Higher gain germanium diode for clipping

[lars]

I personally prefer the sound of germanium clipping diodes, but we all know that a single pair presents a volume drop compared to silicon. The unfortunate way to overcome that is to series them, but then you lose some of the distortion level that sounds so good. Usually germanium diodes are in the .2-.3 voltage range, but I recently found some germanium diodes that read .5v-.6v on my meter! They came out of an old Thomas transistor organ, and there are a bunch of them in there.  I've considered these must be some kind of vintage silicon diode, but the construction definitely looks like germanium, plus the voltage varies with temperature, just like a germanium device would. It will be interesting to hear what these sound like in a circuit.