TK3055 Pinout

[squirrels]

Does anyone have any info on the pinout for a TK3055? I ordered a few for an Oracle fuzz from Small Bear. I couldn't find any info on it and I'm not sure if Small Bear supplies that information. Any help would be great. Thanks.

[rocket88]

hey man. i just did some searching on it and that number comes up with an Si Transistor. so i just searched on ebay and found this. both could be either TO-5 or TO-39 packages so the pinout would be



i built an oracle and based on experience playing with transistors Q1 should be around 90, and Q2 doesn't seem to matter too much. in mine i used 2 russian MP41As both 90hfe and it's a fucking monster. when i put higher gain transistors in Q2 up to and over the 300hfe mark it sounded more Si then Ge. it lost the warm, nearly wholly Ge goodness. it could have been the transistors i used, but again just my opinion.

[squirrels]

Thanks, I didn't even think of using eBay to look it up. I have two TK3055s arriving today. I'll be popping them in tonight to test. The circuit worked with a 2N2097A and 2N3906 I still need to get a multimeter that  reads hFe. Small Bear says they run around 200-300 so I may pick something else up to try in Q1. The only other germanium pedals I've built are the Fuzz Factory and Crimson Drive so I hope this is half as nice.  

[rocket88]

yea i saw that on their site, so they may be good. i actually have some mullard OC76's in the right range for Q2 that's listed as being in the original, but have to get a lower gain one for Q1 to see what kind of difference it makes in the tone. it seems like an effect that the transistors do make a big difference in the tone.

one thing about DMM that read hfe. they're not good for Germanium transistors, because they don't take leakage into account with the reading. because of that you can either make the Germanium Tester from the main page, or get a DCA55. if you're planning of doing more then a few Germanium builds i can't suggest the DCA55 enough. not only will it give you the correct hfe, but it will also tell you the pinout. it's indispensable and my #2 building too next to my edsyn soldering station. i upgraded to the DCA75 because i've been building a lot of phasers and i can easily make match sets, since the DCA75 gives you fet parameters.

[squirrels]

I swapped the TKs in and tested it out (in Amplitube on my iPad through headphones unfortunately) and all is good, well working at least. Noisy though but that could just be from Amplitube. I'm looking forward into plugging it into my OR15 after work tomorrow. Thanks again Zach.


Sent from my iPhone

[squirrels]

Sounds great with the TK3055s but I may drop something else into Q1 next time I place an order. Something I noticed about the Oracle is that when all the pots are maxed, it's very quiet, pretty much zero background noise but when I turn any of the pots down, including volume, it gets a bit noisy. Never had that in a pedal before... Did yours behave that way at all?

[rocket88]

yea, mine is just above unity. it's not the loudest fuzz. it's basically the MK1.5 tonebender, so the circuit really isn't altered from the original state, and a lot of old school fuzzes aren't really loud.

[squirrels]

I have a fair amount of volume actually. I just find it weird that I get less background noise with everything dimed. Weird.

[rocket88]

i just pluggged mine in for the first time in awhile, mine also can go fairly high above unity with the gain and volume dimed. mine is actually dead silent no matter what the settings are, which might be due to the leakage of the transistor.

[squirrels]

I'll have to see what I can get my hands on locally this weekend (if I can), the shop I go to sometimes has the NTE AC128 and 2N404, one of those should work a little bit nicer in Q1, no?

[rocket88]

*shrug*

they may, but no way of telling without trying them. the original had OC76s. personally i wouldn't spend the money on NTE Ge transistors for a few reasons, but there are 2 main ones. first they're fairly overpriced and expensive. case in point, the shop near me to get NTE103 Ge transistors cost about $10 each, while many of the transistors I have cost me no more then $5 each for the rarest ones i've got. second, for their transistors NTE works by taking whatever they can get their hands on, do quick tests on to see that they fit a very wide spec range, relabel them, and package them. as a result they are very inconsistent, and for the price you're going to pay they should be consistent. but that's my $0.02

[squirrels]

I can get NTE 2N404 for $5 locally which doesn't seem bad. I used those in my Fuzz Factory which worked well. Where do you get your Germaniums from?

[rocket88]

i buy mine in bulk through reputable sellers on ebay. i don't think some of the deals i've gotten in the past will be had gain. for instance i've bought 6-8 unopened bags of AC128s for about $80 each. most of what i use are russians. i find them super consistent, sound great, and can still be had for a deal. i usually buy multiple types each a minimum of 200 at a time, so i usually work out deals with the same sellers i've dealt with for a long time. funny thing is i once bough 3kg of Ge transistors, and super surprised that it didn't get searched by customs. lol

i still have a few unopened boxes of certain one that are waiting to be sorted, but figure until i need them i'm going to keep them sealed in all their NOS goodness.