Electrolytics?

[brokenstarguitar]

While building this fuzz face I was going through my stock pile of electrolytics and while deciding what value to use on the input cap, (I've built a few with different values) I suddenly stumped myself, so maybe somebody can answer a few quick questions for me.
1. Is there going to be a tonal difference between a 1uf 16v yellow jacket and a 1uf 100V NOS Russian Military cap?

2. Do Brand and voltages on electrolytic capacitors change tone of the effect?

Basically what I wanted to do was put 2 caps on a toggle to choose from.

[aron]

Probably not much of a difference. If you hear a drastic difference, measure the value of the capacitors.

[brokenstarguitar]

So then if I put a 1uf on one side of the toggle and a 22 on the other side the tone would drastically change? Is that what youre saying Aron?

[R.G.]

I think aron is talking about more subtle differences, 1.00uF versus 1.2uF.

But yes, if you switched from 1uF to 22uF, you ought to hear big differences **IF** the signal you feed it has any content at the frequencies that the cap affects.  Making input caps bigger affects how much bass is cut off. If you test with a high E string, there may not be any bass to hear the difference on. Or if the smallest cap is already passing the complete range of a guitar, then making it bigger lets in even lower bass - which isn't there to hear.

But if the frequency effects of the cap are inside the range of signals your guitar puts out, yes, you'll hear differences, even with small changes in caps.

[PRR]

> my stock pile of electrolytics

So put short clip-leads at the input of your partly assembled FF, and try them all.

Aside from the small differences across "types", and larger difference between "too small" and "plenty large", you might find that YOU have some old sick cap which causes "sick distortion" you love.

[aron]

I read the original post as switching between two 1uF capacitors with different voltage ratings and possibly material. The key being both the same value.

[R.G.]

Aside from the small differences across "types", and larger difference between "too small" and "plenty large", you might find that YOU have some old sick cap which causes "sick distortion" you love.

Or just something strange that you can't figure out. One of my beta testers for the Thomas Organ Vox amplifiers preamp replacement boards just got the thing running after several days of beating on it, and long conversations with me about the tremolo. It's been flaky since the first bring up, working sometimes but not others, and in general getting worse. No amount of logical, reasoned debugging procedure helped much.

Until I dug out the simulator version and wondered what would happen if the slow-down cap on the turn-on/turn-off voltage was leaky. Sure enough, a modest amount of leakage made the circuit think it was always about half turned off. New cap, and it works like a champ.

Sneaky devils, these electrolytics. Half capacitor, half battery, all evil. 

[tubegeek]

Half man half bear half pig.

Manbearpig.

[amptramp]

While building this fuzz face I was going through my stock pile of electrolytics and while deciding what value to use on the input cap, (I've built a few with different values) I suddenly stumped myself, so maybe somebody can answer a few quick questions for me.
1. Is there going to be a tonal difference between a 1uf 16v yellow jacket and a 1uf 100V NOS Russian Military cap?

2. Do Brand and voltages on electrolytic capacitors change tone of the effect?

Basically what I wanted to do was put 2 caps on a toggle to choose from.

If all you need is 1µF, you can get film caps that will last for decades without any change of parameters and with much less leakage than any electrolytic cap.

1. There are always cork sniffers who will tell you about the colouration of sound from different components but I doubt there will be anything noticeable between the standard electrolytic and a military cap.  The capacitance tolerance will have more effect than the origin.  You may have a longer lifespan with a 100 volt cap than a 16 volt cap but both should be well within their ratings.

2. There may be minute differences theoretically, but they will be too small to notice.  This is especially true when using the capacitors in a circuit that deliberately distorts the signal.

[karbomusic]

If all you need is 1µF, you can get film caps that will last for decades without any change of parameters and with much less leakage than any electrolytic cap.

I have a handful of 1u, 2.2u and 10u Kemet & Wima film caps. A little pricey comparatively but I use the 1u and 2.2u all the time just so I don't have to use an electro or rather worry about one. Not for sound reasons though.

[Steben]

Electrolytics and Fuzz Face ... hmmm I think the "mad" and "aging" character of them are welcomed in the circuit.
When talking modding for example modern stock pedals, I guess changing the caps for film caps is better.

[MrStab]

NOS

that's the only difference i'd be worried about, if it's electrolytic.

proof? well, as they're Russian caps: there's no longer a Soviet Union. that's because they used electrolytic caps from 1917.

[karbomusic]

NOS

that's the only difference i'd be worried about, if it's electrolytic.

proof? well, as they're Russian caps: there's no longer a Soviet Union. that's because they used electrolytic caps from 1917.

If you could have someone swap them out while you weren't looking and you could reliably pick out which and describe why one was a deal breaker over the other, I'd be concerned, otherwise not. "Mojo is a hell of a drug".