✔ Germanium Vs Silicon Distortion

Germanium Vs Silicon Distortion

- August 07, 2019

Its based on blackouts well loved musket an all silicon based muff variant and features the same expansive tone control options with three separate knobs dedicated to massaging its many curves. But i really think that the biggest part of the difference between what people think of as a silicon sound vs a germanium sound has more to do with the gain of the transistors and how they are biased than it does what theyre made of.

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Starting from the beginning in 1948 the original commercial transistors were made from germanium material unlike all the silicon transistors we see today.

Germanium vs silicon distortion. On the other hand germanium diodes have a much less abrupt i v curve which means that they provide a much softer clipping that starts at approximately 300mv. Typically silicon fuzzes are known for their over the top and typical fuzz tone like your amp is breaking essentially. Germanium is similar to silicon in that it falls on the same row of the periodic table and is a semiconducting material.

I like the way it clipsdistorts slightly better. Despite that it still offers the best way to achieve certain especially smooth distortion fuzz or overdrive characteristics. Yes they sound different.

Silicon transistors are much cheaper to mass produce and each one is identical. This germanium silicon hybrid traverses a tremendous amount of tonal territory from organic drive to crunchy distortion to scooped fuzz filth. Germanium circuits like the ones used in jimi hendrixs fuzz faces are known for more of a distortionsaturationoverdriven feeling.

It is easily obtainable and remains stable at much higher temperatures it has a higher voltage threshold it is much more sensitive to high frequencies and it puts out more gain. Germanium has more of a rounder sound with a flabby bottom end better suited to clean and mildly broken up amps. Silicon transistors are superior to germanium in almost every way.

1 although i have never seen a clunky black with white stripe diode that looked like a 1n400x but wasnt im ignoring all those zeners and schottkys for the moment i have seen plenty of big glass diodes that looked for all the world like they were ge but werent and small orange glass diodes that looked for all the world like they were 1n914s or zeners but were ge. Regular silicon diode rectifiers have an abrupt i v curve more adequate for rectification purposes which translates in a hard clipping of the signal at approximately 600mv. Germanium is harder to come by than silicon as it represents a small fraction of the semiconductor market today.

Silicon has a raspier sound that can cut through when boosting a dirtier amp. Theres a quick history lesson a side by side comparison of germanium vs silicon fuzz faces a demo of the fuzz face played with a wah wah pedal before and after and tips on how to use a fuzz face. When its all said and done i think i slightly prefer silicon.