King of Tone - which readily available diodes?

[daveychainsaw]

Hello, having been on the wait list for more than five years, I've decided to build one whilst i wait and see if i like it enough to buy one.

I'm just wondering what the best diodes to use are in 2025, instead of the MA856 and 1S1588. I hear that the BAS33 was one to go for but I can't find that in the UK and stompboxparts who have them won't ship to the UK.

I have plenty of 1n5817, 1n914, 1N4148, 1n4001, Bat41's and lots of the usual common diodes.

What do you think?

 

[Erik S]

If you're ordering a ppcb board, these are an option.

1S1588 Silicon Switching Diode - PedalPCB.com

Silicon Diode

www.pedalpcb.com

 

[daveychainsaw]

If you're ordering a ppcb board, these are an option.

1S1588 Silicon Switching Diode - PedalPCB.com

Silicon Diode

www.pedalpcb.com

Oh, I hadn't realised they stocked the 1S1588! That would have been a good shout.
I'm in the UK so have ordered a PCB from Fuzzdog. I also ordered one from Aion to try as well.

 

[giovanni]

I used 1N914 in my build and I think it sounds great. I think the hype and mojo are dominant here. I doubt you’ll hear significant differences with the “correct” diodes.

 

[Joben Magooch]

I like BA282 for Bluesbreaker type builds and PPCB does sell those as well I believe. But to be honest maybe my ears are crap but I don't think I've ever noticed a meaningful difference between diode "families". By the time I've swapped another set in I've already forgotten what the last sounded like

 

[rossbalch]

If you really want to get close with what you already have, you could just use 2x 4148 and 1x BAT41 (or 1n5817) in each direction.

Or just the two 4148 honestly.

edit: data from here https://rhpfelectronics.com/rhpf-el...pedals-in-switzerland/rhpf-nerd-lab/iv-bench/

 

[falco_femoralis]

In my last build I used 4148's and 1s1588's. If I didn't have the 1588's on hand I would just use 4148's for everything.

I'm not partial to the hard clipping part of the circuit - the soft clipping sounds much better to me. But so does the boost when it's overdriven when set up with the high gain mod.

What's more important than the type of diode is how it is implemented in the circuit. In the end, both my KoT and PoT are on the shelf and I have a Lovepedal Blackface instead.