How big is the stock of NOS Germanium Transistors?

[The Shocker]

Got to wondering this when reading about different Fuzz pedals.  So many claim to use them, but how has the supply not run out?  Is "NOS" bullshit? 

[Lumpy]

They must manufacture these components in the millions, thinking that they will eventually get used up. But then some other cheaper components become popular, the original circuits fall out of favor etc. I don't find NOS hard to believe at all, it just means that this shit has been sitting around on a shelf, gathering dust.

[Mr. Foxen]

They weren't made for pedals, pedals uses tiny quantities compared to whatever shit they were manufactured for. Manufacturers order huge overstocks of components, so loads will be floating about.

[The Shocker]

I found this article, kind of interesting.


http://tonefiend.com/guitar/its-raining-germanium/

[jibberish]

in the day, maybe every clock radio, every Motorola/philco car stereo, home stereos, cb's etc used Ge transistors. these were things that were made in the millions. those mfrs did indeed order mountains of stuff. also before the ISO JIT production models, component mfrs made huge piles to fill anticipated orders.
there are mountains of NOS stuff out there, EXCEPT most of it is useless.
the good stuff has been pretty thoroughly scoured. try finding NOS Hammond organ replacement tube amps. some douche bought them all already.
I would guess every now and then, someone turns up a new stash of useful stuff, for a minute.

that article sounds like one of our jamroom discussions. all facts and nonfacts are stated eventually leaving a net conclusion of zero.

black arts mark says fuck Ge. that is his world. I would go with the guy who is trying to carve out his niche in that world.

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hooke's law. learn it, know it, love it. like dogfood said: inductors lag I 90degrees behind the V. caps lead by 90, resistors are time/freq aligned. hey dogfood, do they make you learn phasors in electro school? you leave the time domain and do all your work in the freq domain.
did you know that you can use inductors and caps across the feedback loop of op amps to actually make integrators and differentiators, JUST LIKE HOOKE'S LAW DOES. that is so fucking exciting.

the dirtiest electricity ever:
you should see the incredible power/phase/floating ground issues at the caterpillar plant in east Peoria. My product was getting integrated into a new "hands off" machining cell where the tool selection was automatic for the milling machines, and 1-off parts could be made without the heinous tooling setup charges of a normal machine run. well on the other side of this Godzilla facility was inductive furnaces. inductive furnaces basically use all the power now!  my gear got burned up by some 1000v+ draw through the nice rose enclosures we custom installed the shit in, when they fired the furnaces and pulled the grounds and phases totally off the hook. finally got 2500v surge diodes to proctect the shit. those inductance furnaces fucked the ground up so bad, anything using long cable/power/signal runs and grounded, was fucked and vaporized. then I got to cross a picket line and climb on greasy 2 story machines to replace all this shit.
at least the Kennametal dude was right there all greasy with me(Kennametal sold them the tooling for the machines so he was tangled up in the tool ID setup too heh)

[The Shocker]

Mark does use Germanium transistors though.

[jibberish]

for what?

[VOLVO)))]

He probably uses them in pedals. That is what Mark does. He makes pedals. Pedals with GE transistors in them, sometimes.

[Lumpy]

He's got a bunch of pedals now, I don't even know all the pedals he's got.

Germanium fuzz is kinda too smooth for me, I tend to like Silicon more I think.

[jibberish]

He probably uses them in pedals. That is what Mark does. He makes pedals. Pedals with GE transistors in them, sometimes.

listen you smarmy fuckwit, I repeated what he told me. that's all. y'all can "probably" and suppose" all you want.
he uses Ge DIODES all day long. maybe y'all are confused. easy to do when you don't play with this stuff much.
I asked him directly. he basically gave me the impression that he wants nothing to do with that "hit or miss NOS game" ever.
I asked if he knew if any Chinese fabs started up with modern tech(just like in the article web discussion)and he hadn't even really looked into it since he wasn't really interested.

I figured he is a player and his position would add value to the thread content, so I mentioned his philosophy that he mentioned to me. so sue me.

and it is "Ge". this is what is on the table of elements(something you learn in school called chemistry)
GE is a company that makes light bulbs and jet engines. get an education. dealing with you is like dealing with a 3rd grader.

fwiw. I studied his pedals very closely. y'all don't remember my "mausoleum" joke where I wanted all 3 of his fuzzes in one box like a super sarcophagus. but then I decided the LSTR was too hot and my boss MT-2 still has a place, so I stalled and contemplated and dragging my feet paid off when the pharaoh supreme got presented as a super flexible single unit, so I pulled the trigger on it.

every day I dig that super pharaoh more. so subtle, so tweakable...
my fender greta amp is an awesome tube driver in front of another amp. I think I am good on all the fuzz/OD/distortion weapons for the time being.

greta 12ax7 OD unit, BAT pharaoh supreme as fuzz, boss MT-2 as dist and a fucking $29 roadkill as super nasty distortion.
the delay game is what is going to get nasty.....

lumpy, Mark's website is clean and lots of demos, and lots of custom artwork, like different colors and designs available.  check it out. buy me something.... 8D

[RacerX]

This orange/mango juice is damned good.

[The Shocker]

So to paraphrase jibberish (if possible) Mark uses Ge diodes, not transistors?

[VOLVO)))]

UAll I did was answer a question, sheesh. What a butthole.

I suggest you watch your attitude, Methboy, you don't get to sell me out to the modsquad then be a fucking cunt and expect me not to retaliate. I don't give a hot fuck who you tell, either. I've had several complaints about your nonsensical ass ruining every fun thread we have, and I do nothing about it because it's a fucking internet forum where everyone can post freely, even people with serious stimulate addictions. You can threaten to leave some more, you little girl, nobody fucking cares. Aren't you in your 60s? Are you sure you aren't six?

