Anyone who skipped forward past the chat should feel proper guilty. That is the gold...the setup, the background, the vision, the personality! Scroll your ass back to the beginning and try again.
***Nerd comment: adding a Germanium (Ge) diode to offset the leakage on a Ge transistor (reverse biased) is the solution to the temperature problem. Since they are both made of Ge, they are affected in the same way by the temperature. If they both have same leakage current, the diode will cancel the transistor leakage at any temperature.Very cool episode BTW!
@@kbirridia maybe a small enough resistor would do a similar job. However a resistor would alter the 'sound' of the fuzz, because of its linear conductance. Both diode and transistor have non-linear conductance, so using a diode is the best solution here.
It’s nice of you to add the “skip all the chat” disclaimer, but I can’t see why anyone would want to do that. Thanks for another fantastic show, guys! 🙏🏻
You’re probably right about that. It takes a while to realize that the world of pedals is not an exact science but more like a philosophy - there are no real answers, just more questions ;-)
Love this, super interesting topic. Used to rehearse through Canadian winters in a garage without insulation, band mate had an EAE Model FET drive pedal that used to give up when it got too cold. We’d take five while he’d hold it up to the furnace to revive it. 😆
@1:04:32 Mick: Didn't the warning on that thermostat say, 'NOT to point at eyes' as it may cause damage? Dan: the only real adult in the room points it right at his own eyes. ROLF!
@@ThatPedalShow LOL! Well he is the one with actual children and doesn't have much of a choice does he. I did fully enjoy the video. I am a Germanium diode fanboy.
I live in Brazil and one hot day my lovely Jimmy Behan Tone Bender MK1 clone went silent just like that Analogman Sun Face. Now I'll have to find a sweet spot for it... In the fridge. 😄
Great show today Mick & Dan, really good demonstrating the germanium fuzzes with the heat test so people can hear how the heat affects the pedal resulting in basically an unusable pedal. Thanks gents keep up the good informative work. Cheers Steve
Btw, please bring back the Fender Bassbreaker 15! That’s the people’s amp! With quarantines still going on around the world, it would be awsome to revisit that series of episodes - getting the best of your amp - with the Bassbreaker!
There hasn't been any quarantines where I am since April of 2020 (i.e . 13 months ago). Why are people still quarantining (in western Countries)? The evidence is clear that it doesn't help and just shuts down the economies . . . man.
She could go on Safari next winter, my Fuzz has a lamp pointed at it in an otherwise no mod cons studio, just out of town from her place. If I get the Echo Array [Death Star] fully operational,, she might be hearing that regardless.
@@robotsongs Hah, just a typical example of internet hive mind. That said, Sylvia has an immense knowledge of pedals and gear, but from a completely different perspective than your average guitar player. She could be a cool guest on a future show if that opportunity ever presents itself
I saw almost all of your vids... I've never laughed that hard on your video. This is masterpiece, at least for me as a phisicist and bedroom guitarist. You satisfy me in both ways :3
Bill Nye the fraud guy. Doesn’t even have a science degree. And spare me the nonsense about science doesn’t require a formal degree. It certainly should if you are teaching it.
I love my Benson fuzz. I’m so glad you guys did an episode on it. I’ve always struggled to find a fuzz I got on with. I had tried a big muff, way huge swollen pickle, and OBNE Alpha Haunt, but none of them really clicked with me (the rams head muff was nice for certain things, but I found it quite limited). I always preferred the germanium sound to silicon, and was looking at a sun face, but just couldn’t decide which of the gazillion transistor options to get, and at the jam one (I’ve forgotten the name), but I was a bit apprehensive about dropping quite a lot of money on a pedal that would be temperature sensitive and would really need to be first in the chain. Then the Benson was announced, I watched a few demos and immediately ordered one. It’s been a revelation. First and only fuzz I’ve really loved!
My favorite demonstration of quantum mechanics inside a semiconductor (all those electrons jumping up to the next energy level as the temperature goes up...)! Real fun video!
This episode cracked me up - fun and valuable stuff, guys! More Johan Segeborn style experiments and tangents would be great fun. Would love to see you do some experiments together once normal travel is back again.
