Buy transistors from those who sells matched?

[skyhigh]

If you buy transistors from companys that sells matched transistor pairs - what do you get?
I mean that i buy not matched transistors, and do i just get crap values in hFE and leakage e.t.c
They have sorted out the best allready or what?

Anyone with experience of getting good Ge transistors from those sellers?

[nelson]

Depends what they are matched for......

I assume you mean fuzz face, if they say "matched pair for fuzz face" they mean gains 70-80 for Q1 and 100-120 for Q2. They should also be tested for low leakage.

Which companies?

[skyhigh]

I dont mean any particular company.
i know my english is not so good but it seems you missunderstod me totally here.

buying matched pairs is too expensive for me 

[MartyMart]

Ok here's the "low down" :
99% of all the stocks of "good" vintage Ge transistors are gone ...
You could try buying the "cheap" lots and you may be lucky and find a few
good ones ( ie: good gain and low leakage )
However, that would mean spending quite a lot to buy hundreds of transistors
in order to find your "best" ones ....
My advice would be to buy just a few "matched" pairs from somewhere like
smallbear (  www.smallbearelec.com )
At least you will know that they will work and sound good
and it will cost you less, as you wont have dozens of "crap" transistors

It's normal, somewhere like Ebay, that all the "best" are removed before being
sold .... sorry  !!

MM.

[skyhigh]

okey, thanks!

I recon AC128's sold out side matched packages is allready tested and did not fit well. So believe that i get a good one is an utopia
So... if i gonna buy a AC128 i would buy it from a ordinary electric store, NOT from a stompbox equipment seller 
I prob get a better price also. But as you sad, i think i buy a matched pair, it seems cheaper in the long run.

[Eirik]

I recon AC128's sold out side matched packages is allready tested and did not fit well. So believe that i get a good one is an utopia

I bought five AC128's from Jack Orman a few months ago and they were all good. They were all within the fuzz face range and with moderate leakage.
I suppose I might have been lucky but it is possible to get a good AC128 without buying matched pairs.

[MartyMart]

Yup, I'm sure that Jack's are good, also smallbear and Banzai sell them as "within range"
but not matched, that's a cheaper option too .

MM

[StephenGiles]

 
Stephen

[amz-fx]

I bought five AC128's from Jack Orman a few months ago and they were all good. They were all within the fuzz face range and with moderate leakage.

I've sold almost all of the Ge transistors that I had....  almost.  I marked them as "Sold Out" on my web page.

If anyone from this forum wants to buy a set, send me an email or pm and we'll see what we can do for you.

regards, Jack

[gez]

Unless you're building a FuzzFace (or spin off) buying matched transistors is a total waste of time.

Yes, there's a better chance that at least the devices will work if you buy devices advertised as such...but at the extra cost you pay you might as well take your chances and buy a bag of whatever you can get hold of.  I've done this loads of times in the past and there are always enough working devices to make this economically viable (if you buy from reputable sources).  If you're too lazy to spend a few mins with a DMM, by all means go for the more expensive option.

Hope that didn't come across as a rant (wasn't intended as such).

[R.G.]

I originated the process of pretesting germanium transistors for building effects years ago when I was sellling stuff mail order. Let me tell you my experiences.

I bought in big lots, hundreds at a time. Since I had no competition, I got mostly unsorted stock. I then sorted them by testing for gain and leakage. You can read about my testing methods at GEO - http://www.geofex.com, look for the article on testing germanium devices for Fuzz Faces.

My experience was that for commercial lots, I found one transistor in three that was good enough to use in an effect. Sometimes I'd get a military surplus lot and find that almost all of them were good. One lot of about fifty were all GREAT!!

But on average, I threw away two transistors for every one that was good enough to sell.

That was years ago. Many unscrupulous retesters and effects makers will buy a big lot of germanium transistors, test them for the good ones, then resell the bad ones on ebay or privately. If you get one of these "super-bad" lots of transistors every single one will be unusable.

Note that this only applies to germanium transistors. Silicon transistor circuits generally are much less sensitive to specific device types, and can often be substituted with wildly different types and have good results.

I think you've hit on the right answer. If you can't afford mistakes, buy your transistors from someone who is making a bit of money by taking the chances on buying lots of them. It will be cheaper for you in the long run, as you note.