Electrolytic Caps For The Ol' Dogs : Where are we at ?

[JTM 100 Mk V]

Ol' Dog here. Die hard pre pcb. Did alot of research covering the old and now gone. Have a bit of experience with the new and at this point I'm seeking some consensus among the collectors and techs and the Pleximaster ;-)

Mallory is gone and we now have CE, I've had good luck with them. F&T has been good to me and now have a buyout from Mersen. So far I have not used new labeled product. Mercon has a lineage with United Chemicon. Bought out in the 80's I can't find or get a call back from them to confirm continuation. However, Huge US support and possible manufacture, ongoing. Sprauge was bought by Vishay and they are the old ATOM and were on par with Mallory. I've used them and they are fantastic. LCR, Gone. Illinois is still going and built in Taiwan. Fender products are made in Taiwan also. I personally have no issue with Taiwan. JJ is Still done in Slovakia and again, I am fine with them too. Keep in mind Glass volume leads to production tolerance widening. Thats a tube factoid. MOD is offering standard and Paper in oil and I don't know much or find much about them, so maybe you guys know more, thats the point here, to share the data. Anything China is gone for now for the most part. Tubes, yes, everything else pretty much , not sure yet, still investigating. What gets me is you need to be half CCP involved to do business in China. So thats not a free operation. Electro Harmonix and Mike Mathews are still doing good work with Russia , however aside from Tubes I'm not too clued in on the caps. Again, if you know, clue us in here.

Thats about all I got to start here off hand. I'd like to get this ironed out , cause big changes are here and sticking around for a while.

BEST SUGGESTIONS for Cap Jobs please !

I have a very early 67 100 that I can do a full Sprauge Atom 100X2,32X2, 40X40(80)PI, & 16X16 pre amp with no problem and plan to. I just have never heard of anyone doing this or dealing with the current changes.

I'll update or edit the errors, I typed this quick, but its a go. . .

Whatta ya know ?

 

[Joshabr1]

ARS electronics. You can call them. They have great service and great caps. Just re capped a 12000 series bass amp today w ARS 32/32 and 32/16 caps. Sounds amazing.

 

[South Park]

I get a lot of stuff on eBay

 

[Dogs of Doom]

https://hayseedhamfest.com

 

[JTM 100 Mk V]

Cool Beans Frens, Thanx for the feeders and nice intel. I will shurely take your advice and report back. These few heads are real quilrky with the parts. I'd be a knostic (Sp) on that one, but I get results with the stock parts that are epic. Stock, perfect tone. Try to replace a part and no no. Only GIg is the cap on the outside, of the chassis. That one is a 40X40 and needs to be reverse engneered. Damn part is the 'hinge pin'. Every other part before, after has NO effect, the part dies and it IS the effect. Second time I've had this happen. Last part, mystery as to why it mattered. Who to , or what Lab do I send it to? Damn sure its a factor. NEVER had a situation so clear. This cap and why. Help peeps, Who do I send it to for clear data. ?

 

[StingRay85]

I only use TAD (Germany) labeled electrolytic caps, because they're easy to order here in Belgium. They're supposed to be made by F&T? No complaints.

For signal caps I only use NOS Philips mustard caps, because I have a lot of them.

 

[shakti]

I’ve never been a fan of the way F&T sound/feel. Could be my imagination, but they always sound a little cold and grainy to me. I’ve had better luck with ARS although never done A/B comparison. Only downside is they are not as easily available in Europe.

 

[neikeel]

I am happy to use F&T, ARS and (don’t scream) but what is left from my LCR stash - they all reform 100%.
I don’t really like JJ cans (don’t mind their tubes) and have had bad experiences with new spragues.

 

[Matthews Guitars]

I usually use F&Ts and I refuse to believe that any properly made power supply electrolytic capacitors have a "sound" to them that is specific to that brand and type. But all new electrolytics DO have a breakin period during which time they complete the process of "forming", where the anodization layers on the electrodes reach full thickness, and the electrolyte apparently also gets conditioned as well.

