been experimenting with film capacitors.........

[plexi12000]

and surprised by the results!  i took a fav distortion pedal and tried different manufacturers caps.

good quality ones....Kemet, Wima, Vishay, etc.   But you know what sounds best? (-i like it "dirty")....

the cheap ones Tayda sells! -lol  what...i think 8 cents a pc.?  I think they're made by arcotronics...kinda forget at the moment.

i'm not an "expert" at anything....but i suppose the "good ones"....are SO good....they dont "color" your sound very much? IDK....

the "tayda" caps just get it, for me anyways.  dirty, grungy....  kemet's, Vishay's sound so much cleaner.  i guess if i was building a mcintosh tube amp i'd use the vishay's-

lol

[blackieNYC]

Think the cheaper ones are a little off in value?

[Meanderthal]

You might like ceramic disk caps in that case, I know they make a difference in circuits with multiple gain stages like the big muff...

[Fast Pistoleros]

capacitors are different is size and material. the main function of a cap is to block DC and pass AC i was told. I really don't think the caps have anything to do with tone all that much.better companies probably make a better product with all that said. as long as they are well made/usable the brand or make shouldnt matter at all .

[ubersam]

Arcotronics, as I understand, IS Kemet. They were acquired in 2007 along with Evox Rifa.

[ElectricDruid]

Depends what you're after. I've built filters with various different caps, and ultimately I go for the (expensive) Wima box film caps. They're reliable, close tolerance, and they have a very clean, modern sound. Hi-fi, in the best way.

If the cheap ones do it for you, you're a lucky chap!

T.

[plexi12000]

Think the cheaper ones are a little off in value?

you know what?  i always check parts before i use em.  and these ones from arcotronics are very much within tolerance.  but i've noticed their supplier of ceramic discs...are kinda poor.  They are usually off.   say i buy a 500pf......you can expect them to be 470, etc.,etc.  -not sure who makes those.   But the Arco's are pretty accurate.  never had one out of tolerance.

caps can TOTALLY make a difference. so, i'll respectfully disagrre with that commenter.  i have a les paul.....and tried EVERY possible film and PIO cap for tone cap.

nothing came close to the original sprague "bumble bees".  You can hear it for sure. 

[notnews32]

Ordering a batch of 500pf (+/- 20% = typ. for ceramic) caps and ALL of them being 470pf is totally within spec. Even at +/- 10% tolerance, 470pf is within spec. Tight- tolerance caps can be very expensive.. expect to pay big bucks for caps if you want a very precise value.

While capacitance in itself is a physical property that is shared among all things that have it, the different materials and ways to achieve capacitance absolutely can impact the sound of a circuit... Reactance/ESR, operating temperature (more relevant for tube and other hot circuits, Leakage (especially for filter caps), Ripple Current, Rated/Shelf Life, TanDelta/Q-Factor (essentially the efficiency of a cap.. it considers all of the above, in a way). Caps serve different functions in a circuit.. filtering, signal processing.. the above characteristics are more or less important depending on how it's used.

If you're satisfied with generic Tayda caps, more power to you. Music and sound is totally subjective.. use what you like.

[amptramp]

you know what?  i always check parts before i use em. 

caps can TOTALLY make a difference. so, i'll respectfully disagrre with that commenter.  i have a les paul.....and tried EVERY possible film and PIO cap for tone cap.

nothing came close to the original sprague "bumble bees".  You can hear it for sure.

Those of us who restore antique radios as a hobby are always advised to replace the Sprague "Black Beauty" and bumblebees with modern film caps because the Sprague caps are notorious for splitting along the parting line of the plastic and letting moisture in.  Of course, a guitar is not a heat source, so they may last longer there and some radio restorers can sell their old bumblebees on eBay and pay for the cost of the radio that way.  BTW for people not familiar with the Sprague Black Beauty, it is similar to a bumblebee but with only one colour-coded ring around it like a resistor that shows the end of the cap that goes to the outside foil of the two electrodes that make up a capacitor.

