Resistors & Capacitors & Diodes, Oh My!

  • Thread starter Thread starter MadAsAHatter
  • Start date Start date
Fralin site has a bunch of caps.
Just purchased a Steel pole 43 for my tele.

Valvestorm as Arch stated as well.
 
BesaMoogie said:
DRAIN YOUR FILTER CAPS!!!

Some findings:
There is no "don`t use this or that cap". Ceramic caps bring out the "krrr" and grind, that Marshalls are known for compared to silvermicas. Silver micas remove some of the highend fizz, but still come off as bright due to their lack of bass. But they track slower as ceramics.

OD 715 produce rather bright harmonics. They have a fast tracking bass, that is firm, but still goes deep. However, the highend gets glassy and sterile. Sozos have a more "wobbling", dark bass but still track fast.

CCs fatten or soup up the tone in the mids and lower mids department. They add second order harmonics as they tend to distort the signal lightly. But here is the problem with CCs, they removed all the push from the amp. No fast tracking, no push and no responsiveness of the bottom end like you would expect from a Marshall. It`s like you are fighting the amp.
You will hear the effect of CCs most were there is a big voltage drop across the resistor, like the anodes of the preamp tubes.

For wires, on the metro amp forum most people settled for teflon insulated, silver plated Mil spec wires.
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^ ^ ^ Lots of good info here, too. ^ ^ ^
 
ClintN667 said:
Personally I go to Mouser for most everything. I use nichicon for electrolytic caps. 1 watt metal film resistors with 1% tolerance for most resistors except where 2w or 3w. Film caps are a whole different ballgame. I like panasonic and orange drop 615 and 715 series, wima. Actually, I'm pretty much good with any cap it's just a matter of cost and foot print. I just did a 2204 build with Sozo's but honestly I didn't feel they were any better or worse than similar lower priced options. Weird they said no ceramic though. I would choose that over silver mica. I have a populated pcb for the GT120 and a set of heybooer transformers before completely deciding to try the slo build instead.
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SpiderWars said:
Random thoughts:

For most of the resistors you need to choose between carbon comp, carbon film, or metal film. Marshalls used carbon film so many people just use the cheap Xicon carbon film you see everywhere (the tan colored ones). The plate resistors are probably the most sensitive, using carbon comp there often results in excess hiss and noise. So some people might use metal film for the plate resistors, especially V1 since everything gets amplified from there. These are usually 1/2w but some use 1w here and there. I like the Beyschlag metal films for plates.

Metal oxide for the power supply work fine. These are usually 2w, 3w or even more. The little red ones from AES are good, cheap, and small.

Use flameproof for the screen grids, wire wound ‘sandbox’ type or metal oxide work.

The Vishay polyester film caps are good quality 630v caps. Mallory 150 are good too. You can spend extra for Synergy Royal Mustards or Jupiter et al but you probably won’t hear a difference. Nothing wrong with orange drops, I always use polyester ODs if using them and not polypropylene but I doubt these old ears could hear a difference. Polyester film are what Ken Fisher used so there you go. NOS caps have gotten really expensive and harder to find.

Nothing wrong with spending a little extra for these parts. It only hurts once and it’s not big money. You might not hear a difference but it still looks cool. I think that matters when building custom one offs. But you also might be surprised to see some custom 5k amps using cheap Xicons and Mallory’s…and sound great.

There are also some strategic spots where the ‘noise’ or ‘distortion’ that may come from Carbon Comp resistors is wanted, ie it could sweeten the tone but not add noise/hiss. All debatable whether you could hear it but the tone stack slope and NFB resistors are two spots you might see a random carbon comp resistor. Also the PI plates sometimes. I’ve done it several times just as a matter of course.
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+1 to both of these. I’d typed them verbatim.

I will say silver mica should be avoided at all costs from a reliability perspective. I’ve had more mica failures than anything else. Mica caps also don’t fail open like normal capacitors, they can fail open or short which is super dangerous.
 
