Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
ThorpyFX unleashes glorious blooming Hanami Germanium Fuzz - essentially a mashup of his Fallout Cloud and Boneyard Fuzz Pedals
What we have here is an amazing confection of two of Thorpy’s best loved pedals - which combines the 4-Stage Fallout Cloud Triangle Big Muff style circuit with the glorious texture and dynamics of the Germanium Boneyard Multi-Bender Fuzz. This uses rare milspec Germanium CV Transistors for those 4 gain-stages - that are the equivalent of OC45’s. There’s also Germanium Diodes in the mix with add further grit and harmonics to the texture.
So it’s a really interesting mix - best described as crossing a Triangle Big Muff with a MKIII Germanium Tone Bender. This one sounds really fierce - in the best possible way! - and with the most incredible harmonic-laden blooming textures. Superbly aided and shaped by that smart 2-Band EQ.
If you’re brave - you can set the pedal to stun with all dials @ 2 o’c - while there is so much range on the Level knob that even @ just 10 o’c the output is already full on and above unity. In fact each of those knobs has incredible range. And oddly for a Big Muff circuit essentially - with Germanium Gain Stages - this one has really decent guitar volume gain-cleanup too.
The control topology is basically the same as the Fallout Cloud - just with slightly different labels :
Level, Boost, Treble, and Bass, in place of Volume, Sustain, Treble, and Bass. This pedal is so expressive - and so easy to dial in - it’s immediately one of my favourite Thorpy Pedals - it just sounds superb.
I really like it with Level @ 10 o'c and all the other three dials @ 2 o'c - that is already so fierce and impressive sounding - with the most exquisite richly detailed harmonic output. And like I said - you can further temper the output via your guitar volume knob.
This is such a smart innovation and evolution - and it sounds so good - it's a surprise it's not been done before - at least not to my knowledge. There are some Hybrid Muffs out there, but not many with all 4 transistors being Germanium.
Also, Thorpy is on a roll these days with the look of his pedals - where the two most recent - the Purple Dane, and this Hanami are utterly gorgeous and his best looking ones to date - and a real pleasure to own. I've had my Hanami for a month now - and I really love it - it's another Thorpy Classic for sure - and every fuzz fan should have one!
Hanami is the Japanese word for 'Flower Viewing' - usually associated almost exclusively with Cherry Blossom - as is the case here too!
The Hanami Germanium 4-Stage Blooming Fuzz is available right now from the ThorpyFX Webstore and from Leading Internal Dealers. Where it goes for £329 and equivalent (circa $399).
This is yet another Thorpy Pedal that comes so highly recommended - and is absolutely a must for fuzz fans!
Note that Thorpy has also snuck out MKII Editions of the Heavy Water and Field Marshall - with the same interior circuits, but entirely different enclosure artwork / graphics. I will do a post on those a little later!
Demos
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