Germanium AC127's

deviltone · March 16, 2006, 02:55:48 AM

Looking where I can find some of these! Tried Small Bear and had no luck. Built a silicon NPN fuzz and was looking to try some NPN Germs in it. Thanks - Eric

JimRayden · March 16, 2006, 05:07:30 AM

Banzaieffects.com should have them if I remember correctly.

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Jimbo

spudulike · March 16, 2006, 06:21:09 AM

Forget them - theyre crap IME.
Get an OC140 from Smallbear.

alteredsounds · March 16, 2006, 06:32:15 AM

Banzai are crap or ac127's? strange comment to make about either

mac · March 16, 2006, 06:44:05 AM

Also 2N388 from smallbear.
Look for right gain and low leakage. This is very important.
Most NPN will work: AC187, AC176, 2SD72, 2SD352...

mac

cab42 · March 16, 2006, 05:02:42 PM

I looked in Aron's shop earlier today and he had OC140's.

I bought some from ebay a while ago and sounds nice.

Regards

Carsten

spudulike · March 16, 2006, 08:53:55 PM

Quote from: alteredsounds on March 16, 2006, 06:32:15 AM
Banzai are crap or ac127's? strange comment to make about either

How's that strange ? I referred to AC127's. I have been through about 50 AC127's from different suppliers and they were all rubbish. Thats why I put IME (In My Experience). I have never had a bad OC140, they are very consistent for gain, low leakage and are temperature stable. They also sound fantastic in all the boxes I've built. 99% of Ge is just snake oil - OC140's are the exception.

deviltone · March 17, 2006, 02:35:54 AM

Hmmm..... Would two OC140's sound like a fuzz face? It there a way to change a couple of resistors to make the tone a little darker?? It's brutal!! I'm using a Fender amp on 3-5, not a Marshall on 7-10!!! Just curious.

alderbody · March 17, 2006, 03:43:26 PM

Would two OC140's sound like a fuzz face? >> why not?

i think you can get a darker tone out of your FF by replacing the input cap with a larger value one.

Don't know about the Ac127, but the AC128 i have in my FF clone (banzai) sound great in there.
I know that they were never anything special tone-wise, but they seem to sound great in that circuit.

I can't say about the OC140 (CV7112) yet, because i haven't tried mine so far.

mac · March 17, 2006, 10:48:40 PM

All ACxxx I have are crap, at least for a fuzz face. They are very leaky, more than 500uA and highly variable in gain. Despite that they sound nice in other circuits as voltage followers or cascading stages.
On the other side, all nippon transistors I have are very consistent both in gain and leakage. If you find NOS Toshibas and Matsushitas buy them.

mac

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Germanium AC127's