It was such a good deal that, on a lark, I asked how much 500 would cost. After that, I ordered 100 NPN AC-187s for a buck each. I was buying PNP AC-128s for two bucks a pop, and used those for all the pedals in Fuzz Detective, my mondo germanium fuzz comparison video. As with most electronic parts, they’re cheaper in bulk. (Sorry! I know how obnoxious that is.) But with a little snooping, you can find them too. Meanwhile, a friend shared a couple of online sources for cheap germanium transistors, but only after extracting a promise not to share the info. It sounds fabulous, and I’ll link to my review when it goes live.) In each case, these transistors work great, and NPNs seem as plentiful as PNPs. (I just wrote a review of the $99 Dunlop Germanium Fuzz Face Mini for Premier Guitar. Dunlop is reportedly making new germanium transistors for their Fuzz Faces. The guys from Mammoth told me their germanium transistors are new-production, though they wouldn’t or couldn’t tell me more than that. BYOC has been selling fuzz kits with new transistors from New Jersey Semiconductor, who have an exceedingly uninformative website. It sounds great and only costs $99.įirst, they’ve started making germanium transistors again, though I haven’t managed to figure out exactly who “they” are. The new Dunlop Germanium Fuzz Face Mini has brand-new germanium transistors. (This site’s Fiendmaster project is an example of the latter workaround.) The workaround is to build pesky positive-ground pedals, or jigger with the schematic in order to use PNP (positive-ground) transistors in negative-ground circuits. (To his credit, Small Bear’s Steve Daniels explained that he restricted sales so that everyone who wanted to build a couple of great DIY fuzzes would have the opportunity.) In fact, Small Bear once rejected my order of a dozen or so NPNs because they were so scarce. (Small Bear even does the matching for you, offering sets of transistors suitable for various vintage fuzz circuits.) However, it was a little tough finding NPN (negative-ground) germanium transistors. I used to buy germanium transistors from Small Bear and other parts sites, and was always happy with the results, even though I had to pay eight or ten bucks per transistor. (If you don’t know much about germanium transistors and why they’re cool, here’s my manifesto.) I believed everything I read - until I finally admitted to myself that I seldom encountered any of those problems. And once you do, you must spend countless hours matching and biasing them for optimal sound. You have to sort through dozens to find the few good ones. Sure, those old-school transistors sound great, I’d read, and they’re necessary for vintage distortion circuits. I used to consume article after article detailing the sheer horror of dealing with germanium.

I’ve been building stompboxes for four years or so. How and when did it get so frickin’ easy to procure great-sounding germanium transistors?

UPDATE: My Dunlop Fuzz Face Mini review is live at Premier Guitar.

Fuzz transistors