A few years ago I posted the actual hfe of Q1-Q4 from a 1974 Rams Bead Big Muff with FS36999 transistors as measured using a Peak DCA55. They were: Q4: 163, Q3: 214, Q2: 171, Q1: 160.
Since that time I've worked on three more pre-1975 Rams Head Big muffs. Two had FS36999 trannys and one had 2N5133 trannys. Guess what...they all measured less than 200 hfe, lol. The one with 2N5133 trannys were as follows: Q4: 132, Q3: 117, Q2: 145, Q1: 128. I also noticed Kit Rae posted some of his own measurements on his site: "When I pulled all four FS36999 transistors from an exceptional sounding 1973 Big Muff and measured the hFE I found it ranged from 164 to 204 (Q1: 164, Q2: 204, Q3: 183, Q4: 161)."
I guess my point is this; I bet the majority of the "holy grail" big muffs from the 1970s have low hfe trannys. Remember just a few years ago when everyone on the internet was swearing up and down that you needed unobtainable vintage 2N5133 trannys with hfe of 500+ to get a magical muff. I think that is just a myth. Everyone said that less than 200 hfe resulted in mud. I have found the opposite seems to be true on my socketed test board using the so called "1973 v3 or violet schematics". While the difference is subtle, to my ears lower hfe (under 200) has the effect of decreasing low end boominess and increasing clarity at the expense of a very slight loss in overall saturation.
Also, in my opinion most of the recorded BMP sounds from DG don't really sound all that high gain and aggressive if you listen carefully, but rather they are very focused, clear, and present. Certainly everyone agrees DG has recorded some of the most beautiful Big Muff sounds ever known to mankind.
Sorry, I seem to have made a rather long post, but the lore and mystic of vintage big muffs intrigues me. lol.