MIKE PAYNE: Earlier this week, Gearwire sat down with the legendary Steve Albini for a video interview. During the interview, Mr. Albini talked about the Barge Concepts Harmonic Percolator which we happen to have right here in the studio. Let's take a look at that clip and after that, we'll take a look at the pedal which we've got in house here.

DAN AGOSTO: Cool.

DREW KRAG: Awesome.

[BARGE CONCEPTS HARMONIC PERCOLATOR VIDEO START]

There are two knobs on the far left called drive and output. I have no idea what those do so I've turned those all the way down. I tried turning them up and it didn't seem to make any difference. And I -- in any case, I believe that the red light on the drive button means that that's disengaged. When I use the Harmonic Percolator, it has two controls, balance and harmonics and I have both of them all the way up. By that I mean the harmonics is the distortion generation; I have that at maximum, and the balance is the blend between the distortion signal and the clean signal, and I have that turned all the way up as well. That's my normal usage of the pedal as for sort of sound effect, and so that's the way I've got this set. There appears to be a difference in range because the output of this pedal doesn't sound very much like the Harmonic Percolator I'm used to. I'll show you what I mean.

[STEVE ALBINI PLAYING GUITAR RIFFS AND TRYING OUT FEEDBACK EFFECTS WITH THE BARGE CONCEPTS BP-1].

The whistling microphonic feedback, it doesn't seem to be working as well. The low frequency content doesn't seem to be as preserved and just the general tone has kind of a raspier quality to it. This may be intended to simulate a version of the Harmonic Percolator that is not identical to the one that I own. The one that I own was, as I said, one that was sold by the original crazy dude from the Interfax company in Milwaukee, and this one may be simulating one of the many variations on the circuit. I don't know.

I'm going to fiddle around with it a little and see if I can get it to more closely mimic the original Harmonic Percolator here.

[STEVE ALBINI ATTEMPTING TO MAKE THE BARGE CONCEPTS BP-1 EMULATE THE HARMONIC PERCOLATOR MORE CLOSELY].

You'll see that it -- there's some sort of a high-frequency resonance in this pedal that doesn't exist in the original Harmonic Percolator, and I can't seem to tune it out...

[BARGE CONCEPTS HARMONIC PERCOLATOR VIDEO END]

DAN AGOSTO: All right, so Steve really didn't like the pedal but I think that's probably because of the situation that he was trying it in.

MIKE PAYNE: Mmm hmm.

DAN AGOSTO: He was trying it against a really, really, really like heavily distorted amp.

MIKE PAYNE: Okay.

DAN AGOSTO: And honestly, it's probably a different design. This pedal was designed mostly, according to the Barge Concepts web site, was designed mostly from pictures of the circuit diagram in like just put together from that sort of thing of the original Interfax.

BRITTON WETHERALD: Okay, so they didn’t even actually try to look at like the IC chips and what-not and where they got it?

DAN AGOSTO: Well, they found out which IC chips they used and which caps and resistors that they used through pictures and then experimented, according to the web site.

BRITTON WETHERALD: That sounds really fun. Can we open it at the back and actually look at it?

DAN AGOSTO: No, we can't.

[PANELISTS LAUGHING]

DAN AGOSTO: Not right now. Drew's got to get going. But anyway, I still think despite what Mr. Albini said, I still like the pedal. It's sort of a fuzzy pedal but it lets you play chords. When you play it on lower gain settings, you can still play like some dissonant stuff and you don't get just beating, you know. The tone actually comes through, so let's take a listen a little bit.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE BARGE CONCEPTS HARMONIC PERCOLATOR, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

DAN AGOSTO: Britton?

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE BARGE CONCEPTS HARMONIC PERCOLATOR, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

DAN AGOSTO: So, which knobs are you messing with right now?

BRITTON WETHERALD: Right now I'm just turning down everything, kind of the balance in the harmonics and just kind of setting an output at 12 o'clock. The drive is off, on bypass right now.

