What do to with 40yr old Electrolytics in one's Fuzzbox?

[frankclarke]

I don't want to commit stompox sacrilege, so is there a "correct" way of doing a cap job on an old stompbox?
With the 40-year old electrolytic coupling caps inparallel with new caps,  my fuzz box sound much louder. So the old ones aren't well, I'm pretty sure. I don't really mind snipping the leads and putting in shiny new electrolytic. But is there a better way to deal with the situation? The caps have Ge transistors at each end of the turretboard, I could heatsink and wick off the old solder, untangle the leads, and test/heal the sick caps. I'd like to actually use the fuzzbox longterm.

http://members.shaw.ca/fclarke/FuzzKing.gif

[soulsonic]

Sometimes you can heat up a joint for a second and work it back and forth a bit and it will loosen up. It creates a bad cold joint that you can easily dislodge the lead from with a minimal amount of heating, and thus, less chance of damaging anything. I've done it a bunch of times and it works well. Just heat the joint for long enough to just barely get it flowing and then wiggle the lead back and forth while it cools. The lead should be able to just peel away after doing this. Then, remove the excess old solder with a pump, install the replacement part, and resolder with a nice new joint. I recommend having a heatsink on the transistor while doing this just for safety's sake. To make it easier, you could just clip off the old cap first and then remove the leads from the turrets with the Cold Joint Peeling Process.

[frankclarke]

Thanks. I stuck in some .22 greencaps until I get the 1uF. Does a decent "Communication Breakdown" on 1.5V , I must re-vist my Zonk Machine.

[MartyMart]

Hi Frank, I did a similar "recap" recently on an old rustoleum painted "Park" Fuzz for a mate, he wasn't at all interested
in what went in "new" , he just wanted it to work and sound decent ( is that possible in a Fuzz I ask ! )
I used an alligator clip to heat sink anything delicate and whilst I was "in" there, I rewired the whole thing, as
it was getting "loose" and quite corroded looking in the wire dept ! ( found some NOS Cliff jacks sockets that looked "right" )

If it's yours to "keep" and use then I wouldn't worry too much, but if you want to "Ebay it" and preserve the "mojo"
for the "Big Bucks" then leave as much original as possible IMHO 

After the work and a "tweak" of the bias resistors etc, it was sounding superb, he was about as "over the moon" as is possible

MM.

[frankclarke]

Hi Marty,
I suppose if the gutshot looks OK on EBay, that's all you need. I can put new caps under the turretboard if needs be. 9V instead of 1.5V makes a big difference to this Maestro FZ1 offshoot. The 3.3k resistor to ground on the base of Q3 is probably why you don't hear much about the Fuzz King. The base is way too low to be useful, very gated..
I'm wondering if the Gary Hurst/Vic Flick redesign of the Maestro was just a 9V battery, I imagine quite a few people tried that.

[MartyMart]

Hi Frank, FZ-1 "9v" schem that I have, has a 470r in that Q3 position so a 3k3 would make it almost unuseable !
This was a Park/Marshall three tranny FF, well FF with a stage upfront if you like ( 3 x OC75's ) probably worth quite
a bit due to it's age/rarity , IIRC I also used a 1KC reverse pot to replace the attack ( Fuzz ) pot, which had also gone
awol - gets the gain range fantastic with that taper BTW !
I went through a stage a couple of years ago, of building EVERY fuzz circuit in existance !  - a "tad obsessive" at the time 
I quite like the FF with Roger mayer values and my John Hollis "Rock Face" is a real killer sound using Russian GT 402 trannies, which are
HUGE beasts - about 3cm x 1.5cm just for the top hat section !
Univox Superfuzz is also a well used "fat" sounding circuit.
MM.