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Old 15th Sep 2017, 10:39 pm   #24
Argus25
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Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Maroochydore, Queensland, Australia.
Posts: 2,679
Default Re: Transistors for Fuzz Pedals.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucien Nunes View Post
Noise is a significant nuisance in music amplification and if people would select components more on their contribution of noise, they would probably get a better subjective result as it is rare that one actually wants the noise as part of the recreated sound.
Yes this is entirely true. Especially since these pedals/effects devices run at the input of high gain guitar amplifiers. This is why it surprised me that people making the latter day replicas of these devices, if they did want to stick to germanium transistors, didn't opt for the lower noise versions like the AC107,2N2613 and Japanese 2SB440 etc. Instead, they choose the cheaper options of various transistor radio transistors, like many (but not all) of the original manufacturers did, to save money at the time. Some of the original manufacturers did use the 2N2613 in the USA.

There is another error often made too. Significant noise contribution can come from the collector load resistors, especially if they are the old carbon type. Yet I have seen replica pedals were these have been used to make it "sound original" but its much better noise wise to use a modern metal film resistor.
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