Ge diodes, too. - shrug-

[RacerX]

Ge didoes, too. - shrug-

Tell me more about these Ge dildoes...

[VOLVO)))]

Freud wins again.

[The Riffer]

What a load of pricks. I love it.

Shocker: NOS isnt a joke, alot of obsolete parts laying around turn up. Quality is the issue here. They were likely left on the shelf for a reason. They can certainly be combed through and many found useful for certain applications. I do use Ge diodes for softer clipping options. These can still be had for a reasonable price from some suppliers. Some suppliers are cashing in on the term "Germanium". One supplier simply declined to sell more than 10 of a certain metal can Si transistor to me because he believes they will SOON be obsolete. I use an alternate non "mojo" part in that circuit, and if there is a sonic difference, it is so subtle I cant track it from device to device. So, I use the cheaper, more readily available transistor. Like most things, a blind taste test with no visual reference may change they way you perceive things.

Jibberish is correct in his quote. I do think that NOS and Ge are overrated in the realm I dwell.  I do NOT use Ge transistors, too fussy and hard to find consistent stock which equates to EXPENSIVE. I also agree w Lumpy, I like silicon much more for its harder and crisper edge.
Everything has its context and its all relative to other factors. Using a hot pickup, big volume/gain amps and aggressive playing styles which most of us do, subtleties are lost. To my ears, the more crisp sound of the Si transistor works better for me. If a player is trying to nail a certain vintage tone with a vintage guitar and amp, then by all means, an authentic germanium fuzz or booster could well be the final "correct" part of that puzzle. Those tweekers are willing to pay big bucks for that device and the corksniffery that would surround their gear.

Sorry to interrupt the squabbling w my dumb opinions.

[VOLVO)))]

^^^^ used car salesman


Everything good, Mark? I left the social media world. (i finished your knife, too. I've just been reclusive.)

[The Riffer]

Yeah man, doing well.
Email me, we'll square up on the knife.
IDK how you can live w/o facebook.

[VOLVO)))]

Yeah man, doing well.
Email me, we'll square up on the knife.
IDK how you can live w/o facebook.

Only thing I miss is quick access to non-local friends. Tom texts me all the time, haha. I'll get atchu in a day or so, give or take, about the knife!

facebook was slowly turning me into someone who took pictures of food. Had to axe it.

[The Shocker]

What a load of pricks. I love it.

Shocker: NOS isnt a joke, alot of obsolete parts laying around turn up. Quality is the issue here. They were likely left on the shelf for a reason. They can certainly be combed through and many found useful for certain applications. I do use Ge diodes for softer clipping options. These can still be had for a reasonable price from some suppliers. Some suppliers are cashing in on the term "Germanium". One supplier simply declined to sell more than 10 of a certain metal can Si transistor to me because he believes they will SOON be obsolete. I use an alternate non "mojo" part in that circuit, and if there is a sonic difference, it is so subtle I cant track it from device to device. So, I use the cheaper, more readily available transistor. Like most things, a blind taste test with no visual reference may change they way you perceive things.

Jibberish is correct in his quote. I do think that NOS and Ge are overrated in the realm I dwell.  I do NOT use Ge transistors, too fussy and hard to find consistent stock which equates to EXPENSIVE. I also agree w Lumpy, I like silicon much more for its harder and crisper edge.
Everything has its context and its all relative to other factors. Using a hot pickup, big volume/gain amps and aggressive playing styles which most of us do, subtleties are lost. To my ears, the more crisp sound of the Si transistor works better for me. If a player is trying to nail a certain vintage tone with a vintage guitar and amp, then by all means, an authentic germanium fuzz or booster could well be the final "correct" part of that puzzle. Those tweekers are willing to pay big bucks for that device and the corksniffery that would surround their gear.

Sorry to interrupt the squabbling w my dumb opinions.

So it's a diode vs transistor/different parts of a circuit thing? 

http://www.ehow.com/info_8333244_diode-vs-transistor.html

[Jake]

[Lumpy]

Tom texts me all the time, haha.

Tom from Myspace?

[VOLVO)))]

Tom texts me all the time, haha.

Tom from Myspace?

He was my only friend.

[dunwichamps]

Finding good non-leaky Ge Qs with reasonable HFEs is a big pain. I had about 200 Qs I got from my school and maybe 25 of them tested well enough to use in say FF type designs where you need HFEs from 75-200 with leakages under say 100uA (my preference). Leakage current results in noise, basically idle DC noise when the pedal is not even amplifying any AC signal.

I do have 100s of low HFE good Ge stuff like < 30 HFE, which you could use for darlington pair type RM pedals (stack the Qs up in this scenario and their effective HFE is the multiplication of the two Qs HFE so like 30 x 30 is the new HFE.

A lot of the reason people like them is due to the parasitic capacitance they have which end up "smoothing" out upper mids and high end frequencies. This effect could be achieved using passive filtering for modern NPN Si stuff.

Russia has a lot of surplus stock in Ge Qs you can buy but like anything if you want them cheap you have to buy in bulk and do your own testing. If you go and want to buy a pretested good Ge Q your looking at prices ranging from $4-10 per Q from suppliers like small bear

[Danny G]

I experimented with Ge diodes when I was building and tweaking pedals. Subbed a pair if those for one of the pairs if clipping diodes in a Big Muff Pi clone and hello main bass dirt pedal for the next several years.

Turns out it's a pretty common thing I guess in some dirt pedals. Softer "tube-ier" clipping than a pair of silicon

When I switched to a Bass Drive I opened it up and saw it, too, has a pair of Ge diodes for clipping.