silicone or germainium

[Tone seaker]

I love this recording is it silicone or germainium fuzz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSf5ZdElhy0


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itcYsQrh ... e=youtu.be

[Lefty Lou]

It's more likely (or highly likely) that it's a silicon based fuzz pedal because he's got that clarity and edge to his tone. Germanium transistors are unstable once they get warmed up, and in many cases (especially with modern manufacturers of fuzz pedals) you'll see one silicon transistor followed by one or more germanium transistors. This stabilizes the front end of the fuzz unit and smoothes out the germanium's rough edges. I just recently bought a SkinPimp Mk2 Fuzz that I absolutely love for the Jimmy Page Led Zeppelin I sound. SkinPimp makes EXCELLENT reproductions of classic fuzz pedals, and I'd recommend that you seriously give them a looksy. I have never been a fuzz or distortion pedal kind guy (maybe when I was in my 20's), but am now a more OD pedal kind of guy. I have to say that this fuzz pedal was well worth the wait. The tonal response and dynamics absolutely nail that classic Led Zep tone from their earlier years. Good fuzz pedals are semi-expensive even though they may have only a few electronic parts, but I figure where all the cost lies is in the breadboarding of (different/various) transistor combinations that have to work just right in order to replicate those vintage classic fuzz pedals of old.

[billshatner]

germanium

[Xplorer]

interesting amp in the first video ... what is it ?
i thought silicon when i heard it.

[Tone seaker]

just to clarify im talking about the fuzz used on Gloria even though both might be the same on the first video. So is it Ger or silc. thks I love that tone

[Xplorer]

i think that we understood .

[Lefty Lou]

Jimi was known to use Fuzz Faces with (all) silicon transistors, does that answer your question? In the early to mid 60's germanium fuzz pedals were more in use and popular with the brits, silicon was thought to be more stable but had the distinct tonal characteristics that I referred to previously in this thread.

[Tone seaker]

He switched some time between Germainum and silicone and this is recorded 10-29-68 so i was hoping some of you guys with ears for it could figure out which it is. thks

[Xplorer]

ok, once more : "i thought of a silicon fuzz when i heard it"

[Brandon]

Sounded like silicone to me

EDIT: just listen to gloria all the way through. I would say def silicone IMHO

[Tone seaker]

so which would nail the tone best a Dunlop JH blue or the dunlop EJ thks

[Lefty Lou]

Tone seaker, play both at your local GC and find out for yourself.

[yngwie308]

Here is a shootout of the various current Fuzz Faces:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMEXoo0p ... plpp_video" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Cool San Diego '69 gig:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVyImbyi ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The germanium transistors are the one that are temperature and climate sensitive, I believe Hendrix started with these and went to the silicon later. My Arbiter FF that I d bought at Jim Marshall's shop had the germanium trannies.
The weird thing was on the fuzz control, the pot slider went on 11 or so into this hyper cool sounding state that would feed back if you stopped playing or took your hands off the strings but the feedback on all the notes was awesome and I have never heard another FF do the same thing..
yngwie308

[Tone seaker]

Tone seaker, play both at your local GC and find out for yourself.

I cant drag a full plexi stack in to GC and crank it that is why i ask here to get it from the ones who can do it and tell me. thks

[Lefty Lou]

Tone Seaker, the same engineer at Jim Dunlop designed both the JB (Joe Bonamassa) and EJ (Eric Johnson) wah pedals. The JB wah supposedly has PNP Germanium transistor(s) and the EJ wah supposedly uses NPN Silicon transistors. The JB wah is supposedly warmer sounding while the EJ wah is supposedly more "cutting" or bright. Hope this answers your questions.