Key Points
PigDog’s Germanium Overdrive, a Steve Williams production, uses a late-50s/early-60s RCA 2N270 Germanium Transistor and 2 Germanium Diodes for rich, harmonic, mid-gain overdrive. Level, Drive and Filter provide strong guitar volume cleanup to clean; high Level and Drive add white noise, while Filter shaves highs.
The clean perf-board build includes 6 metal film resistors, 4 electrolytic capacitors, WIMA, mylar and yellow drop capacitors, a presumed J201 input stage JFET, battery clip and soft-click 3PDT Footswitch, in a dark grey sparkle enclosure.
Only 50 were made: 25 in May and 25 in the second batch. As of last Friday, the price was £299, plus £12 DHL delivery. There is no demo; it joins the Reference Collection alongside the JuJu Mark III Fuzz.
As expected for a Steve Williams production - this is another superb high-quality build - utilising a super rare late 50’s/early 60’s RCA 2N270 Germanium Transistor.
The knobs were set up so they all pointed due south - albeit I had to adjust every single one as they weren’t 100’s in alignment (and it offended my OCD) - so many knobs have odd set-screws, and these are no exception - very good looking silver-top varieties though - perfect for this pedal - while part of me feels they should be gold-tops - as I always associate Germanium with amber or gold hues! I’m very fussy about knob choices, and the alignment of such - everyone should use some sort of ’better-setter’ device when affixing those knobs - so they all line up at their starting point!
Controls - Level, Drive, Filter.
I started with all knobs in the 12 o’c position (a half turn from their lowest point), and then moved the Filter (Low Pass Filter) right back to 7 o’c, and ended up with both the Level and Drive @ circa 1:30 o.c.
If you crank the Drive and Level knobs up - you do end up with a somewhat audible noise floor, not one of those fizzy ones - but definitely some extra white noise - so I advise some degree of caution in how high you crank those. This Germanium Overdrive has absolutely superb guitar volume gain cleanup - so you can set the Drive relatively high - and then wind it all the way back to clean. But you do need to balance the Level and Drive, and indeed the Filter / High Cut / Low Pass Filter - helps shave off some of those highs - which can lead to some reduction in the noise floor too.
I really love this pedal as is - it’s a very classic sounding Germanium Harmonic Overdrive with superb dynamics - mid-gain in its gain profile - and sounds superb with my settings! And like I said - you can beautifully control the gain profile with your guitar volume - all the way down to clean!
Historically, Steve used to include a packing list of all the components used - but here we only know for sure the provenance of the core 2N270 Transistor.
You can clearly also see 6 x metal film resistors, 4 x black BJ electrolytic capacitors, 2 x WIMA film capacitors, one dark-green mylar film capacitor, and one yellow drop capacitor, 2 unspecified Germanium Diodes, and a presumably J201 input stage JFET. There's also a component mostly concealed under the main Transistor - such that I could not entirely make it out!
It looks like Steve also favours the Gørva gold standard of soft-click 3PDT Footswitches!
A really clean build on a perf board - also with a battery clip onboard - if that's how you wish to power your pedal - very handy to have, and a feature that is increasingly becoming less common nowadays!
The enclosure sports a warm dark grey sparkle enclosure - with fairly minimal but elegant lettering. As I mentioned - I feel Gold-top knobs would be a better match here - but I still really like the included ones, and have no inkling to change them.
Mine was from the second batch of 25. There was an earlier batch of 25 released in May, which I was aware of - but as the first batch went live - I was sunk deep into one of my write-ups - and quite forgot about the time slot - until it was too late. I normally set myself an alarm in advance. But I was so engrossed in a big project - and often with those - I don't come up for air for several hours - that I quite forgot which day it was!
When the 2nd batch went live last Friday - I was fully prepped in advance - and managed to snag one right at the start of that order cycle. The pedal landed this Wednesday - so I've only just had the briefest of time with it - but enough to come away with a very favourable impression.
Only 50 of these were made as far as I'm aware, and considering the rarity of the 2N270 Transistors - there aren't likely to be any more. Steve announced he had other projects to attend to in any case - and was moving on.
The Germanium Overdrive was priced at £299, and delivery was £12 via DHL - which are normally very efficient!
Alas there is no demo for this pedal yet, there might never be. It's kind of moot in many ways though - as all 50 are sold, and according to Steve - there won't be any more.
Some of these will no doubt end up on Reverb.com at some future point at some exorbitant price - but not mine - like all the pedals I feature on this site - this one becomes a permanent member of the Guitar Pedal X Reference Collection!
If a demo does emerge I will for sure load it up here - in the meantime - you just need to go from my description, and the circuit visual in the second image above!
The Germanium Overdrive is just my second PigDog pedal after the JuJu Mark III Fuzz! Both pictured here below! :
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