GE diodes

[Alpha579]

Any sweet sounding diodes you guys like for sweet overdrive when shunting to ground?

[Ansil]

Any sweet sounding diodes you guys like for sweet overdrive when shunting to ground?

yep shotkys   but it depends i usually use those with a light transistor booster, like an lpb1 but i found that i could use them with a trimpot inline to ground after a opamp

[Peter Snowberg]

I'm more of transistor overdriver than a diode clipper, but I think most point-contact Ge diodes will give you very similar response.

Much of the final tone really depends on the rest of the circuit, but if you want to check out different diode sounds, I would recommend trying this list out:

(1) 1N34 (Ge point contact)
(2) 1N5817/1N5818 (silicon schottky)
(3) 1N914/1N4148 (silicon signal)
(4) 1N4001 (regular silicon)
(5) red LED
(6) yellow LED
(7) green LED

Another one to try is using the protection diodes in power MOSFETs as Aron did with his Shaka Braddah III. You could also add blue/white LEDs as another option.

I think the ultimate way to audition different combos is to get two 12 position rotary switches, wire up one of each of the above diodes to the poles of each switch, and then connect them in reverse parallel pair. Now you can just dial up any combo you want. I think one of the most important things about these selections is how you mismatch them to affect the harmonic content. It's not only the forward voltage, but the ratio of the two forward voltages than determines the sound.  

Remember that you can also add resistors and/or caps in series with the diodes (or with just one of them) to change the effect.

Happy listening,
-Peter