What kind of capacitors do you guys like to use?

[antisolo]

Know of any good articles on this subject?

I know that compared to poly film, ceramic caps sound a little more harsh (not necessarily bad) and more "vintage correct." Also I know they're sensitive to vibrations. Maybe that's why they sound good for guitar tone controls.

For poly film I've heard to stay away from the green ones like the ones they sell at radio shack but I'm not sure why. I mean I know radio shack sucks and everything.

What about multi-layer ceramic caps?

Any particular brands to look out for?

Just curious. My stock of capacitors is such a mixed bag and really experimenting with them seems very time consuming and somewhat expensive to get different values of the same kind.

Sorry if this has been talked about before. Kinda new here.

[antisolo]

Sorry realized this is in the FAQ but there's not a ton of info there

[anchovie]

Theere's tons of info in the forum that can be found with the "search" button!

Those green ones are totally useable - you might find that your ears aren't "golden" enough to notice much of a difference at all.

[earthtonesaudio]

My favorite by far are the ceramic multilayer/monolithic caps.
Pros: Small size, large values, low ESR/ESL
Cons: Higher price, low voltage

After that I like aluminum electros.  Basically the complete opposite of the ceramic multilayer type, but useful if you understand their limitations.

[petemoore]

  check out some measurement devices and fancy studio mic preamps.
 Close look at selected Spec sheets can 'add various materials in circuits' and rate their performances for your perusal.
 Data sheets on the caps are basically quick reads, voltage rating, value, and tolerance being the priorities, respectively. But they don't say what the capacitors will be doing, or that for our purposes, greenie tolerances are many times smaller than what would make a code: 104 greenie a noticably different frequency response than a code: 104 greenie [or any other two=values].
 Mic or Hifi or Mic Preamp forums pick apart every part in detail. Of particular interest is sensative input circuits, better fodder for ferreting out reads that
explain how/where cap materials start actually mattering.
 For expensive tastes, go ahead, consider the expensive alternative: Transformers !
 For where it counts and for our general purposes, where MF is actually required isn't a problem because precision working circuit-box-units are often easier to simply choose than DIY.
 Once at this point one either knows or just goes all out for other reasons.

[ayayay!]

I like the Panasonic metal films.  ECQ-V's I think.  I'm not necessarily a "metal film or die" *rock fingers* guy, I just like that each size is slightly different so it's easy to spot on a cramped PCB, and I like their lead spacing. 

For pF sized caps, I'm happy enough with the tiny ceramics.  I'm not a silver mica kind of guy I guess...

[Mark Hammer]

I look for four things in a capacitor:

• the price; the cheaper the better
• the rating; don't want no 'sploding caps
• the lead spacing; gotta fit the board
• the height; gotta fit under those pots and switches

Beyond that, quality be damned.  If I was a recording engineer who mastered recordings of chamber music, I might care.   But it's rock and roll, for crying out loud.

[familyortiz]

Ceramics: great for stage to stage coupling and noise decoupling on circuits, the worst for temp stability and value tolerance. I would not have one in a guitar.
Metallized Film caps of polyester, polypropylene: Best stability overall and great for filtering and tone circuits. Generally tighter tolerance than ceramics. Perfect for onboard active or passive tone controls.

[Ronsonic]

I use a bit of everything. Even the cheap green chiclet caps. People will argue about this but I personally find that auditioning different caps for different points in a circuit can tune it to taste. Some will say that it's a waste of time, it's my time and really doesn't take that long. They will say that there is some sort of placebo effect and that the results of non-blind tests are biased by expectations and a tendency for the more expensive part to "win." Don't know how that might affect the results of comparing a cheap ceramic with a cheap film when I buy parts in bulk and sometimes at random, but there you are.

