Germanium II (Cornish G2)

[MichaelW]

Build Rating

5.00 star(s)

Well, believe it or not, I've been working on this pedal for 3 days, finally buttoned it up.

Been a bit crazy at work past week or so.

I've always been intrigued with Pete Cornish pedals, probably partly of the association with David Gilmour, and partly because I'd never pay the crazy retail prices for one even if I could find one.

But somehow for the most part they've failed to have much holding power for me. I think my favorite one so far is the OC-1 Compressor. Maybe followed closely by the CC-1 overdrive.

I was stoked about the G2 and P2 from @Fingolfen's posts and ordered the board. I had high hopes for the G2 but to be honest I'm just not feeling it.

It's a very warm to dark pedal, to the point that it feels like I did something wrong. Sounds a bit like a muffled Big Muff unless I crank the tone knob then also boost it with the Particle Accelerator with the treble and mid knobs cranked. I recall there was a post about some cap substitutions to open it up. Which I may try. I think it was in the Aion build docs.

At lower gains, it can sound kinda cool with a strat but the gain (Sustain) comes on pretty quickly and it get's pretty wooly.

As I'm looking at the P2 board it looks almost identical but since that's marketed as a true "fuzz" I'm hoping for better results with that one when I get to building it.

Like most Cornish pedals, this one is buffered bypass, and it's got its share of typically Cornish goofy component values. (Like an A47k gain pot.....wtf?)

The output is pretty low on this pedal, most likely due to the quad of GE diodes. Unity gain is around 2 o-clock or so depending on where the sustain knob is set.
I used my favorite 1N34A substitutes, the ITT Red Band Cathode diodes. They all measured in the "Klon range".

I would agree with @Fingolfen's review that this is a niche pedal. There's some cool sounds in it, but I'm not feeling the whole Gilmour thing, which is the main reason for building this. Looking forward to seeing how the Polonium sounds!

Or.......I'll update this post if I wind up doing some of the mods.

5 Stars for build experience, typical PedalPCB symmetry. 1 star for me for not doing more research on this pedal before committing to it.....

 

[Fingolfen]

I ended up sorting a metric crapton of diodes and ended up using low-leakage 1N270s in my G-2 builds... and it's still fairly dark, though I think some of that is from the tone stack.

For most applications I much prefer the P-2, though if you have hot pickups, you have to watch the volume and sustain as you can turn it into a real gain monster fast!

 

[MichaelW]

I ended up sorting a metric crapton of diodes and ended up using low-leakage 1N270s in my G-2 builds... and it's still fairly dark, though I think some of that is from the tone stack.

For most applications I much prefer the P-2, though if you have hot pickups, you have to watch the volume and sustain as you can turn it into a real gain monster fast!

Did you change any of the caps? I found the thread I was referring to, it was @jeffwhitfield 's build. I might take mine apart and try some of the alternative values from Aion.

 

[Fingolfen]

Did you change any of the caps? I found the thread I was referring to, it was @jeffwhitfield 's build. I might take mine apart and try some of the alternative values from Aion.

I didn't... I honestly wanted my G-2 to be different than my other Muff variants, so I purposely left it stock... which means it's niche, but I have my stable of ummm... well... *counts*... *still counting*... ummmm... "I'll have to get back to you number" of other versions for the more standard tones...

 

[Robert]

I actually prefer the G-2 over most Muffs, specifically because it's darker and not so Muff-like.

 

[Big Monk]

What’s interesting about the Gilmour/Cornish connection is that while he definitely did use Cornish pedals, by all accounts it was/has mostly been live.

Most of his iconic studio sounds were made with the originals.

 

[MichaelW]

I’ll have to record. demo, I mean mine is real dark.

 

[ac30irons]

Well, believe it or not, I've been working on this pedal for 3 days, finally buttoned it up.

Been a bit crazy at work past week or so.

I've always been intrigued with Pete Cornish pedals, probably partly of the association with David Gilmour, and partly because I'd never pay the crazy retail prices for one even if I could find one.

But somehow for the most part they've failed to have much holding power for me. I think my favorite one so far is the OC-1 Compressor. Maybe followed closely by the CC-1 overdrive.

I was stoked about the G2 and P2 from @Fingolfen's posts and ordered the board. I had high hopes for the G2 but to be honest I'm just not feeling it.

It's a very warm to dark pedal, to the point that it feels like I did something wrong. Sounds a bit like a muffled Big Muff unless I crank the tone knob then also boost it with the Particle Accelerator with the treble and mid knobs cranked. I recall there was a post about some cap substitutions to open it up. Which I may try. I think it was in the Aion build docs.

At lower gains, it can sound kinda cool with a strat but the gain (Sustain) comes on pretty quickly and it get's pretty wooly.

As I'm looking at the P2 board it looks almost identical but since that's marketed as a true "fuzz" I'm hoping for better results with that one when I get to building it.

Like most Cornish pedals, this one is buffered bypass, and it's got its share of typically Cornish goofy component values. (Like an A47k gain pot.....wtf?)

The output is pretty low on this pedal, most likely due to the quad of GE diodes. Unity gain is around 2 o-clock or so depending on where the sustain knob is set.
I used my favorite 1N34A substitutes, the ITT Red Band Cathode diodes. They all measured in the "Klon range".

I would agree with @Fingolfen's review that this is a niche pedal. There's some cool sounds in it, but I'm not feeling the whole Gilmour thing, which is the main reason for building this. Looking forward to seeing how the Polonium sounds!

Or.......I'll update this post if I wind up doing some of the mods.

5 Stars for build experience, typical PedalPCB symmetry. 1 star for me for not doing more research on this pedal before committing to it.....

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View attachment 45470

Hey dude, what Ge’s did you use. I’m have major problems with leaks I’m not even sure how to measure them ‘resistance’ style. Iv read through all the posts on here but I need a dummies guide I.E. how to set my DMM, what lead goes where etc. I know I’m after readings above 470k but that’s it !!!

 

[MichaelW]

Hey dude, what Ge’s did you use. I’m have major problems with leaks I’m not even sure how to measure them ‘resistance’ style. Iv read through all the posts on here but I need a dummies guide I.E. how to set my DMM, what lead goes where etc. I know I’m after readings above 470k but that’s it !!!

Those are ITT Red Band Cathode Ge's I got off eBay from a pretty legit seller. On "most" Ge diodes the side with the band is the "cathode" (or negative) side of the diode. Set your DMM to read resistance or "ohms" and put the black lead on the cathode side and the red lead on the positive side. This won't give you "leakage" though.

If you want to get both forward voltage and leakage you'll need a special tester. But you can get them from Amazon pretty cheap. They're not super accurate but good enough for pedal work.

I use one similar to this. https://www.amazon.com/Multi-Function-Capacitance-Resistance-Aideepen-Transistor/dp/B08YNB7K8G/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=component+tester+tc7&qid=1685305877&sprefix=TC7+test,aps,111&sr=8-3

In this case you can either bend the legs and insert them into the slots or use the alligator clips and it will give you leakage (Iceo).

Having said that, I never look at leakage numbers for Ge diodes, it's pretty irrelevant (imo). I only bother looking at leakage when measuring Ge transistors.

This is the eBay seller where you can get all kinds of Ge diodes and other stuff from. Good guy.

Security Measure

www.ebay.com

Edit: Most Russian made Ge diodes (D9 series, etc) have the Cathode reversed, on the unbanded side.

 

[mdc]

Like most Cornish pedals, this one is buffered bypass, and it's got its share of typically Cornish goofy component values. (Like an A47k gain pot.....wtf?)

Old post, but fwiw, "47" is part of the IEC standards for resistor/component values.