DBA Germanium Filter - Modded stripboard

Morbidpale

Well-known member
Finally finished up my DBA Germanium Filter. I am very pleased with how it all worked out and I think this circuit is incredible. As much as I like Death By Audio its not always that usable but I expect this will stay on my board along time. Using it as an overdrive I might like it even more than my Hudson Broadcast build. Would love anyone's thoughts on one versus the other.

I made a few mods and am thankful to Chuck Bones for his deep dive into this and my questions he answered. There are a few mods I made.
R3/4 are 10M to add a little more input impedance. It makes a subtle difference but one I like.
R9/15 became 100k trimmers for biasing.
C7 was put on a 3pdt on/on/on switch along with a 10n and a 22n. This shifts the notch over to the treble side and works out much better for my playing.
Transistors are MP37b with an hfe around 50.

There is a good chance I will put this behind buffers at some point. Even though I am not a huge fan of Pickup Simulators I built one in with a internal on/off switch. It sounds pretty good so it will help useful when I want it.

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Cult of Germanium, sign me up already! Now I want to know more about the circuit so will check out Chuck's writeup. Looks like your build uses NPN germanium? Is the vero available?
 
I think this circuit is incredible.
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C7 was put on a 3pdt on/on/on switch along with a 10n and a 22n. This shifts the notch over to the treble side
I'll have to give that a try before I commit it to vero.

That's a great looking build, inside and out. Very well executed.
 
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killer build, inside and out!
I need to find some good NPN germs and try it out, I remember playing an original in a guitar shop and liking it, especially paired with a muff

What's that little push button in the pickup simulator?
 
Cult of Germanium, sign me up already! Now I want to know more about the circuit so will check out Chuck's writeup. Looks like your build uses NPN germanium? Is the vero available?
 
Ha. Looks like someone else likes drinking kool aid too.
 

(1) I'd like to hear from anyone who's put ears on that.

(2) I'm mildly suspicious of any pedal that doesn't market with a gutshot — thoroughly suspicious if it's supposed to be germanium.
 
Ha. Looks like someone else likes drinking kool aid too.

I named a pedal "Syphilitic Vagina" a while back, thinking I'd coined that phrase myself. Turns out, some obscure (to me) band had some obscure (to me) song called "[Tere Their] Syphilitic Vaginas to Pieces", and I learned that after posting a build report. I was a bit crestfallen.

I checked out the song — not my scene.
 
(1) I'd like to hear from anyone who's put ears on that.

(2) I'm mildly suspicious of any pedal that doesn't market with a gutshot — thoroughly suspicious if it's supposed to be germanium.
Joe Gore is legit. He wrote and played the guitar part on Tom Waits's Goin'Out West. He toured with PJ Harvey. And more.

He has pedal demos on his YouTube channel, which is full.of amazing stuff BTW.
I have his Screech octave fuzz. It's exactly as advertised.
That is not his website, just a store.
 
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