Hi Anders and Chris S, do you know anything about the HBE Germacide? Its a pretty cool treble booster but I can't find any schematic out there (I can find the Germania but not the Germaniac). Cheers
Hey Ian - this is actually the first I've heard of this rare one, but I did a little bit of digging, and some perusing of sold listings on reverb actually yielded the most insight. If I'm wrong, I'm hoping to read about it here in these comments. It seems like the Germacide basically IS the Germania with some added extras. The level knob and "more" footswitch seem to be tied together in that you can set the level at a lower-than-max position and then hit the footswitch to disable the level control and put you straight up to maximum on demand. The hi-fi/lo-fi gain range switch is straight from the Germania, but the "EQ" knob seems to be a 5 position rotary and, I'm guessing, switches in different value caps for varying degrees of bass response. Without a schematic or gutshot (I could find neither) it would be guesswork to figure out what these cap values actually are. Other than that, this looks to be a variation on HBE's meaner-than-typical PNP Ge Treble Booster with a charge pump inverter.
At the very least, you can use some of the values and layout that Anders put up on here for the PedalPCB RangeFinder (which has 8 different cap choices) to approximate the EQ selector knob if you want to mod that Germania layout from tagboard. I'd say go with 2n2 on the high end, 1uF on the low and pick three values in between. And the More switch might be as simple as adding a stomp switch that jumps lug 2 and 3 of an A100k master volume pot together when it is engaged. You only need two rows of lugs to do that, so a 3pdt would allow you a status LED as well.
Hi Anders and Chris S, do you know anything about the HBE Germacide? Its a pretty cool treble booster but I can't find any schematic out there (I can find the Germania but not the Germaniac). Cheers
ReplyDeleteHey Ian - this is actually the first I've heard of this rare one, but I did a little bit of digging, and some perusing of sold listings on reverb actually yielded the most insight. If I'm wrong, I'm hoping to read about it here in these comments. It seems like the Germacide basically IS the Germania with some added extras. The level knob and "more" footswitch seem to be tied together in that you can set the level at a lower-than-max position and then hit the footswitch to disable the level control and put you straight up to maximum on demand. The hi-fi/lo-fi gain range switch is straight from the Germania, but the "EQ" knob seems to be a 5 position rotary and, I'm guessing, switches in different value caps for varying degrees of bass response. Without a schematic or gutshot (I could find neither) it would be guesswork to figure out what these cap values actually are. Other than that, this looks to be a variation on HBE's meaner-than-typical PNP Ge Treble Booster with a charge pump inverter.
DeleteCheers Chris, it does seem to be a baby version of the Germacide. I see there is a layout on Tagboard for the Germania, I may try!!
DeleteAt the very least, you can use some of the values and layout that Anders put up on here for the PedalPCB RangeFinder (which has 8 different cap choices) to approximate the EQ selector knob if you want to mod that Germania layout from tagboard. I'd say go with 2n2 on the high end, 1uF on the low and pick three values in between. And the More switch might be as simple as adding a stomp switch that jumps lug 2 and 3 of an A100k master volume pot together when it is engaged. You only need two rows of lugs to do that, so a 3pdt would allow you a status LED as well.
DeleteCool, cheers Chris
DeleteThe Germania is just an input buffer feeding a rangemaster?
Delete