DAN AGOSTO: Yeah. One thing I did notice is that this is different I believe from the other pedal. I'm not sure but if you turn down either the balance or the harmonics knob, everything there's no sound basically.

MIKE PAYNE: Right.

DAN AGOSTO: Either one.

MIKE PAYNE: Right.

BRITTON WETHERALD: So right now, I'm just -- I got everything turned down.

MIKE PAYNE: Can you turn the pulse width up a little bit? [LAUGHING]

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE BARGE CONCEPTS HARMONIC PERCOLATOR, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

DAN AGOSTO: So, this is the balance. Now expose it.

[PANELISTS LAUGHING]

DAN AGOSTO: What I thought it was supposed to be, the balance was supposed to mix between the clean signal and the distorted signal, but it doesn't really do that.

BRITTON WETHERALD: That's what -- That's what my Scrambler --

DAN AGOSTO: The Ampeg Scrambler?

BRITTON WETHERALD: The Ampeg Scrambler. That what those two knobs. Texture is the amount of distortion and octave like it does the octave so like if you turn it all the way down, it turns -- Wait, that's a different pedal, different time, sorry, but yeah.

DAN AGOSTO: But let's turn those up a little it.

BRITTON WETHERALD: Yeah, so everything is at 12 o'clock, the drive is off.

DAN AGOSTO: You get a lot of gain when you turn up those balance and harmonic knobs. I'm going to turn down the output a little bit.

BRITTON WETHERALD: Say, we're just kind of turning it up, turning up the harmonics now.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE BARGE CONCEPTS HARMONIC PERCOLATOR, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

BRITTON WETHERALD: Right now, it doesn't sound more like a fuzz. It's just like distortion.

DAN AGOSTO: Yeah. So, why don't we turn those up all the way?

BRITTON WETHERALD: I like that idea.

DAN AGOSTO: And turn down the output a bit because then it would be clipping.

BRITTON WETHERALD: Are we clipping?

DAN AGOSTO: Here we go. I got it over here.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE BARGE CONCEPTS HARMONIC PERCOLATOR, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

DAN AGOSTO: All right. That's pretty warm sounding. You have the tone turned down on there, Drew?

DREW KRAG: All the way up.

DAN AGOSTO: It's all the way up? All right, I'm going to give it a little more treble on the pod over here.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE BARGE CONCEPTS HARMONIC PERCOLATOR, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

DAN AGOSTO: All right, now hit the drive up.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE BARGE CONCEPTS HARMONIC PERCOLATOR, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

BRITTON WETHERALD: Drive's a 12 o'clock by the way. Am I okay on the...?

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE BARGE CONCEPTS HARMONIC PERCOLATOR, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

DAN AGOSTO: Now there we go.

MIKE PAYNE: Wow.

DAN AGOSTO: It's starting to do some weird stuff. If you turn down that drive, that's sort of adjusting input then, it cleans up quite a bit, but if we turn it all the way up, it just gets nuts, and I could see that feeding back quite crazily. It might be what Steve Albini refer to us as the horrible sound.

[PANELISTS LAUGHING]

MIKE PAYNE: I kind of like it

DREW KRAG: Sounds like scrambled eggs.

DAN AGOSTO: That it does.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE BARGE CONCEPTS HARMONIC PERCOLATOR, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

DAN AGOSTO: So anyway --

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE BARGE CONCEPTS HARMONIC PERCOLATOR, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

MIKE PAYNE: That's -- I like that.

DAN AGOSTO: Yeah, I like this pedal.

MIKE PAYNE: I like that.

DAN AGOSTO: But of course we're plugging it in where it's a very different situation. Drew's got a guitar with some P90's, Seymour Duncan P90's, and we're plugging into a POD and listening on headphones.

MIKE PAYNE: Right, right.

DAN AGOSTO: So it's a very different situation. I like this fellow too. I really do.

