hi, i recently saw a harmonic percolator on ebay. i was wondering if anyone could give a better description of the effect, as the ebay description was not very forthcoming.

It's a lot like a RAT or MXR Dist +, but the distortion is a bit more... umm, garbled. It uses a germanium transistor that can sometimes be overloaded, and when it is iverloaded, the distortion will lose definition. Some people like this, some people don't.

The percolator is electronicallt a lot like the pedals mentioned above, which consists of an amplifier and diode clipping tied to ground. The main difference is that gain is basically a volume control before the input, whereas is the above mention pedals, gain is a voltage divider in the negative feedback loop of the amplifier.

Cheers,

Ben Adrian
Oakland

worth a quick squizz, if only for the original fact sheet:

http://pages.prodigy.net/chuckcollins/percolator.html

Any sound examples I can hear?

hej!

haven't tried this in a while and i'm sadly stuck in the 9-5 so can't test but:

http://www.tonefrenzy.com/2/interfax_ha ... olator.htm

as i recall it's not the best example but you should get the idea that it's essentially overdrive with some interesting characteristics.

some other user comments that might help:

http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/ ... or-01.html

Sound Examples.

THe coda at the end of "Mama Gina" I'm guessing is a harmonic percolator. Of course, remember that this is a DI'd guitar, so you'll be hearing a lot more treble than if you just plugged this into a standard guitar amp.

I have an old Ross distortion pedal which is in the same school as the percolator, and I absolutely love the pedal. Plus it was about $50.

Ben Adrian
oakland

I've had an original one for over 15 years and agree with much of what has been said so far. However I think the most important characteristic of the pedal is that it doesn't shave off the low end like most pedals do. My bass player has had it on a long-term loan from me because his bass still sounds fat when he plays through it. I think it sounds best when it used at about 50%. Gives great grit/bite but the sound still has clarity.
I have no idea if the new copies sound like the original. The original ones are now rare as hen's teeth and stupid expensive.

I would say you would be bummed if you payed out the #&%$!
for any vintage distortion or fuzz pedal unless you tried on own rig!
I love tycobrahe octavias (jeff beck,stevie!)out of every 10 guys that played one only 3 or 4 would get how to make them sound good.the rest were happy they never bought one ,then the price was around $600 each if you could even find one?
moral of the story use ears not eyes when buying expensive or cheap pedals over ebay.
-fx pedal lover

You may want to enquire about the percolator at Rockhaus Guitars in Milwaukee. I believe I read somewhere that they may have a source for reproductions and do come by the originals now and then.

I friend of mine picked up two of them at Rockhaus back in 90/91, one of which he sold to John Mohr of Tar to use as a spare. I remember John saying that the newly acquire one sounded like shit compared to the one he got from Albini. So be aware that they do not all sound the same.
dB-