Electro-Harmonix Germanium OD

If this thing confuses you then put down your guitar. It's your standard overdrive pedal with three knobs. Practically plug and play. Even the 'foreign' knob labels take five minutes to master. Mine had no manual, really all you have to do is crank all the knobs and plug it in and you've got a good sound. I gave it 9 cause those expecting your boring run-of-the-mill overdrive could get confused with the bias and voltz.

My main set up (before this pedal) is... a 1988 American Fender Telecaster Reissue with a lace-sensor bridge, a 2005 Fender Customshop Stratocaster, and a great 1960's one pick no-name guitar with an original T.V. Jones style pickup. I run through a Boss SD-1, Z-Vex Box of Rock,(sometimes a big muff or rat) EHX Holystain, Boss TR-2, Ibanez DL-10, EHX Stereo Memory Man w/ Hazarai, into a Fender Deville 410 loaded with Jensen's or an almost stock (tubes are changed) Epiphone Valve Junior Half Stack.

Adding this pedal in it really gave me some new lo-fi possibilities. Some people who have been reviewing have said that this pedal sounds worse than a $15 overdrive or distortion. Thats because it is supposed to sound old school, like some of the early booster, overdrive and fuzz pedals. This is not a mesa triple rectifier or Marshall JMC with tube screamer and line 6 pedal board fronting it with a gate filter. This is the sound of the DIY pedals artist made or had made. It is supposed to sound organic, and it does. You can get a really great chunk out of it. I used to have a no name treble booster, that ran on a weird power supply, and i used to run it into an old home build 3 or 5 watt amp from the 60's. Since then I have lost traded or destroyed these products, and thought I would never be able to reproduce that sound.

If you get the setting perfect you can even make it sound like your speaker is flapping.

If you want to get the sounds of early guitar solo's by bands you and I have never heard and never will, then please give this a shot.

Its solid like a tank, but the knobs are the new EHX knob and I don't like them, I used an old set of Radioshack knobs that are actually road worthy. They were $2 so I am taking off two points.

Never broken more than a knob.

I play alot of 1960's mod and psychedelic rock, garage rock, post-rock, and some of the newer indie bands, this pedal is perfect to get the lofi crunch of Iggy Pop, the Buzzcocks, the Sonics, Gang of Four and Tokyo Police Club.

I have been playing for about 15 years, and 10 pretty seriously, and I collect old guitars and pedals, analog equipment, etc.
This pedal is great because if I ever do lose it then I can get myself another, and not have to search endlessly for early fuzz pedals and treble boosters.

I love the simplicity and intensity of this pedal. I hate how people buy this pedal and give it a bad review because it is trying to do something old again. People don't hate on the Z-Vex Fuzz Factory, because their price keeps away idiots. Unfortunately EHX offers some great deals, and people destroy their products in reviews because they have a distinct sound, don't have LCD screens, a million presets, or tell you how to play.

You can't compare this to many products in the main stream pedal market. The Fuzz Factory is along the same lines, but isn't as grass roots and bare bones.

The only feature I wish it had built in is a hipass/lopass switch, but i have another pedal to do that anyway.

This this is becoming my ultimate music maker, I have run bass guitar, snare, piano tracks through it and it just adds this raunchy vintage quality that gives me shivers.

I plan on playing my next set with my EHX all star line up. My sixties guitar, into a Muff, into this, into my Holystain, into my Stereo Memory Man, and into my Valve Junior and get the vibing sound of the past.

This is a germanium OD / AKA Rangemaster / Treble Boost etc. YOU MUST USE A 9V BATTERY TO MAKE THE PEDAL SOUND GREAT. POWER SUPPLIES + GERMANIUM BOOTS = HISS !!!!!

You will habve the same problem with the boutique Rangemaster-type pedals (Keeley Java Boost, etc.)

Les Paul or Strat >OD Germanium > Keeley modded TS-808 (tb) > Blues Junior w/ Vintage 30.

