the cutoff in a transistor is determined by the base junction capacitance and the current gain bandwidth along with the beta gain and also the class in which it's biased or if purely switching.
here are my thoughts,
if your serious you need to get these things preferably in the order here:
a old mr wizard book
some bar magnets and a horse shoe with the fields marked with paint
batterys
a flashlight bulb
some wire
a dc moter
a few switches
a crystal radio kit
the book "getting started...
first off you'd have to overcome the forward breakdown voltage, with the diode shorted thier would be no potential differance to do this so nothing would happen.