FZ-1 Fuzz Tone repair

[Diamond Dave]

  Disclaimer ~ I am not building a stompbox or creating a breadboard. Ok, now that we're clear. 
I have an FZ-1 (no it's not an FZ-1a) that has a bad Q3 (yes, that's an RCA 2N270). I understand, from reading tons of posts here, that a transistor chosen to occupy that spot in the circuit should be pretty darn leaky.. somewhere in the 500uA range.
Would anyone here, kind people that you are be willing to offer me a known leaky 2N270 or something equivalent to pop in there? Occasionally 2n270's appear for sale on eBay, but that's an expensive crapshoot to find one that's in the 500uA range. Thank you.

[PRR]

Welcome. Posting plan for discussion:

[mozz]

 I built a clone and sourced a few 2n270's from a website that sells surplus electronics. They happened to be Etco brand, which i never heard of. They tested ok but the leakage was lower. I ended up swapping out transistors with many others to get it to sound good. I eventually did get some RCA 2n270 out of a old radio but the cases were black. They also tested good but had lower leakage. I'm wondering since it was a radio and they may have been a better lot and the cases were painted black instead of silver. I have never seen the inside of a real FZ1 but i am guessing the transistors are silver colored?

That all being said, i do have a bunch of leaky 2SB714 , leakage is 500-1000. If you want a few and you are in the US let me know i will mail a few out. I probably have some old RCA's too with factory part numbers.

[PRR]

Wait and see if anybody knows.

My dumb guess is that you can fake the leakage (which the factory used to fake proper design and parts-budget) with a trim pot.



With a healthy modern PNP, full down won't pass small sounds. Turn up and you get something. There's a mid-range where Q1 runs 'clean' and I think this is the nominal "correct" bias. Full-up it may distort again but different. Set it and forget it...... unless it goes sour on a hot summer day. Si part probably won't Ge part probably will.

[mozz]

Do you have the 470k on Q2? I seem to recall the schematic was wrong and in actual units the 470k was there.
https://www.guitar-mod.com/rg_pedal_maestro_repair.html