What is good transistor for Q1 in a wah wah circuit?

[rchavez]

What transistor have you been pleased with for Q1?
I using MPSA18 but I'd like to try others.
Thanks,
Vez

[yeeshkul]

Anything with Hfe about 200-350. BC109B, BC108B, 2N3904 ...

[R.G.]

Jan's right, I think. The transistor's there to provide the raw gain for the combination of the collector resistor and emitter resistor to make into the final gain of the stage.

[petemoore]

  The BCxxx's I tried in various circuits imparted a 'BC' tone.
  Low noise being a main criterion, some transistors were a bit noisier than others, 2n5088 comes to mind as HG/LN for wah use, any others are fine too.
  Perhaps, since we're talking wah Q1 transistors...this has been discussed before?
  ...here goes...
  How much gain does the 'rest of ' the wah circuit need to wah good ?
  ..Scenario?...low gain transistor in Q1 makes for less distorted wah sound?, recovery is easy to put on the wah output...sound silly.?
  I've seen wahs which have...many many more than just 2 active components, I don't know what's going on in them, 14 pin and other chips etc.

[Paul Marossy]

Anything with Hfe about 200-350. BC109B, BC108B, 2N3904 ...

I'd agree, based on my experience with building and tweaking wah pedals for a few years now.

[Gus]

If you look at schematics you can find on the web or the GEOFEX wha article or patent 3,530,224 a number of whas have a 22K collector resistor and a 150 ohm to 510 ohm emitter resistor.  This controls the gain of the first stage so hfe does not matter as much until it gets to low.

[petemoore]

  Q1E trimpot [daft]....of course...I already even have one...lol.
  Gus you are an ace at occasionally figureing out for me how to make circuits behave more to my liking, thank you for the NPN Boost and for the...from FZ-1 to Foxey Lady suggestion, that too is working out great !