REVIEW > sPaceMan
SPACEMAN
GEMINI III DUAL
FUZZ GENERATOR
BY CHARLES SAUFLEY
If you’re a real texturalist and sonic saucier—one that seeks to color every
tune a little differently—one fuzz will never
do. Muff tones. Tone Bender tones. Fuzz
Face tones. Within each of these classics
dwells a perfect fuzz monster, if not several.
But when you’re in the middle of a budget
recording project, or rehearsing for a show
that’s 48 hours away, chances are you don’t
have the time to mine your stompbox collection and tinker endlessly with a thousand
fuzz permutations to get just the right sound
for each and every riff and solo passage.
Imagine then, having the delightfully,
functionally schizophrenic Spaceman
Gemini III at your disposal. This beautiful—and beautifully built—fuzz isn’t a
clone of anything. And it doesn’t promise
access to dead-on emulations to every holy
grail fuzz of all time. But it is positively
packed with fuzz voices generated by parallel germanium and silicon circuits that
can be independently operated, blended,
and tailored to create a technicolor circus
of buzz, grind, fizz, fuzz, and crunch. If
you can’t find a fuzz tone here that fits the
bill, you might as well consider work as a
bongo master.
evil twins
Unpacking the Spacemen Gemini III is
like a little touch of Christmas morning.
The pedal comes in a silver spacesuit-cloth
drawstring bag adorned with a silkscreened
astronaut. And pulling out the Gemini III
lends the very justified suspicion that you
might have your hands on the coolest new
contraption on the block.
The Gemini III has an uncannily
authentic NASA-circa-’ 65 aesthetic. The
embossed plastic overlay looks like it
was lifted directly from a capsule control panel, and sporting “S”-and-arrow
graphics, the knobs look designed for
premierguitar.com
sonic mission-critical
precision. The control
layout is definitely more
complicated than a Fuzz
Face, Tone Bender, or
Big Muff. The top row
of controls consist of a
master volume for the
effect level, a filter knob,
and a 2-position switch
that alters the direction
of the filter sweep in germanium mode.
The center position
of the control set is dedicated to the germanium/
silicon circuit blend knob.
It’s an elegantly designed
control with a sweep from
1 to 11 o’clock, and a thin
line that marks an equal
blend of germanium (Ge)
and silicon (Si) blend at 6
o’clock. But it’s the very
real effectiveness of the
control’s range that’s most
impressive. On either side
of the Ge/Si blend knob
there are 3-position switches that step up
the gain in three stages for each circuit.
Curiously, the lowest gain setting ( 1) is in
the center position. But once you work
with the pedal a little bit, the audible difference each setting creates is reminder enough
of which position is which.
A cool, early ’60s-style industrial property tag with stamped serial number marks
each solid-as-a-brick enclosure. But a look
inside reveals that the smart, tough-as-nails
engineering is much more than skin deep.
The solution to incorporating independent
silicon and germanium circuits is a tidy
bit of genius. The two boards are stacked
ziggurat-style and take up the upper half of
Germanium/
silicon blend
knob
3-stage gain
switch for
each circuit
Parallel
silicon and
germanium
circuits
the enclosure. Each board is immaculately
and logically arranged and wired with a
layout worthy of Vulcan high art. Elsewhere
the wiring is neat and linear.
orbiting the Fuzz Globe
If you’re into Brit ’67-’ 70 sounds of
Beck-Ola, Led Zeppelin I, or Donovan’s “Hurdy
Gurdy Man,” the cranked reaches of the
germanium circuit are a paradise. With
the Ge/Se blend set for maximum germanium input and the filter knob cranked,
a Telecaster’s bridge pickup stabbed at a
Fender Pro Junior with explosive menace
that gave “Dazed and Confused” solo
phrases an extra dose of garage brutality,
PREMIER GUITAR FEBRUARY 2012 161
