MP15 Transistor

[whirlfire]

Hi everyone, 

A couple of days ago I ordered a couple of germanium transistors AC187 from a store in Bulgaria to make a cool germanium/silicon fuzz. However, they sent me a MP15 transistor as a gift and I got curious about it.

I cannot find any guitar effects oriented website talking about this transistor on the internet. All I know is that is NPN, "for military usage", made in Russia and seems to be a bit similar to a 2N1000 on its characteristics.

Can anyone tell me more about this transistor? tonal characteristics? uses? 

Tomorrow I will build my fuzz with a transistor socket for comparing it to the AC187 and will tell you my overall impression.

[midwayfair]

Datasheet: http://alltransistors.com/transistor.php?transistor=41590

Low gain NPN. Measure what you have and use it anywhere that you can use an NPN with that gain range.

[seedlings]

If they're low gain, maybe you could darlington them together for a fuzzy boost.

CHAD

[UKToecutter]

except that they only sent him one......

[seedlings]

except that they only sent him one......

You are correct.

CHAD

[smallbearelec]

The spec says that the gain is a minimum of 30, which means is could be 30 or anything above. The wide range isn't unusual for germanium. First, measure the gain and see what it really is. I describe a method in this article:

https://www.smallbearelec.com/HowTos/FuzzFaceFAQ/FFFAQ.htm

or there is another description at GEOFEX.com. When you know exactly what you have, you'll know what you can do with it. If the gain is 30 to 50, using it as Q2 in a darlington pair with low-gain NPN silicon as Q1 is a way to get a much more valuable device:

https://www.smallbearelec.com/HowTos/BreadboardGeDarlingtonRMs/BreadboardGeDarlingtonRMs.htm

If the gain turns out to be higher, it will work well on its own in a Rangemaster.