Harvester (Schaller Fuzz)
The Harvester is my take on the German Schaller® Fuzz, an artifact of fuzz history that was the foundation for an entire genre of music. It is hands down my favorite fuzz pedal of all time, it is the reason I got into making pedals in the first place. It is a unique fuzz with very little notoriety.
** These are made to order. Will ship within 2-4 weeks.
** This pedal uses vintage style PNP germanium transistors which are powered by negative voltage, thus the power supply must be an isolated source, such as a 9v battery or 9v power adapter from an isolated source. The power supply cannot be daisy chained with other pedals.
The Harvester is my take on the German Schaller® Fuzz, an artifact of fuzz history that was the foundation for an entire genre of music. It is hands down my favorite fuzz pedal of all time, it is the reason I got into making pedals in the first place. It is a unique fuzz with very little notoriety.
** These are made to order. Will ship within 2-4 weeks.
** This pedal uses vintage style PNP germanium transistors which are powered by negative voltage, thus the power supply must be an isolated source, such as a 9v battery or 9v power adapter from an isolated source. The power supply cannot be daisy chained with other pedals.
The Harvester is my take on the German Schaller® Fuzz, an artifact of fuzz history that was the foundation for an entire genre of music. It is hands down my favorite fuzz pedal of all time, it is the reason I got into making pedals in the first place. It is a unique fuzz with very little notoriety.
** These are made to order. Will ship within 2-4 weeks.
** This pedal uses vintage style PNP germanium transistors which are powered by negative voltage, thus the power supply must be an isolated source, such as a 9v battery or 9v power adapter from an isolated source. The power supply cannot be daisy chained with other pedals.
Info:
It is a two-transistor fuzz circuit with a lot of buzz and honk, and a fair amount of sputter in the decay, the perfect pedal for those 60s zipper-like fuzz tones. It has a very tactile and dynamically touch-sensitive level of playability and clean up. It’s massive output cap and relatively small volume pot work together to create a very unique fat and punchy low end without the mud you find in a Fuzz Face or Big Muff. What we have instead is a tight and boosted low end eager to push your tube amp into buzzy madness. I tune the Harvester up against my own vintage Schallers without the addition of any modern adjustments or tweaks in order to give you the authentic tactile experience of the real thing.
A Bit of History:
The Schaller fuzz was originally released in mid to late 1966. They were made in West Germany and were one of the first fuzz pedals available in continental Europe. It was also available in the North American market rebranded as Kent 6400 Distorter with english labels for the controls. Although It is often cited that Schaller was a copy of the Arbiter Fuzz Face, I believe the circuit design was actually most likely lifted from a Tone Bender MK1.5 given that the first batch of Schallers to hit the market had an identical capacitor lineup and pot values found in the Tone Bender MK1.5.
The Schaller was the fuzz of choice of many Krautrock and other European Prog bands. It’s signature buzzy tone can be heard on many records from classic krautrock acts like CAN, Amon Düül II, NEU!, and many others. It was also heavily used by many Swedish psych and prog bands of the late 60s and early 70s including Pärson Sound, International Harvester, Träd, Gräs och Stenar, and more recently its a staple fuzz of Reine Fiske from Dungen and Träden.
The best example of a schaller fuzz can be found on on the track “I Ijuset av din dag” by Träd, Gräs och Stenar from their 1972 album “Rock for kropp och sjal”
The first batch to hit the market were much brighter than the units that followed. Units from this period feature a .01uf output cap, unpainted enclosure cavity, a pair Siemens AC151 transistors, and the absence of a DC bypass cap. Only a handful of these units were made and they are extremely rare to find today.
Shortly after this period the Schaller replaced the .01uf output cap with a massive 10uf electrolytic cap. This modification dramatically increased the amount of low end giving the schaller its signature sound. In this era we also see the addition of a DC bypass cap to help smooth out the power and black painted internals. This era continues to use the Siemens AC151 transistors, and like the previous era we see a variety of bias resistor values for the first transistor; typical values are 10k and 15k.
Sometime in early ‘67 Schaller began using ATES AC192 transistors in place of the AC151s found in earlier units. My guess is that this shift was made because the AC192 is a much more consistent line of transistors leading to a much easier transistor matching process. These units offer a slightly smoother and warmer type of distortion and better clean up with the guitar's volume knob when compared to earlier models. This era also saw a shift to a smaller font used to engrave the “Schaller” name into the enclosure.
What’s inside:
Built point to point style on a hand cut replica schaller circuit board made from authentic vintage phenolic board.
New old stock (NOS) components throughout, including hand selected NOS capacitors and carbon comp resistors.
Carefully matched vintage NOS germanium transistors to ensure authentic tone and overall playability. (Standard builds come with transistors of my choosing.)
All the hardware is selected for quality. It includes full size Alpha pots, Cliff UK style jacks, and a Carling footswitch.
Comes in a hand painted Hammond 1590TRPB enclosure (4.4 x 3.1 x 1.4 inches.) The color is my choice, it will most likely be grey or black hammered.
** Please note I am in no way affiliated with Schaller. I am using their trademarked name as a mere reference to the circuit that the Harvester fuzz is based on. For more information about the originators of these wonderful pedals, Please visit Official Schaller website.