Most overlooked Transistor or Opamp

[R.G.]

... sigh...

[The Tone God]

... sigh...

Did you just see a horse too ?

Andrew

[Toney]

 Heh heh,
Don't worry, most of us have read GEO on this, so I'm guessing I have an idea where that sigh comes from RG.

For trannies, make friends with your HFE tester and data sheets...

READ GEO.

[Joe Kramer]

... sigh...

LOL!

[Ge_Whiz]

Motorola 2N7171. Bought 100 for £0.99 about 1996, still working through them, gain ~260, work in everything.

[R.G.]

I think I have a bit of new-recruit fatigue.

When folks join the US army, they are bussed to training centers where they are amassed into large rooms for mass processing. They are given physicals, paperwork, dogtags, etc., etc., and you can guess the sort of confusion that happens. The training centers reportedly have tried all kinds of devices to get them to be in the right place in the right time, lined up and prepared for the next process, including color coding, alphabetizing by name, take-a-number, colored arrows on the floor, etc. You can imagine.

There is the story from the Vietnam era training center where the staff sergeant who was in charge of dispensing uniforms or some such where the new inductees had to present their paperwork and evidence of doing some previous step. Only about half of them got this right, and one day the sergeant had simply had enough. He jumped up on the counter and yelled "You IDIOTS! You come in here and do this every week! CAN'T YOU EVER GET IT RIGHT?"

... forgetting that it was a new batch of recruits every week of course. 

Sorry folks.
I'll straighten up.

[Joe Kramer]

Op amps:

--With sincere apologies to the anti-mojo hardliners, the 741 has a guitar-friendly character, as do its brothers, 1458 and 4741.

Transistors:

--Old Motorola 2N3903/3905 with gold leads, average Hfe: 40

BTW, I have a few old metal-can AD801s, the Analog Devices "improved" ua709.  I wonder what kind of fun can I have with those?

[The Tone God]

I think I have a bit of new-recruit fatigue.
...
Sorry folks.
I'll straighten up.

I'm going through abit of that too right now as well. Particularly after I go looking around the various threads. Feels like september keeps getting longer every year. I'm "gonna seet back and take a'lil spell off" answering only important bits here and there hoping others will kick in with the neccessary answers. Then I'll get back into it.

I might suggest the same for yourself.

Andrew

[petemoore]

probab;y the one sitting in the bin, not being applied while I type this up?
  they're all the same, except for the measureable or percievable differences...

[tubewhimper]

I began using a MOSFET equivalent chip manufactured by Intersil
called the CA3260E in my circuits that normally call for a JRC4558D.
(Mouser the CA3260E for only $2 or so...) I can't find anyone else
using these and they are drop-in replacements for the JRC4558D
except they are zener-protected MOSFET based. It has excellent
characteristics compared to the other more 'common' substitutes.
The slew rate is 10V/usec as opposed to 1V/usec for the 4558.
The noise figure is lower, & the CA3260E is optimized for single
supply and can be driven with a signal that is NEGATIVE with respect
to the artificial ground (by 1/2 volt!). To top this off, the output signal
can swing right up the supply rails! I have used these successfully
in several of my pedal mods (SD1's and other stuff) so I was curious
to see if anyone else knows anything about using them.

Nice to have something that responds to VOLTAGE changes like
a tube instead of all of the bi-polar current driven chips. 

BTW: Ibanez used the CA3260E in the MS-10 Mostortion pedal, back
last century sometime.