I don't mind if F&T has been acquired by another company, as this is unlikely to result in changes to the way they make these proven, good selling parts. It would make no sense to mess with success.


You will be interested to know that I am the person who contacted the current owner of the old Daly brand rights, which is Kemet, and I made a very good presentation to them asking for them to reissue authentic spec Daly capacitor for the substantial guitar amp market, specifically the Marshall restoration market. They were quite receptive to the idea, and I am sometimes sent an email from the regional Kemet representative giving me status updates on it. They've apparently consulted with their legal department, which has not found any legal obstacles to the usage of the Daly name and trade dress, and the company has budgeted for development and a trial run for calendar year 2022.

So it looks like this may actually happen. Daly cap reissues. Electrically and cosmetically correct, correct can sizes, correct shrink wrap color, correct (but date updated) markings, and with improved lifespan due to improved methods of making electrolytic capacitors now vs. 50 years ago. Plus, probably a higher hours/temp rating just due to those improved manufacturing methods.

If you can wait, maybe six months, then perhaps you can be one of the first to get the new production Daly caps.

I have suggested that the first production samples should be sent to me, and I would cheerfully install them in my own Marshalls for real world testing. They seemed to be OK with that idea.

Much as I'd love to do it, I do not anticipate positioning myself as the exclusive outlet for them in North America, but if they want to make that deal with me I'd sure be happy to make a small profit off of the sales, of course. Who wouldn't?

I do provide updates in this forum as they become available to me. But it's not a weekly thing.

 

[JTM 100 Mk V]

Super Cool Responses. I would buy the Daly/Kermet based on reputation alone and give them a shot. My current Amp is a very rare example of filtering, layout and transformers. What I find remarkable is the places that make each amp a gateway to good vs. not AS good. It could be one part. Add those of us in this situtatin know. I have parts to be forwarded to be replicated maybe for only my own piece of mind or piece of tone to live on. But man, imagine that for a second. You find one part, a gateway to the tone and what do you do with it. Die ? let it go ? Fuck no !

 

[Spanngitter]

99% I use F/T for the large Power supply Caps and Vishay for the smaller electrolytics like in the bias circuitry (However a Nichicon or Panasonic might be as well as good).
for coupling caps my favorite for any Marshall device are Roederstein MKT1813 (going MKT1822 if required for PCB) VITROM /Draloric / Vishay / Welwyn Resistors (depends on where they need to go)

 

[Torren61]

Jupiter

https://jupitercondenser.com/collections/audio-capacitors

 

[21fret]

I picked up some ARS cans, and so far sound as they should, but 2 out if the bunch had a bad wobble when you rolled them on the table. What does that mean? Did they not form properly, and aren't these ready for install from the factory?

 

[Seanxk]

I picked up some ARS cans, and so far sound as they should, but 2 out if the bunch had a bad wobble when you rolled them on the table. What does that mean? Did they not form properly, and aren't these ready for install from the factory?

They just need some Rock........... to go with the roll

 

[Matthews Guitars]

"Forming" has nothing to do with the SHAPE of the capacitor. It refers to the electrochemical process of growing a layer of aluminum oxide on the surfaces of the aluminum plates that are the working parts of the capacitor. Inside the canister.

As a consequence of the action of electricity on the aluminum plates in contact with the paper insulator soaked in electrolyte,
the oxide layer is FORMED.

 

[wakjob]

That's some great news...Kemet is my favorite class 1 C0G/NP0 ceramic cap manufacturer. I use them 10/10 times over a silver mica.
Seeing a reissued Daly elco can would be cool as.

 

[Neil S]

I bought some new ARS Caps a couple of years ago but didn't use them. How long can you keep new unused caps for ?

 

[Matthews Guitars]

"Five year shelf life" says most manufacturers. If older, they may need a reforming cycle before installation to bring them back up to peak efficiency.

 

[Neil S]

"Five year shelf life" says most manufacturers. If older, they may need a reforming cycle before installation to bring them back up to peak efficiency.

OK, Thanks

 

[Seanxk]

I reformed this about 3 years ago and it's been fine ever since and probably used 2 or 3 times a week, yes the date is correct.