Ariel Scherbacovsky's Red Noise Pedals Delivers Exceptional Germanium 2SB352 Edition Multi-Clipping Stone Blender

There’s a couple of firsts here - I’ve been friends with Jim Button of Boost Guitar Pedals for a while now, yet this is the first pedal I acquire from him - hopefully the first of many to come! Jim has been diligently building up his business for a while and I’m delighted he found his way to my good friend Vitalii Bobrov’s Drunk Beaver range. I like to think that I had something to do with that as GPX has really helped spring-board Drunk Beaver into the public consciousness.

Besides Drunk Beaver and Red Noise, Boost Guitar Pedals are also fairly unique in stocking Formula B, Kink Guitar Pedals, NE-Electronics and Stompnorth among other innovative brands. Jim also stocks good friend Alex Millar’s Zander Circuitry range. There’s obviously a lot of competition among dealers these days - while Jim has done an amazing job of carving out a distinct niche for himself.

And so to Red Noise Pedals - who’s Stone Blender Fuzz I’ve been eyeing up for a while. That pedal had been on my wishlist for some time, yet when the Germanium Edition arrived - with a great demo by Ryan Plewacki of Demos In The Dark - I just had to have that immediately! I pressed the trigger at just the right time and got the last one Jim had in stock then - while he’s been in touch with Red Noise’s Ariel since then - who’s going to try to make 10-15 more. Obviously these utilise an exceedingly rare NOS Germanium Transistor - the Matsushita (Panasonic) 2SB352 - which dates back to the 60’s and was notably used in the most sought after version of Steve Painter’s Buffalo FX Germanium Fuzz. These NOS Transistors are nigh impossible to find these days - so their application will always be highly limited.

In any case 3 of those Transistors are put to incredibly good use in the Germanium Stone Blender - and they create the most wonderfully textured output!

Controls - Volume, Fuzz, Tone, Diode Clipping Options : Blue, Yellow, Red, Green, De-Clip.

You have the 3 classic control of Volume, Fuzz and Tone, and then a cool 4-way Clipping Diodes Selector. While the Magic of this pedal is not just those particular Transistors and Clipping Options - but the ingenious De-Clip knob which really allows you dial in the best harmonics and textures.

The only oddity for me here is that the Yellow LEDs Clipping Option is selected via Blue LED!!! Surely it would have made more sense for the Yellow LEDs to be selected on Yellow Mode. That quirk aside this really is another superb Multi-Bender. Not really in the same mould as the ThorpyFX Boneyard, as the Stone Blender can’t really deliver MKI and MKIII flavours - but delivers superbly on MKI.V and MKII variations.

3 x NOS Matsushita 2SB352 Transistors

Clipping Diodes :

1. BLUE : Yellow LEDs | De-Clip @ 11 o’c
2. YELLOW : 1N270 Germanium Diodes | De-Clip @ 11 o’c
3. RED : BAT41 Silicon Diodes | De-Clip @ 9 o’c
4. Green : 1N60 Germanium Diodes | De-Clip @ 11 o’c

I tend to have Volume and Fuzz at Max, Tone at around 3 o’c - and while I love all the clipping options - like Ariel my favourite is the Germanium Diode variants - Yellow then Green options. For optimal output you also need to dial the De-Clip knob back a bit. I found that around 11 o’c is optimal for Germanium and LED variants, while I get the best tones for BAT41 Silicon Mode with the De-Clipper at circa 9 o’c.

This is just the most amazingly visceral and highly textured Germanium Tone Bender variety, and there should hopefully be a few more available in stock soon.

When available these are a very reasonable $195 / £175 respectively on Red Noise Pedals and Boost Guitar Pedals Webstores. My understanding is that Jim will be getting the next batch in within the next few weeks - so you will need to stay alert for announcements - sign up to his mailing list etc.

Mine is #27 from the original batch of 30, while we will likely see around 10 to 15 more, although it won’t be much beyond that number as those 2SB352 Transistors are so rare nowadays!

Who of you are familiar with Red Noise Pedals - and who is lucky enough to own a Germanium Stone Blender? I will be doing an overview of all my Germanium Multi-Benders soon and listing out the potency and versatility of each. All of mine deliver exceptional output - while some are a little more shapable than others! 

There’s no question that the Germanium Stone Blender is a classic of its kind and well worth the price of admission!