Clipping diode stock -- what else should I add to my stock?

[BRGPollen]

Midwayfair,
          I too am also in the waaaaaaaaaaaay interested in a kit category!  If you end up making these kits could you please add my name to the list for one?  I think it would be much like Christmas in July!!

B

[midwayfair]

Yikes. I'm going to need to order more as soon as they arrive!

I don't mean to alarm anyone, but I just saw that Tayda now has 1n34as. New production, no doubt, by check out the price ...
http://www.taydaelectronics.com/diodes/germanium.html

[dbharris]

Just a heads up on those 1n60P diodes, I ordered some from futurlec a while back.  Well I really ordered 1n34a, but this is what they sent me.  They are not germanium, they are silicon schottky diodes.  Supposedly, they are a work alike for 1n34a diodes.  Mine averaged forward voltage of .27-.28.  Been meaning to use them in a muff or overdrive and see if I like them or not, but haven't done so yet.

-Dan

[midwayfair]

Just a heads up on those 1n60P diodes, I ordered some from futurlec a while back.  Well I really ordered 1n34a, but this is what they sent me.  They are not germanium, they are silicon schottky diodes.  Supposedly, they are a work alike for 1n34a diodes.  Mine averaged forward voltage of .27-.28.  Been meaning to use them in a muff or overdrive and see if I like them or not, but haven't done so yet.

-Dan

Thanks, Dan.

They were $4, so I'm not going to quibble ... and I have (and can get more) "real" Ge 1N60s. It'll be interesting to compare the two.

I might prod the seller to remove Germanium from his description.

[whitebread47]

Just a heads up on those 1n60P diodes, I ordered some from futurlec a while back.  Well I really ordered 1n34a, but this is what they sent me.  They are not germanium, they are silicon schottky diodes.  Supposedly, they are a work alike for 1n34a diodes.  Mine averaged forward voltage of .27-.28.  Been meaning to use them in a muff or overdrive and see if I like them or not, but haven't done so yet.

-Dan

I got some silicon 1N60s from Tayda last week.  I tested them in my Green Russian spec Mudbunny build yesterday.  Compared to the 1N914s, the Si 1N60s are quite smooth sounding.

[dbharris]

@midwayfair - I think a lot of these sellers say they are germanium b/c the fv is similar and most people wont know the difference or check a data sheet.  I always wondered if you had a set of germanium and si diodes with the exact same fv how different they would really sound.  I would guess not a whole lot different, except maybe to people who have the "golden ears."  I unfortunately was not blessed with those ears lol.


@whitebread - That's good to hear that you liked them.  When I get around to my Greenbean I will definitely have them as one of the clipping options.

-Dan

[midwayfair]

I would guess not a whole lot different, except maybe to people who have the "golden ears."  I unfortunately was not blessed with those ears lol.

I certainly plan on testing it, especially because a few of the Ges have a much higher gain range. I definitely don't have golden ears. (Honestly, the number of things that I think sound good is damaging to my reputation as a Snob in All Things.)

I have a Lavache with BAT41s and 1N34As. I will say that the Germaniums sound consistently more compressed and bassy compared to Bat41s (which are really close Fv) than the compression comparison between 1N914s and BAT41s, even though the Fv difference is similar. But then, I can also hear a clear difference between 1N270s and 1N34As -- in this case, less compression and highs from the 1N34As, even though the 1N270s tend to clip a little lower.

There's a similar thing with Transistors to me. I can't hear the difference between op amps (except noise), but I can hear one between many different types of bipolar resistors. It could be some inherent inefficiency about Germanium. Germaniums have less high end than Silicons even when the Ge has almost identical leak/gain characteristics.

[midwayfair]

NDD (New Diode Day!)

Three of my shipments have arrived!



BAT85s, a bunch of NOS 1n34a, 1n60s, 1N192s, 1N695s, some Soviet detector diodes and more.

I have two more pretty sizable shipments, coming from Ukraine and Russia. (The one from Russia has a bunch of those small NPN Germanium transistors -- I'm really excited to build some stuff with them.) I should have them by the end of the week, and then I can start assembling kits for everyone. Of course ... many of the kits I can make are already spoken for from this thread ....

[culturejam]

I find that despite having something on the order of 40 kinds of diodes, I only end up ever using a few types (for clipping):

• 1N914 / 1N4148
• Diffused LED
• Water-clear LED
• BAT41 or other Schottky type

[nzCdog]

Woo! Love getting parts in the mail

[GrindCustoms]

You can also use FETs for clipping, i'm going to do some testing real soon.

This is what i have for testing:

J201
MPF102
2N5457
2N4416A

I'll post the results here in case it could interest other people

[culturejam]

You can also use just about any transistor as a clipping diode.

This is a great way to use those old leaky germanium transistors that are too weak for use in a fuzz or boost.

[midwayfair]

Yeah, I've got several old metal can leaky transistors that make neat clippers. Plus they look cool. (They're from Luciferstrip on DIYstompboxes ... his garage sale is great. I also got a board with some big mojo metal caps and metal Si diodes that I'll be making something fun with.)

I wanted to focus on diodes specifically, though.

I did get some diode testing done last night, but I need to tune the test circuit I'm using. Since I wanted to make sure I was hearing only the diodes' clipping and not OP amp or transistor distortion, I needed a high headroom clean circuit. So I'm just using a very basic TL072 circuit with absolute minimal components, but getting it loud enough to clip the silicon diodes (Germaniums clip fine) without overdriving the chip is a challenge that I couldn't meet in the 30 minutes I had to spend playing with it last night.

Right now my thoughts are to either throw a charge pump on there, use a TL074 instead (I'm worried about the headroom on the second stage, though), or maybe do something else super clever like just use a Bacon Bits ...

[culturejam]

I think maybe you should also test the diodes with an amplifier (either op amp or tranny) that is clipping a little bit. I say that because that's generally how the diodes are used, so having an "application test" is a good companion to the "control" test.

Diode-only clipping is not very common in 9v effects circuits.

[atreidesheir]

Every 1n34a I have ever see looked like this:

The tayda 1n34a looks like this:

These might be a workalike.  I cannot comment about how they would sound.  Probably pretty good.  I have not been doing this as long as most in the forums and I could be mistaken.