'synthetic' Ge transistor?

[Don Tillman]

   Date: Sat, 13 Sep 1997 21:01:28 +1000 (EST)
   From: Paul Perry <pfperry at melbpc.org.au>

   .....when repairing or cloning old fuzz units one often needs
   germanium pnp transistors, sometimes with a gain of 200 or so.
   These have pretty well dried up, and the germanium specialists
   are pretty pricey....so i wondered if anyone could think of a way 
   to make a 3 terminal drop in equiv. from current parts? the 
   crucial thing is the softer knee of the characteristic curve.

No, but...  A friend of mine insists that the NTE (that's a readily
available line of "replacement" transistors) NTE123AP transistor works
remarkably well in a Fuzz Face circuit.  So we tried it; literally
soldering aligator clips into the Fuzz Face circuit board and
connecting up, oh, I dunno, maybe 60 different transistors, and sure
enough, these really sounded the best.

I have no explanation for this.

  -- Don