NowYou'rePlayingWithPower said:
post a clip
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Of my shitty playing?
Oh brother.

Haven't figured that out on these forums, have no real way of recording at this time.

Youre more than welcome to check out dcburn on YouTube if you want a laugh?
I was able to use my phone, video recording and upload there no problem.
Trying out an amp I put together.

Its not good, but Im not shy.
Thick skin.

Im dcburn on every site/forum I visit...

If you're meaning the Fralin 43, should be delivered any day. Just shipped Monday.
Ill try and do a little video comparison of tone, same shitty playing...

I really enjoy listening to some of the clips posted here.
 
I would also encourage you to measure every component you put in your amp, especially if using anything NOS.

I bought a ‘70 Super PA not that long ago and it had the old gray Radio Spares coupling caps. Every one of them measured closer to 35nF than the 22nF they were labeled. I swapped them out with Synergy 22nF and a NOS 2n2 Mustard (those are still cheap and easy to find) at V1 and it sounds killer now.
 
This is what I read over on the Marshall forum....

"Most types used in the 70's (like the mustards for instance) were polyester film and a foil layer. Now the superior spec version is metallized polyester (like vishay MKT1813 and Cornell dubiler/Mallory 150), whereas the conductive metal is deposited onto one side of the foil, rendering a seperate foil layer unnecessary.

Mojo dijon/TAD mustard (same caps) caps are NOT polypropylene. This is some misinformation that is being spread. They are polyester film/foil construction.

As for the 800 series, I'm not 100% certain whether they were film/foil or metallized polyester, but they were for certain polyester.


Polypropylene caps are usually MUCH bigger than the Mojo's are."

My first hand experience with different style caps, is the 72 JMP 50 I traded for recently. Unfortunately most of the 0.022 caps were changed to Orange drops; not sure which brand but the amp had no gain hardly at all, unless you REALLY cranked it. These 72s should be fire breathers. When I looked at my 72 Trem, it's loaded mostly with the 341 Phillips/Mullard yellow chicklets. Thankfully these are much cheaper and easier to find than Mustards. After swapping out those Orange drops for the proper yellow Phillips it is a monster. Very gained compared to before, and at lower volumes too. More 3D sounding, just a totally different amp. These Yellow Chicklets are as follows:
"Those chiclet caps are Philips MKT-P and according to my spec sheet "consist of a low-inductive wound cell of metallized polyester film and blank paper, potted in a flame-retardant case."

I paid 70 bucks for a complete early 70s date code yellow chicklet set from a seller on ebay. I think the going rate for one Mullard 0.68 is 150 or more. Lol
 
Racerxrated said:
This is what I read over on the Marshall forum....

"Most types used in the 70's (like the mustards for instance) were polyester film and a foil layer. Now the superior spec version is metallized polyester (like vishay MKT1813 and Cornell dubiler/Mallory 150), whereas the conductive metal is deposited onto one side of the foil, rendering a seperate foil layer unnecessary.

Mojo dijon/TAD mustard (same caps) caps are NOT polypropylene. This is some misinformation that is being spread. They are polyester film/foil construction.

As for the 800 series, I'm not 100% certain whether they were film/foil or metallized polyester, but they were for certain polyester.


Polypropylene caps are usually MUCH bigger than the Mojo's are."

My first hand experience with different style caps, is the 72 JMP 50 I traded for recently. Unfortunately most of the 0.022 caps were changed to Orange drops; not sure which brand but the amp had no gain hardly at all, unless you REALLY cranked it. These 72s should be fire breathers. When I looked at my 72 Trem, it's loaded mostly with the 341 Phillips/Mullard yellow chicklets. Thankfully these are much cheaper and easier to find than Mustards. After swapping out those Orange drops for the proper yellow Phillips it is a monster. Very gained compared to before, and at lower volumes too. More 3D sounding, just a totally different amp. These Yellow Chicklets are as follows:
"Those chiclet caps are Philips MKT-P and according to my spec sheet "consist of a low-inductive wound cell of metallized polyester film and blank paper, potted in a flame-retardant case."

