Owner, CoolPedal

Building the perfect germanium fuzz pedal:

Assembling and tuning a germanium fuzz pedal is more difficult than other pedal projects. The primary challenges stem from the inherent characteristics of germanium transistors, which are inconsistent at best, requiring careful selection and precise biasing.

Germanium fuzz pedals cannot be built on an assembly line. During biasing, finding the sweet spot for a germanium fuzz pedal is a balancing-act between all the parts in the circuit. Adjusting the bias on the first transistor changes the bias on the second transistor, and so on.….. So you just can't put parts on the board, ship it out, and hope it sounds great. You have to balance them before sipping them out.

At the FreezeZone, we balance (bias) and sound-check each pedal before it goes out.