Ustomp.com Superfuzz PCB - transistors?

[sfr]

Looking for something to work on, I ran across a board I had etched a while back for the Superfuzz, using the layout at Ustomp.com  (I have so many half-finished projects and un-populated, etched boards kicking around that it's silly.)

Whaddya figure for transistors for this?  Any old NPN?  I figure I'd have a go with 2N5088's, but anyone's got ideas, I'd love to hear them. 

Also, "bias" on that board sounds like something I'd be mounting a trimpot for, internally, but the board looks like the layout matches up with this schematic over at GEOfex, where it is labelled "octave balance" so I'm assuming this is an external control?  Although the pictures I've seen only seem to have two pots and the switch on them?

Diodes? Any-old thing work here? 1N4148s? 

I guess experimentaion and sockets are my friends, just curious if anyone else has worked with this layout before.

[MartyMart]

I tried a "ton" of different trannies for this one and got NO noticeable changes !
Settled on either 5088's or BC549b's ( can't remember )
I used the trim pot mod for this, to fine tune the octave balance, it's on the board and makes
a great octave tuning tool ( 5 or 10k pot I think )
Diodes : I like assym , so used 2x4148 - 1x4148 ( have 100's of them to use up! )

Superb grainey and almost heavy metal fuzz/octave
Have fun,
MM.

[Mark Hammer]

Marty's right.  And given how many distortions this lad has put together and tried out, he oughta know.  Just about anything with an hfe above, say, 250 or so should work just fine.

Mine has a silicon/germanium/none switch for the diodes.  Silicon will be fine but you'll fnd the unit still sounds surprisingly distorted in their absence.  May be the case that the diodes serve more of a limiting function than a distorting one here.  Of course that tends to be true of a number of discrte fuzzes I've made, like the Tone Machine, Bosstone, and Univox Square Wave.