hurt:harm Harmonic Percolator

The hurt:harm is an Interfax HP-1 Harmonic Percolator circuit.

The Harmonic Percolator circuit was really the first circuit I managed to build that ended up working; and few things have felt as good as the moment I stepped on the switch and heard the sound of my guitar being mulched in real-time.

Given this early success, I ended up making lots of these circuits and often substituted various components to see what type of effect it would have on the sound. My adventures down this rabbit hole resulted in the No Mask.

The circuit itself is usually constructed on tagboard and housed in a 125B-sized enclosure and the components I use just depend on whatever interesting bits I've been able to salvage from old tape machines, radios, preamps and amplifiers.

hurt (as in “ouch this hurts") controls the output volume.
harm (as in harmonics) controls the distortion.
Switch position left: Clipping diodes removed from circuit; louder and more open
Switch position right: Clipping diodes engaged; less volume and more gnarly

These aren't always available, but if you do want one and I'm sold out, just get in touch and I'll see what I've got knocking about.