higher gain silicon transistors?

[TimWaldvogel]

why do silicon transistors like the 2n3904, 5055? and 2222? make the guitar sound funny when you use them. is it an impedance thing? even on a lpb-1 it seems like there are weird characteristics to silicon transistors to me? am i being crazy?

[DavenPaget]

2N5088 you mean ?
Have you tried a darlington 

[R.G.]

am i being crazy?

Nope. You're being whispered to by Mother Nature that there are a large number of things left to learn.

The preoccupation with germanium this, silicon that, and tube whatevers has focused attention away from the circuits. There isn't any peculiarly unique sound of germanium, silicon or whatever. There is only what it does to the signal inside the circuit it's built into.

One of the things Mother Nature may be telling you is that you can't trust your ears. To be able to tell if you can hear whatever you think you hear with silicon as opposed to anything else, you have to set up a test where you must depend on your ears and nothing else. The test has to hide from whether you're listening to silicon, germanium, or whatever. Otherwise, your expectations will color what you hear.