Original Tube Screamer Diodes?

[Paul Marossy]

Needs more quantum.

(Always makes me laugh  )

"Quantum mechanics tunnelling"?! WTH?  

Is there really something to that or are they preying on unsuspecting guitarists who think this is the next big thing? Sounds like "oxygen free copper" malarkey to me. 

[Belanger]

This has to be the funniest thing ever said! Hahahahha 

The originals were unique in that the silicon pellets were actually hand made. The raw silicon was taken from beach sand at an undisclosed location in the tropics, and refined in a Japanese silicon foundry that only normally works for the largest Japanese semiconductor firms. An exception was made in this case, for obvious reasons - there were some very important people behind it. Once refined, the sillicon was hand-doped by master refiners in a manual process of painting the dopant onto the silicon die, baking it, then testing for reistivity and diffusion depth, and then hand painting the reverse polarity dopant.

It's not widely known, but there are two variants. In one, the N-type dopant was painted first, and in the other the P-type. The P-type-first diodes are much to be preferred, as the sound is much smoother, and infinitely better than those soulless machine-doped and diced commercial diodes. The N-first diodes are good, but not as sublime as the P-firsts.

When the junctions were just right, the dies themselves were wirebonded in a private semiconductor house in Iceland, where, on the night of a full moon, a group of seven Iclandic virgins climbed into thier semiconductor bunny suits and hand bonded the pellets, while a mounting crew got on with mounting the pellets. the full production run of P-first diodes was completed in one night, and flown off to the Maxon factory for the waiting PCBs.

It just goes to show, you want quality, you got to work for it.

[amptramp]

Needs more quantum.

(Always makes me laugh  )

"Quantum mechanics tunnelling"?! WTH? 

Is there really something to that or are they preying on unsuspecting guitarists who think this is the next big thing? Sounds like "oxygen free copper" malarkey to me.

Oxygen-free copper strangles the sound.

[Ben Lyman]

Oxygen-free copper strangles the sound.

Precisely why the original Burst Box used oxygen-free copper for the coil

[Hatredman]

Oxygen-free copper strangles the sound.

Precisely why the original Burst Box used oxygen-free copper for the coil

Really?

DAMN IT!

I was almost finishing it...

[Hatredman]

Historians believe that R.G.'s FIVE YEAR OLD STORY is pretty accurate.

... in Iceland, where, on the night of a full moon, a group of seven Iclandic virgins climbed into thier semiconductor bunny suits and hand bonded the pellets, while a mounting crew got on with mounting the pellets..."

OW GAWD!

For a moment I was expecting that the mounting crew would mount on the virgin bunnys, not thepellets...

[PRR]

> Oxygen-free copper strangles the sound.

Just to be clear:

Very small amounts of oxides in copper really reduce the conductivity. Conductivity is best with NO oxide. As you know from your green gutters, copper loves to pick up oxygen and make oxides. Bulk house-wire has "commercially low" oxide. They buy a low-oxide copper and do all hot-work in a reducing (oxygen-sucking) atmosphere. Some specialty wire is claimed "oxygen free" (not quite true, but they get to 99.8% the conductivity of pure copper).

Rational people want low-oxygen copper for most electric purposes.

Hi-Fi fanatics think oxides are horrible and will pay highly for "oxygen-free" stuff.

How this plays-out for pedal tone after the bunnies get mounted, I do not know.