Greetings! and quick-question

[Anchorman]

Hello! I'm a new member here, but I've been reading here from time to time and gathered lots of information from all knowledge available here. I've only built one pedal so far, FF clone, AC120-trannies, which sounds good but lacks sustain. Haven't tried tweaking it yet to improve it, but I guess I should. My first thought was to try new transistors, so of course, before reading about fake NKT275's and other alternatives, I pulled the trigger on these.



So from other posts I've understood that either (1) these are fake NKT275's, that is, they're some other transistors relabeled or (2) they're reproductions, that is, transistors made to the same minimum specifications as the original ones. What say you? I'd like to send them back to the seller, but I guess I can only justify that if they're fake, not repros. The other alternative would be to try them to see if they're any good, but then I can definitely not send them back, and I've already spent $50 for 10 of them. What I hope is to get a refund to spend on some good alternative trannies.

Regards and thanks!

[sean k]

I would suppose you could test them and use sockets to see whether they are usable or not... or maybe they came tested. I'm a firm believer in that if you've been swindled or not it's up to you to take it on the chin and do the best you can with what you've got. A fake is an original if everybody believes it is. If it looks good and sounds good as well... what matter is the label.

[calpolyengineer]

what matter is the label.

The price.

-Joe

[petemoore]

  Get yourself some PNP Si transistors, use PNP +Gnd. schematic w/transistor sockets, see Joe Gagan's EZ face, you should be able to find out more about your transistors overall gain, sound S/N ratio etc., pick up some Ge's that are choice and try those too.
  Ge faces seem a little softer, but that'll give a good idea of how much growl you can get without having to buy a set of matched transistors or sort through batches of somebody elses seconds or thirdsies.
  I bought some newer ones, some say fake I say not as good as the good ones.
  Particulars of the circuit include biasing the amplifier.
  Mods include each component on the board, perhaps some others.
  Starting with a schematic is always a good starting point.
  The entire signal chain becomes 'suspect' if the FF doesn't seem to respond like on the records.
  Check transistor bias after every Q swap.
  Working the circuit over with 'eh transistors can seem like a waste of time, some mileage as far as gain increase etc. may be wrought out, once the good ones go in the others clearly are 'seconds'.
 

[Anchorman]

Very good advice from all of you, thanks! Guess I'll just ask the seller about them, I've been buying other transistors from him and he seems like a great guy with great service, so I don't think he's trying to swindle me or anyone else. Thanks!