About This Item
Description
1960s Russian germanium, used the wrong way on purpose. Germanium Filter is true vintage distortion: a console style drive circuit built on a specially matched pair of obsolete 1960s Russian germanium transistors, wired unconventionally and finished with an intense Death By Audio filter that sweeps from huge lows to piercing highs.
Which Death by Audio drive is this?
- Interstellar Overdriver: a discrete, transparent overdrive that behaves like a cranked old amp.
- Fuzz War: the full sustaining fuzz with an active tone filter.
- Evil Filter: a precise multimode filter with a separate fuzz section.
Germanium Filter is the vintage voiced one, and the only Death By Audio drive here built on matched germanium transistors. It reacts strongly to your guitar volume control.
Why guitarists choose the Germanium Filter
- Matched 1960s Russian germanium transistors give a warm, ragged distortion character that silicon circuits do not copy.
- The Filter knob sweeps from deep bass boost to treble screamer, with huge lows, scooped mids and sharp highs along the way.
- The Gain control is highly interactive with your guitar volume, so you can clean up from the instrument.
- It is compact and narrow, which makes it easy to slot into a full board.
- 9 V battery operation and 5 mA of current draw make power trivial.
- True bypass, hand built in New York City.
Controls and switches
- FILTER sweeps the frequency response from heavy, which is a deep bass boost, to high, which is a treble screamer.
- GAIN runs from clean to dirty, taking the pedal from a dirty boost to a blistering fuzz. The manual notes that even at the clean end the sound is always overdriven.
- VOLUME sets the output level of the effect.
- The footswitch is true bypass, with a red indicator LED.
Power and pedalboard compatibility
- Runs on 9 V DC, 2.1 mm barrel, center negative.
- Current draw is 5 mA, so budget that on your supply.
- A 9 V battery can also power it.
- True bypass means it is completely out of the signal path when it is off, so place it wherever the chain sounds best.
- Jacks sit along the top edge, which keeps patch cables out of the row in front.
- It measures 12.7 x 6.35 x 5.71 cm including hardware, so measure your row before ordering.
Technical specifications
| Model | Death by Audio Germanium Filter |
| Effect type | Germanium distortion with filter |
| Controls | Filter, Gain, Volume |
| Bypass | True bypass |
| Expression or CV input | No |
| Power | 9 V DC, 2.1 mm barrel, center negative |
| Current draw (mA) | 5 |
| Battery | Yes |
| Top mounted jacks | Yes |
| Dimensions including hardware | 12.7 x 6.35 x 5.71 cm |
| Weight | 10.6 oz. |
| MPN | 195893383146 |
| GTIN | 195893383146 |
| ASIN | B09QWW834N |
| Manufacture and warranty | Handmade in New York City |
FAQ
Is there a genuinely clean setting? No. Death By Audio notes in the manual that the sound is always overdriven, even with the gain at the clean end of its travel.
What do the transistors actually add? The pedal uses a specially matched pair of obsolete 1960s Russian germanium transistors in an unconventional configuration, which is what gives the vintage distortion character.
Does it clean up from the guitar volume? Yes. The gain stage is very interactive with the instrument volume control, which is one of the main ways to play the pedal.
Is the Filter knob a tone control? It is more than a tone cut. It sweeps a wide range of cut and boosted frequencies, from huge lows through scooped mids to sharp piercing highs.
Can it run on a battery? Yes, one 9 V battery is supported, and the pedal draws 5 mA.
Is it true bypass? Yes.
How much room does it need on a board? 12.7 x 6.35 x 5.71 cm including hardware, weighing 10.6 oz.