Caroline Shigeharu - Ltd. Germanium Octave Army Green Run 1

We're pumped about this thing. It sounded genuinely great in the room. And before I'd tracked these parts through this pedal and the HiWatt, I'd recorded practice/scratch tracks with some emulator and DEAR GOD THE REAL PEDAL AND AMP SOUNDED SO MUCH BETTER.
While it would have been easy enough for us to say “voila! We have substituted these germanium parts for the perfectly functioning silicon ones for more ‘authentic’ tones” that just would not have been good enough for us or for you.
So in addition to the parallel octave circuit of the Shigeharu getting a bit more of a woody texture and sound from some new old stock Soviet parts we used, we also tweaked each of the transistor gain stages to more closely resemble one of our old bubble-font Soviet era fuzzstortions in our reference lab. The end result is still PLENTY of gain - I mean, good lord, you should know us by now, right? - but more wooly, a bit more low end, and a bit more bark and a little less bite than our standard Shigeharu. There’s still an incredible range of overdriven, distorted, and all out fuzzy sounds here and - while we still can! - these are hand-wired at our workshop in Columbia, S.C.
We did 100 of these for select dealers who pounced on them. We make em in limited batches, but if you want more, we’ll give the people what they want.
Available from the dealers here: carolineguitar...
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[@markhammer643]

Hi Philipe. Regards from up north. Jon Green told me about the various charity fundraisers you do, and I'm moved by your humanity. Good on you. One of the well-understood traits of analog octave-up fuzzes is that "best" octaving is achieved by using the neck pickup, rolling the guitar Tone back, and picking above the 5th or even 7th fret. That's because doubling of all the normal harmonic content in guitar strings "hides" the octave. "Dulling" the sound (neck pickup, treble-cut) and stiffening the string by picking higher up (where there is less harmonic content) improves the audible octaving. The diode pair to ground one sees in many commercial designs, also helps to keep the volume level relatively steady after the initial pick attack, so that the octave becomes more audible on held notes. But one of the little-appreciated quirks of every single analog octave-up I've ever used/built is that if you leave the Tone control up full, use the *bridge* pickup, and pick really close to the bridge itself, the result is strikingly similar to one of those Danelectro/Coral electric sitars. Really. Works better with the gain/drive at less than max, but you gotta try it out. And BTW, I know people make a big deal about germanium diodes, but don't neglect Schottky diodes. I've used those on a clone of the Foxx Tone Machine, and I can easily get octaving on wound strings as far down as the 3rd fret; something unheard of with many commercial octavers.

[@CarolineGuitarCo]

Yup on all fronts, thanks Mark! Our standard Shigeharu uses the Schottky diodes and works well.

[@AndyWaring]

I would loooooove to see this in retailers in Europe/UK!

[@chrisglitta]

Please make more!

[@SeekerElectricEffects]

Killer! Love it! ❤

[@kristianwillems8093]

This crushes🎸

[@saam6768]

god dammit take my money phillipe

[@test_pc_user]

He doesn’t want it judging by the artwork

[@TheGreenKingdom]

Oh goodness, don't be trying to make me buy a second Shigeharu!

[@christianseaman4692]

The tone around 2:00 is awesome! I'm imagining that was the Hiwatt head, could you tell us what cab/speakers you were running?

[@CarolineGuitarCo]

Hey! The hiwatt was set real clean. The cabinet we like with it is a Marshall 1965A cab with 4x10s.

[@LewWelchThePoet]

🤘👍🏿

[@shawnmann]

Wait, could I have an octave like this added to my CROM? I just think that the CROM circuit would sound great with an octave. And the Olympia too! Could you do those mods for me? 😂 😉

[@denverrandy7143]

Lol off topic but what shoes are you wearing?Sounds great btw!👍

[@CarolineGuitarCo]

Hey thanks! I think these are Saucony Jazz 81s from a couple years back. I'm kind of a sucker for these

[@tompoynton]

c’mon Phillipe send some across the pond

[@Pokedone]

Ugh... time to head to Sims I guess.

[@Justins_shed]

Half-hearted about capitalism 🎉

[@Logan-rb6tl]

Wdym

[@test_pc_user]

I’m sure he will be giving these out for free

[@NosceTe]

Beautiful demo, thanks! You confuse Capitalism with markets, though. It was very nearly a funny joke.

[@CarolineGuitarCo]

Ha! While there is a difference between basic commerce and capitalism, many characters (and most caricatures) of Gen X were drawn to dislike both.