What is your most exotic part?

[Chris60601]

For me, it's these ...   .1uf Russian K40Y-9 Paper In Oil caps

[IvIark]

Love those K40 caps

[motterpaul]

I just got more 240pF film caps - from Lithuania - these things are as wide as pennies - but the price was right.


Where do you get those russian oil caps? In UK probably?

[IvIark]

I got mine from Lithuania too, from this seller:

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/KW-TUBES

He used to have a lot more of them though at much cheaper prices.  I bought maybe 20 of the commonly used values for under £5 in lots of 50s and even 100s.  And the same for his PETP axials too.

[Beaker]

Yes, I got a bunch of those K40 caps in my recent parcel from Bulgaria. 0.033uF so ideal for use in guitar tone controls.

I also got a couple of these CA3130 metal cans, that I am just itching to use:

[MAO]

I have an unused SAD4096 BBD and a couple SSM2165 ics.

Probably should sell them.

[Travis]

Nice. I had a vintage Memory Man with the SAD chip (I think a different one). It was the worst delay ever in terms of fidelity.. Sounded pretty cool though, kinda wish I still had it

Check it out, I recorded a little clip before trading it off.
http://youtu.be/468q7vU-6w0

[rocket88]

OMG! OMG! OMG!!!! that thing is ridiculous. now i feel the need to find one.

[Chris60601]

LOL - for a moment there I thought I was watching a Star Trek movie, the one with the whale.

Anyways, I got my 1st order of Russian D9E (50) diodes today. D9B (100), D311 (50)  due early next week. Took rockett's advice and stocked up on these.

Oh yeah - and thanks to rockett, I now have a nice DCA55 that also came today

[Travis]

You could actually do that with a lot of analog delays if you adjust them for a max delay time way longer than it can handle. This thing was fun but a real piece of work

Btw rocket - sent you an email about the festival!

[tabbycat]

Chris60601 wrote

LOL - for a moment there I thought I was watching a Star Trek movie, the one with the whale.

Anyways, I got my 1st order of Russian D9E (50) diodes today. D9B (100), D311 (50)  due early next week. Took rockett's advice and stocked up on these.

Oh yeah - and thanks to rockett, I now have a nice DCA55 that also came today

what are the forward voltages on those russian diodes. and do they sound smooth or grainy, bright or dark?

am interested in them? my favourites are 250-350 forward voltage and quite gritty. 1n34a territory. find 1n260 a bit smooth.

am obviously interested in any affordable germaniums but info is scarce on their audible merits for fuzz.

any info from fuzz clipping builders here would be much appreciated.

[Chris60601]

I tested only 1 of the lot of 50 to give you an idea (D9E)
Vf is 0.41v

I did stumble across this (as I'm sure you probably have seen this). I'll post is anyways as a guide for others.

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=5399.0

Kinda sums up (or at least a basic guide) of what one could expect.

[Beaker]

Tabbycat, I suggest you have a look through my thread titled "Great new seller of Soviet germs",

Rocket's "Great jumping Germaniums" thread,

and the "Nick Greer Green Giant" thread.

They all have a lot of info relating to our collective experiences with Russian Germanium transistors and diodes, and feature our impressions of how they sound.

The common feature is that almost all of us are buying from the same guy in Bulgaria, bg-manue.

He is such a helpful guy. I strongly suggest that if you are unsure what to get, that you shoot him an email, and ask if he can put together a sample pack of Germanium diodes for you. I guarantee you will not be dissapointed.

Any and all of the D9 variants (A through to V) are worth getting, as are D310, D311, D18 and SFD 112 diodes.

I'm sure others will chime in to help too.

EDIT: a common feature of most of the Soviet components, is that they don't seem to behave how their stated values might suggest, so rather than make a choice based on preffered forward voltage, or HFE reading in the case of transistors, it is far better to try them and see if you like them!

