Trying out lots of different transistors!

[Stabby]

I'm building a small distortion unit that revolves around an NPN transistor. Now I would like to try out lots of different transistors to find out what sounds best. However there are thousands of transistors and I can't have them all

Any advice as for which transistors I should definately check out?

 

[DF96]

To a first approximation all bipolar junction transistors have exactly the same exponential response, so will produce the same distortion. Minor differences relate to current gain, base resistance, Early effect etc. Depending on your circuit, I would try different current gain transistors as this would probably be the main secondary effect.

 

[Elvee]

Try different categories: small signal/low noise like 2N5089, large junction area like a BDxxx, high voltage like BF869, high frequency like 2N5179, germanium like AC127, etc