Why do transistors never work?

[Pipes]

Everything I've ever built with transistors has been rubbish. Not even an effect, just a terrible farty noise if I pick hard enough. Any idea why? Am I buying bad quality transistors? Am I not using them right? Should I sing to them more?

[Madferret]

Sounds like they're not being biased correctly, when I started building I was always mixing up the resistor values so it could be worth checking any values connected to the transistor.  Also double checking the pinout of what you're using is a good idea, generally just googling the transistor name and 'pinout' will throw up an image with the pins labeled.

[Pipes]

Okay I'll keep that in mind, thanks!

The thing is though I'm building from layouts posted here, which makes for confusing reading when people comment saying how much they love it. Anyway, I'm sure those no good trannies will come good.

[Madferret]

If you're socketing your transistors maybe try swapping them around to make sure it's not just a couple of bad ones that you're having a problem with.  I've never had any problems with any of the layouts here once they've been verified.  Which one were you having an issue with?

[Pipes]

The two I had most problems with were the Green Ringer and the Random Number Generator. Pretty much the same sound came out; a very quiet guitar signal, and if I picked really hard it'd clip, but not in a nice way.

[alex.s]

As Madferret said, sounds like a misbiasing problem.

I don't recall having problems with transistors (save some 2N5457s...), but I surely can remember having problems with wrong resistor values/bad solder joints/misplaced components etc...!

[Geiri]

Agree on the biasing. I prefer transistors over ICs. Everything I've built so far with transistors has worked mostly fine. I've had problems before but usually solved them.

[Vince]

In regards to the green ringer. I had the exact same issue you are referring to and it turned out that I had a transistor in the wrong position. It's worth double checking you have the right transistor in the right position. That may sound patronising but it's very easily done.

[Madferret]

I've built both of those pedals using the layouts here so I can say they both have the potential to work, I think the random number generator was a little picky about which transistors it uses but you should be able to get a better sound than you are with virtually anything in it.  I'd check the resistor values connected to the Collector of each of the transistors, other than that all I can suggest is to follow the fault finding guide to rule out anything build related.

[Pipes]

Thanks for all your help!