What to do with my germanium transistors

keantoken · 4th April 2008, 03:25 AM

Helloes.

I once gutted an old amplifier, and now I have some germanium transistors sitting around. I know that they have low voltage drop/breakover, but I'm not sure what germanium transistors are good for nowadays, and the only thing I see them used for by means of google are guitar distortion units, which I doubt I'll be building any time soon in relation to other more interesting things (to me at least) like coilguns, tesla coils, battleships...

At any rate, my part numbers are four 2SB415s, two 2SB56s, and four 2SB54s.

I managed to find fragmented datasheet information here

Thanks for your input,

- keantoken

fizzard · 4th April 2008, 05:04 AM

Guitar effects is probably all they're good for. They're noisy, they leak, low hfe, extremely poor tolerance. (A lot of this holds from silicon from that vintage too though.) I have a few kicking around I've been wanting to make a pedal with. I whipped one up on a breadboard, but never put made it permanent.

oshifis · 4th April 2008, 01:17 PM

You can bias the collector-base diode with a few milliamperes and it is a perfect white noise generator...

I_Forgot · 4th April 2008, 01:38 PM

Sell 'em on ebay- someone is probably trying to fix an old radio and can't find them so they'll pay top dollar.

I_F

Minion · 4th April 2008, 03:21 PM

You could also probably sell them over at DIYStompboxes.com as there are a Lot of poeple building germanium effects pedals these days and germaniums are sometimes hard to find...

I have built a couple Booster and fuzz curcuits with them and they do definately have a different sound than silicon....

Cheers

fizzard · 4th April 2008, 07:07 PM

Freeze them in liquid nitrogen and they're worth 20x as much!

keantoken · 4th April 2008, 09:35 PM

Liquid nitrogen...? Why? Does it improve their electrical characteristics?

What about switching characteristics? As in what if I tried to use them in the PUT Oscillator here?

- keantoken

I_Forgot · 6th April 2008, 05:05 AM

Liquid nitrogen makes them rally, really cold. They become "cooler", so people will pay more for them.

I_F

4th April 2008, 03:25 AM	#1
keantoken diyAudio Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Texas Blog Entries: 1	What to do with my germanium transistors Helloes. I once gutted an old amplifier, and now I have some germanium transistors sitting around. I know that they have low voltage drop/breakover, but I'm not sure what germanium transistors are good for nowadays, and the only thing I see them used for by means of google are guitar distortion units, which I doubt I'll be building any time soon in relation to other more interesting things (to me at least) like coilguns, tesla coils, battleships... At any rate, my part numbers are four 2SB415s, two 2SB56s, and four 2SB54s. I managed to find fragmented datasheet information here Thanks for your input, - keantoken __________________ Contribute to the DIYAudio WIKI! http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/every...p-sign-up.html LTSpice wiki with special attention to new users' troubles

4th April 2008, 09:35 PM	#7
keantoken diyAudio Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Texas Blog Entries: 1	Liquid nitrogen...? Why? Does it improve their electrical characteristics? What about switching characteristics? As in what if I tried to use them in the PUT Oscillator here? - keantoken __________________ Contribute to the DIYAudio WIKI! http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/every...p-sign-up.html LTSpice wiki with special attention to new users' troubles

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4th April 2008, 05:04 AM	#2
fizzard diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2006	Guitar effects is probably all they're good for. They're noisy, they leak, low hfe, extremely poor tolerance. (A lot of this holds from silicon from that vintage too though.) I have a few kicking around I've been wanting to make a pedal with. I whipped one up on a breadboard, but never put made it permanent.

4th April 2008, 01:17 PM	#3
oshifis diyAudio Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Budapest, Hungary	You can bias the collector-base diode with a few milliamperes and it is a perfect white noise generator...

4th April 2008, 01:38 PM	#4
I_Forgot diyAudio Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Phoenix, Az.	Sell 'em on ebay- someone is probably trying to fix an old radio and can't find them so they'll pay top dollar. I_F

4th April 2008, 03:21 PM	#5
Minion diyAudio Member Join Date: May 2006	You could also probably sell them over at DIYStompboxes.com as there are a Lot of poeple building germanium effects pedals these days and germaniums are sometimes hard to find... I have built a couple Booster and fuzz curcuits with them and they do definately have a different sound than silicon.... Cheers

4th April 2008, 07:07 PM	#6
fizzard diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2006	Freeze them in liquid nitrogen and they're worth 20x as much!

6th April 2008, 05:05 AM	#8
I_Forgot diyAudio Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Phoenix, Az.	Liquid nitrogen makes them rally, really cold. They become "cooler", so people will pay more for them. I_F

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