MIKE PAYNE: Yeah. Yeah.

BRITTON WETHERALD: Honestly, I'm not like wild on it, not -- I don't know.

DAN AGOSTO: That's fair enough.

BRITTON WETHERALD: I do like to see equipment. You know I have the passion for it, but honestly I'm just -- the -- let's listen for a second.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE BARGE CONCEPTS HARMONIC PERCOLATOR, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

BRITTON WETHERALD: Notice how it's really cutting off the waveform horribly but it's not producing any sort of warm distortion. It's still just leaving it at a --

DAN AGOSTO: Yeah, it's doing what a classic fuzz does I believe. If you turn down that drive, it cleans up quite well.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE BARGE CONCEPTS HARMONIC PERCOLATOR, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

BRITTON WETHERALD: Yeah but like the sounds are -- go down the scale a little higher.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE BARGE CONCEPTS HARMONIC PERCOLATOR, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

BRITTON WETHERALD: Yeah, it's kind of -- it's underwhelming. I mean what's the street price of this thing?

DAN AGOSTO: Oh, let me check. You want the street price or list? One fifty.

MIKE PAYNE: Gotcha, gotcha.

DAN AGOSTO: That's not bad

BRITTON WETHERALD: It's actually not bad at all.

DAN AGOSTO: That's about the same price as our other pedal, which we should probably move on to.

MIKE PAYNE: Yeah, we should. Absolutely.

BRITTON WETHERALD: Anyways, I'm just -- I'm not wild on it. I can see why Albini is kind of like, you know. It just doesn't produce the amount of like when you're doing really trebly feedback-y like sounds.

DAN AGOSTO: I really like it. When I was playing with it, I really like it for the jangly chords type distortion, lighter distortion.

DREW KRAG: Yeah. Lighter distortion, that's what I like.

MIKE PAYNE: Right, right.

DAN AGOSTO: I think it really excels at that.

BRITTON WETHERALD: Yeah, but as a fuzz --

DAN AGOSTO: Yeah, as a fuzz not really.

BRITTON WETHERALD: As a fuzz like that.

DAN AGOSTO: But we can have another fuzz.

MIKE PAYNE: Right. Yeah, we do have. Let's check out the other one.

DAN AGOSTO: Yeah.

MIKE PAYNE: We've also got the HomeBrew Electronics UFO or Ultimate Fuzz Octave, and let's take a look at that one.

DAN AGOSTO: This is a hand-built pedal. This is my pedal actually.

MIKE PAYNE: Okay. Gotcha.

DAN AGOSTO: We saw it at NAMM, this past NAMM, and I heard it and now --

MIKE PAYNE: Did you mean [pronounced "nahm"] NAMM?

DAN AGOSTO: NAMM. We saw it at WNAMM '07. Here, let me turn it up. I think you have it plugged in reverse. That's what we get for using the same cables on both sides.

MIKE PAYNE: [LAUGHING]

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE HOMEBREW ELECTRONICS UFO, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

DAN AGOSTO: All right, so there's two knobs on this, or two modes on this. There is vintage and modern. I think you have the volume turned all the way down.

BRITTON WETHERALD: No. I do right now. I just kind of --

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE HOMEBREW ELECTRONICS UFO, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

DAN AGOSTO: This is a really warm fuzz pedal.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE HOMEBREW ELECTRONICS UFO, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

DAN AGOSTO: Let me turn it down a little bit.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE HOMEBREW ELECTRONICS UFO, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

BRITTON WETHERALD: That's nice.

DAN AGOSTO: Yeah. I heard it and I just had to have it. This is actually around $168.

BRITTON WETHERALD: One sixty eight, right?

DAN AGOSTO: Yeah.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE HOMEBREW ELECTRONICS UFO, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

DREW KRAG: Ooh. Can you see that relaxed fuzz right there?