I paid 70 bucks for a complete early 70s date code yellow chicklet set from a seller on ebay. I think the going rate for one Mullard 0.68 is 150 or more. Lol
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Are the 341 the axial version of the 344 or is there more difference to it?
 
Would anyone say Metal Film Resistors are brighter sounding than the rest?

I noticed in a build that 716P Caps were bright as fuck and that I like 225P's better..
 
Great info so far from everyone. It's helped set me in the right direction. I'm starting to figure out at least the basics of what I need.

Sorry if these come out as dumb questions, but I don't know what I don't know.

Capacitors needed are kind of confusing me because of the way the units are written. I'm used to seeing units written more formal.
For instance 2200P, 160V. I'm assuming that's 2200 picofarads (pf) with a DC voltage rating of 160 volts (VDC)?
Another one is 30U, 350V, AXIAL, ALUM. Would that be 30 microfarads, 350 VDC rating, leads coming out of ends? ALUM? I'm guessing that's meaning aluminum electrolytic capacitor?

Another question I have is on substitutions. In some instances it's saying I need a 600V rated capacitor, but all I'm seeing is 630V. I know you couldn't sub in anything with a lower rating. Is there any impact in substituting a higher value? Is there a such thing as subbing in too high a value? Like subbing a 100V one for a 25V one?
 
MadAsAHatter said:
Great info so far from everyone. It's helped set me in the right direction. I'm starting to figure out at least the basics of what I need.

Sorry if these come out as dumb questions, but I don't know what I don't know.

Capacitors needed are kind of confusing me because of the way the units are written. I'm used to seeing units written more formal.
For instance 2200P, 160V. I'm assuming that's 2200 picofarads (pf) with a DC voltage rating of 160 volts (VDC)?
Another one is 30U, 350V, AXIAL, ALUM. Would that be 30 microfarads, 350 VDC rating, leads coming out of ends? ALUM? I'm guessing that's meaning aluminum electrolytic capacitor?

Another question I have is on substitutions. In some instances it's saying I need a 600V rated capacitor, but all I'm seeing is 630V. I know you couldn't sub in anything with a lower rating. Is there any impact in substituting a higher value? Is there a such thing as subbing in too high a value? Like subbing a 100V one for a 25V one?
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Correct on all regards, except 2200P the P is not for pF but rather more likely a tolerance or family code. Caps are 99% always in pF when marked (I’ve only seen one deviation of a cap in nF).

Nothing wrong with a higher voltage rating beyond a physical size difference. Smaller voltage rating caps will be physically smaller than larger voltage rating caps.
 
General rule for capacitor values is if they don't have a suffix that indicates units the whole number values are pF and decimal values are uF. Doesn't quite apply to your question, but may be useful anyhow.
 
While working on other projects I've collected some of the parts needed for this build, but still need a little help with capacitors. There are 6 capacitors that the BoM specify as Polystyrene. As per schematics, 5 go on the bass boost rotary knob and one on the drive rotary knob.

Trouble I'm having here is finding the needed values in polystyrene. I can find them in polypropylene. Other capacitors will specify Polystyrene or Polypropylene.
My question is would it be okay to substitute polypropylene for the ones that just specify polystyrene, or should I keep on the hunt for polystyrene ones?

One other question on capacitors. A couple of them say to use box style, but I bought orange drop type. Aside from size/shape (an assuming they wouldn't be squished in on the board) is there any difference or reason I couldn't use the orange drop type instead of the box?
 
Are chicklets polystyrene? I didn’t think many of that type exists anymore? I can’t think of any normal brand that is built like that anymore

There’s nothing wrong with polypropylene orange drops. I use them in certain locations. They serve a purpose and sound good ?
 
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