JFET Shootout

At what current are you measuring Vf? What matters is in a pedal circuit is the curve, not the voltage at a single point.
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Should an arrangement like this (with the diode in place of the resistor, of course) work for tracing the curve? I'm not sure if it'd be precise enough, though, with my multimeters
 
That will work. Put your voltage DMM on the other side of the current DMM because otherwise the voltage drop in the current DMM will affect the voltage reading. You also need a resistor in series with the power source to limit the diode current to a safe value.

Your DMMs need to resolve better than 100μA and 10mV. 20μA and 20mV is better. We want to make multiple measurements between 100μA and 10mA. Most pedals run the diodes at 1mA max for soft clippers, 4mA max for hard clippers. Doing it manually takes a lot of time.
 
Yes, it should be directly across the diode, not the diode + the ammeter. Just like real world voltmeters do not have infinite input impedance, real world ammeters do not have zero voltage drop.
 
Yes, it should be directly across the diode, not the diode + the ammeter. Just like real world voltmeters do not have infinite input impedance, real world ammeters do not have zero voltage drop.
Ok, I see what you mean. I'm not sure I'll do it, but if I do, I'll report back here
 
If you do make measurements, try this to get the most useful data from the least number of measurements. Measure Vf at 5 currents:
100uA 300uA 1mA 2mA 4mA
That should give a pretty good indication as to which diodes & JFETs are similar.

It is so much easier with a curve tracer. Here's some data I collected. The squiggles are caused by the resolution limit of the scope. JFETs were measured with D & S shorted together.

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