What’s going on Gearheads! Today I’m happy to finally share my feature on the counterpart to the JDM Pedals Humdinger series - this time a Germanium version! You can previously check out the feature I did on the Silicon Humdinger here: “CLICK HERE”.
JDM Pedals took the basic DNA of their Silicon fuzz/octave, a roaring and raucous circuit and brought all the warmth and open quality a Germanium transistor can bring to the table. The two fuzzes are similar in their function, both being able to independently access all the sides of the pedal, fuzz, boost, octavia and of course their unique ability to act as a fuzzy swiss army knife of sorts. JDM isn’t messing around with the versatility in these circuits. I’ve not been able to find one situation where I couldn’t get not only a sound that works, but a great one.
The GE version does vary in a few ways, mainly in it’s “Texture” control, which acts more of a EQ shift control that moves the midrange subtly throughout the range of the control. A much more subtle control than that control on the SI version, which was a pure bias control that would get broken, gated tones to full fat ones. The texture control on the GE version acts more like a “settle it in” once you’ve got everything in a general spot you like it, sweep the potentiometer to sweeten the tone. Very cool and very usable.
All in all, the GE Humdinger is a definitely a warmer, more open fuzz circuit that I find works great for rhythm guitar parts, fatter single note lead lines and when you bring the Octave side in… you get massive 60’s Hendrix type tones that are quite addictive. The volume knob cleanup is stellar, being both germanium and how the circuit is tuned. Again, as with the previously featured SI Humdinger, the Thin/Fat and TONE controls really offer a versatility that’s so useful in the heat of the battle. Being able to add or subtract core elements to the gain structure, how fuzzy or thick something is… it’s simply simple. You wonder why all pedal designers don’t incorporate this kind of control. Nothing is worse than getting your beautiful, fat and gooey fuzz tone going on stage or in a crowded mix and you’re lost in the sauce! The versatility of the Humdinger’s EQ feature set totally fixes that. You can keep the core tone and feeling you’ve got, but simply add or subtract elements to settle it in. Everything is interactive with itself, so you’ve got a wild variety of options at your feet.
I really enjoyed spending quality time with the GE Humdinger… I had specifically not done the two features back to back as I wanted to in one way, isolate myself from any simple generalizations when creating the music for this feature… but also to allow the two pedals to sort of create their own destinies in a way. I would not use both pedals for the same thing. I would absolutely pull each of them out for different types of parts, different gigs… different instruments. At the possible behest of taking way too long to get this feature out, I’ve found that uniqueness and am certainly happy I did. They may look similar, being in the same enclosure etc… but man oh man - they are absolute yin to the yang of eachother.
As always (although sometimes certainly not as easy as this demo) I used the GE Humdinger on all the stringed instruments. Using the various gain stages and volume clean up to get all the layers heard here. I highly recommend this fuzz for anyone looking for a pedal that I guarantee will work with your rig and your real world environments, whether you’re on stage, in a studio, in a garage or a bedroom!
Thanks for checking this Gearheads Feature on the JDM Germanium Humdiner Fuzz/Octave. If you’d like to learn more about Joe and all that Joe Doc Music is up to, please do check out these sites for more information.
https://www.joedocmusic.com/jdm-pedals-humdinger-germanium-edition-dual-pedal-fuzz-octavia-boost/
https://www.facebook.com/JDM-Pedals-1792051797784922/
Until next time Gearheads, please take a moment to Like, Subscribe & Share this Feature and I’ll see you all very soon!