Stupid idea No 399

[Kipper4]

i've got some out of range (for fuzz face and rangemasters)pnp Ge trannys i'd like to make buffers out of.
Would it work as an output buffer in a negative ground pedal circuit. For that mojo thing?
I hope this makes sense.

[smallbearelec]

Not necessarily stupid at all! Are the devices "out of range" because low-gain? If so, they will work fine as Q2 in a Sziklai Rangemaster:

https://www.smallbearelec.com/HowTos/GeDarlingtons/GeDarlingtonPairs.htm

and the resulting circuit is negative ground. The low-gain NPN device for Q1 can be either silicon or germanium. You can probably find suitable parts locally, and they should not be expensive.

If the devices are "out of range" because too high-gain/too leaky, try an FZ-1 or Fuzzrite clone.

Regards
SD

[Kipper4]

Cheers bare looks like I have a little more research to do now. It's appreciated. I'll go investigate
Some have low gain . Most of those have high leakage too
Some have ok gain between 50/70 hfe and a lot of leakage  nearly 300 hfe I got a mix.

[electrosonic]

I have used this AMZ circuit to use a leaky PNP germanium transistor instead of a jfet in a Rat style circuit. 

http://www.muzique.com/tech/ge_buff.htm


Andrew.

[Kipper4]

That's the page I was thinking of following thanks. I'm gonna give the Darlington pair a go as well it's such an adaptable circuit. Super idea. I think I'll breadboard it and try to use some trim pots so I can adjust the biasing to individual transistors. Do you think this would work Steve.? I ask because when I made my npn ac176 rangemaster the 100k trimmer wouldn't bias the transistor and I got frustrated and first tried a 68k resistor fixed. . Lo and behold it worked. Strange I thought. That's why I ask.

[smallbearelec]

I'm gonna give the Darlington pair a go as well it's such an adaptable circuit. Super idea. I think I'll breadboard it and try to use some trim pots so I can adjust the biasing to individual transistors. Do you think this would work Steve.?

That's what I did when testing for the article...

[Kipper4]

Thanks Steve.
this is not a high priority jobs so its at the back of the list for now but i'm saving the pages for future referance under dud Ge files.