Is it just me or do Soviet Ge's really rock...

[JimRayden]

I found my baggie of ol' soviet Ge's from under my bed. I bought these and measured them for gain and leakage and marked 'em about a year ago.

And when I start lining them up by gain, it appears that they make up perfect pairs. As Geofex states, first tranny should be 70-100 and second 90-130.

Well, here are the ten FF-trannies, perfectly suitable for five FF's:

Q1:
gain 64, 11uA
gain 76, 27uA
gain 80, 29uA
gain 80, 13.1uA
gain 80.7, 22uA

Q2:
gain 106.4, 46uA
gain ~120, 11.3uA
gain 125, 19uA
gain 128, 42.3uA
gain 130, 12uA

There were some with awfully small gain and some with very high leakage but I won't list them. What puzzles me is the gap between 80 and 100. I don't remember selecting FF pairs, just measuring them.

And even if I did miss a decimal place, at 10 times the leakage, they're still good. It's either my crappy measuring or the soviet engineers have done it again.

And now to find out whether they sound decent.

---------
Jimbo

[JimRayden]

Forthermore, most of these are rated for 9V, three for 10V. Looks like they were made for FF's.

I know 9V is a very close match and can be too small of a rating for a fresh battery but these things are pretty bulky and if I know Soviets well enough, they're rated way conservatively.

----------
Jimbo

[mat]

Hi,

I've built few FF's with Soviet Ge's and I just love them ! I eaven used 80hfe on Q1 and 60hfe on Q2 and the sound has been very thick and pleasing  I have couple hundreds of them and measured all of them. Most are indeed very low leakage. I always put small bias pot on the top of the pedal. There are lots of very low hfe Soviet transistors sold in ebay..
cheers,
Mat

[joelap]

Would you mind sharing which transistors you are using?  Right now I've got a bunch of AC128's NOS, with a bunch within fuzzface ranges and they sound pretty good.

[Dragonfly]

Hi,

I've built few FF's with Soviet Ge's and I just love them ! I eaven used 80hfe on Q1 and 60hfe on Q2 and the sound has been very thick and pleasing  I have couple hundreds of them and measured all of them. Most are indeed very low leakage. I always put small bias pot on the top of the pedal. There are lots of very low hfe Soviet transistors sold in ebay..
cheers,
Mat

wanna sell / trade some of yours ? 

AC

[$uperpuma]

I too am looking for ac128's or similar... any help?

[JimRayden]

Them transistors are GT320V and a few are P30. Flying saucer mojo.

Right now I'm in trouble with determining pinout. Trying them in a FF circuit, it seems like an EBC but it still won't bias up or sound decent. It can't seem to work out with the dot as either collector or emitter.

Here's data for a 'Similiar Part': http://www.datasheets.org.uk/specsheet.php?part=2N2635

If I finally do get them to work, I'll buy a lifetime supply.

----------
Jimbo

[brett]

Hi
To find the base, emitter and collector, use your diode tester and find two forward-biased diodes among the three legs.  The base is the common leg.  The others are the emitter and collector, usually with the emitter indicated by a dot or tag.

The leakages are in line with that of Japanese devices.  Most 2SB devices are 20 to 100uA leakage.
cheers

[JimRayden]

The tester proves it to be EBC, as I suspected.

Ahh, reversed battery and it biased up just fine. But... that would render them NPN. The page which sells them and the spec sheet of an equivalent give PNP... could they both be wrong. Too bad I can't do a soundcheck, it's 2 AM. I'll continue on it tomorrow.

I actually don't care if it turns out to be a NNNPPNPNPP, as long as it works in a fuzz face.

---------
Jimbo

[tcobretti]

So did you guys oder a giant bag of transistors from Russia off of ebay?  I was thinking about it, but it seemed like a bad idea.

[JimRayden]

So did you guys oder a giant bag of transistors from Russia off of ebay?  I was thinking about it, but it seemed like a bad idea.

You could go badly wrong with them also. Of the bunch I ordered, there were a few types that had an extremely bad leakage, all of 'em. Living in a post-sov country here, perhaps I can hook you guys up with some good ones.

How does it sound if I bought a bigger stock, measured them all and selling by hfe and leak, perhaps even select a bunch of sets for ya.

----------
Jimbo

[tcobretti]

I honestly haven't been able to bring myself to pay real money for Ge trannies.  All the ones I have are scavenged or cheapo.  So I can't promise that I'll buy 'em. 

That said, the AC128s in my Mayer Classic Fuzz totally blow away any of the Ge FFs I've built, so it clearly makes a difference.

[MartyMart]

I've had several "duffers" in my Russian Ge's but in general they seem to be very good.
I have a bunch of GT308's and 309's - tiny "Flying Saucer" shoped ones that are great
also some '304's that are twice the size of an Ac128, - not so many good ones from those
but two pairs, made possiblly  the best FF that I've heard, nice full and sweet tone from them.
There was probably more russian Ge stuff around than anywhere else and possibly, it's not been
"picked through" quite as much !!

My advice is to buy some, if the price is reasonable, bank on getting perhaps a few pairs
from 30/40 of them and any better is a bonus ..... right ??

BUT __ for an easy and guaranteed FF setup, a matched set from SB is hard to beat

MM.

[RedHouse]

...tester proves it to be EBC, as I suspected...

So Jim, how did you do your initial tests (from your 1st post above) not knowing the pinout of the devices?

[JimRayden]

Ah yes Marty, I have one of those GT309's too. Although I only ordered one to try out, it's gain and leak data were excellent. This one is in the list I started this thread out with.

You're right. Around here I don't see the kind of Ge madness and FF/RM mojo as in the states, so there are quite a lot of 'virgin' sources, so to say.

My advice is to buy some, if the price is reasonable, bank on getting perhaps a few pairs
from 30/40 of them and any better is a bonus ..... right ??

I'd have to disagree with you here. If you find out the types with most constant production, which in many cases is far better than the mojo transistors like AC128 and OC44, you could get far more 'okay'-transistors than one could expect.

BUT __ for an easy and guaranteed FF setup, a matched set from SB is hard to beat

I agree with you on that one.

...tester proves it to be EBC, as I suspected...

So Jim, how did you do your initial tests (from your 1st post above) not knowing the pinout of the devices?

I started to first doubt the pinout when trying it in a FF and it didn't bias up. Then I reversed the battery and it worked* - looks like problem was that it seems to be a NPN instead of PNP. Though I'm not sure if I measured them using PNP or NPN tester. I'm pretty sure these numbers are correct because if one could accidentally wire a single transistor up to achieve larger gain and smaller leakage than it really has, we would all be using transistors that way.

*I have yet to do a sound test.

---------
Jimbo

[mat]

Hi,

I've built few FF's with Soviet Ge's and I just love them ! I eaven used 80hfe on Q1 and 60hfe on Q2 and the sound has been very thick and pleasing  I have couple hundreds of them and measured all of them. Most are indeed very low leakage. I always put small bias pot on the top of the pedal. There are lots of very low hfe Soviet transistors sold in ebay..
cheers,
Mat

wanna sell / trade some of yours ? 

AC

They are been sold on ebay all the time. That is where I got all my transistors. Just make sure that the seller knows what You are after to. It does not help always tho'. I have bought loads of lo-gain ones  I have many different ones but dont have a one specific favourite. I like them all 
Mat