Germanium pre-amp?

[Isaiah]

So, I really like that Ge sound (neither pristine, nor breaking into an overdriven sound, though a circuit that overdrives when cranked is ok).
Perhaps that's really vague.
I think I could describe this ideal circuit as adding harmonics without sounding overdriven or sound too sparkly, perhaps kind of 'squishy' too.
I don't expect to get the tone I want with a minimal circuit - I imagine it'll come from chain multiple stages, but that's fine with me.
Something that sounds good on bass would be great too!

I've been trying to find some ways to capture the sound and I just can't quite manage to.

I've tried chaining two Harmonic percolators (low-gain, low-distortion Ge PNP/Si NPN, no diodes) in series,
but it wasn't quite right. Seemed to jump from having too little gain to too much and the overdrive tone was unusual (but not unpleasant),
perhaps it's part of the HP design - it's designed as a distortion that creates even harmonics.

I've tried Germanium PNP boosters chained in series - Nice overdrive tones, but still not right for me.

Maybe I should look into biasing ideas for Germanium transistors and how different biasing affects how a circuit sounds/overdrives.
Any suggested reading/circuits please?

Thanks,
Alex

[petemoore]

Maybe I should look into biasing ideas for Germanium transistors andAny suggested reading/circuits please?
  Larger voltage PS maybe.
  I'm missing clarity on what the desired result is, pre-amp can be any gain stage including Rangemaster, it amplifies the signal before entering the next stage.
  I generally call preamp more of a line signal output, as seen with say 18v supply or better, having large voltage swing [so as to be able to drive a power amp].
   how different biasing affects how a circuit sounds/overdrives.
  Many ways to 'OD' a signal, many involve making the signal swing near to or greater than some 'boundary' such as PS potential or positive / negative 'swingability' of the transistor.
  Starting with say 9v as PS, as in rangemaster, biasing the collector close to the power supply limit means that when the transistor tries to swing it's collector voltage up to amplify by X amount of X amount of input, and the voltage swing nears the power supply, instead of following the input signals waveshape, as it nears the peak of the 1/2 wave, it starts hitting the limit, and the top of the wave looks more like a flat plateau instead of a smooth waveform [the input waveform has become distorted, most of the shape change near the signal peaks].
  By moving the collector bias voltage up near 9v [as in RM with 7v bias on collector], the clipping happens sooner / more of the top of the wave is 'clipped off', and more disstortion results. Bias the collector at a lower voltage and there's more room for the signal to swing up before it hits 9v [biased at say 6v, you have 3v of headroom [minus transistors ineffeciencies]] so collector voltage swings farther before being limited by the PS, clipping amount is smaller.
  Raise the PS voltage and clipping is smaller / signal output resembles the input waveform more.
  Boost the input voltage [ie RM drives RM or similar], now the collector of the first stage has multiplied the voltage of source, so when it gets to the second transistor multiplying the signal swing voltage, you're talking signal source [well just call the guitars AC output 'amount' :1], the guitar signal is multiplied by the first stage [say 10x voltage gain], then the second stage [say 10x voltage gain], now you have a signal voltage swing 100x larger than what the guitar put out...except...the second transistor collector, when attempting to swing a voltage 100x larger than what the guitar put out, runs in to the power supply rail, now the signal waveform no longer even resembles what the guitar put out at all [except the fundamental is still mixed in there with all the other 'events' added to each cycle], because the collector didn't have PS potential to swing near that far, the signal gets clipped hard, say maybe the whole top half of a 1/2 cycle got hacked off, leaving a sharp upswing which turns sharply to become flat, then as the collector is swinging low again, the downward portion of the 1/2 cycle shape begins to re-apper after the flatcut off top of the waveform had turned sharply again. 
  Comes in as a ~ and goes out more square, the top of the 1/2 cycle wave and bottom of the 1/2 cycle both got 'flattened' by power supply limitations.