Germanium Transistors

[ARC Effects]

Where do you buy yours?

I'm looking for a bulk quantity that I'll test myself but I'm looking for reliable sellers that don't sell leaky useless transistors....

[eatyourguitar]

I saw 500 AC128 go for $350 on ebay. most of them in sealed NOS packages. I dont have that kind of cash. you can deal with surplus suppliers that will work for you to source parts. its only worth it if your getting a decent amount though. I can find any part I want but getting one or two of something rare is always $8

[wsas3]

alliedelec.com. You probably already got that from searching though.

[culturejam]

Personally, I don't the germanium is worth all the effort and hype.

Blasphemy, I know. But that's how I feel.

[stykerwolf]

Ebay is good, you can get a batch of 10 AC128s or even 10 AC125s for as low as 6 Pounds, i forgot i was sniping for an AC125 for that much, the guy bid +1 quid and got the pedal.
I remember seeing something like 3x OC81ds, OC75s, 71s, 44s, 1015s and all those OC mojo stuff for around 70 bucks.

[Narwhal-Industries]

I have some stuff I'd sell

[eatyourguitar]

I have some stuff I'd sell

I got some from him, he tests them first and can pick out the gains you want. Its a good price if your buying small quantity and dont mind paying for tested hand picked. There is a guy on ebay in the czeck republic that has all the mojo part numbers sold in pairs with the gains and leakage. Its about $16 usa for a fuzz factory pair of ac128 shipped. Ill let you know how that goes. Full custom i havent used what you sent me yet but ill post more when i do.

[Narwhal-Industries]

I have a lot of odd parts not just the germanium transistors. I'll sell transistors in bulk untested or matched. Matched price will obviously be higher.

[tuffteef]

Personally, I don't the germanium is worth all the effort and hype.

Blasphemy, I know. But that's how I feel.

[modernage]

Personally, I don't the germanium is worth all the effort and hype.

Blasphemy, I know. But that's how I feel.

But they look so cool

[McSpunckle]

What is it that makes them sound different? Is there any measurable data? Do they clip softer like tubes?

I know they have a lower turn-on voltage, but that's what biasing is for, I thought.

[Narwhal-Industries]

Germanium will turn on at 300mV quite a bit earlier than a silicon transistor. And your germanium transistors are more sensitive to heat.

[eatyourguitar]

You cant make a fz1a with silicon cause silicon has 0 leakage. The fz1a needs leakage to sound right. The oc75 oc76 fuzz face i made sounds exactly lika a vintage unit. At this point, im too noob to know the real answer. I dont have any low gain silicon to do a direct comparison. And i will agree that some pedals sound great with silicon. I have no desire to make them worse or temperature unstable. Lets just say that germanium still has its place.

[Narwhal-Industries]

I ruined a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face just so I could unlock all the germanium tone mysteries. It took a mini frig, a heat gun and a lot of test equipment.

[eatyourguitar]

Running function generators through a fuzz face is a bit sketchy since you need to use the right transformer and output impedance. Then you need to feed it sampled waveforms that come from a guitar. A sine wave has no harmonics, a square wave is too fuzzy already, a ramp or triangle are just too weird to compare with guitar. I think its best to just look at clean and fuzzy recordings at the waveform level, on a computer screen.