Try stuff, see what suits you. There's no need for your experiments to be expensive. You can get assortments of film and ceramic caps cheaply, experiment with value and type. Most of the highly-prized collectible pedals were made with consumer grade cheap parts. Even those now-rare bumblebee caps were nothing but standard parts in their day and are structurally no different from stuff that's available now.

All that said, I'm big on repeatability. I don't like to use stuff that I can't get more of. It is terribly frustrating to build something that sounds great and then have trouble building another when someone asks for another like it. So even with the experimentation and "mojo" you won't find parts that are out of production in any of my pedals or amps.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

I look for four things in a capacitor:

• the price; the cheaper the better
• the rating; don't want no 'sploding caps
• the lead spacing; gotta fit the board
• the height; gotta fit under those pots and switches

Beyond that, quality be damned.  If I was a recording engineer who mastered recordings of chamber music, I might care.   But it's rock and roll, for crying out loud.

HALLELUJAH!!! 

[MmmPedals]

I use a bit of everything. ceramic are nice because they are small. Box are nice because they have one lead spacing for all values which makes making a layout simpler.
The only time I am picky is if I am building a batch of something to sell I will use poly film (5% tolerance) so they will all sound the same. Even that may be neurotic. Not every change in value=change in sound.

[slacker]

Ones that are the right value, after that I don't worry too much.

[antisolo]

Thanks guys.
I'm not sure if I have that "golden ear" but customers always do! haha. I'm mostly a guitar repair guy but I'm thinking of selling a couple pedals to a local shop.

I have a couple circuits in bread boards so here we go...

[petemoore]

  The For juju beyond all other capacitors the Brown Ticks. Carbon composite IIRC.
  Guaranteed likeliest to make unique sound.
  Nobody messes with them much, the production guys either.
  Why: probably because they use the code markings and like it when a 104 sounds like another 104, and had real good luck with the film type capacitors.
  AVX/Greenie...red ones, shiny ones, bright yellow is a nice touch, better than dark when it pops off the edge of the table...any and all of these types produced excellent experiences all along, ne'er a trouble. It could be that these are so common that any 'anomolies' or distortion they produce are something I'm familiar with, I get 'em outta stereos, VCR's, TV's, Monitors...that I used to listen to.
  Bearing that in mind that I can solidly say that there is no distortion associated with film type/greenie/boxers, anything different than these might be a distortion when compared to the perception I've grown accostumed to using equipment from 30's, 40's 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's not much in the world of manufacturing/capacitor performance changed to my knowledge since the mil changed, at least not for the better again. Most of the circuits I use were built 5 or more years ago.
  Oh yea, metal films.
  No noise problems so..no distortion trouble, and..
  The noise problem brings us to electrolytic.
  Of particular interest [as much as we might like to avoid it] they come in the larger values. Pretty much a requirement that they be used in power supplies. They may have bitty troubles in the HF's, but can be bypassed with a film cap if needed. Combined with the other drawback: they have a shelf life, I have no favoritism for working with them at all, rather not, but when I do I like them because they can be powerful helper.
  Had enough cap play?... Build it, tweek it, then immediately begin trying to develop the use of it while searching for others to be interested in wanting to hear it.
  As fascinating as 'cap talk' can be, there's a few things to it, granted, not too many folks interested in what shiny or clean capacitor material you keep in the dirtbox, I generally go for ''what's in the amp'' [and find out quickly] and 'whats in the speakerbox' [sometimes they haven't a clue ].
  Try to figure out what's wrong with it when there's something wrong with it.
  RG has the wave-on-scope pics IIRC, not much in any of them to repore...various colors for various flavors or all 1 type of garden, as long as it's growing or in great shape I think we'll be ok.
  Gotta use this type here, that type there, mostly good ones if you can help it.
 

[phector2004]

I look for four things in a capacitor:

• the price; the cheaper the better
• the rating; don't want no 'sploding caps
• the lead spacing; gotta fit the board
• the height; gotta fit under those pots and switches

Beyond that, quality be damned.  If I was a recording engineer who mastered recordings of chamber music, I might care.   But it's rock and roll, for crying out loud.

