Sorry for the stupid question, but I haven't been able to find the answer anywhere. Most stompbox circuits I've seen have an electrolytic capacitor from +9V to ground, but some use 47 uf and some use 100 uf, etc. After reading this great Beavis Audio site http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/Caps/ it seems that these caps just filter out some ripple in the power supply, so does the actual value of the capacitor matter at all? Can I just use 100 uf for pretty much any stompbox?
Thanks!
Yes and No.
Sometimes you'll need to look closer at WHY a value is chosen. However, in many cases, any value about 10uF and up will be sufficient. If you're stressing because you don't have a 47uF handy, but you do have a 100uF, that's usually fine.
Basically, my answer is try it. If you experience problems, you know what you might need to adjust in order to fix it. If it works, it works.
Jacob