The Spooky Circuits Harm + Balance is a unique interpretation of the Interfax Harmonic Percolator, a fuzz pedal with a signature clangy sound dear to the noise-seeking “indie-heads” familiar with the work of producer Steve Albini (who worked with Nirvana, Pixies, and PJ Harvey among others).
Combining a variety of clipping options inslucing germanium PNP and a silicon NPN transistors, this pedal ventures into unconventional territory without betraying the original’s aggressive and piercing character, delivering a variety of tones from the harsh to the raunchy.
That’s mostly because of the two diode selectors, which are at the core of the design: they grant you the ability to choose which components participate in the circuit’s clipping stage, one affecting the positive side of the wave, the other one the negative side, each imparting a distinct sound. Each selector gives you four diode options and a bypass position, for a total number – if our math is correct – of 25 clipping flavors.
Here’s the list of the diodes taken directly from Spooky Circuits’ super fun hand-scribbled website.
And here’s a first video of the Harm + Balance we shot at our Portland Synth & Pedal Expo 2023.
We added it to our article about the best Harmonic Percolator clones and variants.
Spooky Circuits Harm + Balance, Builder’s Notes
The Harm and Balance is spooky circuit’s take on the Interfax Harmonic Percolator. This fuzz is harsh. It screams. It’s really its own thing. It’s gross and chunky in the best way. It uses both a germanium PNP transistor and a silicon NPN transistor. It’s WEIRD AND WE LOVE IT!!!
The diode selectors allow you to select which diodes are used in the clipping stage of the circuit. Each diode sounds different and since both diodes of the clipping circuit are switchable, you can create asymmetrical clipping with all the different diode combinations. This allows for so many tonal options!! You can also bypass the clipping stage all together by turning both knobs to position 5 (or the O symbol).
