Germanium transistors in silicon circuits

[piltdownman]

Can you sometimes replace silicon transistors with germanium?  What has to be in place for that to happen?  When I first started doing this, I got the impression that never the twain shall meet when it comes to transistors, but then I just read a forum post about using germs in the DAM Meathead.  What's the good word on this?

Thanks
Keith

[IvIark]

Just do it.  You may find that one or more of the surrounding passives need tweaking, but it should certainly work even if it's not fine tuned.  They're all just transistors at the end of the day.

[piltdownman]

Excellent.  Thanks

[inefficiency]

That would have been me probably :p.

In that instance Mark recommended that I either completely remove a couple of caps or change them to a lower value because a lot of pedals designed for silicon have filtering caps to take off some of the harshness in the high end and with germanium that isn't necessary, so they could end up sounding dull and dark if you leave as-is.

[piltdownman]

Do you usually jumper them or can you simply omit them?  I suppose it depends on how it's laid out

On Wed, Jun 4, 2014 at 1:58 PM, inefficiency [via Guitar FX Layouts] <[hidden email]> wrote:

That would have been me probably :p.

In that instance Mark recommended that I either completely remove a couple of caps or change them to a lower value because a lot of pedals designed for silicon have filtering caps to take off some of the harshness in the high end and with germanium that isn't necessary, so they could end up sounding dull and dark if you leave as-is.

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Keith M. Parks

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[IvIark]

Yes that's low value caps between base and collector which the Meathead has, but most of the silicon transistors circuits don't.  Like I said, a few things may need tweaking to optimise and you will learn a lot about how changing various values will affect the final sound by using a breadboard to experiment, or sockets on the vero.

[induction]

piltdownman wrote

Do you usually jumper them or can you simply omit them?  I suppose it
depends on how it's laid out

You're right, it depends on the circuit. But in this example you would just leave them out. No jumper.

[piltdownman]

IvIark wrote

Like I said, a few things may need tweaking to optimise and you will learn a lot about how changing various values will affect the final sound by using a breadboard to experiment, or sockets on the vero.

Which I plan to do now that I have 50 of them!

[piltdownman]

BTW the Russian Germanium tran from our new favorite Bulgarian ebayer is sterling in the Meathead.  (just in place of the BC182 - in both positions, it was farty)I just tried it last night at a local jam and it was smooth and had full grown cojones.  Very pleased with it.