Farmer Factory unleashes a fantastic take on Gerry Pope's Harmonic Generator Fuzz - with somewhat unusual controls

Gerry Pope’s G.P. Electronics’ Harmonic Generator is considered by many to be the first UK Fuzz Pedal - some still say Gary Hurst’s Tone Bender was the first - while there is some evidence that a version of Harmonic Generator was actually the first to materialise 1965 - just ahead of the Tone Bender.

This fuzz was famously advertised as having ’4 Semiconductors’ - which has led to confusion on occasion. While it seems those 4 Semiconductors were always 3 Germanium Transistors and a Germanium Diode! Which pattern seems consistent across all the different variations and iterations!

Baldwin Burns then somewhat copied the circuit for their own Buzzaround Fuzz.

And Sola Sound then seemingly used the Harmonic Generator / Buzzaround as an inspiration for their Tone Bender MKIII - and there are a lot of similarities between those two also.

And then finally Elka did their own take on said circuit - which became their Dizzy Tone.

So the GPE Harmonic Generator, Burns Buzzaround and Elka Dizzy Tone can somewhat all be seen to be iterations of the same circuit. While the Tone Bender MKIII is a little adjacent. There is normally a distinction in the output of each of those variants - while I do have some Buzzarounds which sound more like TB MKIII’s, and vice-versa.

My friend Sebastien at Farmer Factory has done his own distinct take on the circuit - which features dual volume controls. Labelled as Balance (Q3 Level/Gain), and Volume (Master Level). You use those two in combination to fine-tune the output of the fuzz - so you can have both set for a fairly open and lesser compressed profile - as per what I prefer.

This pedal is all about those rich harmonic details - while the gain side of this pedal is comparatively mellow vs my others of this ilk. So most of my fuzzes in this sort of category sounds a little gainier and more aggressive - where this take is really all about the Harmonics - thus fully fulfilling the mission set by its moniker! And that’s not to say it doesn’t have plenty of relatively searing gain on tap - as you can hear in the below demo.

Controls - Sustain (Gain), Colour (EQ : Dark > Bright), Balance (Q3 Volume / Gain), Volume (Master Volume).

The original Harmonic Percolator had Sustain, Colour, and Balance Controls!

So you can really say that this Farmer Fuzz Harmonic Generator is a more granular and better balanced iteration of that circuit!

This Harmonic Generator uses  three rare NOS Germanium Transistors - 2 x Mullard GET113 and 1 x Brimar AC113. It is built just 2 at a time - which then go up on the Farmer Factory Reverb.com Store - and sell out pretty much instantly. They are priced at €210 / $235.

Of course this is all hand-made, and on this occasion using an Eylet Board style construction. A really beautifully calibrated fuzz - different from all the other Harmonic Generators / Buzzarounds / Dizzy Tones out there!

Note that all 4 dials are pretty interactive - and there is a pretty wide range of tones and textures to be discovered! Plenty of volume too!

I tend to have Sustain and Balance set to 3 o’c, and Colour and Volume set to Max - that’s where I get the best harmonics! Sebastien tends to wind the Sustain down a little further - this pedal really sounds great every which way!