My favourite Germanium fuzz is my Ramble Twin Bender. In Queensland I need the ability to adjust the bias as it gets hotter, and it has an impedance pot like the Benson allowing me put a wah etc before it. Other than that it's a classic Mk II bender.
thanks guys, it really felt like a proper fuzz episode was over due. remember if a fuzz is after a buffer, you can turn the fuzz knob to zero and crank the volume. then you can control the fuzz level with your guitar volume. it sounds a bit thinner but not bad at all.
What you need is a liquid helium filled cryo unit under the pedalboard. Run the cooling tubes along the length of the board, back to a mains powered pump. You can even use it to keep your refreshments cool while you play. Downside is, your board will weigh twice as much but it's a small price to pay in the interests of enhancing your performance, looking after your fuzz and keeping your beer nice and cold.
Since temperature primarily alters bias point of the transistors it'd be cool to show the Sunface with the sundial bias knob (though it does have a finite range) and see how you can adjust the bias to/not to compensate for the temperature. I'd be keen to know what temp range the sundial can compensate for (they're soooo good)
I went looking for this comment to avoid duplicating it. I was yelling at the screen: "Why didn't you adjust the SunDial bias when hot? That's what it's there for!" Another major problem with the demo is that an alkaline battery in the fuzzface circuit messes with the gain. I specified higher gain transistors in my AnalogMan SunFace RCA fuzz, so I can run rechargeable 9V batteries or Alkalines and just run the gain a little higher to compensate for the lower internal impedance of the modern batteries.
Loved it! The tangents, the playing, the testing, the knowledge, all great! Really surprised how well the Benson did with heat. Didn't think it would hold together. I changed from a Kingtone Mini Ge to the Mini Si after trying to play one around 34c in my house last summer. Found out from Jesse that the ideal operating range is actually quite low 4c to 24c.
I sense a new resume update for some guitar techs...."Able to stand with fans and blowdryers on-stage at the pedalboard during a gig to ensure the fuzz is operating at the proper temperature. Watching you guys blowdrying the pedals was pretty epic. Well done.
All the fuzz manufacturers seem to think that buffers BEFORE fuzz is the only problem, but I've struggled with them anywhere in the chain, before OR after. That quirkiness is just the nature of those old circuits it seems, and the magic of that sound is often worth the headache. 🤟
Didn't own a Fuzz pedal until I bought the CB MKII preamp. Then I realized how wrong I was about what I thought Fuzz was. Not only did Fuzz sound wonderful but it was so dynamic and varied in tonal character. Perhaps most important and something you can't get from just hearing someone else play Fuzz is how wonderful it "feels" to play through a Fuzz pedal. Since my great awakening to Fuzz from the CB MKII preamp I have added an Analogman Sunface and just recently the Benson Germanium Fuzz. Great episode. Thanks for helping us understand, at least in my case, the often misunderstood Fuzz. Fuzz, I had to feel it to really get it. Long live Fuzz!
Hi laddos (see, it’s not as simple as just adding an ‘o,’ sometimes you need to double up a consonant sound). Anyway, where I live in Japan, we often hover around the 40°C mark in summer. My solutions for my germanium Fuzz Face clone: added external bias (only of some help), putting it in the veg cooler and, once it warms up after about 10 - 20 mins of use, using one of those medical gel packs that you keep in the freezer. Wrap it in a tea towel to take care of condensation and put the fuzz on top. Oh, recent true fuzz story. At home I use a wee Vox AC4HW1. Sounds glorious. Anyway, went out a couple of weeks ago and took my board. Plugged into a Twin Reverb reissue, quite rather loud. Turned on the Fuzz Face, still set for home. Felt like a truck had just driven into my chest. Hello headroom. Peace and all that. Dean
Yes! I love the sheer extent of crazy that people will consider for fuzz. Hahahaha! Mick here. And hooray for that truck over the chest. That’s what we live for!
Oh’ Mick.....that was a SWeeeeeeeeeT opener! 🙏 I have been waiting for this one....it is the most curious of conundrums. I also have a belief that there also must be some circuit sensitivity in some old amps as one day, it can be heavenly and other days, unrecognizable.
His playing is always great but lately he seems particularly inspired. The last video they just made about univibes has some of the best playing from him I've ever heard.
