The Harmonic Percolator is a distortion pedal that was created by Ed Giese of Interfax Electronics in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the 1970’s. It used a silicon NPN transistor and a germanium PNP transistor in a design that passes even order harmonics while suppressing odd order harmonics. These even order harmonics are more pleasing to the ear than odd order harmonics. At low settings the Harmonic Percolator will give added sustain without ‘coloring’ the sound. Higher settings will give a mean distortion that performs well with multiple notes. Legendary guitar-abuser Steve Albini (Big Black, Rapeman, Shellac) uses a Harmonic Percolator for some of those Guitar noises he gives birth to…
Interfax HP-1
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.






