# Can anyone find J201



## bzdunowski (May 12, 2021)

I have been looking for awhile but I am sure I dont know a lot of the sites to look at. If anyone can give me a link to someone who has these in stock I would appreciate it









						J201 JFET N-Channel Amplifier Transistor
					

National - Get It Fast - Same Day Shipping




					www.taydaelectronics.com


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## fig (May 12, 2021)

Which country are you shipping to?

2N2457 is sometimes a good sub.


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## Betty Wont (May 12, 2021)

MMBFJ201 JFET (Pre-Soldered) - PedalPCB.com
					

JFET




					www.pedalpcb.com


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## BuddytheReow (May 12, 2021)

bzdunowski said:


> I have been looking for awhile but I am sure I dont know a lot of the sites to look at. If anyone can give me a link to someone who has these in stock I would appreciate it
> 
> 
> 
> ...


They don't make those anymore. You may get lucky on ebay (doubtful at this point since it's been a few years). What Betty Wont posted they DO still make, but they are surface mount rather than through-hole. PedalPCB sells these already soldered onto a small PCB and all you have to do is solder some leads to them to work on any PCB here.

2N5457 MAY work depending on the circuit.


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## bzdunowski (May 12, 2021)

fig said:


> Which country are you shipping to?
> 
> 2N2457 is sometimes a good sub.


US


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## bzdunowski (May 12, 2021)

bzdunowski said:


> US





fig said:


> Which country are you shipping to?
> 
> 2N2457 is sometimes a good sub.


Sorry I forgot your other question. I want to do this one









						Six String Stinger - PedalPCB.com
					

Compare to Vertex Steel String Clean Drive




					www.pedalpcb.com


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## bzdunowski (May 12, 2021)

Betty Wont said:


> MMBFJ201 JFET (Pre-Soldered) - PedalPCB.com
> 
> 
> JFET
> ...


I wonder if that would fit on this board. It calls for 4 of them I think









						Six String Stinger - PedalPCB.com
					

Compare to Vertex Steel String Clean Drive




					www.pedalpcb.com


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## peccary (May 12, 2021)

bzdunowski said:


> I wonder if that would fit on this board. It calls for 4 of them I think
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Get yourself some pin headers on your next Tayda order. I bent a few to keep the little breakout board out of the way here. Just be mindful of the pinout.


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## fig (May 12, 2021)

I'm still using up the through-hole type. These are great! I've seen the pads on some of the newer boards for them. I think I'll give them a go.


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## peccary (May 12, 2021)

fig said:


> I'm still using up the through-hole type. These are great! I've seen the pads on some of the newer boards for them. I think I'll give them a go.


I know it's kind of dumb but I love the way the bent pin headers look. Almost looks like I know what I was doin' there.


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## fig (May 12, 2021)

peccary said:


> I know it's kind of dumb but I love the way the bent pin headers look.


Not to me! Looks "meant to be"


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## peccary (May 12, 2021)

fig said:


> Not to me! Looks "meant to be"
> View attachment 11778



That looks awesome. I might need to snag some longer ones for those builds where the board is closer to the footswitch - that looks rad. I'm not sure it can beat @finebyfine and their terminal blocks, but that's just madness.


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## peccary (May 12, 2021)

Looks like the Six String Stinger has a place to solder the SMD J201's directly to the board, so you won't need the breakout board or pin headers if you can solder SMD parts.


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## Big Monk (May 12, 2021)

fig said:


> Which country are you shipping to?
> 
> 2N2457 is sometimes a good sub.



I remember RoG commenting on using the 2N2457 in place of the J201 in some of thier Amp Circuit modelers as they have less gain and are more realistic in terms of gain for the Classic Fender and Marshall circuits.


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## mnemonic (May 12, 2021)

I used to pay the premium for the though hole J201’s but I heard the SMD ones are tighter tolerance so I tried them out on my last build (like the ones above, pre-soldered to a little board). I just added solid core wire to the holes so I could mount it on the main pcb as normal.

for some reason it didn’t occur to me to bend them down like that so they’re stuck up at odd angles on my build, to go around the other parts on the pcb, but given the availability and extremely low chance of fakes (I would assume given they’re still in production), I’m gonna use them on all future builds that require J201’s.

in fact maybe I should stock up in case the SMD J201’s get discontinued.


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## temol (May 12, 2021)

fig said:


> Which country are you shipping to?
> 
> 2N2457 is sometimes a good sub.



If it's a buffer (source follower) then ok. If it's a gain stage - no.









						MMBFJ201 SOT-23 JFET N-CHANNEL TRANSISTOR J201 SMD
					

Fairchild - Get It Fast - Same Day Shipping




					www.taydaelectronics.com


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## bzdunowski (May 12, 2021)

peccary said:


> Looks like the Six String Stinger has a place to solder the SMD J201's directly to the board, so you won't need the breakout board or pin headers if you can solder SMD parts.


I see that. I have never done it before but after watching a video it doesnt seem to hard. Wont know until I try


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## peccary (May 12, 2021)

bzdunowski said:


> I see that. I have never done it before but after watching a video it doesnt seem to hard. Wont know until I try


That's the spirit, right there!


