Using old Mustard caps in a fuzz

[blaren]

Anyone done it? Any tonal difference when compared to modern caps? Or do any other old vintage caps work better than modern ones in a fuzz? How about the old Mullard tropical fish caps? You see them a lot in old wahs.
Sorry if I'm asking a stupid question here. I'm pretty much a fuzz noob.
I've built, modded, and repaired old tube amps but all this transistor and fuzz business is new to me.
Oh and when I work on amps, I really have NO clue what I'm doing. If I see something burnt I know to replace it. If it's a mod I know what I want to change. If it's  build it's a kit with a layout and not a schem, some old fishing line and a roll of duct tape like the Professor or MacGuyver could do.

So...other than transistors, is there any benefit to using vintage parts like caps and resistors? TONAL benefit. I KNOW I'll get 1million % increase in cosmetics and mojo lol.

[zombiwoof]

I think in both cases these are "mojo" components, use them if you want to have the original spec components (cosmetically), but both I believe are metalized polyester caps, that are easily replaced with modern caps of the original type, without any difference in sound.  That's my opinion.  I did put a trop fish .01uf cap in my modded Dunlop Fuzz Face, as I needed to change the "wrong" .1uf cap that Dunlop put in those FF's, I had a couple of trop fish caps around so I used one.  One note, those old Trop Fish caps are quite fragile, on one of mine the lead broke from the body of the cap just in handling it, so be careful with vintage caps like that.

Al

[italianguy63]

+1
The fish or the poly-film / mustard chicklet is what I have seen in the pics of the old ones.  Use them if you got them, but I am not sold on having to use the old style components.  I think probably just voodoo.

MC

[LucifersTrip]

The biggest difference is probably that the older cap is most likely not as close to the value printed on it as the newer one. But many vintage ones are still very accurate. It really depends on type.

For a fuzz, I'd go with anything you want as long as it's rated > than the voltage of your supply, measures close to the correct value and fits on your board/in your box. Have fun...and don't use used electrolytics.

It's a cool idea to buy or build a cap meter. The kits are cheap...

[Electric Warrior]

The biggest difference is probably that the older cap is most likely not as close to the value printed on it as the newer one. But many vintage ones are still very accurate. It really depends on type.

And the tolerance rating. Mustards are usually ±10%. Not so different from today's caps.

Mustards are film/foil, btw. Not metallized.

[duck_arse]

I wish more people would use mustard caps, I've been trying to sell my stock for months, now. I sold my tropical fish no probs.

to me they just seems waayyyyyy too big for anything, esp when you see the size of modern parts. they have a very good reputation for reliabillity.

[zombiwoof]

The biggest difference is probably that the older cap is most likely not as close to the value printed on it as the newer one. But many vintage ones are still very accurate. It really depends on type.

And the tolerance rating. Mustards are usually ±10%. Not so different from today's caps.

Mustards are film/foil, btw. Not metallized.

Thanks for clearing that up, I wasn't really sure about it.  I was sure about the Trop Fish caps, which I have read about quite a bit, and used in a couple of pedals.  I stand by my comments, however, I think using them is mostly a cosmetic issue, I don't really think they are any better than the good modern equivalents.
Al

[Electric Warrior]

I think some of the "tropical fish caps" might be film/foil, too. Vishay (who bought up BC components which used to belong to Philips) still makes a metallized type (MKT368) that looks rather similar, but they also have a non metallized type (KT347) in their catalogue. Those are sometimes sold as "radial mustards" on ebay because of their color.