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
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
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,
and Beck’s signature Yardbirds riffs a little
extra muscle and danger.
Through a Marshall Super Lead the same
licks were scarily colossal. And a Gibson Les
Paul bridge pickup drove the Ge side and
Marshall to cloud-piercing heights—impractical
and overkill for most of us, but absolute
exhilaration—like a GTO and 30 miles of
desolate, cop-free, two-lane blacktop.
Blend in more silicon and scoop the
mids by rolling off the tone control, and
you’re bound for Iommi territory and
stoner zones beyond. Even in these ultra thick
dimensions, chords retain remarkable
note-to-note clarity—even more so with
single-coils. And notes sustain with a harmonic
sheen that hovers airily over a thick
and deliciously muddy bed tone. Aggressive
and crafty use of the filter control here can
give you a hip, even synthy trace of octave
that’s killer for Cream-era Clapton runs and
horn-like stabs in heavy funk jams.
At lower gain settings the germanium
side is great for mid-’60s garage-punk
tones. You might not be able to access that
super-clipped Davie Allan-style Buzzrite
beehive fuzz, but backing off the master
a bit, cranking the guitar wide open, and
strangling the Pro Junior a bit conjures a
genuinely skanky and thuggish buzz tone
that will suit the most surly, swaggering,
and chain-slinging biker jam.
The Verdict
You could spend a few hours with the
Gemini III and just start to get into the
nuances and secret back alleys of filth and
fuzz that lurk within the gleaming, polished
aluminum enclosure. There’s not a superfluous
function on this thing—even if it looks
really busy for a fuzz. The gain switches, filter
function, and, most importantly, the Ge/
Si blend knob enable you to tailor a guitarand-
amp combination to any situation on
the fly, at levels from subtle to extreme. This
is one fearsome studio weapon.
Perhaps the biggest bummer is that, like
most Spaceman pedals, there aren’t many
to go around. So let this review be a plea to
Spaceman Handmade Effects of Portland,
Oregon, USA: Keep these units rolling off the
bench. We’ll never tire of taking this trip.
Buy if...
you’re a fuzz nut on the hunt for new
flavors and a way to consolidate
classic fuzz tones in a single unit.
Skip if...
you rarely venture beyond your
favorite Fuzz Face sound.
Rating...