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## fig (May 12, 2021)

temol said:


> If it's a buffer (source follower) then ok. If it's a gain stage - no.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Except maybe in a clean boost, or Fetzer-type circuit?


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## temol (May 12, 2021)

I haven't checked the schematic before my previous message. I assumed it's an ordinary gain stage (Fetzer type), but turns out it's a Mu stage.
So it looks like that with a Mu stage there's not much  difference between J201 and 2N5457. 
Here's the comparison -  Mu amp vs Fetzer. J201 vs 2N5457.




fig - Fetzer type circuit is a typical jfet gain stage and as you can see above, there's quite difference in gain between J201 and 2N5457.


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## fig (May 12, 2021)

Yes, looks like almost exactly half there.


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## Big Monk (May 12, 2021)

fig said:


> Yes, looks like almost exactly half there.



I think in thier Fetzer writeup RoG showed the average factor of gain for the J201 was 4.8 and for the 2N2457 it was 2.

I’m planning a Marshall FET preamp made with 2N2457 to go into the clean side of my Marshall MS2 battery amp. So this discussion is timely.


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## fig (May 12, 2021)

I guess it's not a question if it will work or not, but rather how well will it perform the task?

Do you know the target gain @Big Monk ?

@temol isway more knowledgable than I


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## Big Monk (May 12, 2021)

fig said:


> I guess it's not a question if it will work or not, but rather how well will it perform the task?
> 
> Do you know the target gain @Big Monk ?
> 
> @temol isway more knowledgable than I


Judging by RoG’s own comments on Thunderbird and Thor, J201 had entirely too much gain to ape the JTM45/Early Plexi tone using thier tubes to FET conversions.

Looking at thier chart, it seemed the 2n2457 had enough gain relative to the J201 to do the trick but I’m not all that experienced with FETs. The plan was the typical 2 Volume, TMB, presence and Feedback controls with a total of 5 gain stages.


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## fig (May 12, 2021)

Big Monk said:


> with a total of 5 gain stages.


Maybe that's the key?

I put together a battery preamp board + power amp board. They run on a Dewalt 20Vmax, and I had it in a little tweed 1x8 combo...(think I have a pic). The preamp is a tube screamer + EQ, and the power amp is one similar to the one PedalPCB has had on order for awhile. It's pretty quiet considering the wiring is spaghetti.

If you think about it, let me know how it goes. i Your project sounds pretty cool.


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## Leftovernoise (May 12, 2021)

bzdunowski said:


> I have been looking for awhile but I am sure I dont know a lot of the sites to look at. If anyone can give me a link to someone who has these in stock I would appreciate it
> 
> 
> 
> ...











						*JFET J201 - Guaranteed Genuine - GuitarPCB
					

Genuine J201 JFET Transistor from my own personal collection. Hand Tested and all are in the proper range for guitar pedals.




					guitarpcb.com
				




These are still available. You can also get the smd version soldered to a small pcb on pedalpcb


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## NickC (May 13, 2021)

J201 :: Other Transistors :: Transistors :: Semiconductors :: Electronic Parts :: Banzai Music GmbH


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## temol (May 13, 2021)

For the JTM type circuit you need only 2 -3 gain stages. With 5 gain stages you may end up with hi-gan circuit. 
1st stage - 2N5457, no clipping, just to boost the signal. 
2nd /3rd  stage - J201


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## Big Monk (May 13, 2021)

temol said:


> For the JTM type circuit you need only 2 -3 gain stages. With 5 gain stages you may end up with hi-gan circuit.
> 1st stage - 2N5457, no clipping, just to boost the signal.
> 2nd /3rd  stage - J201



I was going to use a tweaked version of the original RoG Thunderchief, but with tuning related to the Revised Fetzer Valve, a Fauz PI gain stage for presence and feedback, and both Normal and Bright inputs.

The Thunderchief used 5 J201 FETs but when they revised it to the Thor, there were now only 4 FETs total: 3 2N2457s and 1 J201 plus the opamp for tone shaping at the tail end. Thier comments were that the J201s had more gain potential than the cloned circuit which I assumed was the reason they changed to mostly 2N2457.

I guess I arrived at 5 2N2457s because I figured i'd match the basic topology of the Thunderchief with Tonestack, which had 5 FETs, but tweak the circuit to my tastes and per the Revised Fetzer valve article.


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## bzdunowski (May 14, 2021)

NickC said:


> J201 :: Other Transistors :: Transistors :: Semiconductors :: Electronic Parts :: Banzai Music GmbH


Thanks but I am in the US


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## bzdunowski (May 14, 2021)

Leftovernoise said:


> *JFET J201 - Guaranteed Genuine - GuitarPCB
> 
> 
> Genuine J201 JFET Transistor from my own personal collection. Hand Tested and all are in the proper range for guitar pedals.
> ...


Thank you I just ordered these from guitarpcb


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## Texasbluezman (May 28, 2021)

I just received a few them from Barry also. Installed one on a Mammoth Dust Bowl Distortion. Can't wait to hear this pedal.


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