They can give you a lot of AC gain but their biasing is almost as fussy as FETs. MOSFETs act more like pentodes and their distortion characteristics are a little different than either FETs or BJTs. A BJT will beat the pants off a FET in terms of reliability/repetition and gain, but FETs have a little bit of magic in their sound. FET or BJT? MOSFET? FETs act like triodes (so do BJTs). Can your transistor handle the voltages you're feeding it? Most silicon transistors can handle voltages higher than what we play with in guitar pedals, but some older germanium transistors can't see more than 15V, sometimes even less. You might want to pay more attention to the HFE of your transistor choice in those situations, just to make life easier. If you see a trimpot on the collector, chances are it's finicky. If you see a BJT with a small resistor on the emitter (less than 1K), chances are it's finicky. Next, you want to determine if a particular bias range is important. Any sonic differences between low and high gain really can be made up elsewhere. Gain does not equal output some of the loudest pedals I've made use low-gain transistors. You can use almost any gain range in any circuit if you learn how biasing works and how to adjust the output of a transistor. The MKII contains some of the same circuitry as a Fuzz Face, but the biasing voltages are radically different. A good example is the difference between a Fuzz Face and a Tone Bender MKII. You can deviate based on your ears AFTER you know what it's "supposed" to sound like. Learn the voltages of the transistors for a good, working version of the circuit you are building. People fuss about with transistors in silicon high-gain circuits when it would be much more profitable to use the cheapest, lowest-noise piece available and then play with the resistors hanging off them. In a clean circuit, gain is even less important, because chances are you aren't using that much of the transistor's gain in the first place. Most of the time, once you're above 100hfe, the actual gain becomes increasingly irrelevant and you want to start looking at noise performance. Leakage is important in germanium most of the time it's a nuisance (in treble boosters and fuzz faces), but in some cases it's necessary for a functioning circuit (e.g. Gain (measured in hfe) is the most obvious characteristic. BC549C is one of my favorite transistors because it has very tight tolerances. For example, a BC109 is likely to have higher gain than a BC108. Transistors have characteristics, some of which might play a role in the sound of a circuit.Ĭertain transistors are more likely to have certain characteristics than others. "Understanding How Transistors Work" - Stompbox StudiesĪmplified Parts - Pedal Layouts & Build Guidesįirst thing you (and frankly anyone else building or buying pedals) should learn is: Part numbers don't have a sound. "Everything You Need to Build a DIY Guitar Pedal" - Pedal Haven "So you’re starting out - A guide to what you’ll need to build pedals." This is an open community for the do-it-yourself pedal builders of reddit! Please use this subreddit to share knowledge, give/receive help, and show off your custom builds! Looking for troubleshooting help? Please read this first!
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