Wow, thanks guys. To be honest, this is my thing - the thing I love most. So that might be it. Thank you both. Pre - you’re right about the circuit sensitivity I reckon. So much variance in that old stuff!
"So keep measuring it." As Dan is blowing on his NKT Red dot worried it wasn't gonna come back! 🤣 Sorry funny not funny!! My heart sank with you for a minute! Absolutely giddy every time you guys do an episode on fuzz!!! That never gets old! Bang on!! I'd love to see some more "...pedal pick" episodes highlighting interesting builders out there? Keep up the inspiring work guys, thank you!!
Alternative titles: - Voiding your warranty 101 - From Fuzz Face to Fuzz Fart - I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more fuzz! - Fuzzing by degrees Thanks guys - for another fascinating showcase of pedal power :)
@@ThatPedalShow Saw them at Comicon at the NEC bout 6 years ago, along with Huggy. I was only there for my lad,,,,,,,, obviously. And in another twist, David Soul lived a couple of miles from me when he lived in the U.K. in the early eighties. But yes, If I was a good lad, me mum would let me stay up and watch it on a Friday night. Brilliant.
No. Way. You’ve just outcooled the internet. Living near David Soul is fubar. I’d have totally stalked him. And painted my car red with a white stripe. Hahaahaha
I have the Benson Germanium Fuzz and it’s just awesome. The temperature control is nice but the way it nukes any impedance issues just blow my mind. I have a few active pickup guitars, I like to run a wah before fuzz, I like to use synths sometimes, and it just makes everything work without much else tinkering. It’s a great all around preamp and also a brilliant addition to a digital setup, I put it in front of my HX Stomp or Zoia and it’s a massive improvement in feel and dynamics
Best ever. Always thought those old roadies who told me they put FX in the fridge where victims of too much acid. And I wouldn’t have sold my germanium pedal last summer in the heat thinking it was on its way out 🤷♂️
@That Pedal Show btw, from this day forward, let there be known that Dan is the Explanation Ninja, while Mick is the Presentation Ninja :-) Dan's explanation of buffers, impedance and how circuts work together around the 42:00 mark is just excellent :-)
A totally practical solution would be a pedal board with one of those Cray computer cooling devices. Now, to modulate this effect an external foot pedal that would vary between boiling water and liquid nitrogen to flow in and around the transistors.
I had to pause this half way through to have a play through my NKT Red dot Sun Face, which I bought promptly after watching your old show at Analogman. It sounded particularly glorious today because it was just me at the house and I could turn the volume up just a little bit more than normal to hear that singing sustain with my 335. Really seemed you guys had fun making this one! 😁 All you need is (a working) fuzz
@1:06:00 - For Mick's pedal cooler, the build could be really simple and is very possible to make. Get a small, powerful fan such as a Noctua 40mm running at 12v (costs under £15) and you could wire it straight to the Gigrig power supply you both use with a 12v adapter (trivial for Dan!). Plus it's small enough to fit the side of an enclosure and you can easily cut a hole on the sides for airflow. Tbh this will work as well as any water cooling here as trying to get contact for heat transfer on components on a pedal would be a pain, directing airflow is straight forward & no condensation too!
You do understand that the air that a fan blows around is at exactly the same temperature as the rest of the air, right? If you personally stand in front of a fan then the airflow past you feels cooler, but this is because the flowing air enables your own body temperature regulation system (sweating) to work better - the actual air itself is at the same temperaure as all the rest of the air. If you do not believe this then set up a thermometer in a room and let it settle to the ambient temperature. Then turn on a fan and blow it onto the thermometer. The temperture remains the same. A fan has no mechanism whatsoever for absorbing heat, it just moves the air around at whatever temperature the air happens to be. The reason that airflow works to lower the temperature of the cooling water which circulates around an engine is that the engine gets an awful lot hotter than the surrounding air. In that case, blowing the surrounding air onto the engine or more accurately through the radiator will cool the engine down, but only because the engine was so very hot in comparison in the first place. Obviously, blowing air which is significantly cooler than the hot thing will produce a cooling effect as excess heat from the hot thing can be transferred into the cooler air flowing around it. But in a situation where a thing is at the ambient temperature, then blowing more air over it which is at the same temperature as it will have no cooling effect whatsoever.