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE HOMEBREW ELECTRONICS UFO, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

BRITTON WETHERALD: More of that.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE HOMEBREW ELECTRONICS UFO, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

DAN AGOSTO: And you can play chords with this fuzz too.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE HOMEBREW ELECTRONICS UFO, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

DAN AGOSTO: That's in modern version?

BRITTON WETHERALD: Yeah.

DAN AGOSTO: Or the modern mode. Now turn down that octave.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE HOMEBREW ELECTRONICS UFO, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

DAN AGOSTO: It gets kind of phasey, kind of weird.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE HOMEBREW ELECTRONICS UFO, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

BRITTON WETHERALD: Let me turn it on modern now.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE HOMEBREW ELECTRONICS UFO, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

BRITTON WETHERALD: This is nice.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE HOMEBREW ELECTRONICS UFO, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

DAN AGOSTO: So, you can get a little more volume out of the modern setting.

BRITTON WETHERALD: Yeah. It seems it raises it up a couple of dB, but I like this subdued. I really like this.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE HOMEBREW ELECTRONICS UFO, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

DAN AGOSTO: These are all hand-built pedals so I'm pretty sure that the Barge Concepts is as well.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE HOMEBREW ELECTRONICS UFO, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

DAN AGOSTO: I actually end up using this pedal mostly with the octave off. Let's go back to that really quick.

BRITTON WETHERALD: Kind of like a maestro fuzz.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE HOMEBREW ELECTRONICS UFO, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

DAN AGOSTO: The tone knob let's you dial in a lot of different settings I feel.

BRITTON WETHERALD: Yeah. This is like a good old one EQ. It's just like, you know.

DAN AGOSTO: It's got a little bit of resonance on it.

[DREW KRAG PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE HOMEBREW ELECTRONICS UFO, BRITTON WETHERALD TWEAKING]

BRITTON WETHERALD: It's like a one-band, you know, plus a shelving kind of thing.

DAN AGOSTO: I feel like -- I think its probably a low pass.

BRITTON WETHERALD: Yeah.

DAN AGOSTO: With some resonance on it.

BRITTON WETHERALD: Yeah. Low pass with a bump.

DAN AGOSTO: Yeah. Cool.

BRITTON WETHERALD: Awesome pedal, man.

MIKE PAYNE: That's sweet.

DREW KRAG: This has a lot of different sonic variations in that field.

DAN AGOSTO: Yeah. Both of these I feel -- even though I am using this one mine, both of these I feel excel in the studio just because of the amount of sounds you can get.

BRITTON WETHERALD: I guess what I'm thinking for kind of just add some difference by different opinions are whatever. It's just that I have a different opinion. I'm looking at this as more of live setting stuff because, you know, a lot of guys have to use the same pedals for both studio and live, you really want a good versatile one. This one would do well.

DAN AGOSTO: Yeah. I mean that's my situation right now.

BRITTON WETHERALD: Yeah, and this pedal right here is amazing for both. It sounds like -- I mean we're using it in a studio but I could just see this being way awesome on...

DAN AGOSTO: Oh yeah.

BRITTON WETHERALD: ...you know like a VOX AC30 or whatever.

DAN AGOSTO: I've actually been playing it through a bass amp to record, and it sounds really good that way.

BRITTON WETHERALD: It's awesome. Now, that's more of my problem with the Barge Concepts that comes in and say I don't think it would really that great in a live setting. Maybe cool during recording but it's just not that great with live.

DAN AGOSTO: Yeah.

MIKE PAYNE: Right, right. Well, that's sweet. So that's sweet. All right. Thanks for watching Gearwire Crosstalk show or program, episode number 28. Be sure to tune in next week. We'll be waiting here in the studio patiently for your return. Enjoy your week everybody. Thanks a lot.

DAN AGOSTO: Tell a friend.

BRITTON WETHERALD: We're also on channel 111 on your satellite TV also known as Spice.

[PANELISTS LAUGHING]

MIKE PAYNE: In between boobs.