Best Hfe ?

[Jyka]

Hi, to build a good fuzz, we need hfe between 71/80 for q1 and hfe between 121/130 for q2.

Now i want to build rangemaster and tonebender mkII RI, for the rangemaster, i can have OC44 or OC71 and for the tonebender OC81D or OC75, what is the best hfe for me ?

The schema i want to use are these one :

http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/mkII.php ( the mkII RI )

http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/rangemaster.php

Also, is that a good idea to bias them ?

[midwayfair]

Your first sentence is untrue. What matters is more the ratio, with the second having higher hfe than the first.

What matters is bias voltages and what sounds good. There are ways to do that other than trying to get some magical hfe. I'd worry more about leakage.

In any case, read RG Keen's article on the Rangemaster. It has the info you're looking for.

[Mike B.]

What Jon said. I've built very good sounding Fuzz Faces with Q1 in the 40/50 range and Q2 in the 60/70 range. In fact, one of the more popular boutique FF's uses lower hfe values in their NKT275 version. The important thing is that Q2 is higher than Q1.

[Mike B.]

Also, don't get hung up needing specific "magic" transistors like OC81D, OC75, etc. A lot of the cheaper US 2N series sound just as good if not better. If you just need enough for one or two builds, check out smallbearelec.com. Steve has pre-matched sets for most of the popular Germanium circuits. I've yet to build a bad sounding fuzz with his Ge's.