# Parentheses Fuzz - GE diode



## Diatrive

Hell all,

 Looking to build one of these and 2 of the diodes are listed as just "GE".
I know that is Germanium but is there no need for a number?
If there isn't can someone link me where to buy GE diodes?

Thanks!


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## the_grumpy_gnome

1N34 are standard germanium (GE) diodes. 

https://www.mammothelectronics.com/search?q=germanium&type=product 
The 160 should be fine.

or









						1N34A 1N34 Germanium Diode DO-7
					

ST - Get It Fast - Same Day Shipping




					www.taydaelectronics.com
				




Also, eBay. Search for "1N34A diode"


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## Nostradoomus

Be careful to measure them too, some old GE diodes have the black band on the positive side.


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## Robert

Nostradoomus said:


> Be careful to measure them too, some old GE diodes have the black band on the positive side.



As long as you install them both the same way, it'll be fine.    They were installed backwards in the original!


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## Nostradoomus

Yes, I’ll pay 400 dollars for one!


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## Devoureddeth

Robert said:


> As long as you install them both the same way, it'll be fine.    They were installed backwards in the original!



Maybe it was intentional? People were posting higher quality clips and I could not hear an octave of any sort in the audio even with it cranked it just sounded like more fuzz.


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## the_grumpy_gnome

if the diodes are swapped it's no going to make a difference (as long as they're anti-parallel they do the same thing.  

eh, apparently the octave isn't super noticeable, but I bet youtube's compression isn't helping


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## Nostradoomus

Were they playing above the 12th fret? I can imagine most vids of it are from doom caveman riff dudes hah


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## Robert

With the footswitchable octave you can definitely tell the difference.  

It's not a nice pure and clean octave up, it's that injured cat, scrambled Fender Blender / Superfuzz sort of thing.

It's more like it takes it from "Distortion" to "Fuzz" ...


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## StephanCOH

I still don't get it, why a "SUNN O)))" pedal of all things would need an octave up. It should be an octave down for me.


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## Nostradoomus

Life Metal is definitely a higher frequency album and that’s the tone the pedal is supposed to bring


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## Robert

StephanCOH said:


> I still don't get it, why a "SUNN O)))" pedal of all things would need an octave up. It should be an octave down for me.



I thought the same thing, and I really know nothing about them.   

In this case the octave has more of a tonal effect than a pitch shift.


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## the_grumpy_gnome

Oh, it's likely not a traditional octave effect. It's probably yeah, a tonal thing:  Sunn 0))) usually downtune and play on the open-4th frets of the lowest strings.  An octave doubles this frequency and likely adds some body content to the signal (instead of alllllllll super low end).  The fact that it doesn't really after the 12th fret is probably a bug-turned-feature:  It may naturally crap out there, but you probably wouldn't want much higher content added in when you're already that high.


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## Nostradoomus

I’ll just have to make a demo with my guitar tuned to F# when I build it. 

Fingers crossed it’s in the mail box today!


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## Devoureddeth

Nostradoomus said:


> I’ll just have to make a demo with my guitar tuned to F# when I build it.
> 
> Fingers crossed it’s in the mail box today!


Here is a a project that was smattering of odd tunings starting at G#. I listen to the demo on youtube and think wow that was stupid.


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## Nostradoomus

Hahaha I still really like it but I play in an open tuning so it’s not too caveman-ish


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## StephanCOH

If it is indeed the circuit from the EQD Tentacle, it probably does not add much that useful to the overall tone.

I built a clone of it and tried to integrate it into my board about a year ago. I am tuned to C-Standard and play with a decent amount of fuzz and overdrive. On the lower frets it sounded like a tad more distortion had been added, on the higher ones it did an ok kind of octave.

Tried a couple of positions in the chain but finally took if off the board again.

Again, in context to Sunn O)))s tone I do not see that much use of it either. Harmonic distortion and overtones are the thing I expect from them, besides the sheer volume and low end rumble.


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## Crookedtooth

Hi there! Looking forward to building this one and was happy somebody else asked the Ge questions already. Follow-up: Can you use a BAT46 instead of the 1N34 or any other Germanium diode? Thanks!


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## DGWVI

Crookedtooth said:


> Hi there! Looking forward to building this one and was happy somebody else asked the Ge questions already. Follow-up: Can you use a BAT46 instead of the 1N34 or any other Germanium diode? Thanks!


Yup! Any small signal diodes will work.


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## Chuck D. Bones

As PedalPCB mentioned near the top of this topic, the Ge diodes are installed "backwards" in the EQD pedal.  This only works because Ge diodes are leaky.  If you use Si or Schottky, you should install the diodes in the forward direction, reversed from the silkscreen.  If you socket the diodes, you can try it both ways and see which works and which doesn't.  Some Schottky's are leaky enough to work if they are installed "backwards."


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## Mothman

I used 1n60p and it sounds absolutely amazing. Don't worry looking for old diodes, new ones will work


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## Nostradoomus

Here’s 1n5817s in the octave circuit. Works on neck and bridge pickup, love it.


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## h-pr

The original Life Pedal uses Russian diodes that look like D9K.
D9K have a red ring that marks the anode rather than the cathode, which may have caused some confusion with some clone PCBs that ended up indicating wrong polarity.


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## SzinNapalm

ok now only one more question to ask what transistors can be substituted for the ones listed like the 1n5817, 2n5087,2n5089, and bs170 op amp  ok maybe 2 questions how about the pots A100k B50k, what if i used A250k and B10k


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## SzinNapalm

Nostradoomus said:


> Here’s 1n5817s in the octave circuit. Works on neck and bridge pickup, love it.


WOW that sounds really good like a modern reboot on the classic rock sound Fellas I think we found the gold standard


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