Sunflower Fuzz

[chongmagic]

I found some NOS NKT275s to put in and they sound pretty good. I will have to put up a sound demo when I can.

New item by Jonathan Freeman (Chongmagic)

photos.app.goo.gl

New item by Jonathan Freeman (Chongmagic)

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[Jbanks]

I built a Sunflower a month or so ago and couldn’t get the level/gain to be high enough. Messed up the PCB taking out a transistor and started all over last night...

Long story short, the sound issue is still the same-bypass is fine, when turned on it is very quiet and no fuzz. No luck turning the clean and bias.

I can’t locate NKT275 germanium and tried silicon and another matched pair or Ge that didn’t work. Will this not work even close without the NKT275’s? I build a fair amount of pedals a month and something this simple is really puzzling me.

Any help would be welcome!

 

[chongmagic]

You don't need NKT-275s they are near impossible to find and most are duds or fake. You can use some 2SB171s those should work too.

 

[Jbanks]

You don't need NKT-275s they are near impossible to find and most are duds or fake. You can use some 2SB171s those should work too.

Thanks,

I’ll give those a try and see if it helps the level/gain issues.

 

[chongmagic]

You can probably get a matched pair off Smallbear

 

[Jbanks]

Ok. And is there a certain HFE range they should be? If it’s too weak HFE will it just not be loud enough?

 

[chongmagic]

The range depends on the type of tranny you use. 2SB171 from specs have 50 minimum hfe. So 50 and over is what you would want. Small bear will sell a matched pair with the correct hfe.

 

[bkn1966]

Matched? I thought the second transistor is supposed to have a higher hfe?

 

[chongmagic]

They match Q1 and Q2 so that they are the optimal values. From what I recall Q1 is always lower in hfe than Q2.