What to do with ~30 hFe germanium transistors?

[vanguard]

I've got a couple yellow jacket OC44 in the aforementioned range. Are they good for anything besides looking pretty?

[Chugs]

Use them as Germanium diodes.

Use them in a darlington pair to increase gain.

[Scruffie]

You'd be surprised how nice low gain transistors can sound in a Tone Bender MkII.

[sir h c]

If you buffer the input with something like a silicon follower and bias with a relatively low resistor value you can get the voltage gain you want but the current gain will suffer which if buffered in you get the current gain there, and get voltage gain from the rest of the circuit.. 30 is better than a lot of transistors used to be back in the day in ICs (PNP devices often had Hfes of 10).

[vanguard]

I popped the 34 hFe guy in Q2 of a germ Fuzzrite and it sounds great Brought some nice mids to the tone I haven't heard in a Fuzzrite before.

Now I've got one @ 28 hFe . . . I'm liking the MKII idea but know nothing about that circuit. Guess some research is in order.