"Tropical Fish" capacitors needed...

[182201]

Where on earth can I find these things.
How do you buy them and what does that colored stipes translate to according to value?

[jimbob]

Mojo.. Id google it under, "types of parts that are not really needed except for mojo/Bs properties."

Or www.greenfuzz.com --thats Stewart Castledines site.  

[mrsage]

Check eBay.

There are a ton of them up right now listed under "effects pedals."

[182201]

:lol:

[phillip]

Actually, any high quality metallized polyester film capacitor will work just fine in the place of a TF capacitor.  Mouser stocks several different types of these, and Orange Drops will also work fine in their place, too.

Phillip

[Fret Wire]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/s.castledine/greenfuz/wah.html

http://www.wah-wah.co.uk/

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/s.castledine/greenfuz/index.html

Btw, if you want them to restore a vintage pedal, or for the cool looks, that Ebay link has the values you need.

If you want new caps that sound clearer, quieter, and are cheaper, follow Phillips advice. There won't be any magic in the fish caps, just the values you pick.

[R.G.]

Here's the best way to get tropical fish caps:

(1) buy the values you need from Mouser or other suppliers. All tropical fish caps were made from Mylar as best I can find out.
(2) go to a boating store (I use West Marine) and get small quantities of marine epoxy paint and coloring pigment for the paint
(3) mix batches and then dip them to the appropriate depths to make the tropical fish stripes

Simple, right??

... uh, hey... how do we know that those caps on ebay aren't... nah, no one would do that, would they?

[Fret Wire]

They might make nice fishing lures.

[markr04]

Poor 182201. He just joined today guys.

182201, here's the skinny on those capacitors. There is nothing special about them. Their purpose is too simple for age to have any effect on the sound, except if their old age renders them useless of course.

Fish caps are 'mojo'. They're hype. The correct value film/mono/tantalum/ceramic, etc. is going to give you the same sound/tone as that silly, overhyped 'NOS' bullsmack. Please... do not fall into the hype of old 4558 ICs sounding better too.

[182201]

I had an audiophile SWEAR that his 10,000 home stereo sounded different and better after installing a different "MATERIAL" capacitor same value and same component. and not the electrolytics.

[Jim Jones]

Hehehe,

Be careful - audiophiles are an even worse lot than us.  

Jim

[The Tone God]

I have a stock of real NOS TF caps. Trust me there is nothing special about them.

Andrew

[jimbob]

I love these threads--reminds me of day 1.  Btw--everyone here is right.  I agree with it all.

R.g. that was awsome!

1) buy the values you need from Mouser or other suppliers. All tropical fish caps were made from Mylar as best I can find out.
(2) go to a boating store (I use West Marine) and get small quantities of marine epoxy paint and coloring pigment for the paint
(3) mix batches and then dip them to the appropriate depths to make the tropical fish stripes

I need a few $$ might have to do that myself

I dont think doing what we do is about fashion--its about the search for "that sound".  Lotsa mojo crap out there.. Ibanez must be cleaning up on that 4558  mojo. Im waiting for the lm741 mojo to happen. I have lots of them.. Ill really laugh then. There all just parts man.

[Sonny ReVerb]

Hi all,

Here's a great page on caps I found recently:

http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/components/capac.htm

Look down the page a bit and you'll find a guide to the color codes used on the tropical fish caps.

Enjoy,
Sonny

[Fret Wire]

Im waiting for the lm741 mojo to happen. I have lots of them.. Ill really laugh then. There all just parts man.

You can kinda start laughing now. The 741 does have one mojo claim to fame: the MXR Distortion +. Actually, more like anti-mojo.  That cheap, nasty, noisy chip (along with 1N270 ge's) is integral to the original script logo sound. It clips pretty good even without the diodes. So it's not 4558 type mojo, more like, "so bad it sounds good" mojo. But like the 4558, it has been used in a bazillion consumer products. Other than the D+, I don't use it for anything.

[Fret Wire]

182201: Don't take offense, no one was goofing on you. After you got your straight, serious answers, we started goofing amongst ourselves. Look at the thread about Mojo components, it's just goof city. Shit, we even got a boutique builder a little ruffled.

Anyways, those caps won't do anything special, only to your wallet. Like I said, if your restoring or going for the vintage look, buy em'.

As for your friend with the $10,000 stereo, you never know. The better an entire system is, the more you can hear small tweaking changes.

You posted in another thread about finding it funny to use good components in a dist. pedal. That's where you would try to cut noise the most, in the noisiest type of pedal. When you have an amp that hums a little, an unshielded guitar with single coils, a cheap cord, 5 or 6 other factory pedals, you won't notice a difference if you used quality components in a dist. pedal. If you have worked over your entire chain to make it quiet, you can notice the difference in one pedal, as far as noise and hiss go.

[182201]

Here's the best way to get tropical fish caps:

(1) buy the values you need from Mouser ...
(2) go to a boating store (I use West Marine) and get small quantities of marine epoxy paint and coloring pigment for the paint
(3) mix batches and then dip them to the appropriate depths to make the tropical fish stripes

Simple, right??

... uh, hey... how do we know that those caps on ebay aren't... nah, no one would do that, would they?

I dont have 20 hours to spend to make a 2 dollar part.
What a great savings that isN'T.
You telling me that someone is going to fake a part buy 6 different colors of paint (and make at least 8 different values)  then sell it for 2 dollars.

Further I just saw 1 hundred caps in a bulk lot for 12 dollars maybe that is where they came from to start with.

[Hal]

if your write "clyde mccoy" on the title, it instantly becomes a $9 part!

did you see that?  Same guy - his lots for the "clyde" values are $18!

[R.G.]

I dont have 20 hours to spend to make a 2 dollar part.
What a great savings that isN'T.
You telling me that someone is going to fake a part buy 6 different colors of paint (and make at least 8 different values)  then sell it for 2 dollars.

Further I just saw 1 hundred caps in a bulk lot for 12 dollars maybe that is where they came from to start with.

Actually I was being half funny, half cynical. 100 caps for $12.00 is about what they ought to cost, so that vendor is probably being reasonable. However, do not think for a minute that if there's a buck to be made getting $2.00 a cap - or $5.00 to $20.00 because they're "vintage" that someone won't try to capitalize on it.

I don't have hours to spend painting caps either, nor the inclination to do it if I had the time. However, once you buy your six or eight colors of paint, I can postulate a setup where I could dip ten caps at a time in a tray of paint and run through a couple of hundred caps in an hour. Let dry over night, dip in the next color. Lost of work to set up, but it lets you turn hundreds of $0.10 parts into $2.00 parts pretty simply.

I'm telling you that (a) there is no real difference in performance between vintage tropical fish caps to deserve the advertising hype and that (b) if there is a way to cheat, someone will do it. I don't have the time, and you don't. However, that doesn't mean that someone who has too little to do won't recognize that there's a big markup.

If I were inclined to cheat people, I'd order maybe 100K caps from some vendor in SE Asia and have **them** paint them pretty color stripes for me. The difference in cost would be tiny, and I'd then only have to stock and ship, stock and ship.

Sheesh... I'm getting to where if I see something in an advertisement, I almost automatically think it's untrue just because it's in an advert.

[182201]

You are pretty cyncial if you ask me.