HALLELUJAH!!! 

+1

If its to sell, box caps, tropical fish caps, monolithic ceramic, or just plain red film caps will have enough "mojo" or "tone" or "transparency" or whatever your customers want to hear about your pedal.

All capacitors will work, but there's some fierce debating as to whether or not they sound different... I'll let you be the judge of that 

Two things I've noticed about the 1cent ceramics:
- They feel a bit flimsy, especially with their thin leads
- They're microphonic (at least mine are!)... If you flick them in a distortion circuit, you get a thump blasting out of your amp. I think Bill Ruppert uses a Big Muff as a drum in one of his Effectology videos.

[Mark Hammer]

My training in stats and research methodology tends to lead me to ask the question "How much does X increment to predicted outcome?".  It's one thing for any factor to be "statistically significant" (i.e., a reliable result/outcome), quite another for it to be a causally important outcome, and quite another again for it to be a more causally important than another factor.

So while I have little doubt that cap type can provide reliably measurable differences, when I look for impact in terms of more closely approximating the sound I want or the parametric control I seek, cap type is way down the list.  The cap value can be critical for tone shaping, and the gain structure of stages is always important, as is the range over which a control operates.  Just down from there is noise.  But way down from there is cap type.

I'm like a cab driver.  Some folks bring their vehicle in to the dealer and want every single little thing attended to.  Should someone leave the tiniest little ding in their paint job in the parking lot, it's a big deal.  Me, I tell the mechanic "Do what you have to do to get this thing back on the road safely, but no more than that".

[defaced]

I like the ones that capacitate.  If they capacitate right in my circuit, then I'm good. 

- They're microphonic (at least mine are!)... If you flick them in a distortion circuit, you get a thump blasting out of your amp. I think Bill Ruppert uses a Big Muff as a drum in one of his Effectology videos.

Same thing happens with film caps in high gain amp circuits.  IMO, if it doesn't start doing it on its own and cause feeback, I don't care. 

[familyortiz]

Here's a mini primer but there are probably better:

http://www.dsaprojects.110mb.com/electronics/data_book/capacitors.html

[FlyingZ]

I like the Panasonic metal films.  ECQ-V's I think.  I'm not necessarily a "metal film or die" *rock fingers* guy, I just like that each size is slightly different so it's easy to spot on a cramped PCB, and I like their lead spacing. 

For pF sized caps, I'm happy enough with the tiny ceramics.  I'm not a silver mica kind of guy I guess...

Eventually I swapped every single diy feedback-loop silver-mica for ceramic.

[Electron Tornado]

I look for four things in a capacitor:

• the price; the cheaper the better
• the rating; don't want no 'sploding caps
• the lead spacing; gotta fit the board
• the height; gotta fit under those pots and switches

Beyond that, quality be damned.  If I was a recording engineer who mastered recordings of chamber music, I might care.   But it's rock and roll, for crying out loud.

HALLELUJAH!!! 

I'll second that HALLELUJAH!


A better question to ask is why different materials are used to make capacitors. What NEED was the designer and manufacturer trying to fill?

Another "better question" for beginners is: why are certain types of capacitors used in certain places in circuits? I.e. – why are polarized electrolytics, or tantalum, or mylar, or a garden variety ceramic cap being used?

The debate about caps comes up almost as often as the debate about op amps. In both cases, I've never seen any hard data to support someone's assertions about what type of something is better, or that it's the key to getting a certain sound. For effects pedals, I have a real feeling that most people who try to get something down to a gnat's arse in this respect are basically using a sniper rifle, to hit the side of a barn at 10 yards.

I tend to use whatever I have available. Yes, the greenies from Radio Shack are just fine, they don't bite, and they won't make you impotent.

The idea of ceramic caps being microphonic is a new one to me, however, and maybe worth testing.