I recently gave my pepperspray board to a motivated colleague at work and we're having a hard time finding the transistors. Are there any good substitutes for the PNP Ge (Q1, 2n404a) and NPN Si (Q2 2n3565)? I have AC128 around and plenty of Si NPN. If there's a substitute, does hfe matter? thanks
Also, I think there are some errors in the doc:
*) schematic and BOM call for a 2n3965 for Q2. Only the text specifies 2n3565.
*) the shopping list shows a BAT41 as a possible alternative to Q2. I guess this was meant for D1-2
There are a lot of things that will work, I'd suggest socketing and trying different things. This article is about a variant of the circuit, but it is very helpful.
http://www.home-wrecker.com/harmonic.html
I think Tayda sells a version of the 3565. The pn3565 I think. I've used them before in a different circuit and they seem to work fine.
Joe Gore also has a good video where he is trying many different versions of the circuit. It's definitely worth a watch. He addresses your question some I believe.
I asked about some of this a while back. Here are the posts.
https://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=29620.msg287296#msg287296
https://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=31495.msg303015#msg303015