Drunk Beaver's 10th Pedal Drop is the fantastic extended range customisable Sumy Germanium Treble Booster

We’re up to PD10 already! - and this Sumy Treble Booster is a fitting milestone for that rapid prototyping release cycle - a customisable RangeMaster style circuit with a socketed high gain Germanium Transistor - where the circuit accommodates some serious experimentation also with an accompanying internal bias trimpot to further serve the 4-pin socket - which combination will handle near enough any transistor whatever its pins configuration is - EBC/BCE, etc.

Of course Vitalii has done a great deal of work here to source the perfect transistors to serve this circuit - and these pedals come with either a ∏29 or ∏416B Germanium type. The Sumy Treble Booster circuit utilises a positive ground (GND as power line and +9V as ground) PNP Ge transistor - this way it works with a standard power supply and without any internal voltage inverter.

Controls - Boost, Range, Impedance, Pickup Simulator : On/Off.

The chosen and ideal transistors are fairly high gain (for Germanium) with Hfe values of 90-100 and low leakage <50uA. Particular part numbers don’t really matter here, only the parameters, characteristics and values of the part / component. The circuit is actually very tolerant of almost any transistor - and the socketed nature of the circuit with accompanying internal bias trimpot allows you to experiment with your own variants should you so wish.

The Boost control (which gives about 21-24dB of boost depending on frequency) - has a range pot which blends between 2 capacitor values and allows you to dial in a very fat boost or a more classic one with everything in between.

In addition it has a switchable PU (Pickup) Simulator with variable impedance - pretty much the same as what is used in the Taras Bulba MK2, but with a BJT (NOS Philips BC547B) simulator buffer instead of FET. The PU Sim allows you to place such boosters anywhere in the signal chain or to stack them even.

As with every pedal in the Pedal Drop series this circuit is fully THD with NOS components and is priced at $150 (exc. VAT) on the Drunk Beaver Reverb.com Store - note that Reverb.com always shows the price with tax applied.

This is another rapid prototyping project - which as before means there is no time for a demo - these are shipped out pretty much as soon as each one is completed - only 20 will be made!

This is truly a great take on a premium Germanium Treble Booster with the added benefit that it allows you to experiment with your own Transistor choices - should you wish to of course!