To answer your question, yes, 99% of the time the Chinese made up branded items are fine.They are for that but the circuit also specifies these in addition to the germanium ones. 2 of these and 2 germanium I think.
On a production line there will be a variability of product quality.Question is would the Branded be better?
Mate just go with an 2N3904 NPN transistor at Tayda Electronics for USD 2-cents and be done with it.My small scale can handle a bit if extra testing and trialing so the only question is:
Is a functioning cheap "snide" transistor going to be as good as a Farnell, digikey one?
It depends. If you don't like how your fuzz box sounds, then it could be the 2N3904 transistors. However, there is so much variation in the germanium transistors and the fuzz face / fuzz box circuit is so sensitive to the gain of the germanium transistors that box each one has its own unique sound unless all parameters of the germanium transistors are matched to those in another box. Therefore I would say, the likelihood that you can identify variations between various silicon transistors is doubtful. Those transistors are not pushed to their fuzz-making limit like the germaniums and silicon transistors are inherently more reliable and consistent than germanium in the first place.My small scale can handle a bit if extra testing and trialing so the only question is:
Is a functioning cheap "snide" transistor going to be as good as a Farnell, digikey one?
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