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moosers
Published on 08/04/10 at 21:51
HomeBrew Electronics' Germania is a very simple booster pedal that is designed after the Rangemaster Treble Booster, a pedal which I'm not familiar with. I've used the older version of this pedal, but the newer one comes with some added features. However, this review will be for the original Germania. The pedal has 1/4" connections for input and output and requires a nine volt power supply. It has a single button and is just about as compact of a pedal as you'll find. It isn't rack mountable in any way since it's a foot pedal.
UTILIZATION
The configuration of the HomeBrew Electronics Germania couldn't possibly be any simpler. The only knob that it has it for gain and the only switch that it has is for choosing between either a hi-fi or lo-fi setting. I'm not exactly sure what the new parameters are that the newer version of this pedal has in addition to these. A manual shouldn't be necessary either way since it's such a basic pedal.
SOUND QUALITY
While the HomeBrew Electronics Germania is a booster pedal by nature, it's definitely capable of getting some heavier distortion sounds if desired. Having said this, I wouldn't recommend getting the pedal for this only, as using this as a distortion pedal isn't really it's intended use although it's certainly possible. I recently tried the pedal out in a recording studio that had one, but we didn't end up using it on any recordings. It does have a very good sound, it just wasn't what we were looking for and is kind of limited in what it's able to do.
OVERALL OPINION
For a simple booster pedal, the HomeBrew Electronics Germania is an awesome little pedal. It doesn't offer up much flexibility, but for what it can do it's one of the best that I've heard. I do like that it's able to get some heavier and thicker distortion when needed, but as I stated before this is really just a bonus to having a nice booster pedal. I haven't used a Rangemaster before, so I can't say how well this matches up, but it's certainly a nice pedal on it's own.
UTILIZATION
The configuration of the HomeBrew Electronics Germania couldn't possibly be any simpler. The only knob that it has it for gain and the only switch that it has is for choosing between either a hi-fi or lo-fi setting. I'm not exactly sure what the new parameters are that the newer version of this pedal has in addition to these. A manual shouldn't be necessary either way since it's such a basic pedal.
SOUND QUALITY
While the HomeBrew Electronics Germania is a booster pedal by nature, it's definitely capable of getting some heavier distortion sounds if desired. Having said this, I wouldn't recommend getting the pedal for this only, as using this as a distortion pedal isn't really it's intended use although it's certainly possible. I recently tried the pedal out in a recording studio that had one, but we didn't end up using it on any recordings. It does have a very good sound, it just wasn't what we were looking for and is kind of limited in what it's able to do.
OVERALL OPINION
For a simple booster pedal, the HomeBrew Electronics Germania is an awesome little pedal. It doesn't offer up much flexibility, but for what it can do it's one of the best that I've heard. I do like that it's able to get some heavier and thicker distortion when needed, but as I stated before this is really just a bonus to having a nice booster pedal. I haven't used a Rangemaster before, so I can't say how well this matches up, but it's certainly a nice pedal on it's own.