Quality carbon film resistors?

[claytushaywood]

I've had some good experience using carbon film resistors lately.  I overhauled my old silverface pro reverb with a bunch of sprague 225's, silver micas, and PRP metal film resistors.  It sounded great, but it was a bit too "detailed" "edgy" "hi-fi" and bright.  I had some nice brand name "audiophile" carbon film resistors that i had ordered along with the prp's just in case.  I put these in the slope resistor position and the plate resistor position of v2 (vibrato channel) and man they made a huge difference.  Really brought the amp back to it's old warmth, but without the noise, and with more clarity and detail than when it was filled with carbon comps.  This amp fucking rocks now- so much better than it used to be and I havent even gotten my nice tube order in yet.

I've also had some great experience with my mxr dist + build, which sounded like crap until I replaced the 1uf films with tanatulums and all the signal path resistors with carbon film.  I also used some ceramics in place of box films.  The pedal is so much warmer now it's really ridiculous.  I'm thinking this treatment might be a good idea in more of my dirty pedals like fuzz and distortion.  The zen drive sounded pretty astounding using high quality stuff, I cant imagine any better out of it really, but I might just build another one for this theory testing.

What do you guys think?  I found a site that sells "stackpole" carbon films for .10cents a piece... apparently they're upper quality.  can carbon films be made better than other carbon films?  I've generally only experienced brand quality improvements (versus construction differences) in amps and electrolytics in signal path (of course there's differences in construction there).  advertising says so... I'm a believer in the differences between comp, carbon and metal film.

Any opinions or locations of good sources... I know I've been posting a lot about component types lately.  But man the differences I've experienced are undeniable.  I dont care what electric engineers can measure versus what they cant.  I'm also wondering about quality ceramic caps for my amp's bright switch and treble cap- I think the silver mica's are too edgy right now.  the bright switch is freaking unbearable with my strat (I used to use it all the time with my les paul, and quite often with my strat).  I did measure tolerances in the amp replacement parts and the dist + before that typical argument comes to fruition.  What about multilayer ceramics versus regular ones?  How bout using higher quality electrolytics in pedal power filtering (versus tayda .01cent caps)?  tanatulums? I've experienced different results among different "dipped" varieties... without really knowing a brand... maybe just consistency?  I've used some nos sprague tanatulums to good effect in the cathode bypass of my amp.  anyone try stuff like the elna silmic, nichicons, or panasonics and all that in amps and find differences?  I do think cathode bypass caps can affect tone quite a bit- though definitely on a more subtle dynamic level.

I'm sure this has been discussed before.  But it's really a pain in the ass to dig through the BS.  and I have really loved everything I've heard, seen and read on this forum.  Definitely some amazingness going on here.

Sorry if you think all of this is bullshit, but I am basing it off of personal experience.  maybe I am a victim of my own mind over fact.
I'm definitely all about experimentation- bt would like to hear some of the pro's thoughts and feelings!

[oldhousescott]

Futurlec carries a wide variety of carbon films. If you've never ordered from them before, well, the best way to approach it is to place the order and then forget about it. In 4-8 weeks they will just magically appear from Malaysia or some such.

If you want to try some super tweaky stuff, try the tantalum resistors that Steve at Angela Instruments sells. He also sells several different brands of carbon films.

[claytushaywood]

Yeh I cant pardon $3-$5 per resistor... maybe if I ever build a hifi tube amp.  If you are interested in those price resistors Parts Connexion has better prices than Angela instruments on everything but the tanatulum's- I'm about to compare some plate resistors and install Takman carbon films in place of the PRP metal films I just installed in my amp.  The PRP's are definitely pretty awesome and at a good price (.35-.60 cents), non magnetic, lower noise than the dale rn70's.  I really do like trying different component types, but I dont wanna get into spending ridiculous amounts.  I guess I'd like to hear some discussions on component types in pedal building without all the usual redundancies.  I know RG keen wrote a statement on why carbon comps sound different and "good" in tube amps and at the end said they couldnt do anything for pedals basically.

I guess I'm looking for carbon films on a level of like better than xicon, if such exist?  I found stackpole's they're made for audio.  anyone know of anything like this?

A good source for carbon comps would be cool too!

[claytushaywood]

Futurlec carries a wide variety of carbon films. If you've never ordered from them before, well, the best way to approach it is to place the order and then forget about it. In 4-8 weeks they will just magically appear from Malaysia or some such.

oh yeh... and futurlec?  really?  they carry 1/4w and 1/2w carbon films... that's a wide variety?  am i missing something?

[oldhousescott]

I guess I was thinking more in terms of variety of values, not so much brands or wattage ratings. At the low voltage levels in pedals, I'd be surprised to hear a vast difference in tone between different types of resistors, much less different brands. Carbon comps might have some perceivable tonal difference, but I don't know if they're worth the noise and drift.

[claytushaywood]

yeh good point.  i've had plenty of good luck with super cheap resistors in pedals... actually i've even had the best tolerances i've measured from metal film resistors that cost 0.6 cents a piece off ebay.  dead on tolerance every time.  I think i feel the need to be more concerned with carbon type resistors because they're more likely to be off tolerance and noisy by nature