Tantalum Caps in Keeley 4 knob Compressor?

[pappasmurfsharem]

I know this is a modified Ross/Dynacomp circuit, but I love the way it sounds.

I would use they layout from here http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2012/07/keeley-4-knob-compressor.html

I believe a few posts stated that the "Original" Keeley used tantalum caps for the electrolytics.

So is it all the polarized caps in the layout, or just the 1uF ones excluding the 1uF Film. What about those 10uF caps?

[aion]

Yep - all the 1u's and 10u's to ground are tantalum, and the 1u coupling cap (in the signal path) is a Panasonic film.

I coincidentally do this in all my builds as well (at least the ones where the power supply cap is 22uf or less), though I was doing it before I was aware that Keeley did it. My reasoning is that tantalums don't degrade over time like electrolytics do - so while they can potentially fail more catastrophically than electros, there are plenty of EHX and MXR pedals from the 70s that used tantalums that are still good as new.

Ostensibly this is Keeley's reasoning as well. It certainly isn't a cost-saving measure on his part. Tantalums from Mouser or SBE are pretty expensive - but Tayda has them for dirt cheap all the way up to 33uF.