GE Transistors for Parenthesis Fuzz?

[jflorey]

Title sums up the question nicely, I'm building the Parenthesis Fuzz and trying to figure out what GE transistors to use. I have some of these lying around - they're a little big but I could definitely squeeze them onto the board. Would these work, or should I try to find something else?

 

[Dan M]

For the diodes in the octave circuit, my understanding is it works best if the diodes have the same (or very close) forward voltage.

So I ordered a 10 pack of D9K’s from pedalhacker. I think it was $6 for 10.

I measured them and used the two that were closest in the octave. I used two others in the clipping position. And then I’ve been using the remaining six as clippers in other pedal builds. (Including breaking one when bending the leads because glass is fragile and I’m not as careful as I should be!)


There are other threads where people used all sorts of different diodes

 

[Dan M]

These 2 threads have the info I remember when I was trying to figure this out myself:

https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/parentheses-fuzz-w-video.5590/

https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/parentheses-mini-2nd.5233/

 

[jflorey]

Hey, thanks for the response. I can measure the forward voltage to make sure they're matched up as close as possible, but do you know if there's any other relevant difference? Just from looking at one of the threads where the forward voltage is mentioned (around .27V), I noticed that the ones I have are almost twice as large, around 0.45V. Is that bad?

Seems like the general vibe I'm picking up from these threads is just "try it and see what happens," so I might just try that too.

 

[Dan M]

Right, from one of those links, I think the quote was "not better or worse, just different"
Do you have any sockets available? You could socket them and finish the build. Then easily swap them later if you want to mess around with it.