low hfe germanium

[kirshman]

What do you guys use the low ones for?  Made some germanium giants foe me and friends, and some rangemasters with the higher ones.  What do you do with the low ones.  35-50. got some mp38s in that range.

[rocket88]

Well three suggestions:
1. Use them in a buffer so you'll have a Ge buffer
2.  Use them as Ge diodes
3. There are some effects that like low gain, and I mean LOW gain Ge transistors.

Side note, I've built fuzzfaces with low gain and they sound fucking fantastic, so you can always give that a try. Remember, typically you really never have wasted Ge transistors, there's always something you can do with them. Even if that means making them into jewlery.

[PEPPER!]

Germanium transistors with gains in that range can also be just right as Q1 in a Harmonic Percolator, or paired in a Darlington configuration and substituted for a single transistor -

This will work in some circuits and will sound like crap in others, but experiment a little and you might be surprised.

[Sergio]

http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com.es/2013/01/rangepig.html

This one worked great for me and can easily be turned  negative ground