Suggestions for high hFE germaniums

[mcknib]

Alright folks,

In my quest to source good germanium PNP's from the leakage point of view I buy almost every kind I can find.

Anyway my latest purchase is 10 x 2N1307's all with leakage of less than 1 mA and hFE's ranging from 124 to 267

I know I can mess with resistor values etc for the usual Tonebender / Fuzz type circuits but I'm looking to expand my horizons and improve my sometimes painfully obvious lack of circuitry knowledge.

I knew from the datasheet info prior to purchase they could be higher hFE but I like to mess with low and high hFE's rather than the recommended values.

So does anyone have any suggestions please for circuits I can try that aren't the usual kinda thing

Cheers
Billy

[noisette]

Check out Acoustic 360 Bass Fuzz!


Edit: Oh no, those are 1306 npn´s, sorry...

[darron]

that's becoming a tricky hunt now!

first, i don't have a good answer.

i pride myself on my wide germanium transistor collection. i started collecting around 2004. finding PNP around 160+ with okay noise-spec is difficult, and when you think you're on to something you buy a whole batch and find they have been sorted through already.


the best thing to do is contact sellers off eBay etc. and pay them the extra $$$ to pre-sort them for gain/leakage as a semi-guarantee.


i noticed a while back even small bear adapted their circuit boards to make darlington pairs from two low gain transistors, to make up one high gain one. Just so that the wold can more simply use what is available. this is a recipe for noise in my books though.

they list this? never tried it though?

http://smallbear-electronics.mybigcommerce.com/tk3055-high-gain-pnp-germanium-bulk/




you're right. you should be ready to be completely flexile to adapt a circuit to best suit the transistor. but, it doesn't always mean there's a good recipe sitting there if you only have low gain stuff



unfortunately, anything that sounds too good to be true usually is for me when trying to source high gain germanium and i waste lots of money.

[mac]

Matsushita 2sb176 and some 172/175 have decent gain and leakage.
I bought 176 from many different sources in different countries and they are around 100-200 and 100-300ua average.
I have hundreds, never had a faulty or hissy one.

Toshiba 2sb56 can be another option. They leak a bit less but I get hissy ones sometimes.

mac

[pinkjimiphoton]

Alright folks,

In my quest to source good germanium PNP's from the leakage point of view I buy almost every kind I can find.

Anyway my latest purchase is 10 x 2N1307's all with leakage of less than 1 mA and hFE's ranging from 124 to 267

I know I can mess with resistor values etc for the usual Tonebender / Fuzz type circuits but I'm looking to expand my horizons and improve my sometimes painfully obvious lack of circuitry knowledge.

I knew from the datasheet info prior to purchase they could be higher hFE but I like to mess with low and high hFE's rather than the recommended values.

So does anyone have any suggestions please for circuits I can try that aren't the usual kinda thing

Cheers
Billy

\

hi billy,
you can def use them in a fuzzface. just keep the standard ratio (80-ish for q1 and 100-ish for q2 is the usual reccomended values, +/- 20% or so) and they should work ok. say.... 124/150 ish, 230-270-ish... whatever. socket and experiment. breadboards are VERY hip and worth using for a FF.
you may have to adjust the biasing a little to get it to really sound good. but it can definitely be done.

pm me and i'll hip ya to a source of pnp ge's with decent gains that don't cost a fortune. you may have to buy 100 of 'em to get 20 decent ones, but it won't hurt very bad, and you'll have NOS JAN trannys.
peace