Old capacitors

[1wahfreak]

Hey guys,
Who made the old style capacitors that Dallas Arbiter, Jennings, Marshall/Colorsound used to use in there pedals...you know, the yellow ones that looked like pats of butter. There were also the ones that were puke yellow in color and shaped like suppositories. Who made them? Are the impossible to find? Where might I look for some?? I have some pics if anyone needs to identify them.

[saros141]

I think they were both made by Philips.  The "pats of butter" start to show up in Marshalls in the early 70's, with the earlier "mustards" (as Marshall 18W and JTM45 clone builders call them) predating them and going back to maybe the late 50's in various Euro-made stuff.  

The mustards are polyester & foil construction - not sure about the butterpats, they might still be polys with a different casing.

A set of 8 NOS mustards for a JTM45 build (4x 0,022uF and 4x 0,1uF) went for $98USD on eBay recently!!!

What values ya need?

[Ansil]

i got a bunch of old tube caps from a tv set  dont' know if they are exactly what you are looking for but if you want old stuff like they used in the 70's  then thats what they are.  drop me an email if you are interested in some. i got alot

[1wahfreak]

Well, I was trying to build an exact replica of a Supa Fuzz. I have some OC75's and 76's and if I could find out what caps were used in what position I may be able to pull it off. I can get the original values from any of the fuzz sites but I'm not sure which type belongs in what position. Does anyone have 1st hand knowledge??

[TrekFX]

Hey... my first day here and I find someone doing the same thing I plan!

WHERE did you find good OC75s? I’ve gone through a batch of 100 OCP71s and another lot of 100 OC71s and got three devices that MIGHT work. I still need to leak-test. Not a good yield at all...

My “tone goal” is to nail the 1970’s Justin Hayward/Moody Blues searing violin-hummingbird thing. The Blue Jays album is full of that. Hayward claims “ It's the 335 through a Marshall Fuzzbox, mains powered [the only I've ever seen] into a Vox AC 30.” Sweet.

Have you seen any of the sites which show the original PCB layout? I can post them if you need them. It would definitely get you in the “exact replica” ballpark to be sure! Good luck finding those caps!

Best,
Trek

[Johan]

hey TrekFX

are you talking about the "Fuzz&Reverb-unit" that was sold in the early seventies and looked like a small amphead?

if you have the schem..please post or mail it to me....

Johan

[TrekFX]

I haven't seen any pictures of the effect he's describing; I would assume it's a Supa Fuzz with AC power (factory or custom? Who knows?) since he calls it a "Marshall fuzzbox" and the Supa was probably the only one Marshall had at the time (late '60s/early 70s.)

[Johan]

Marshall had in the late 60s early 70s a "Fuzz&Reverb-unit" it was mains powered and looked like a small amphead, about the same size as a -63 Fender  stand alone reverb.and with a footswitch for both the reverb and for the fuzz.  I've only seen one, and it was a really long time ago...( around -84 ) salvaged from a dump and looking really sorry...I think it is mentioned in the Marshall-book. alltough it probably is only a supafuzz and a cheesy transistordriven reverb, I really would like to see the schematic for it...

Johan

[1wahfreak]

I had a bunch of OC75's at one time from a friend of my dad's but out of the 50 or so that I tested there was only 5 or 6 worth anything and even those are a little leaky ~300uA. I have a bunch of good OC42's and 44's that will probably work too. I'm not sure looking for those caps are worth it or not which is why I asked. I mean, we search the globe for old tranisistors but not for caps. How much of an improvement would it be if we had the old original caps?

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

How much of an improvement would it be if we had the old original caps?

This is a good question, I think the answer is that while there is all the difference in the world between a Ge and a Si tranny, there is nothing like as much diff between any caps of the same value. And even when there IS some difference, there are only a few special places in circuits where it matters.
Note I don't say it NEVER matters, but it certainly isn't worth putting old caps willy-nilly in a stompbox.
Amusingly enough, some of the analog synth fanatics want to put NEW modern caps & op amps throughout in any old (1980s) synth they get!

[1wahfreak]

Thanks Paul,  so I guess my question is: is it really worth it to spend time looking for any of these old caps for a MKII or a Supa Fuzz??

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

my question is: is it really worth it to spend time looking for any of these old caps for a MKII or a Supa Fuzz??

In my opinion, no.( I believe that there is so much distortion going on, it can't make a noticeable difference.)
In the opinion of others, yes.