Amazon "Electronic component assortment"

[masonlewisdiesel]

A year or so back I acquired one of those general electronics packages off of amazon (resistors, caps,etc). On the list of whats inside it notes a bunch of trannys, at the bottom it says Germanium PNP x2. I was sorting through the lot of 100 Russian transistors that just came in the mail and thought what the hell I will socket them and see what they are all about. To my surprise they sound actually pretty good, all I have is the TC-1 for testing components. but they seem to be the ideal values for a fuzz face build.. or am I trippin? I cant really read the numbers on the transistors but also attached a photo of them in case anyone has insight? Also, please correct me if I am wrong on my tc-1 readings.

One transistor 128 hfe
two transistor 81 hfe
the rest of the TC-1 results are about the same on both transistors(see photo)
Any idea what the numbers on the cans are?

Thanks

 

[giovanni]

That’s pretty high hFE for Amazon transistors! The Vbe and leakage seem consistent with Ge to me but others on the forum can confirm (I have seen Si transistors in that packaging). I definitely can’t read the codes. Looks like a good score! If they sound good, they are good.

 

[masonlewisdiesel]

That’s pretty high hFE for Amazon transistors! The Vbe and leakage seem consistent with Ge to me but others on the forum can confirm (I have seen Si transistors in that packaging). I definitely can’t read the codes. Looks like a good score! If they sound good, they are good.

Thanks for getting back to me, Yeah they sound pretty good actually! kinda surprising.

 

[PedalBuilder]

Those are Chinese 3AX31C germanium PNP transistors. The gain/leakage values that you measured are typical for the 3AX31C. I’ve used them in a few builds and they’ve worked well.