Starling Germanium High Flyer Boost
The Artwork Series No. 5
********The first run will ship on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 5-6th after the Labor Day holiday in the USA. ************
Summary: The Starling is a nod to the classic Dallas Arbiter Range Master treble booster, but with some upgrades and different options. It uses an NOS Texas Instruments 2n1304 germanium transistor, selected for low leak and to be just in the right gain range (hfe of 80-115). It offers 3 different voicings: classic Rangemaster, Mid range boost, or Wrought Iron, my own favorite dirtier arrangement. It uses an NPN transistor, so no worries about power supply issues.
Details: The Starling Boost is a pedal I've wanted to build for a long time. Starlings have a bad reputation in rural America. They were brought here from Great Britain and became an invasive species, outcompeting other birds for food and shelter. For that reason, they are often treated as a pest. However, I have always felt that these birds got a raw deal. They didn't ask to be brought here, and they're just trying to survive, like any other bird. What's more, starlings are extremely intelligent birds with the ability to imitate seemingly any sound they hear. And that is all without mentioning the beautiful iridescent colors of their feathers. I thought that their misunderstood status combined with their amazing voice abilities and physical beauty deserved a pedal that sang AND was nice to look at.
My sister, Emily Chew, was game to do a custom watercolor for me of a starling in flight, so I got to work on setting and testing out multiple voicings for a germanium treble booster. I new what I wanted it to do, but it took a lot of experimenting to fine tune it just how I wanted it to sound. I also decided it needed to have an input transistor so that it could be put anywhere in your signal chain, regardless of buffer locations.
The end product is a pedal with 3 distinct voices: The High Flyer uses the classic Rangemaster values with a few minor tweaks. A Les Paul through this thing into a Marshall will get you that classic rock sound. The Mid Range Setting opens the frequency spectrum up a bit to serve as a great solo boost. The Wrought Iron setting changes out nearly every resistor and capacitor value and introduces negative feedback bias for a little higher gain and dirtier sound with a wider frequency range.
The Enclosure features custom UV printed graphics on a custom aluminum case, folded in the Wrought Iron shop. The bottom and sides feature a purple powdercoat with a light sparkle. Each enclosure has the serial number laser etched into the powder.
Features:
- 3 voicing Alpha rotary switch
- Taiway high quality footswitch
- Switchcraft audio Jacks (made in USA)
- Through hole PCB construction (PCB made in USA)
- NOS Texas Instruments 2n1304 transistor (made in USA) selected for gain and leakage
- 1% tolerance metal film resistors and 5% tolerance Panasonic film capacitors
- Input transformer (buffer friendly)
- Custom folded aluminum enclosure with pressed in steel threaded inserts
- Wrought Iron Satisfaction Guarantee
- NPN transistor means no power supply concerns. Freely daisy chain it to other pedals.
Sound Sample playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqXf3blYo5xvDUzcyIPhDHAZo78TPNgdi&si=VXsuQEsJqZp-_3Th
