THAT story is classic and it is very true that germanium transistors are not very temperature tolerant: the gain parameters can float based on input voltage and temperature coefficient, and it may very well be that by the time Eric changed the first again after the seventh wah or fuzz face, chances are for these reasons the sound was different than after they dumped the pedals out from the cooler temperature of a luggage trunk or roadcase.
We laugh at the "psycho-acoustics" (what we THINK we hear, what Jimi THOUGHT he didn't hear the first time in the chain of pedals) but in actuality, the illusion of psychoacoustics on the ear of the listener is not so prominent as compared to the bad temperature coeffecient on germanium based parts.
Which is why I couldn't use them in production, even if I wanted to - due to the inconsistent gain state in different ranges of temperature - if I want to retain a consistent sound, pedal after pedal, night after night and user after user.
We laugh at the "psycho-acoustics" (what we THINK we hear, what Jimi THOUGHT he didn't hear the first time in the chain of pedals) but in actuality, the illusion of psychoacoustics on the ear of the listener is not so prominent as compared to the bad temperature coeffecient on germanium based parts.
Which is why I couldn't use them in production, even if I wanted to - due to the inconsistent gain state in different ranges of temperature - if I want to retain a consistent sound, pedal after pedal, night after night and user after user.
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