Caroline announces limited germanium Shigeharu batch of 100

March 26, 2024 · 1 sources

Caroline Guitar Company announced on March 26, 2024 a limited run of the Shigeharu, its octave fuzz pedal, built with germanium parts in place of silicon and with revised gain stages. The maker said the Army Green pedal is limited to a batch of 100 units.

According to Caroline, the parallel octave circuit uses new old stock Soviet parts for what the maker describes as a woodier texture, and each transistor gain stage was retuned to resemble an older Soviet-era fuzzstortion from the company's reference lab. Caroline characterizes the result as having more low end and more bark and less bite than the standard Shigeharu, while retaining a wide range of overdrive, distortion and fuzz sounds. The pedals are hand-wired at the company's workshop in Columbia, South Carolina.

Caroline said the pedal is available now from some limited dealers, noting that those dealers may not have listed it online yet. The announcement gave no price. The company also said it would consider making more if there is enough demand, and framed the Shigeharu as the first of several limited variants of existing products planned for the year.