Any guess on these Ge diodes?

[jubal81]

Grabbed a cheap, mixed up bag of Ge diodes a couple years ago and the most common type in there turns out to be one of the best sounding clippers I've heard. Not sure what they are though - no markings on almost all of them, even to mark the cathode.


Vf is .25 to .27
A couple have a yellow band, but look otherwise identical.

[jimilee]

Maybe they're the missing unicorn tears....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[zombie_rock123]

Sharpie on some dots and stripes in random colours, put up some youtube videos and start some myths

[matmosphere]

The only thing that could be better would be invisible unicorn diode tears harvested  from an Invisible Pink Unicorn.

[Matt]

WAG
D9V?

[culturejam]

The ones with no markings look like the same exact envelope as 1N34A.

[jubal81]

The ones with no markings look like the same exact envelope as 1N34A.

These are definitely smaller than the 1N34A I have here. Should have put something else in the pic for scale.


Closest visual I've found is the pic of OA1160 from Chromosphere's store.

[somnif]

Closest visual I've found is the pic of OA1160 from Chromosphere's store.

I found an ebay listing pic that claims to be 1N58 (which as far as I can tell isn't actually a thing). I dont think they're 1160's though, all that Ive measured have had vf in the .35-.40 range, so your mystery cans are a bit low. I shall continue digging!

(Also possible they are an NTE batch which were stripped for rebranding, saw a few hints towards that angle)

[midwayfair]

I can see if anything marked in my box matches. Fv will vary by multimeter. What are you using? Can you measure a couple known diodes for a comparison number? Measure the capacitance and resistance (and tell me the impedance on your meter).

They probably are not 1160s, you would probably not have described them as cheap even several years ago as the best price I ever found was about 75c each. (Paul must have found them only a little bit cheaper if he can afford to sell them for $1.20.)

I can tell you they aren't Russian, probably aren't a vintage 1N34A of any type (your Fv would be higher), and aren't the modern crap diodes. (Their leads are clearly old.) Maybe that'll help you narrow down your ebay purchases.

[jubal81]

I can see if anything marked in my box matches. Fv will vary by multimeter. What are you using? Can you measure a couple known diodes for a comparison number? Measure the capacitance and resistance (and tell me the impedance on your meter).

They probably are not 1160s, you would probably not have described them as cheap even several years ago as the best price I ever found was about 75c each. (Paul must have found them only a little bit cheaper if he can afford to sell them for $1.20.)

I can tell you they aren't Russian, probably aren't a vintage 1N34A of any type (your Fv would be higher), and aren't the modern crap diodes. (Their leads are clearly old.) Maybe that'll help you narrow down your ebay purchases.

Found the eBy listing: 175 NOS Ge diodes - $9.95. Came all jumbled together in a ziplock bag with maybe 10 different types in there - none with any part numbers stamped on them. This one was the most common by far.


Multimeter: Fluke 83V
MM impedance: 10M


Mystery diode:
vf: .26v
Capacitance reading: Over Limit (83V manual says is only measures down to 10pF - with the leads just dangling free, I read 29pF)
Resistance: 8.2K (500K in reverse)


1N4148
fv: .59
resistance: 267K (reverse is OL)
capacitance is 1.5n


Also put it on my GM328 component tester (Like you see all over eBy)
Ir=3.3ua
uf=520mv
C=0pF

[matmosphere]

Could it be the 1s2473 from this thread?

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/maximum-made-in-japan-boss-sd-1age.1178016/page-2

[midwayfair]

>Resistance: 8.2K (500K in reverse)

I can get you close to the 500K and the Fv with some 1N741 (I got them from Smallbear from the generic bin, so good luck finding more). Nothing in my bin measures anywhere close to 8.2K, and most Ge diodes on my multimeter measure 100-400K in reverse. Most of my Russian diodes near your Fv are around 350K, but their forward resistance is much lower. The 1N741 is also the highest foward resistance I found. They're marked, though.

Unfortunately locating more of a particular Ge diode is nearly impossible even if these were marked. Most U.S. and E.U. diodes were made by many manufacturers and while there may have been specifications Ge anything as you know was extremely difficult to get tight tolerances on.

You MAY have some success putting a resistor in series or in parallel with other pairs to mimic the readings on these.

[matmosphere]

Found this on an image search.

http://www.dubuque-forsale.com/OLD-ADS-FROM-PREVIOUS-YEARS/2009/June/1N34A-like-germanium-point-contact-mystery-diodes.php

Looks very close

[jubal81]

Found this on an image search.

http://www.dubuque-forsale.com/OLD-ADS-FROM-PREVIOUS-YEARS/2009/June/1N34A-like-germanium-point-contact-mystery-diodes.php

Looks very close

Wow! That is a spot-on match.


Put seven of them in the OD i'm working on. Playing it this afternoon and they just sound spectacular.

[jubal81]

The ones with no markings look like the same exact envelope as 1N34A.

The 1N34s I've had in the past looked nothing like this, but kept looking online and did find some listed with a picture that looked just like this with a single black band.