Germanium Transistor Lot

BuddytheReow

BuddytheReow

Moderator
Where's a good place to get a mixed bag of germanium transistors, both NPN and PNP for a relatively good price? I'm looking on ebay, but not sure if this is reliable (thinking J201s here) or if I should bite the bullet and randomly pick from Small Bear before they go. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Smallbear would definitely be my recommendation. eBay is hit or miss, unless you know the seller's reputation.
Pedal Hacker is another great source, but they don't always have a ton of germanium transistors available.
 
Are you looking for experimental purposes, or do you have specific circuits in mind?

Edit: or another reason...sorry if it seemed I was limiting you to only those options.
 
Nothing specific, per se. Maybe a tonebender or FF among others. Other schematics/layouts out there just call for a PNP or NPN and list the hfe and sometimes leakage. Since I'm not that knowledgeable on the part numbers I figured I'd get a mixed bag and experiment til my breadboard's melted.

Edit: From what I've read the part number really doesn't matter; it's the gain and leakage that does. Oh, and polarity too :)
 
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I just decided to try and start building pedals but USPS recently stopped shipping to Australia. Doesn't seem to be any decent source for Ge transistors here.
 
Preverb said:
I just decided to try and start building pedals but USPS recently stopped shipping to Australia. Doesn't seem to be any decent source for Ge transistors here.
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diyguitarpedals.com.au, A shop for all diy guitar pedal enthusiasts!

diyguitarpedals.com.au : - DIYGP PCBs & Kits Diodes Germanium Transistor Sets ICs Trimpot Transistors Wire Accessories Capacitors Pedal Decals Vactrol / Optocoupler Resistors Switches LED Enclosures Knobs DBE PCB's Clearance Audio & Power Potentiometers ecommerce, open source, shop, online shopping
www.diyguitarpedals.com.au

DIY Guitar Pedals got you 👍 although I didn't check if any are in stock
 
Harry Klippton said:

diyguitarpedals.com.au, A shop for all diy guitar pedal enthusiasts!

diyguitarpedals.com.au : - DIYGP PCBs & Kits Diodes Germanium Transistor Sets ICs Trimpot Transistors Wire Accessories Capacitors Pedal Decals Vactrol / Optocoupler Resistors Switches LED Enclosures Knobs DBE PCB's Clearance Audio & Power Potentiometers ecommerce, open source, shop, online shopping
www.diyguitarpedals.com.au

DIY Guitar Pedals got you 👍 although I didn't check if any are in stock
Click to expand...

Mostly out of stock. He has AC125s that are out of spec. Lower range. [Less than 60hfe (low leakage)]
Does that mean that they are going to be lower gain or that they are just going to be an overall mess?
 
Preverb said:
The Russian ones will work but will the Tonebender ones be usable with analogman sunface?
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If you look at the options page, there are many Sunface versions with different silicon and germanium transistors. I built one with high gain silicon, and another great sounding one with a pair of low gain Russian ones.

There's a newer Sunface with (different model than what I used) Russian transistors called BART. With the Sundial, it's a very forgiving circuit, and just about anything you put in there reasonable will work.

Although it was a long wait to my country, I bought dozens of Russian transistors off ebay in one purchase based on friend's recommendations and they've worked well in Fuzz Faces and Benders. I've also bought Fuzz Face and Tone Bender sets (one was an AC125 set from diyguitarpedals,but it was years ago) already measured for me before, and was able to get the same results after spending time auditioning my newer Russian batch.
 
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Big Monk said:
If you are doing a Fuzz Face, get the fuzz face set.

To answer more directly: Yes. There is usually a Fuzz Face transistor set hiding within a Tonebender set.
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I was kind of thinking I will not be using fuzz in high gain. I would rather have it be a bit too low in gain and required a boost pedal rather than too much if that makes sense.
 
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