Did I find a ton of old GE transistors??

[Joe Hart]

There are:

28 - Matsushita 2SB175 transistors
2 - Matsushita 2SC538 transistors
1 - Matsushita A564 transistor

I googled and think that the 2SB175's are GE PNP and can be quite good for FF circuits. There was less info on the rest of them.

They are in an old Univox drum machine thingy that does not work, but I am trying to get it to work (just for fun). I would imagine that the transistors would be cooler in pedals, so I have no problem swaping them out with some new silicon transistors.

So, my questions are:

Are these really good transistors (worth taking out of the Univox)?
What can I replace them with?

Thanks!
-Joe Hart

[bioroids]

http://www.smallbearelec.com/HowTos/FuzzFaceFAQ/FFFAQ.htm

the b175 is in fact germanium, the others I think not

Luck!

[cd]

A564 - power transistor, likely silicon
2SC538 - common silicon NPN

[puretube]

...get that drum working!  

[Steben]

Multimeter?
Measure some hFE's and off course knee voltages.
When you read 0.2-0.3V it's germanium.

[Joe Hart]

So would it be worth replacing them with silicon, or are they just run-of-the-mill transistors that are in the same league as the GE you can get from NTE?
-Joe Hart

[Rodgre]

If the Univox is HOPELESS, then canibalise it, but otherwise, those things are awesome. We (the curtain society) even immortalized one on the cover of our "volume tone tempo" ep.



Roger

[puretube]

the transistors are not worth "killing" the machine!
The drum very probable has some mechanic failure (switch-cleaning),
or some dried out el-caps.

Don`t try substituting with Si: moat biases won`t work afterwards... (IMHO)

[fatoldsun]

i agree. it's not worth it any way. it's not like you can't find good ge tranny's.

[Joe Hart]

Okay, I won't tear it apart. Now, how do I test the electro caps? Do I have to unsolder them or can I test them in circuit? And what am I looking for? Just continuity through them or the actual value (uF) that they are supposed to be?
-Joe Hart