Trusty j201 smd+adapter european seller

[traktop]

Crappy fet consistency is the reason that´s been stopping me building all that "amp in a box" pedals, (just tried the wampler black´65 and has been a pain to make it work properly).
Now, with that preamp series that Zach has been posting lately that I really want to try, I think it makes sense to finally get into that fet smd+adapter thing.
Does anyone know an european trusty source for that? (or someone outside Europe which doesn´t take expensive shipping rates)
Cheers, Gilberto.

[Battery Acid]

http://www.diyguitarpedals.com.au/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=52

It's not european, but Paul is a very nice guy and ships by flat rate envelopes, so the shipping is pretty cheap (and I live in Brasil).

[Battery Acid]

Oh, and he also sells smd 2n5457 and mpf4393

[traktop]

Wow thanks!
 36 cents for each j201+adapter? That´s way less than current ones, and the shipping is cheap.

Are they consistent between each other or should I get a big bulk, (and build a fet matcher...), just in case?

This guy seemed to have more interesting things, so considering make a little bigger investment:

Is it worth spending 10$ on a matched pair of ac-125 Ge transistors for building a killer fuzz face without too many headaches...?

Any experience with its poly caps? I´m tired of tayda caps and its 10% values accuracy...
And what about the diodes? Any hard to find rarity that would be worth purchasing?
Cheers, Gilberto.


 

[rocket88]

there's really only one that's right so far. Ciaran and i have another one in the works, and the orange ones i posted just aren't right, i actually put a hold on them till i can breadboard and mess with them a bit. can't make a good suggestion for adapter board in europe, i'm sure beaker knows. i do know that diyguitarpedals is paul, not the paul we have here, but he's been in the community for a long time and does those youtube videos that are pretty good. he only stocks good stuff and fairly reasonable.

[traktop]

Nice to hear that.
I was curious about your Model T layout slamming my hiwatt dr-103 output section, (preamp clean and master wide open), rivaling a current production model t that a friend of mine has...

[traktop]

The Green Citrus layout is on the list too...

[Ciaran Haslett]

Bits Box in the UK do Sot23 to Sip boards here.  Their shipping is really fast too....but....their boards don't maintain the same pinout orientation as a through hole FET and the boards are unnecessarily larger than Pauls.

Personally I use Paul in Australia.  His boards are excellent (and keep the pinout matched)  and shipping is quick enough (about 7 days to Ireland).  Only real issue is that he's pretty popular and stocks are sometimes low.  But like I said...they are excellent.

As for the Model T....I'm just back from a tour and have now read all the comments on the thread.  Some are complaining that emulating the preamp doesn't go far enough to capture the "authentic" sound of the amp.  While I'm perfectly happy with what myself and Zach came up with (I even built it for myself) I'm going to put it back on the BB and sim the power amp section too (or at least the PI) and see if I like what I hear.

Keep an eye on the thread.

[Beaker]

I buy my SMD JFETS from Bitsbox in the UK, but as Ciaran points out, their SMD adapter boards are not great, and I can't really reccomend them. I buy my SMD boards from Paul (Chromosphere) in Australia - worth the extra effort getting these.

[Battery Acid]

traktop wrote

Wow thanks!
 36 cents for each j201+adapter? That´s way less than current ones, and the shipping is cheap.

Are they consistent between each other or should I get a big bulk, (and build a fet matcher...), just in case?

This guy seemed to have more interesting things, so considering make a little bigger investment:

Is it worth spending 10$ on a matched pair of ac-125 Ge transistors for building a killer fuzz face without too many headaches...?

Any experience with its poly caps? I´m tired of tayda caps and its 10% values accuracy...
And what about the diodes? Any hard to find rarity that would be worth purchasing?
Cheers, Gilberto.

Yes, they are pretty consistent, actually a lot better than the thru-hole versions. About the capacitors, not only Tayda's are 10% in tolerance, but the vast majority that any guitar pedal brands use, and it's ok. There are 5% capacitors, but they are expensive and hard to find, WIMA makes some in these specs.

[Pavlos]

I'll second everything said about Paul at http://www.diyguitarpedals.com.au really nice guy to deal with, shipping is very reasonable and delivery to the UK took just over a week from ordering on a Sunday. The quality of the boards is excellent, and out of a batch of 50 each of the mmbfj201 (J201) and mmbf5457 (2n5457) I've so far put 25 of each together. Consistancy is very good and I've now got a supply of plenty of closely matched pairs and groups of three or more, even a handful of almost identical (To two decimal places) pairs and best of all, an almost perfect group of 4 mmbfj201 (J201) Bitsbox in the UK are also very good for a lot of things too, again, good to deal with and I've always found delivery to be very quick as well (2-3 days within UK) Also worth looking at is http://www.musikding.de I think that in general their quality is as good if not better than Tayda, prices aren't bad (For EU) though like Tayda the delivery isn't really quick unless you pay the extra (Standard delivery generally takes approx 10 - 14 days from Germany to UK) As for the making the FET matcher I would say it's worth doing, it's a small build and it does make it very easy to find close spec and matched groups for builds that require them (Phasers for example) it also helps weed out any rougue spec FETs which you may still be able to use in less critical builds rather than just throw away

[Hozy31]

+1 I only use smd J201's and 5457's these days and I always buy his boards. Very good quality & price.

[traktop]

Thanks you all guys!
I ve just ordered a bunch of j201´s/2n5457s, mpsa18s, (the ones from tayda are all around 500-550 hfe).
Ordered a matched pair of matched IT308V GE transistors of about 60 hfe for a fuzz face too, (lets see how they go).

[traktop]

Ciaran Haslett wrote

 
As for the Model T....
Keep an eye on the thread.

I will ;)

[cylens]

just ordered 40 J201s and 40 2N5457s, all with adapter boards from Paul... 25 euros shipped to France... insane...

[traktop]

That´s right. Prices are in AU, so even cheaper for euro buyers.
And the boards don´t seemed so hard to solder.