Does LED size matter?

[tonwins11]

Hi, I'm Winston from the Philippines and this is my first ever forum I joined. I'm just new with DIY stuff. I usually just follow the usual things in the schematics and don't know much anything more about modding or whatsoever.

I just wanna ask about LED used for clipping (e.g. LEDs used in the uproar, crunchbox, etc.). Say for example both are diffused red, does a 3mm size have a significant difference compared to a 5mm size?

Thanks a lot.

[Scruffie]

Look at the datasheet for the LED, the fV (forward voltage) is what you want to look at, the smaller the value, the sooner the stage will go in to clipping which many equate to 'gain' 'tightness' or 'distortion' larger values people tend to say 'crunchier' and volume increases.

So a 3mm & 5mm with 1.8fV will sound exactly the same, a 3mm with 1.8fV and a 5mm with 2.1fV will appear to sound slightly different.

Hope that explains a bit 

[tonwins11]

Yeah. I thought that maybe the size of the LED affects the forward voltage. The smaller the size, the lower the forward voltage. I might be wrong. Thanks Scruffie. Helped a lot!