[thomasolsen84]

I try not to bias my mind beforehand when im trying out components in pedals.
Fuzz is a different animal than someother effects like delay and reverb. Like some people have mentioned here earlier. The character of the fuzz and especially with germanium it's in the weakness of the transistor. Noisy, unstable, and so forth. My electrical knowledge isn't that good, and the things I have learned has come from experimenting with different ciurcits. Mostly diiferent guitar fx and so forth.

I have buildt around 30-40 fx pedals over the last 15 months or so. So im really beginner at this. The thing im noticing when I try out different germaniums in my fuzz ciurcut is that they sound a bit more "organic" In that sense that there's more dirrence what the pedals sounding like when you turn the levels, volume and so forth. I've had one of the best sounding fuzz pedals, i ever built that's all silicon transistors. 've had germanium transistors that had good specs when I measured them. What I see for is a transistor that has enough gain for the specs of the ciurcut and low leakage. Not all of these has to my ears sounded good. There has been time with this "mojo" parts that I've gotten fm radio coming out through my amp, because of a germanium diode I used in one pedal.

I am aware that many builders say's that the only good transistor in a fuzz is NKT275 period. That is just ignorance in my opinion.
Since there has been guys starting up "botique" pedal brands, and buying up lots of the transistors, of course the price for these components will increase in value since there's a demand for it. Especially when some companies is doing extremely well selling these to well known artist.

Just a wild guess, I bet that Roger Mayer's Fuzz Face pedal wouldn't be as popular as it is today if not Hendrix used those? Or the Vox Wah pedal for that matter.
Of course you can't get the same sound as Hendrix with the same pedals, even originals, since there's hundreds of other critical factors that is way more crucial.
But the curiosity in me wants those things, like some of the legendery stuff like fenders, gibsons ans so forth. I want to try those "mojo" transistors and fooling around with crusty old components that has been stored in a damp old smelly basement for decades. Just like some of you want those old Nos tubes, Mullards from the 60's and so on. Is it better that quality new parts you can get today? I don't know. Probably not. I swear I can hear a difference.
It's like whan you buy a new 2000 dollar guitar, and someone comes in with a 200 dollar guitar. Just the fact that you paid 10 time the money for yours make your better in some way or another. It as to right?
I think it's one of the hardest things to do admitting to yourself, that you spent ten times the money for one thing you could get equally good or at least very close for just one tenth of the price.

I come foward and admit at least I try to justify my 2000 dollar purchase, with specs of my guitar beeing painted with nitrocellulose laquer, a specified copperwound pickups, and all these fancy words for just plain normal things on a guitar, the business is a crude unforgiving business, ready to pry your money out of your hands. And I hate to be the sucker that paid ten times for my guitar than I really needed.