Please help me understand this. The idea with this pedal is to switch between Ge and Si but the build sheet calls for D9Ks and 1N60Ps. These are both Ge….shouldn’t one of the be Si? So what’s the deal? What am I missing here? I’m also thinking about trying 1N4148s instead of the D9Ks. Or, maybe LEDs. Any thoughts???
Special K Ge vs Si
- Thread starter BenB
- Start date
PedalBuilder
Well-known member
1N60 is a germanium diode. 1N60P is a silicon Schottky diode. There won’t be a huge difference between a D9 series diode and a 1N60P, so you’re right that it might be worth experimenting with switching one of the sets to 1N4148s instead.
pingpongcomputer
Well-known member
1S1588 diodes have a lower Vf than some other silicon diodes but still higher than a D9k or a shotkky, sort of a middle ground. I'm not totally sure but I think they still have a steep curve like most other silicon diodes as well, so they should give different textures in addition to different clipping thresholds. They're expensive for clipping diodes but pedalhacker has them and I've bought legit diodes from the eBay seller vintage-ic.com/1947transistor2012 who also has them. Lots of fakes out there evidently because they look like generic 1N914 with a blue stripe instead of black.
PedalBuilder
Well-known member
The widely available Soviet KD521V diode that was used in the Sovtek/Green Russian muffs would be a good candidate, too. It has a Vf that's about 50mV lower at 5mA than the 1N4148 or 1S1588. Here's a graph from @thomasbe86's data that shows the D9K (black) vs the KD521V (purple), 1S1588 (brown), and 1N4148 (blue). As you can see, the KD521V is a lot higher than the D9K, but noticeably lower than the 1S1588 or 1N4148.
pingpongcomputer
Well-known member
I was thinking 1S1588 were much lower than 1N4148, just spreading misinformation in an area already full of it, oops. Ignore my post, get the Soviet ones like @PedalBuilder said.
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