda sucks. I wonder if we could just do a DSP fuzz.
Blasphemy
Benson pedals are really good. I already have a condition for too many OD pedals. I bought Muffuletta pedal so I didn’t have same issue with Fuzz pedals. This video not helping me! Lol
All my stonks are up today, FED meeting looming ...
sToNks 🗿
OH, and I notice that that damnable Pearl Jam poster is still in the background. When will this madness end? And how will it end. Not well if it keeps up!
Veiled threats are not a good look man. You really need to see someone about these issues.
Okay, and my Trifecta post of this video:
I've noticed in the last few 'heavier' videos you've done, you've swamped your drum machine's volume with your distorted guitar volume. Such small volume differences are dispositive when it comes to volume relationships when in proximity to the perfect zone.
Obvs we don't really wanna hear the sterile, characterless drums, but we need to for the rhythmic sense, but when you swamp the drums with guitar volume, their rhythmic function is lost, and then they are just unwanted noise, and we'd be better off without them. Your playing is dynamic so you may start in the perfect zone, but you often get heated and then the drums are just distracting rhythmless noise.
Trying to bring you a solution to this problem. I know you don't want to compress/limit or anything really, the guitar sound so wwhiwwg, but I'm sure there is some automix plugin that could sit on the master and the guitar and drum tracks, feeding volume level information to the master buss plugin, and the master buss plugin could maintain that perfect volume relationship between drums and guitar no matter how 'loud' (square/cliipped) your guitar signal gets. This might sound complex, but no, not really if you find the right vst for the job, sorry I'm decrepit and poor so am still working on my win 98 system, so I try not to look under the skirt of new plugin tech, but somebody must have made some volume autolever that simply maintains volume relationships without using compression or limiting? Didn't mean to go so long, but give Addison a call, I'm sure he'd have something for you right off the top of his head. And you wouldn't have to faff about during the live, just give the drum volume level as much attention as you do now, and the vst would do the rest. It'd be a set it and forget it type situation, not extra complexity.
This is constructive criticism, I'm not talking sh!t trying to bring you down, just noticing an issue with a fairly easy solution that would make these YT Lives that little bit more compelling/valuable. IMO, which counts for so close to nothing it's debatable whether I even exist.
Loving this pedal. (You said plethora wrong too.) 😘
OMG this Fionn Regan album is incredible!
Not many humans speak of this pedal I am about to reveal. An epoch boost and…..wait for it, a Keely 30ms are my always on pedals. Anyone else out there have an earworm that gets down with the 30ms?
those lonely diodes look so sad.
I came up with a simple auto-bias circuit that does the same thing. No heating required.
Interesting! The John Hollis Rock Face (pre 2001 as far as I can tell) which we cite as prior art in our automatic thermal bias patent, does something like that with a vactrol and comparator. Brilliant design if you haven't seen it. We tried to implement a servo bias set up for fuzz as well, but that didn't translate to fuzz very well (or we gave up)...we put it in the Germanium Boost instead. My experience is that the germanium transistors have higher gain at hotter temperatures (which I suspect is what is actually affecting the bias) and different leakage as well, which is why we opted to go with heat instead. No pressure to give away secrets, but I'm curious how you did it?
My waffle iron does the same thing. Maybe I should just put a fuzz pedal inside of that.
I could call it sonic waffles.
Josh, please, please stop making me want to buy more pedals. I don't even play good enough to need the ones I have. I already have too many. I might be living in my van soon. Thanks.
U k-no your liven the life when u struggle with what day of the week it is….or…..your just a little fuzzzzzy! Lol take us outside we need the sun yo!
Brian Wampler or Jamie Stillman should be your other judges... just saying
Great episode though. I have a EQD Tone Reaper fuzz thats a hybrid Silicone and Germanium. Love it to death, will never part with it
Ummm... This doesn't help Phil Mcknight, where the temperatures in Phoenix are over 100°F in the middle of he night for 6 months of the year. 🤣🤣🤣
I lived for 40 years in that God forsaken desert and I am never going back! Even ice cubes boil on their surface there in the summer! 🤣🤣🤣
Well it is more than ambient temperature . . . If sun hits a dark colored pedal case, the germanium craps out. If the sun hits a white case, it does not. I have experienced this playing at festivals where it is 32 celcius and the sun is hitting the white colored Soul Bender, and the germanium does not crap out.
