So i'm building a Mascis inspired muff based. Using a v6 Ram's Head vero as a baseline. In the Mascis version there is used a more than a few 1uF caps. On the vero they are called out as box caps, but in the muff schematics I've found on kitrae's site it shows them to be electros. So question is what effect will electros have on the sound vs the box caps? If any? I'm thinking not much but I have seen many people it's not good to use electros in the signal path, so I'm wondering why. Ultimately I am out of 1uF box caps but was hoping I could use electros to no ill effect. Or should I maybe use tants instead?
Electros will be fine, no sound difference (although the tolerances might be a bit looser... depends what box caps, but I doubt EHX worried about the tolerance!) I imagine the original used electros...
Only thing is in 30 years you might need to replace them.
Well, I'll probably be dead by then so no worries :)
Tants same thing?
Some claim to hear more clarity with film caps as opposed to electros, but since it's a fuzz pedal I wouldn't be hugely concerned about that.
Just pay attention to polarity unless you're using NPs. Although, in the audio path, there shouldn't be a big DC voltage differential.
I'm curious about tantalum caps as well....I have a bunch, but have only used them in power sections. (Local shop near me has a huge box of tantalum caps, cheap).
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Tantalum caps really, really suck at being reversed biased -- including if it is caused by the audio signal pushing them. Besides that, they really do have distortion problems in audio paths. Electrolytics can too, but if you use a big enough cap and it is decent quality, electrolytic caps do seem to work perfectly well in the audio path of pedals.
I'd rather use 1uF MLCCs than electrolytics (aluminium/tantalum) in the audio path, but overall prefer film caps.
Quote from: RobA on October 22, 2013, 04:13:36 PM
Tantalum caps really, really suck at being reversed biased -- including if it is caused by the audio signal pushing them. Besides that, they really do have distortion problems in audio paths. Electrolytics can too, but if you use a big enough cap and it is decent quality, electrolytic caps do seem to work perfectly well in the audio path of pedals.
thanks, good to know.
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I can't tell a difference between film and electro for 1uF's. I'm sure there probably is a bit of difference, but nothing noteworthy for what we do.
Josh