Russian Germaniums?

[JakeFuzz]

Yeah ill let you guys know how it goes acquiring them. I am thinking that I find someone with a charge account that I could reimburse. The problem is the charge accounts are heavily monitored and restricted to professors. I have to write a paragraph every time I buy even insignificant things like pencils.  

[dwstanford]

That sounds like a goldmine.  I have hunted through so many bins of useless crap on the hunt for buried treasure and i usually come out empty handed, but occasionally i find something good.  Once i found a bunch of mullard tropical fish caps for ten cents each and on the same day i found a whole bag of daka ware chicken head knobs.    SCORE!

[JakeFuzz]

That sounds like a goldmine.  I have hunted through so many bins of useless crap on the hunt for buried treasure and i usually come out empty handed, but occasionally i find something good.  Once i found a bunch of mullard tropical fish caps for ten cents each and on the same day i found a whole bag of daka ware chicken head knobs.    SCORE!

Ahh those dakawares are awesome. Mine are made out of a really dense material. There is a military electronics surplus in San Diego called Murphy's that is worth the trip if you're ever there. They have buckets of old knobs; most of them i've never seen before but they are all like 25-50 cent's; I picked up a bunch of chicken heads from that place.

Also in northwest LA there is a shop called All electronics (and Apex up the way) they have quite a few tropical fish caps (most are like 12mm lead spacing though); they also have every silver mica value for 10 cents each. Apex is just a goldmine for everything, 12 foot high shelves stacked to the ceiling with brown boxes full of electronic parts in a Costco sized warehouse... Its like pedal geek heaven. 

[glops]

That sounds like a goldmine.  I have hunted through so many bins of useless crap on the hunt for buried treasure and i usually come out empty handed, but occasionally i find something good.  Once i found a bunch of mullard tropical fish caps for ten cents each and on the same day i found a whole bag of daka ware chicken head knobs.    SCORE!

Ahh those dakawares are awesome. Mine are made out of a really dense material. There is a military electronics surplus in San Diego called Murphy's that is worth the trip if you're ever there. They have buckets of old knobs; most of them i've never seen before but they are all like 25-50 cent's; I picked up a bunch of chicken heads from that place.

Also in northwest LA there is a shop called All electronics (and Apex up the way) they have quite a few tropical fish caps (most are like 12mm lead spacing though); they also have every silver mica value for 10 cents each. Apex is just a goldmine for everything, 12 foot high shelves stacked to the ceiling with brown boxes full of electronic parts in a Costco sized warehouse... Its like pedal geek heaven. 

I almost went to Apex today! I was working about 5 miles away but ended up working after they closed.  I have only been one time before and loved it.  Do you ever get transistors there?  When I went the dude behind the counter said I needed a certain type of cross reference number to see what they had in stock.  And what he said rang no familiar bells.  That place is sick, though....

[JakeFuzz]

Yeah they told me the same thing. I also emailed them once and they said they have a germaniums in the 2N series. I think they stash all that stuff in the back. I would really like to sift through those bins. I was in there once and a local was asking for specific tube types (definitely for amps from the numbers I heard) and the guy behind the counter said that if he wasn't the only one behind the desk he could take him to the warehouse to check out the better stock. So that huge wall of tubes you see on the right as you walk in isn't their only stock; I have a feeling it is the same way with trannies. That place is amazing, according to some of the folks at apex and all there were lots of electronics surplusers just like apex in LA but I guess over time they just died out. 

[JakeFuzz]

Still working on getting this big old stock of trannies from my school. I thought I would let everyone know that I mentioned buying OC139's from Minufux last week and they were all seemingly useless. Surprisingly I went back and measured all of them backwards tonight and found 3 that actually had very high gain (well one was 90) but the other two were almost 200 with zero leakage! The others were mostly 20-45. I just thought that batch was a total bust but I actually got a few good ones. If you do end up with these test the red dot as the emitter as well.

[JakeFuzz]

Sorry for the resurrection. Just thought I would let everyone know I found the best use yet for the lower gain GT308v's I have. Use the 50-60 range as Q1 in a fuzz face with the input cap blender. Put a 2SA1015 with gain about 160 in Q2.    Holy smokes this thing sounds good! You may need to fiddle with the Q2 bias a little as it gets crackly at lower voltages. In fact I am doing a little production run of these they sound so good. Sound clips to follow this weekend.

[sgmezei]

are you selling any extra GT308's? huh huh? 

[JakeFuzz]

I wish. I have used up all the good values from my last batch. I've actually been thinking about buying another but I haven't seen the same ones in batches of 50. 

[djaaz]

Guys,

I have a few of these things right here in my basement. A few AC125/127/128/188 and some more.
Got them with the house.
I always was too lazy to build the microcircuit to test them but could do it if anyone think i should.

The reason i'm lazy is because of this guy i buy all my stuff from:

http://www.musikding.de/index.php/cat/c215_AC128---PNP.html

It's a bit costy but they are tested for gain & leakage. I'm up to two fuzz faces & have a fuzz factory on the way and in this pedal with a very few parts, the trannies do not make that much difference in the end.

[gtr2]

Scott I have a pair of GT309E's that I'll part with.  That's what's in the new Bonamassa fuzz face I believe.  If your interested pm me with preferred gains.

Josh

[LaceSensor]

I fancied making some "mojo" fuzz for a laugh and to sell hopefully.
Just ordered a shipment of russian germanium for a hoot, so when I get them ill test and if anyone wants a pair im sure I can help you out.

[Haberdasher]

Is gt308v the same as IT308b?  Ebay sellers seem to be selling them as such now.

[LaceSensor]

Is gt308v the same as IT308b?  Ebay sellers seem to be selling them as such now.

It may be that the russian writing looks like IT but other than that I cant say

[JakeFuzz]

I often wonder about this too. I have the datasheet that came with mine (IT308B) but it is all in Russian, Ill try and get my Russian friend over here and see if he cant decipher it.

From what I understand the IT308 is the military version of the GT308, supposedly with tighter tolerances  than the GT's.    According to a few of the things I have read the IT308B is equivalent to the GT308V which is the highest gain version of the GT308, mine all tested in the 50's range. I think these might test low at DC because the lower gain ones sound much better than any other brand transistor at hfe = 50. They also have an interesting frequency response. They have massive amount of mid-range which really pops out when you reduce the bass going into the circuit. It sounds like a half cocked wah or something, ill record some clips this weekend.