Here’s a DIY circuit from mictester over at FSB. It’s a basic overdrive with a good amount of added sag/compression as you turn up the gain. Quite cool.
I built it, and while the first version/schematic suffered some distortion at full gain, adding a small resistance in series with the gain pot solved this, and this is reflected in the layout. Verified.
I believe the circuit author actually intended to use the diode part of unwanted GE transistors so your question isn’t far fetched at all. Have a look at the original thread over at FSB: http://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=20210
sorry, please remove nmy comment. I didn’t look properly at the design. the Ge’s are diodes. so nevermind my questions. thanks
what ge trannies would be good on this? I’am assuming this is a neg ground design. what Hfe range are you talking about as low gain? and do they need to be bias’d for this to work properly?