Where to find Germanium Transistors

[sgmezei]

I posted this over at DIYstomp as well but just in case anyone misses it:

Okay, so I have been getting transistors for fuzz face and rangemaster type circuits mostly from smallbear and want to expand. I want to try and find some locally and experiment with different types/kinds.

I am still learning and don't know where to look. So please, send your hints about what to watch out for. Old organs? old radios?

I have looked a tiny bit on ebay at those larger lots that mostly come out of Europe and don't know how trustworthy they are.

With everyone on here, we should be able get some ideas about things to watch for in classifieds, garage sales, and online.

Also, I tried searching for this topic and could not find it. This has probably been discussed so if you know where to look please post the link.

Thanks team!

[juansolo]

I really should build another tonebender, so I'll watch this thread with interest. I sold my BYOC ESV and I shouldn't have.. It came back recently for a fettle and it was awesome.

[raulduke]

If you head over to stompboxes.co.uk and put a post in the for sale/wanted section someone will probably contact you if you are desperate for German transistors.

They may also be able to give you some hints for where to look.

The guys on that forum are the Ge experts.

[raulduke]

oops....by German I mean germanium of course; I should really pay attention to what I have written before I post  

I put an ad up at stompboxes.co.uk for a set of Tonebender Transistors and got a reply of a guy who set me up with a matched set of RCA's for a reasonable cost (less than buying a matched set from smallbear).

Real OC75's/76's, NKT 275's etc. are really hard to get hold of.

You are better of IMO getting some trannies that match with the Hfe's (with acceptable leakage) that you are looking for.

I built a Fuzz Face with some Texas Instrument transistors (see here: http://sjeffects.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/mojo-germanium-fuzz/)
It poops all over my BYOC ESV Fuzz Face.

[sgmezei]

Thanks for the help Raulduke,

The more I think of it, I don't have the time or knowledge to try sorting out and finding sources for all of these transistors. It will be super time consuming let alone money that could go towards other things.

I like your FF with the texas instruments transistors. Where did you find those? and where should I look for others like them?

All in all, I am not going to be building 10 fuzz faces so I should not worry about mass quantities of transistors hahaha. Silly me.

[raulduke]

Thanks mate,

I was lucky enough to score a bunch (around 30-40) of Germanium transistors of my Dad including the Texas Instrument and Mullard transistors.

Many of the Mullards had far too high a leakage to be usefull for anything.

I will be honest; the time spent sorting through them is just a chore, especially as it is taking up time from doing something more fun.

If you go to the D*A*M forum (stompboxes.co.uk) you read all sorts of horror stories about guys buying bags of transistors that are all duds (one guy bought 10 OC75's that were all smashed when he got them as OC75's have a glass case).

I would stick to Silicon and matched sets unless you really want to spend lots of time searching for that mojo...

[lloyd17]

Hahaha I did exactly the same thing RE Ge parts in wanting to gather up a collection. Then the more I thought about it the more I understood I really only need like 6 trannies for my planned builds and maybe another 5-10 just to have around for shiggles.

I just posted to most of the usual suspect DIY message boards and in a few months had all I need for a rangemaster, fuzz face, tonebender and about a dozen extras to keep on hand. Think I spent around 20 bucks and traded some enclosures I wasn't going to use anyway. Beats spending too much and sorting too much!