A question about choosing capacitors...

[inkblot]

 

Dead wrong. I had a clip where I A/Bed caps of different construction and origin, of the same value. Long after I forgot when and what I had switched on the clip, I could clearly hear a difference. It's not a question of better/worse, I took out a PiO on one guitar and replaced it with an Orange Drop. That said, I've yet to meet a chicklet that can't be improved by throwing it away.

 

 

The dude said that an Orange Drop gives a cocked wah sound, which doesn't even make sense as a typical tone circuit in a guitar removes highs, not lows like a wah. Bass rolloff circuits can be put in guitars, but putting an OD in instead of a ceramic won't remove any bass or boost the midrange, obviously.

[EADGBE]

Not if they are new. One can foot the bill for new Jensens and sleep soundly at night. One should be correctly dissuaded from buying NOS caps which are past their shelf life. I save those for restoration purposes, but most are right at the edge of their tolerances.

Why would you want to use paper caps when you could use ceramic or mylar etc.? People who restore old radios suggest discarding paper caps as they're one of the most unreliable parts.

[Ancient Mariner]

You might choose to use PIO caps for their particular tonal quality - they will likely sound slightly different from the equivalent OD or Mallory type of the same value.

 

As for reliability, in a valve radio or amplifier putting several hunderd volts across the cap, reliability is an issue! In a guitar amp the caps are quite unstressed and won't explode if they start to fail.

[Wyatt]

 

Why would you want to use paper caps when you could use ceramic or mylar etc.? People who restore old radios suggest discarding paper caps as they're one of the most unreliable parts.

 

 

In an amp (or radio), the tonal difference of cap construction can be huge. the value of an old guitar amp is in it's original caps and output transformer, replace those and it's resale is less than half.

 

Old PIO caps can be leaky, and most old radios and stereo have sat around for years to the caps are no longer reliable, even film caps from the '50's are often questionable. That doesn't mean there is a reason to without question remove and replace every one, it's all a matter of context, in a radio, people may be leaning toward a more modern sound, but with a guitar amp, it can end up changing the whole voice. The problem is, capacitor testers have been out of vogue for decades, one can test capacitance and, if they want to build the setup, leakage, but you can guarantee they'll still handle their rated 400V, or 600V or whatever.

 

But PIO still has a huge following, especially in hi-fi, where people value warmth and smooth over ear-fatiguing high end. And companies like Jensen still make PIO caps (starting at $15/cap and going up fast), that can be bought brand new and they'll last someone a good 30-50 years.

 

Now, electrolytic caps have a short lifespan. They require a charge to form up and work, if they sit around without a charge, they will dry out and be useless. These should always be swapped out eventually.

[ermghoti II]

 

The dude said that an Orange Drop gives a cocked wah sound, which doesn't even make sense as a typical tone circuit in a guitar removes highs, not lows like a wah. Bass rolloff circuits can be put in guitars, but putting an OD in instead of a ceramic won't remove any bass or boost the midrange, obviously.

 

 

Depending where you are in its range, a wah certainly might be cutting highs, probably what he was getting at with the "cocked wah" comment. True, among caps, you wouldn't see a bass cut, but there would be a difference in the contour of the rolloff. A rolloff that was weighted towards high end (which should be governed by cap value, of course, I'm talking about eccentricites in the response), would net a middier sound. I didn't get a wahish feel from any of the ODs I've installed, but they are somehow brighter or harder-edged than PiOs, but warmer than chicklets or ceramics.

[BG76]

Hi all... I'm going to be re-doing my Washburn LP and I'm looking at sprague "Orange Drop" .022 caps on allparts... They list both a 200 and a 600 volt model...what's the difference?...which one is preferable for a LP with '57 classics? Thanks!

 

If you want a pair of the Spragues. I have thousands of them just PM me your address and I'll send you a pair.

[Angry Tele]

"cocked wah" usually refers to the fixed Esquire position going through a .022 or smaller cap. Im not a fan of this because I can get that without bypassing the tone pot, i.e. a "variable cocked wah" theres a very small difference when bypasing the tone pot but still going through a cap, more of a difference bypassing both pots and going direct... I use a straight to jack, volume only, tone(.022) and vol on an Esquire. (instead of the standard fixed cap, tone+vol, vol only)