Bumblebee caps:



Black Beauty:

[PBE6]

I've never been much of a capacitor sniffer, but those just look so cool... [emoji41]

[ElectricDruid]

I've never been much of a capacitor sniffer, but those just look so cool... [emoji41]

Agree. They might as well say "MOJO" down the side in big letters.

T.

[R.G.]

Human psychology makes it virtually impossible for one person to do any kind of objective evaluation of whether tiny aesthetic differences in sound are caused by the last fiddling they did with components, perhaps especially with the 'sound' of a component. Gross differences, sure. But gross differences are measurable.

I have personally watched guitarists pay for an amp tech to sub in resistors and caps while they watch and listen to the results, including swapping the component end for end.  This resulted in several parts being swapped out for different parts from the bin and some components being flipped end for end. I worked very hard at it and was able to keep a straight face and keep my mouth shut.   

If someone insists that they hear a difference in two similar parts, they do - they really, really do. But unless you can come up with a way to measure that difference, there is a strong possibility - not certainty, possibility - that the "difference" arises from the fact that they changed the part out and ran the test. There is a strong tendency in the human mind to make judgements upon knowing something changed. They perceive a difference.

Blind tests have shown that people even perceive a difference when a second person makes motions that the evaluator *thinks* were changing something, even when nothing was changed. Blind tests have shown that evaluators will  perceive a difference by picking up clues from the second person when the second person knew they were making a difference in the test or not. This is why double-blind tests are the gold standard for perception and medical testing. It gets complicated.

There are a lot of reasons that psychological testing uses lots of tricks and subterfuges. Most of these are to eliminate the likelihood of internal biases and subconscious clues from contaminating what they're trying to test.

[ElectricDruid]

Totally agree, R.G.

A side-effect of this is that your amp probably will sound better with bumblebee caps in it, as long as you know that they're there. If you paid a lot of money to have them put there, the brain's desire to reduce cognitive dissonance will *guarantee* that your amp sounds better!

Mostly I doubt you can tell the difference between caps. Sometimes it's nice to use something "special" just because you can. For my work, I use good quality, tight tolerance caps because I want something repeatable, reliable, and available. Those are useful qualities too!

[Ben Lyman]

Well... they say, "tone is in the fingers" so maybe when someone sees that mojo part going in their gear it just makes them feel good, as a result they express this feeling though their playing and out comes some sweet tones.

[GibsonGM]

Well... they say, "tone is in the fingers" so maybe when someone sees that mojo part going in their gear it just makes them feel good, as a result they express this feeling though their playing and out comes some sweet tones.

Confidence, inspiration...all that

I know that when I play my crud Strat for a few months, then go pick up my nice LP...all of a sudden it seems like it's worth $10,000 and I sound so awesome, LOL!   

But if I play that LP for a couple of days...back to the 'well, the tone is not exactly what I want...', y'know?  Then the MIM Tele sounds great! 

I think familiarity breeds contempt, and even if the tech DIDN'T change a cap, but you think he did...well, that knocked out the familiarity, ha ha...

[rullywowr]

My favorite is when a "musician" says something like, "can I get 1 dB down EQ at 2kHz" to the sound guy...the sound guy motions like he adjusted it but did nothing and the "musician" says "much better!"

[stallik]

So, wrapping these stickers around my electros really helps...



Seriously, I have, in the past noticed big differences when replacing caps. My old valve amp comes to mind. But, the old caps needed replacing because they were nackered so I expected a difference.
I've done blind tests in a non scientific way and have decided that, for me, the stickers are as effective

[amptramp]

One way the bumblebee and Black Beauty capacitors might sound better is the leakage current may bias the grid of the following stage a bit more positive, making it louder.  Of course, this may overcook the tube and any cathode resistor, but it could sound good for a while!