looking for a few original NKT275

[electricskychurch]

looking for a few original 60's Newmarket NKT275 .
make propositions if you have some for sale.

[frenchie]

any interest in n.o.s phillips ac 128s or ac 127s ( in never opened boxes ) ? i've got some ....you know they were in original germanium fuzz faces as well as nkts ( i guess you wanna build a fuzz face right ? , since you talked about fuzz face pcbs not too long ago ... )..let me know..

[electricskychurch]

when were they made and how do they look ?

flat top or rounded top with flange ?

i never saw any original fuzz face with AC128 nor any other transistors than NKT275.
i don't think there was some made with them and if there was some made with ac128, i suppose they were very few and just because they might have ran out of NKT275 for a short time.

[frenchie]

guys talk about AC128s in fuzz faces here ;

http://egraffin.free.fr/index.php?section=fuzz" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/fuzzface.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

my transistors are metal cased cylinders without flanges......

[Doug H]

The guy building AM pedals doesn't think to much of the ac128s

[frenchie]

surely true doug , all germanium devices are problematic ...AC128 's issues are most commonly leakage , and only a few have the proper gain values out of a batch , but when you get good ones with proper values i wonder why they would be inferior .... nkts are known to be more consistent in their values but are also much more rare ....
gotta first test them to see how they sound .

still AC128 were used in fuzz faces before the nkt275 were used ;

http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/f ... fftech.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

no need to say before the fame of the fuzz face , aka trucks loaded with them and the export , this type of shit ...no wonder why few persons saw them on fuzz faces to me

[spaceace76]

Roger Mayer claims that all the germanium FF's he shipped out to Jimi had AC128's. Doesn't say much since gear was often lost/stolen, but it's food for thought.

[electricskychurch]

i am a big Hendrix fan since the mid 80's (i bought all the vinyls i could find up to the very late 80's and then all the CD's you can find in stores as well as video tapes & DVD's ) and when i really began to learn playing some hendrix songs a few years ago, i did many search to know about his gear.
i first bought several reissues or repros but as i was unsatisfied , i bought a 66' jtm45/100 and 69' superlead among other amps, things like original greenbacks, original fuzz face's, univibe, clyde mc coy, v846 (but just the dunlop octavia after i sold my ultimate octave and roger mayer one) and many other vintage gear to get some other tones i like.

obviously, i searched through the web since then , to get some infos about the fuzz faces , how to mod them ... etc
i went through more or less 20 fuzz face among which 2 original ones (one nkt275 one bc108) 5x arbiter UK 90's ri's among which one modded by analog man with 60's ge trannies, and 3 i modded myself (one with original NKT275 and other with 60's to 80's ge trannies) ) , 2x fulltone 69 (one with 2x fulltone nkt275 repros i sold and one with a nkt275 repro and another sb something i kept as it was standing better temp variations) , a sunface analogman with low gain nkt275 repros (sold) , a roger mayer axis & classic fuzz (axis sold and classic fuzz soon i guess) , a Jacques hand made wercer box (ac128 i guess) and a fuzz face with ac128 (sold) repro, a Crest fuzz face ri with bc109c (sold but was interesting) , fulltone 70' (real shit) , a pro analog scary face (sold but it was interesting although much gain and brightness) and i might forget some.

i never saw any original fuzz face with stock ac128 nor any pictures and i'm not the only one.
i really wonder if those who say there was some, really saw some with ac128; i doubt about it (fuzz central, rg keen ...) .
this is a myth thas is helping many sellers to sale their fuzz faces among which Roger Mayer.

with all the respect i owe him, i compared his effects with the original univibe, and silicon & GE fuzz face, the test is clear they really don't sound like the original ones !
the voodoo vibe sounds super synthetic with or without buffer and the fuzz face sounds really harsh with tons of gain compared to the original ones.
you can hear that comparing with jimi's recording anyway .
most of Hendrix fuzz face tones i think about sound like original fuzz faces although Rmayer says they were modified.

what was modified ?
ther are very few components in a fuzz face , so he might have changed (not quiet sure listening to the recordings and as i tried most of these mods on some fuzz faces i modded, they don't sound better than the original circuit when you know how to setup the amp, pedal and guitar ) the frequency response with different input / output caps values, add more volume with bigger resistor than 470 ohms, use lower 47k volume pots for more brightness, 2k fuzz pot for more gain ... ?
the type of mods he done on his classic and axis but they don't sound like some original ones at all (and they don't clean up nicely when you lower your guitar volume, unlike original ones) . the original nkt275 were low gain (but more gain than the analogman sunface low gain trannies, at least from what i heard when i compared them as i didn't check teh sunface hfe gain, knowing the gain varied on original ones) and they had a quiet different freq response than the ac128 with flange he uses.
the original bc108 fuzz face i have, sounds like your in heaven compared to the harsh and aggressive & gainy axis fuzz.
there is one axis bold as love take on teh experience 4 cd box set that might sound like it has more gain than ususal but i wonder if it's simply the tone he has with high fuzz setting through a clean/ "bright" amp or if he might have boosted it a way or another.
maybe it's the roger mayer axis mod but that's not sure.
the axis song in the LP doesn't sound like a modded fuzz face (to me at least ).

[spaceace76]

well mayer could have dropped those AC128's in himself. maybe jimi liked some combo of gain in each position and AC128's achieved this combo more often then the then current NKT275's.

to be honest I don't think jimi's fuzzes were modded for more gain, more volume maybe, and perhaps a volme pot value change, but I think mayer might have just tweaked the bias to what jimi would have liked.

[electricskychurch]

the bias certainly.
one thing i forgot about is that the best tone i get with my original ones or other ones, is with a 100k volume pot.
500 k is a bit dark unless the pedal is already really bright .

the 47k in the classic fuzz might be part of teh brightness in the classic fuzz.
i was very disapointed with most RMayer effects i had (all bought new in 2003) , except the voodoo drive or so i kept as it's not bad but i think i will sell my classic fuzz soon.

when were made your ac128 ?

did you test them ?

what brand ?

[spaceace76]

I use a 100k pot too. Gives a nice open sound without being too harsh.

I mostly use silicon fuzz faces so I don't have to deal with the headaches ge fuzzes present. the GE ones i have used had new production NKT275's, similar to what dunlop uses i think. they sounded pretty lousy and eventually I replaced them with a matched set from smallbear. never tested them, and eventually I retired the whole thing since it would sound too different day to day. I am planning a "vintage" fuzz build soon though, i've got my carbon comps and BC electrolytics at the ready. i'll have the bias control on the outside so i can actually use the thing.

does analogman still do that SASE and $1 for a fuzz face PCB?

[electricskychurch]

what's SASE ?

i don't know if he sells the pcb for one $ although it could interest me.
i'm looking for some PCB to retrofit 2 of my 90's grey arbiter uk ri's.
the stock ones are not that good to mod.
unfortunately i don't have a file to give people who builds pcb , i just know that they are the same type and size as teh original but less good quality.

i don't really like repro NKT275 , i would advise to use other old transistors.
AC128 are ok but don't sound like original NKT275.
some sound better than others

[spaceace76]

SASE=Self-addressed, stamped envelope. he did it a while back, send him a SASE and a dollar and you've got a sunface PCB. not sure if he's still doing it though

[Doug H]

i'll have the bias control on the outside so i can actually use the thing.

that's the way to go, my GE and the other couple I'm planning on building will be one knob wonders, the bias. Right now I've got a 27k 100k divider in place of the vol pot, like a 125k pot almost full.

[Xplorer]

what's the cost of the original nkt275 by the way ?