No doubt the white pedal case here quietly factored that in. Also Germanium reproduced even-ordered harmonics (like tubes). Where regular transistors do not. Living creatures communicate with even ordered harmonics. This is why we prefer it if we notice it on some undefinable level.
Thats why Benson on their first release the Germanium Fuzz is made in white and black colors. The Black is for the indoor player and the white is for the person playing gigs outside.
We can't make em all white, going forward we're going to opt for reflective lighter surfaces, which works almost as well as white. The matte black was a bad one to start out with (we didn't know at the time)
Get the band back together, Joshua!
He couldnt just compare the sounds of the two pedals..
Crap. I thought I was done buying pedals for the year....also, STONK must be a new mortar team term. When calling in a mortar barrage we just said "fire for effect".
rip addison
East Side Music Supply
105 degrees F = 40 degrees C
I pronounce "Belle" as belly.
Given the recent disclosures by high level US Intelligence (NRO) Officer(s?) that the US is in possession of at least 12 nuts and bolts vehicles from non-human intelligences, what are your plans to incorporate extra terrestrial technology in JHS Pedals?
Aliens must have the SICKEST guitar pedals, and guitar pedal technology, like even better than current and former premier studio level sound processors in stomp box form factors. Imagine that!
The first pedal company that incorporates that alien tech is going to win the pedal market, foreva.
What is the adjacent possible to that alien tech JHS?
🤘👍🏿
You gotta get Rhett Schull, "The Fuzz Evangelist," himself to be a judge!
Put the toan in the coconut and drink it all up Put the toan in the coconut and drink it all up Put the toan in the coconut and drink it all up Put the toan in the coconut and drink it all up
@Josh/JHSDo you ever think that Stan Cotey & his team of designers @Fender will ever get the recognition that they are due? For creating the least cost expensive pedals that they could make for the public? While still designing some of the greatest sounding pedals that will most likely ever be made by Fender. I'm not even talking about the Hammertone pedal line they created. I have not had the opportunity to play any of those yet, but I really haven't felt the need to go play any other pedals at all, after purchasing The Fender Treadlight Wah Pedal into The Pelt Fuzz, into The MTG Tube Distortion, into The Santa Ana Overdrive, into The Pinwheel Rotary Speaker Emulator which I use in conjunction with the Fender Treadlight Volume/Expression pedal to control my speed ramp up or down & then finally into The Fender Reflecting Pool Delay & Reverb pedal. I plug all of these into my Fender Hot Rod Blues Jr. IV model. I purchased all of this gear plus an American Professional Telecaster during the pandemic & I really for the 1st time ever. I was able to really concentrate on learning how to play the Electric Guitar. After about 3 years or so after that I was finally able to purchase my very 1st Gibson Guitar. I got a 1950's Gibson Les Paul Standard model. Between those 2 Standard guitar models
& all those pedals. I feel like I am able to get just about any sound that I hear in my head. Being very blessed to have all of these pedals & guitars & amplifier. I truly feel that these pedals seem to have fallen on deaf ears. I hope that in the future more people will catch on to these crazy good sounding pedals. Have you played any of these pedals? If so what do you think about them? Are they as good as I believe them to be?
Isn’t it really nice to hit a point where you have all the gear to make all the sounds you want. Make it last!
That doesn't really seem like a solution. The solution (while using the same transistors) would be to regulate the temperature to room level or what ever level one likes. With this "solution" that you have demoed, you are gaining consistently, but running the transistors in an environment where the temperature is suboptimal (too hot). Just lower the temperature. A cooling fan with a heat sink might be enough. There are a couple of other methods if that isn't enough.
Check out the Kingtone germanium fuzz and how Jesse Davey solved this problem. There’s a bias pot on the face of the pedal that give the transistor the correct voltage at any temp and you know you’ve hit the voltage by the sound obviously but by an LED that lights up when you hit the correct voltage. You can also dial in gated or spitty fuzz tones. And the pedal has silicon and germanium switchable.