[rocket88]

Annnndd you too of the words right out of my mouth beaker. Just going to add that with the russian Ge diodes they all have a slightly different personality. For instance the D9E's that everyone is using in klones, as they're supposed to sound exactly looks the magical diodes done want to breakup that easily and are swear sounding, but you get a similar sound from D9V's but they break up earlier, which are completely different then the D9D's and D9B's that are big and fat and have a nice amount of compression. They're are really an interesting bunch. The SFD's are similar in that they have big personalities.

I won't bore you with rehashing everything that's in the thread beaker mentioned. But, with the russian transistors I believe it's the frequency response that makes then sound great, but there important thing is don't worry about HFE. I've built fuzzfaces with russian Ge's that had an HFE in the 50's and they sound perfect despite not being the holy grail HFE's.

And yes buy from the same guy we all do. He's incredible. Super helpful, amazing prices, and if you're looking for specific things he does try to find then for you.

[tabbycat]

Beaker wrote

Tabbycat, I suggest you have a look through my thread titled "Great new seller of Soviet germs",

Rocket's "Great jumping Germaniums" thread,

and the "Nick Greer Green Giant" thread.

They all have a lot of info relating to our collective experiences with Russian Germanium transistors and diodes, and feature our impressions of how they sound.

The common feature is that almost all of us are buying from the same guy in Bulgaria, bg-manue.

He is such a helpful guy. I strongly suggest that if you are unsure what to get, that you shoot him an email, and ask if he can put together a sample pack of Germanium diodes for you. I guarantee you will not be dissapointed.

Any and all of the D9 variants (A through to V) are worth getting, as are D310, D311, D18 and SFD 112 diodes.

I'm sure others will chime in to help too.

EDIT: a common feature of most of the Soviet components, is that they don't seem to behave how their stated values might suggest, so rather than make a choice based on preffered forward voltage, or HFE reading in the case of transistors, it is far better to try them and see if you like them!

thanks for the info beaker and rocket88. will check out those threads and look into getting a sample selection bag from this seller. am assuming links to him are in the threads.

have to say am very wary of the whole mojo thing. seems lilke a first class way to sling a lot of money at shadows if one doesn't know what they are doing, and i kind of don't. have relied on the 'hfe 300 + gritty = goodness' benchmark to date and tend to stick to the tried and tested 1n34a 1n270 and oa91 as they seem to hit the spot. but obviously if i could get interesting and affordable variants i'm in.

will read your reviews with interest.

[Beaker]

"have to say am very wary of the whole mojo thing. seems lilke a first class way to sling a lot of money at shadows if one doesn't know what they are doing, and i kind of don't. have relied on the 'hfe 300 + gritty = goodness' benchmark to date and tend to stick to the tried and tested 1n34a 1n270 and oa91 as they seem to hit the spot. but obviously if i could get interesting and affordable variants i'm in."

Tabbycat, I know what you mean. However, and speaking purely personally, I am one of the most "mojo" averse persons going - I hate the bullshit surrounding most "mojo" builders attempts to justify outrageous prices for pedals, when the "mojo" parts used, only add a couple of Quid to the build cost at most. It's the natural born sceptic in me.

I look at these parts almost as "anti-mojo" (punk rock mojo?). They are cheap, easily available if you know where to look, and most impotantly make great sounding pedals!

They have yet to garner the mystical mojo halo of parts made by Mullard, Tungsram etc.

The fact is, most of these Soviet era military parts have only become available in the last couple of years, as the former Soviet bloc countries have started to de-comission and replace their huge stocks of outdated equipment - and the spare parts that were needed to service and repair them.

There is no doubt - to me at least - that there is something ironic, and perversely amusing, in the fact that we now get to have fun building guitar pedals out of parts used to build Soviet military hardware. By all accounts the MP38 transistors were used in Soviet tank radios. Talk about "Swords to ploughshares"!

There is no denying though, they look cool!

[Silver Blues]

Beaker wrote

There is no doubt - to me at least - that there is something ironic, and perversely amusing, in the fact that we now get to have fun building guitar pedals out of parts used to build Soviet military hardware. By all accounts the MP38 transistors were used in Soviet tank radios. Talk about "Swords to ploughshares"!

That's so true