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Black Glass OD is now available!

The Black Glass Germanium Hybrid Overdrive uses a NOS black glass package Germanium transistor to drive multiple clipping stages. We're willing to bet that it's unlike any Ge pedal you've tried before. Its highly usable controls craft sounds ranging from a warm, creamy boost all the way to raucous, almost fuzzlike tones. In between, you'll find dynamic overdrive tones perfect for pushing lead lines up out of a mix and adding color and interest to your sound.

This circuit lived on the Masonorous pedalboard for months while we kept tweaking it, and it quickly became our most-used drive pedal. We think it's way more versatile than a normal germanium boost or treble booster and way more interesting than most overdrives we've heard. It also consistently plays nice with other pedals, whether it's being driven hard into fuzz territory by a preceding boost/overdrive or adding color and sustain to a following pedal.

Demo:

This video demonstrates the huge variety of tones available from the Black Glass and shows which settings will let you get dirty boost, bright boost, light to heavy overdrive, and even fuzzy tones, all from one pedal.

The Germ switch is especially useful, as the different positions not only determine the amount of boost, but also change how much the Germanium transistor influences the sound:

Center = low gain, rounded sound, more diode clipping character, good for overdriven chords (0:55) when Gain knob is around noon, or a slightly dirty, warm boost (0:25) when Gain knob is low.

Down = medium gain, slight bright boost, harder diode clipping, good for brightening up chords or adding texture to leads (3:25)

Up = high gain, bright boost, Germanium transistor clipping, good for fuzzy leads or awesomely blatty chords. When the gain knob is low, this setting sounds really glassy and fuzzy, letting the transistor clipping shine through (3:42). When the gain knob is high, that fuzziness gets rounded off by later clipping into a great heavy overdrive sound for more compressed leads or thick chords (2:54).

Also check out the Tone control settings shown in 2:00-2:40. It has a wide range, but it's usable across that entire range instead of getting muddy or harsh at its extremes

Specs:

Standard 9VDC center-negative power; no internal battery snap
4.75" X 2.6" X 1.4"

Price:

$180 with free expedited shipping. The Black Glass OD is now available in our online shop at masonorousfx.com!

All MasonorousFX pedals are hand-built a few at a time with excellent components and close attention to detail and then tested on our own pedalboard to ensure that they're ready for you.