NKT-275's...do they make that much difference?

[scott1568]

Should I feel concerned or unsatisfied that I cannot locate NKT's for my Fuzz Face build?

[danielzink]

IMHO - no...because there are a thousand other transistors out there that will sound as good if not better.

If you need to feel better about it - buy some of the fake ones off eBay 


Dan

[scott1568]

This is not my first pedal build, but it is my first fuzz face.

Is their a particular brand that has worked out really good that I should look for?

[beatnik]

I purchased 5 NKT275 on ebay. Are they supposed to be fake? How can i know this?

Anyway i swapped them in my FF.... Not that great, to my ears not much difference with my other AC128.

But i suppose that NOS NKT275 ones are great!

[tcobretti]

The key is not so much the transistors as how well the pedal is tuned/biased.  The red Dunlop FF has 275s in it and pretty much always sounds like crap.  I suspect that even a higher gain HFE Ge transistor could sound great if you tweaked the value of the feedback transistor.

The way to tune the sound is to replace resistors with trimpots of similar value, then tweak and see what happens.  You can learn a lot that way.

[Dragonfly]

go to GEOFEX and read "The Technology of the Fuzz Face"...

all your questions will be answered by reading....

[Mark Hammer]

There are many circuits where the transistors used are requirements.  But there are a great many others where the transistors indicated are not requirements as much as they are "sure things".  In other words, you could produce the same outcome with other transistors, but the odds of stumbling onto exactly what you need are optimized by use of these units.  The poster child for that is use of 2N5952s in the Phase 90; other trannies are possible but 5952s line up with the needed specs on a much more frequent basis.

It is my understanding that the Fuzz Face will happily operate with a wide assortment of transistor numbers, but tends to operate in a more recognizably "classic" way with certain transistors, simply because those units tend to meet certain specs more often.

[danielzink]

I bought 5 of the eBay 275's also - under no assumption that they were real (due to the price etc.)

(like I stated before).......I just wanted to make myself feel better  (btw - they do meter out at about 150+hfe)

here's some interesting reading:

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=319897

http://www.fulltone.com/NKT_forgery.html

http://www.buildyourownclone.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11501


Dan

[slideman82]

IMHO - no...because there are a thousand other transistors out there that will sound as good if not better.

If you need to feel better about it - buy some of the fake ones off eBay 


Dan

I agree... AC128's sound really good, but I like AC126 better, brighter sound... nice fuzz too!
Ebay NKT275? I don't think so...

[scott1568]

Thanks for all that info!

[any]

I sell excellent 2SB172 Germanium PNP's acclaimed by A few to be really good sounding..
(have a read in the for sale thread on the forum)
Probably the one of the better alternatives to NKT275's.

I think they sound awesome!

Cheers,

[Electric Warrior]

I bought 5 of the eBay 275's also - under no assumption that they were real (due to the price etc.)

(like I stated before).......I just wanted to make myself feel better  (btw - they do meter out at about 150+hfe)

here's some interesting reading:

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=319897

http://www.fulltone.com/NKT_forgery.html

http://www.buildyourownclone.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11501


Dan

I've got some transistors that look just like the first fake/restamped one on the fulltone website. they have a blue base material, are low gain (40 - 75) and clean up pretty well when the volume is backed off. the sound IS rather thick, though and I don't consider it sparkly at all (is it supposed to be???)..
We once had a long discussion about them.. here's a picture:



here's some sound samples (please excuse my crappy playing, I was just checking out what kind of tones I could get out of that pedal and 2 strings were missing on my guitar ): http://www.naturalbornyoers.com/forumpics/fuzzace.mp3
the first riff is a volume knob clean up demonstration.

[gutsofgold]

A few days ago I actually demo'ed the AC128's I got from Jack Orman against a pair of fake NK275s. The both had individual good qualities with the AC128s being a little more clear and "defined" while some would consider the 275's muddy. This was all done in a stock Fuzz Face with adjustable trim for Q2 collector voltage.

Does anyone know if the AC128s that Jack used to sell are reissues or NOS?

[slideman82]

[/quote]
I've got some transistors that look just like the first fake/restamped one on the fulltone website. they have a blue base material, are low gain (40 - 75) and clean up pretty well when the volume is backed off. the sound IS rather thick, though and I don't consider it sparkly at all (is it supposed to be???)..
We once had a long discussion about them.. here's a picture:


here's some sound samples (please excuse my crappy playing, I was just checking out what kind of tones I could get out of that pedal and 2 strings were missing on my guitar ): http://www.naturalbornyoers.com/forumpics/fuzzace.mp3
the first riff is a volume knob clean up demonstration.

[/quote]

Blue base and low gain? Look like 2SA49 - 53 I can buy for 30 cents! My best quality trannis are Matsu 2SB175, similar to those 2SB172 mentioned before... they sound really good, but not quite bright, 128's and 126's got that magic.

[danielzink]

Since we're all showing our fakes (sounds dirty)....





Dan

[Electric Warrior]

here's a shot of the base material:

[skiraly017]

For what it's worth, when playing with germaniums and fuzz pedals this has proven to be the most valuable tool...

[slideman82]

I'm with you! Just left brand/exact-type-of/model away... don't forget bias!