Unreal. Sounds the way a Germanium boost should in front of a tube amp at the verge of breakup. Kick in the TS-808 and cover your nuts.

Again:
This is a germanium OD / AKA Rangemaster / Treble Boost etc. YOU MUST USE A 9V BATTERY TO MAKE THE PEDAL SOUND GREAT. POWER SUPPLIES + GERMANIUM BOOTS = HISS !!!!!

You will habve the same problem with the boutique Rangemaster-type pedals (Keeley Java Boost, etc.)

No idea. Looks solid / simple circuit.

No idea.

Great pedal for the $$. Bought mine used for $25....probably from the genius below who ripped the pedal apart. You MUST use it in front of a tube amp. Sounds great when amp is at the edge of breakup. Works well in front of a tube-screamer pedal. Ashame it doesn't play well with power supplies but that's the nature of ALL germanium ODs. Buy some 9v's, unplug the box when you're done and stop crying.

There are three knobs you can turn to change the sound of the pedal.
This a very versatile pedal, a slight change makes the Germanium sound completely different. This is a big strengh of the pedal, you can find your personal sound, but at the same time, it makes it quite difficult to use.

I use it with Gibson LesPaul Classic and a Marshall Valvestate. It really sounds great with the right settings. It is not always easy to find them, but finally, you can get the nicer fuzz effect I heard on a fuzz pedal(so much better than the Boss fuzz that sounds fake). You can re-create the best tunes of the Rolling Stones at the end of the sixties-beginning of the seventies.

Like other customers said, I had some hum produced by the pedal, but since I bought a Diago Power supply, it is perfect!

I also use it with a Digitech Bad Monkey and it really boost my solos.

This is a quality aluminium case.

This is my favourite pedal I use it very often. I've never met any problem.

I had a problem with the hum issue. I went on the electro harmonix forum, and had a usefull answer.

I've been playing for 12 years. I love the Rolling Stones sound of the the albums produces at the end of the sixties-beginning of the seventies. I was looking for that special sound and I found it! Thanks Electro-harmonix.
I would buy it again if lost, but remember you need a good power supply to feed it!

it's very easy to use once you realize that you have to as the manual says use the bias and volts in conjunction. it took me a little bit to find the sounds i like but once i found them theres tons to choose from for such a simple pedal.

now i have tried this pedal in a bunch of different setups. i tried it with a strat and an epiphone wildkat. i tried it through a fender hot rod deluxe and an epiphone valve junior. running direct into the 5 watt epiphone it was really easy to get mellow smooth overdrive tones. now with the hot rod deluxe it was really great when i ran it through another distortion or overdrive pedal. i tried it before a big muff and man there is a hell of alot of sounds you can get tweaking this along with your guitars volume control and the big muff controls. see thats the thing with these kind of pedals you have to adjust and find your sound. it makes a decent fuzz pedal like the big muff sound great. through the clean channel of the fender it wasnt amazing but still nice. thats why i say use another pedal after it and you got gold. now with a low wattage amp you can use it direct and get great light overdrive tones. i love the way it gives that ****** up low voltage sapped battery sound if you want that. then you can turn up the voltage to 9v and it sounds nice clear and full. mixing and matching between the bias and volts gives so many different sounds.

it seems solid in the diecast case. we shall see.

i have many ehx pedals and never had one crap out yet but i don't abuse them like some.

ok so if you like fuzz and have some decent fuzz pedals this is a great match to get more splatter and funk in your fuzz. it also will take a good distortion pedal over the top and made it sound awesome. i got with an old school ross distortion pedal sounds like metallica. then tweak it some more and you got the stooges or other old punk sounds (angry samoans anyone?) hook it to the big muff you got hendrix and many 60's and 70's fuzz/overdrive sounds.

I know what each of the three controls does but the combination of the three is tricky to get dialed in.

