help > resistors on mouser > old school brown resistors available?

[ulysses]

hey guys

i was looking to stop buying resistors from jaycar and start buying them from mouser. as ive got an order to place anyway i though i would check out the selection on mouser.

i was unable to find any old-school brown resistors on mouser like you see in old circuits.

are those old brown resistors still available today? any disadvantage to using them?

cheers
ulysses

[Papa_lazerous]

Now someone feel free to jump in and correct me here at any stage.....

I have some resistors that are brown and they are 5% tol
I have resistors that are Blue and they happen to be 1% tol

I think there might be something to do with tolerance and colour here.  I prefer to use 1% when I can as you get what you want but having the 5% can be handy as you can pick ones that are a little above or below what they should be sometimes that can be really useful

[dxm1]

The "old-school brown resistors" you're talking about are probably carbon composition. These are available several places, Mouser among them. Look for part numbers "308-J250-value" for 1/4 watt, "308-J500-value" for 1/2 watt. These are 5% carbon comp, but not necessariy "brown". If you want the "old-school" look, you can find NOS carbon comps for sale.

But why? Just for looks? Buy the 1% or 2% metal films. They are better all around.

[Meanderthal]

 If ya use all carbon comp you'll probably be asking how to reduce noise at some point... keep in mind that most of the pots we use are carbon comp, so it's hard to entirely avoid them.

[ulysses]

thanks for the replies guys

i was thinking about making a fuzz with a window in the case so you could see the pcb just for kicks. sort of like some of the pc cases now available with a plastic side so you can see your pc's innards.

it would have looked cool with some ge trannies and old school resistors and caps..

but now youve gone and spoilt my fun

cheers
ulysses

[alextheian-alex]

carbn comps are noisy but they have their place, but the low currents, low voltages and NFB typical of pedals does not make them suitable.

Still, i use them as gate stoppers against oscillation because they are non inductive, and the ohmic value in that position is so small that flicker noise is not an issue.

[darron]

jaycar sells carbon composite resistors also. they are the brown-ISH ones compared to the blue metal film ones. as stated they have lower ± tolerance. they won't look as cool as what you want though. some people will try to convince you that carbon comp resistors create more noise in your circuitry, but i don't think you'd care about that since you're going to have a large window in the enclosure letting noisy radio interference in anyway!

do post pics... i love pics (: we all love pics. pics are good.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

You can paint resistors any color you want..

[darron]

You can paint resistors any color you want..

that's a pretty funky idea! i like that... paint everything to confuse everyone who looks. make sure you do it AFTER you confirm it works

i think he's looking for those really old boxy resistors.. ill take a pic of one i just saw