Wow, this was an interesting show you convinced me to shun away from germanium fuzz pedals and I always preferred silicon for some reason now I'am glad I did .Great Show by the way Thanks!!!
Wow it’s crazy how big a difference that makes. I’ve never owned a germanium fuzz, (I’m not really a fuzz guy... yet) but i believed you guys when you said it changes with temperatures. I didn’t think I would hear it that much though! To my ears it seemed like the sweet spots were just above room temperature, but once it started getting significantly hotter it got much much worse
I know they make thermoelectric cooling chips. I've toyed with putting one inside a fuzz pedal, but Mick nailed the obvious problem - condensation. Add to that the significant amount of power the cooling chip would likely need - it's a non-starter. lol.
I use an external thermostat on my chest freezer to make it into a beer keg fridge. I would imagine that you could use that same thermostat to regulate the temperature of a fuzz fridge.
I have a king time GE mini fuzz with adjustable bias and bias feedback LED. You can visualize the bias drifting from a cold morning to a warm afternoon in California as the bias LED goes off.
I was about to say that the sound difference was kind of minor within the temperatures but then 19:41 happened lol. It sometimes makes sounds my Sputnik III makes in drift mode. Very cool experiment.
I run a Benson fuzz into a Benson Preamp into a Benson Monarch Reverb with a G2 and Gigrig power. All I can say is that it is the best guitar tone I have ever heard.
Polystyrene cooling device is just a cheap styrofoam cooler (beer cooler) here in USA. Usually the cheapest cooler found at Walmart used for fishing trips. Loved this episode guys!
I really want to see more with the UAD golden- yes it's pricey, but demos I've heard are sounding really, really good- better than anything else. Love to hear the TPS take on this unit-
@@ThatPedalShow I run a Bonamassa FF mini to work with my humbucker-equipped guitar. Every time I tried silicon FF’s, I didn’t gel with them like I did with germanium. But man, if I had a Strat, I’d be on the phone with Sweetwater grabbing a Hendrix FF and having them send you a freighter full of shipping crates loaded with cash. 😉
Loved this video, guys. Couple of observations... That floral board was beautiful! The silicon fuzz face sounded awesome for me! If you're ever in Surrey, pop over for a cup of tea and a jam. X
I believe this oscillation runaway, in transistor radios, used to be called ''motorboating.''' Anyway, I recall my 70s Tandy electronics kit had a specific circuit using a germanium transistor as the sensor in an electronic thermometer experiment.
Active cooling of fuzz pedals? Possible, but tricky. The first place I'd look is in a camping supplies shop, as there are many portable mini fridges that run on 12Vdc. Ideal to transport temperamental pedals. Possibly even usable on stage (if you don't mind having a big box next to your pedalboard & don't need to adjust on the fly). Advantage - simple to implement & relatively cheap (I've just had a quick shufty on t' web, these camping fridges seem to run from about £70 and up, so roughly the cost of a single pedal)... Other'n that idea, it is at least possible to cool a pedal directly. You'd need a replacement base plate, to which you'd need to mount a thermoelectric cooling element, using the Peltier effect. Info on this is available on Wikipedia. As there are usb powered drinks coolers available that use this technology, this might actually be a practical idea. Huh. Who'da thunk it, an actual practical idea. Set Dan onto it, he'd probably be able to make/mod something up that would actually work... (EDIT - there's plenty of ebay listings for usb mini fridges, mostly under £20. Might be worth some experimentation..?) Anyhoo, great episode - I've always heard horror stories ABOUT Ge fuzzes misbehaving, but this is the first time I've ever actually SEEN it demonstrated... Cheers... G
It really fills up the empty spot to see you play together... Cannnn we get a show of you two playing together to demonstrate your general preference ;) in drive/eq/time effects to show how two people can use 'their sound' and make it work? Pleasssse?! - Austin
We are getting TPS towers ready for more music. I hate jamming - Mick here - but I do love playing music that I’ve had chance to think about. Hopefully me and Dan can do some of that to fill up that spot for you. Cheers!
It stunned me just how bad my wonderful germanium fuzzes sounded on humid Australian days. Made many a hasty decision only to later realise it was just the weather.
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