Let's see... I play a Fender American Deluxe Ash or Epiphone Les Paul into an Epiphone Blues Custom 30 tube amp. The pedals I play with most include a Boss TU-2 tuner, BF-3 flanger, RC-20XL looper, Vox wah, DOD 250 overdrive, Electro-Harmonix Metal Muff distortion, Stereo Pulsar tremolo, Small Stone Nano phaser, and an MXR Dyna Comp compressor.

The overdrive from the Germanium OD pedal is weak by itself. The bias and voltage settings are the real feature of this pedal but they didn't give me quite what I was expecting after watching a couple videos online. I was expecting a good, fuzzy, raspy breakup that some "fuzz" pedals don't even have. Instead, I got something less impressive and less musical.

And like another reviewer, I also heard a loud high pitched buzz when plugged into an AC adapter. The buzz gets quieter and goes away when you turn the voltage knob up far enough but that means the voltage feature is useless when you use an AC adapter! There is no problem when powered from a battery. I wouldn't expect a problem like this from a $15 distortion. If you are interested in this pedal, try it at a store first!

Based on how it sounds and the problem running off of an AC adapter, I would say that you couldn't depend on this pedal right out of the box! I suppose you could count on it to not get any worse though. :-) I have a very high opinion of Electro-Harmonix otherwise though, which is why I am so surprised at this pedal.

I have never dealt with them because the other pedals I own by EHX work perfectly and sound great.

I felt like this pedal had a lot of potential but I was disappointed by a less than overwhelming effect and the AC adapter problem. I am surprised that any company released this product and even more surprised that it was made by a company that has been so very good otherwise.

If you're into effects, it's easy to get many cool sounds.

I plugged this box in and was loving the sounds. The web video demos do not do this box justice. It can get a nice slightly overdriven tone in spades. It really improves the tone of a good tube amp, rather than mask it. It does not get a very heavy overdrive, but it is not supposed to. It can also get that "broken amp" sound by lowering the voltage; it sounds like your amp is broken. I didn't dig the broken amp sounds, but some might. If you run the input volume at maximum, it can get a beautiful, heavy overdrive, but with no output volume, it will be much louder than the unaffected signal.

HERE'S THE BIG PROBLEM - This box has a fair amount of hiss and hum. It's not too bad with batteries, but the hum is very loud if you use a power supply. I use a VL Pedal Power 2, which is a very good quality power supply. I have never had a problem with hiss or hum while using my PP2. When I hooked the Germanium OD up to the PP2, the hum was unbearable! I brought it back to Sam Ash, with my pedalboard, and tried two other Germanium OD's. They all had the same very loud hum with the PP2. The salesguy tried a Visual Sound ne Spot, and the problem was the same - loud hum. The salesguy was as dumbfounded as I.

Bottom line: If you're using batteries and want a cool 1960's overdrive sound, and some crazy broken-amp sounds, this is a cool pedal. If you need to use it on a powered pedalboard, it's absolutely unusable.

I love EH effects, but I think the under-engineer many of them. They have some very cool stuff (Poly Chorus, Poly Phase, Big Muff, LPB1 and 2ube). They also make a lot of crap (Micro Small Stone, Worm, Flanger Hoax, Stereo Clone Theory XO...), these pedals have so much hiss and noise, they are useless in live or studio situations). I have had many EH pedals crap out on me, so reliability is an issue.

I have called CS, and they were helpful once before, but I recently called with a question on my #1 Delay, and my call was never returned. 50% is a failing grade!

IMHO, EH has a tendency of releasing effects before they have the bugs worked out, and this is one. If it does not work satisfactorily with a power supply, don't release it with a PS jack!, make it battery only. A while back, I called EH and asked why my Flanger Hoax had so much hiss. They told me it was normal, and not meant for studio use....that's a
JOKE!

I would have kept this pedal if it was $100 or less, but I paid over $150. I returned it because it's not something I could use on my pedalboard due to the excessive hum.