God City Instruments Jugentief

The Jugentief is a bass drive pedal from God City Instruments, and it is aimed squarely at players who want maximum grit. The maker describes it as "an absolutely savage bass drive for when only the filthiest of bass tones will do." Rather than a single gain stage, it carries two dirt circuits in one box: an overdrive and a fuzz, running in parallel, so a player can blend or switch between two very different flavors of breakup without giving up pedalboard space.¹

It sits in the overlap between overdrive and fuzz territory, and it is built for bass first. Players comparing it with single-purpose drives should note that the two circuits are separate controls, not one gain knob with a fuzz voicing stacked on top.¹

Controls and how it works

The front panel carries the two parallel dirt controls, one for the overdrive section and one for the fuzz section. There is a third control that is less obvious: an internal trim pot that shapes the presence frequencies. The maker frames it as a tweak for players who like to open their pedals up, saying "There's also trim pot inside to control presence frequencies for all the hackers out there."¹

That internal trim means the pedal is not set-and-forget: with a screwdriver, the top-end bite of both circuits can be dialed to suit a bass, an amp, or a room, without taking up a knob on the outside of the enclosure.¹

Circuit and power

The Jugentief is an analog design, running on a standard 9V DC center negative supply.¹ As with any center negative pedal, a wrong-polarity adapter or an AC supply will damage it, so it takes the same power arrangement as most modern pedals and fits a normal daisy chain or isolated supply setup.

God City Instruments builds it as a pedal, in the familiar stompbox format, and the maker's catalog lists it alongside its other pedals.¹ Players looking at the builder's other designs can also read about the God City Instruments Pariah and the God City Instruments Jugendstil.