Anyone have a Chuck Collins/Theremaniacs Harmonic Percolator

[NoiseAnnoys]

If so, what are your thoughts on it? I'm debating picking one up with my incoming stipend. How is the build? How does it compare to the other percolator clones on the market?

It certainly LOOKS pretty.

[2n3904]

Jacks the wrong way round

[JSett]

Jacks the wrong way round

erm...isnt that how it was on the original?

a lot of old pedals are like that

[2n3904]

What a strange way of looking at it...

If they were wrong on the original and then the reissue didn't even bother to swap them round I see that as a downside... I've always seen reissues like that as an opportunity to add modern convenience (TB, boss power socket) while still having the vintage look and sound.

Hey, I doubt I'd be prepared to pay what they'd be asking anyway. It's just the kind of thing I'd prefer they "fixed" if they're going to clone these things.

[PorkyPrimeCut]

How weird that this should come up.

I bought one a few years ago & have found that it's the least used of my pedals. I was close to putting it on eBay the other day but thought about giving it another chance. I was actually contemplating digging it out tomorrow.

It's solidly built, although I couldn't say if the innards are of high quality or not. I'm clueless when it comes to electronics.

What else can I say? It's a noisy fucker but I think that's kind of the point. It really shines when you crank it. I don't pick much & play a lot of chords and with most fuzz pedals things get mushy very quickly. This pedal has very clear bite. The chords really sing through the distortion (I hope that makes sense, I hate talking "tone"). I still don't really know if I should call it a distortion pedal or not. I think it's somewhere in between an OD, a fuzz & a distortion pedal. Kinda unique.

I'll plug it in tomorrow & see if I get any joy out of it.

[TheLastGuitarist]

I used to sell these in the UK and Europe a couple of years ago (not anymore due to little profit margin so assume it's safe to say as much!) and I still love it as a pedal for proper GRRRRR noise however on low settings it gives a really nice chimey transparent light dirt to your sound. As for construction I'm not an expert but the casing is well made, totally durable and the circuit board LOOKS nice to me as a layman. I've had mine for 5 years with no issue at all.

As to the Jacks - it is a 'replica' and a true clone in the sense of the word so the point is not to make improvements but to produce a replica. That being said I always thought Chuck would do well to do an updated version with all those mods mentioned as well as the original.

I know that fredric effects do a clone with these mods at a cheaper price in the UK so seek them out if you must have them but if you want exact replication the Chuck is well worth it!

[PorkyPrimeCut]

I took a photo of the circuitboard. Might be of use...



The casing was blank on the one I got so I made up an acetate transfer based on photo's I found online.



I bought it from an ebay seller in the UK so I'm not sure if he took the decal off or if there wasn't one in the first place. I see they sell with decals these days. All I'm saying is, because mine's older the build quality could've changed.

[null.fuzz]

I had one for a while, mostly because I'm a huge Shellac fan. It was useful for a while. Both sliders maxed would get you a crazy buzzy distorted sound, just like Albini's "punctuation." At lower setting it was a fairly neat overdrive sound. I just didn't use it that much, so I traded it off.

I bought it from an ebay seller in the UK so I'm not sure if he took the decal off or if there wasn't one in the first place. I see they sell with decals these days. All I'm saying is, because mine's older the build quality could've changed.

The one I had didn't come with the decal either. I think that's how the older ones are.

[fuzzjunkie]

If they were wrong on the original and then the reissue didn't even bother to swap them round I see that as a downside..

See, I think this is a strange way of looking at it. In 1969 that wasn't the wrong way around. Most pedals went left to right, I'm guessing because most guitar players are right handed and Western cultures read keft to right. If you only had one pedal between your guitar and amp it didn't matter much. The shortest distance from a guitar to an amp for a right handed player would be with left to right in/outs.

It wasn't until players had multiple pedals and found it was easier to stomp them going across the stage in front of them instead of stringing along behind them that anyone thought to make right to left the defacto/standardized organization.

Or maybe it was the Japanese.

[JJ Gabor]

FWIW I have compared a few percolator clones and also built quite a few in my time.

The theremaniacs HP clone is very solidly built and the build quality is really good (it was also the only iteration to use correct germanium transistor and diode configurations for a long time), I frequently use mine as a very light drive - it really blows away a lot of my other drive pedals. No DC input and reverse jacks are a bit of a pain, but not really a deal breaker.

The HP circuit is simple but unique in my opinion.

a lot of people whack the sliders up for sky-falling-on-head explosiveness, it does this very well but it is really worth exploring the nuances in this circuit, the light/mid OD sounds are awesome.

Highly recommended!