In4148 Vs In914 Diodes

[axeman010]

Don't you just love those guys at Maplins !!!!!!

I ordered a whole batch of bits to make up a modding kit - various caps of different types and values and various diodes. They managed to give me cap types i did not want and for the 3 different diodes gave me all IN4148s - Yipeeeeeeee !!!!

So does anybody know if the IN4148 will sound different in the clipping stages of a distortion pedal e.g Tubescreamer, omnidrive Blues Breaker

Many thanks and sorry about the moan if you work for Maplins !

[StephenGiles]

Moan on old chap, they are total prats. The 4148 is identical to the 914 as far as I know, but no doubt someone very pedantic will disagree!

[Somicide]

I'd always thought they were "functionally the same" like so many NPN transistors (2n5088 and 2n5089, kinda.  Same functionality, you know)

[Roobin]

I ordered some 1N914 from Radio Spears (UK) and they come up as 1N4148 . Btw what do the numebrs mean?

[Austin73]

please try not to use Maplin there are pants! I use Rapid now ( i can get 100 resistors for the price of about 10 at maplin!)

Aus

[axeman010]

Thanks for the replies Guys !!!

I think its very sad that you can only rely on mail order for components now - many years ago you at least had some choice.
For me in Southampton (UK) there was Maplins ,when it was a component shop rather than just another electrical retailer, Greenwelds, loads of little one man and his dog operations and even Tandys if you were desperate. There was a guy in Maplins Portswood called Mike (don't know if he's still there) and people used to take problems with stuff they were building and he would help fix them in the shop !

The good old days !!!!!

[JHS]

Tecnical they are identical and in high gain OD-/Dist.-circuits there is no sound difference at all. 1N914 sound a bit better at light crunch in some ODs, but neverless I don't care about and use them both.

JHS

[Mark Hammer]

All diodes within the same class (Ge, Si, etc) will show some component variation.  So, get yourself a "paper belt" off a roll of 1N914's from the same lot, and they may differ from each other by maybe 40mv or so.  Get yourself a bunch from another lot or other manufacturer and there may be as much as 120mv difference in forward voltage between any two diodes when tolerances, lot and manufacturer are factored in.

Since the Bluesbreaker uses a 2+2 diode combination, and variation or tolerance-based differences are additive, you could, for instance, have a pair of diodes in one direction with a combined forward voltage of 985mv, while the pair in the other direction have a combined forward voltage of 1230mv.  That is neither good nor bad, and the odds of it happening are not huge, but it illustrates how these small differences can add up.

Much like any reputed differences between men and women, often the differences within a given component type (because of tolerances and manufacturers) can be greater than any differences between two component types (1N914 vs 1N4148).  So, I wouldn't worry about which of the two you use, but it is always a good idea to measure the forward voltage of a diode in case it is far enough off of what you expect to require some adjustment or compensation.  If you have not bought a meter for yourself, make sure the one you buy will let you measure diode forward voltage and transistor hfe.  Both very useful measurements for selecting and identifying devices.

[Nasse]

I have been using 1N4448 or something in place of 4148 an 914 because I got box of them cheap 20 years ago. Perhaps you could sort those if necessary or pick similar pairs.

I visited Maplin last summer when I was on a holiday trip. Tried to buy some small signal germanium diodes. A friendly looking man started talk to me but he was the security guy. Later I came without my backbag and my wife´s paperbag and I found the right desk but they did not know anything and could not read their catalog either. He was very kind and patient and let me use their thick book, I found the right code in five minutes, and he found the stuff in his computer, while I was finding the right code he sold one mobile phone and some other fancy gadget for some normal people. Same kind of feeling when I visited similar looking shop in Tallinn, Estonia, young polite salesperson and he looked everything on the computer. I bought some press and pell sheets, and they had spiffy small readymade pcb:s for what was that eq chip.

[GFR]

There's a nice thread here:

http://www.prodigy-pro.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18163&highlight=1n4148