Breaking in new effects &/or capacitors - real or mojo vapor?

[frank_p]

Sorry, again me.    ,

OK for electrolytics caps, but the other kind of caps do they get "stiff" and "old" (to use non measurable and wrong metaphoric laguage).  Do they get "adjusted by their working condition" if they workout and do some "pushups"?
I mean do they deteriarate with shelf life and then can be reconditionned after?

I respond to myself by Wiki quote:

"Ceramic capacitor aging

In ceramic capacitors, the change in capacitance over time, called aging, is due to physical changes over time of the dielectric material used in their construction. The critical factors in this type of aging are

   1. The type of dielectric material used in their construction (with many types this effect is negligible),
   2. The temperature of the storage and operation environment, and
   3. (to a small extent) the voltage of operation.

Ceramic capacitor aging can be reversed by heating the capacitor over the Curie Point. The rate of change slows over time; the concern is primarily the intitial stablization, not long-term lifetime. [3]"

Ref 3:

http://www.johansondielectrics.com/technicalnotes/age/
From this text, Voltage has small influence on aging.

Ceramics caps have to be broken-in
Guess it is more aging than breaking in.  But Good to know.

[wampcat1]

meh...

my gut says the cap manufacturer is cy'ing there A. Just in case there's a bad cap that escaped into the 'good' pile and you stick one of those into something that makes your product malfunction, they may not be liable.

Who am I to argue though? I honestly think that if guitar players would practice more and split hairs less, they'd be happier tone wise anyway. 

bw

[audioguy]

Not to divert the attention of the people posting- but does anyone have a particular brand of electro they prefer? Can you hear the differences between a 5%, 10%, or 20% electro?

[earthtonesaudio]

Not to divert the attention of the people posting- but does anyone have a particular brand of electro they prefer? Can you hear the differences between a 5%, 10%, or 20% electro?

I'll go out on a limb and say that if you have two 20% tolerance caps, and one is on the high end and the other is on the low end of that tolerance, you can probably hear a difference.   

If it was a 5% tolerance, it would be a lot harder to hear unless the cap was doing something obvious like setting the speed of an LFO.

Brands?  I personally don't subscribe to brand mojo.  Unless it's a NOS June 1962 Mallory paper-and-wax 20% tolerance 10pF cap in the feedback loop of a TS-808 with all carbon comp resistors and Burr-Brown IC. In that rare case, the sound is so soft and round and live and punchy and bluesy and... (just kidding).

[frank_p]

Brands?  I personally don't subscribe to brand mojo.  Unless it's a NOS June 1962 Mallory paper-and-wax 20% tolerance 10pF cap in the feedback loop of a TS-808 with all carbon comp resistors and Burr-Brown IC. In that rare case, the sound is so soft and round and live and punchy and bluesy and... (just kidding).

You made my day Alex.