Russian Germanium. What to build?

[szukalski]

I got myself some MP21A, MP38A, and P28s.
Gains between 40-70 on average, a couple around 100.
Leakage is relatively low on most <50, though a few are 100-300.

Thoughts on what I can use them in?

I have a Duocast and Fuchsia Fuzz which I love.
There's an Apple Fritter Fuzz in the backlog, which I will try with Chuck's mods.

Any recommendations on some must-have/nice-to-have circuits?

 

[Betty Wont]

Fuzz Factory and the Buzzaround come to mind. Fuzz factories are how I usually use up my lowest gain ones.

 

[G.G.]

I made these with MP38As and GT404s and they sound great! I auditioned a bunch of them in the circuit to find good combinations but they basically worked with whatever I had on-hand.

Jack Deville Vintage Two-Knob Fuzz

I've been wanting to do a Fuzz Face with on-board pots for a while, and when I stumbled across a schematic of Jack Deville's (Mr. Black) tak...

effectslayouts.blogspot.com

I switched the polarity on the electrolytic caps to make this a regular negative ground NPN circuit, worth a build!

Carlsbro 2 Knob Fuzz Box

dirtboxlayouts.blogspot.com

 

[szukalski]

Awesome recommendations! Thanks a lot!

 

[gheorge77]

I'd recommend the Rangefinder, the Sundance, Tone Benders (possibly with the trimpot once it's back in stock). I recently got an order of about 150 PNPs and am quite happy with the results.

One cool thing is that I built the Aion version of the MK2 Tone Bender and it is way more forgiving in terms of needed leakage because of the added bias trimpots.

I feel like any type of fuzz face is the ideal circuit to utilize the low leakage Soviet transistors.

I should also point out that the best results I had were for P416B and GT115V in terms of gain and leakage. The 416s we're almost entirely 70-90 hFE with less than 10 uA leakage measures on a DCA 55. The 115s were mostly over 110 hFE with low leakage

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

There's an Apple Fritter Fuzz in the backlog, which I will try with Chuck's mods.

Any recommendations on some must-have/nice-to-have circuits?

since you have a Fuchsia, I would not bother with the modd'ed Apple Fritter.

Another good BJFe pedal that contains Germanium is the Emerald Green Distortion Machine.

The FZ-1 is a good use for PNP Ge, but you need to find the correct leakage. Or use NPN and delete the charge pump.

 

[HamishR]

My two favourite Ge pedals are the Red Rooster (Chickenhead) and Marshall Supa Fuzz, which is a slightly modded Tonebender originally made by Solasound. I always make 'em with NPNs like the MP38 because life is too short.

 

[ianmarks]

I made these with MP38As and GT404s and they sound great! I auditioned a bunch of them in the circuit to find good combinations but they basically worked with whatever I had on-hand.

Jack Deville Vintage Two-Knob Fuzz

I've been wanting to do a Fuzz Face with on-board pots for a while, and when I stumbled across a schematic of Jack Deville's (Mr. Black) tak...

effectslayouts.blogspot.com

I switched the polarity on the electrolytic caps to make this a regular negative ground NPN circuit, worth a build!

Carlsbro 2 Knob Fuzz Box

dirtboxlayouts.blogspot.com

Built one up with some low gain russians 40s -60s hfe. Nice!