Vox Tone Bender Transistors

[canman]

Hey everyone,

I've read you can replace the Germanium transistors with Silicon in the Vox Tone Bender circuits...is that possible, and would it sound decent?  I'm worried about the sensitive nature of the germs (and how hard it is to find good ones) and would love to try Silicon transistors if they'll sound good!

Thanks!

[Blitz Krieg]

they sound good. do it.

[jim68000]

Yes, it's relatively easy, but won't sound the same. You have two options: either replace the transistors with PNP silicon transistors, which will keep the circuit positive ground, or use NPN transistors and swap the orientation of all the polarised components (eg, flip the battery input and polarised caps).

There's an NPN Tone Bender plan here: http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/mkII.php

[canman]

Awesome.  As long as it'll still sound alright, I'm all in.  I don't wanna mess with Ge, just because they're expensive and I'd hate for them to "go bad" due to temp changes, etc. (all the stuff people mention with regards to Ge transistors)