my neovibe shouldn't work but it does

[jeff g]

so, after leaving a partially completed neovibe for about 5 months, I came back to it

originally, I couldn't get a bunch of transistors to bias properly and I was mightily frustrated, so I put it on hold (before I smashed it !!)

now, I've resoldered all the transistors (all 2n5088s) without sockets

I rechecked voltages - still have many improperly biased transistors, but I decided to try it out anyway, 

and ....

the vibe works !!!  good speed control, nice phasing and chorusing

why does it work ?

and can I expect a better sound if I fixed the transistors? 

(this seems similar to my phase 45 and phase 90 builds, where I just used Jfets and they seem to work fine)

[petemoore]

  It's fairly non-intrusive to just pick one stage that's not biased, and measure everything and nothing, look for shorts, opens, misconnects using the DMM to test each resistance in that stage, preferrably from the furthest possible point, including as many solder joints in the R measurement as you can.
  Clip to a point, test R values from there, test for shorts from there, test for opens between resistors and transistors where possible.
  See if the transistors acting up don't have something in common like voltage measurements or a resistor divider upsetting the lot....which way does a voltage look 'offbias point? if it's toward ground from where you think it should be, what could be pulling it toward ground? One color code off on a resistor value is enough to throw many transistors out of bias.
  I have a vibe I liked the sound of here, it isn't right either, I never actually found out why it like an exact ~9.3v IIRC. but it sounded really great, I did some recording with it.