Mojo Parts Sourcing- zygote, rangemaster and tone bender

[claytushaywood]

Hey there,

I've never had to do special parts sourcing much besides with amps.  I was wondering where you guys get your mojo parts from as I'm planning on doing zygote, rangemaster and tone bender builds and wanted to use some big old parts for the hell of it.  I know its pretty easy to find carbon comps and tubular poly caps.  But I cant find a store with a good source of old axial electrolytics.  Like those shiny blue ones I always see in nos builds.  Anyone know what those are or where to get em?  maybe a place to get everything I need (besides trannys... well thatd be cool if they had those too!)  I've used those old sprague 150d tanatulum caps (the metal cased axial ones) with good effect in my fender pro.  Really good effect actually- Used em in the cathode bypass positions... really adds some quickness and clarity to the attack, kinda hi-fi.  

Anyways, these are mostly dirty pedals.  So I guess component quality isnt that important.  speaking of which and tanatulums, last night I took out all the metal film caps and resistors in the signal path of my mxr dist + clone and replaced all the .001 caps and below with ceramics- above with green mylars and the 1uf's with tanatulum, carbon film for resistors in signal path- HUGE IMPROVEMENT- the pedal had a horrid fizzy, way too trebly (even for the dist +), just all around bad sound.  Nothing like my vintage dod 250.  and now it completely freakin rocks- it's even warm in its own way.  Amazing how much my worst components can make a distortion pedal sound.

Long post again... So mojo pedal parts store?  Anyone building those cool old school looking pcb's with the swirly fat psycadelic traces- thatd be cool for the tonebender

So anyone got any suggestions?  Be much appreciated!

[Jargo]

pigeon fx  out in the uk

http://pigeonfx.com/ 

[jkokura]

I think CJ used to run a shop called Cap's n' Such...

jacob

[culturejam]

Yes, I used to. But not anymore. 

[claytushaywood]

pigeon fx  out in the uk

http://pigeonfx.com/ 

mmmm not reall interested in paying that much for parts and boards... well actually I would get some of the boards if they came with parts on the ones I want. 

Anyone got a NOS parts store?

[timbo_93631]

I usually get those Philips blue Axial electros off of ebay, that is also where I look to score polystyrene caps in pF values.  If you order ahead of time you can get some pretty good deals out of Turkey and Romania.

[frankie5fingers]

BOI Audioworks has some blue and black Atom tubular electrolytic in voltages that'll fit in a pedal as does The Tube Store for $5 - $10.  Very cool to look at and loaded with mojo.
CE Distributing also has those and (much) more but only sells to builders at wholesale.  If you go to their consumer site tubesandmore.com, you won't see that stuff lised but if you send 'em a note they have them and will retail them to you.

[claytushaywood]

I usually get those Philips blue Axial electros off of ebay, that is also where I look to score polystyrene caps in pF values.  If you order ahead of time you can get some pretty good deals out of Turkey and Romania.

I was just planning on trying ceramic vs silver mica for the 10pf's in the zygote build.  Should I use polystyrene?

[timbo_93631]

In amp building subbing polystyrene for silver mica usually smooths things out, and ceramic disks are gritty which can be desirable.  SM is edgy in a not so pleasant way smetimes.  At low voltages in a pedal these things are not discernable to some people, others claim a world of difference.  The subject of tonal coloration of cap types has been kind of beaten to death, either you buy it or you don't.  I do.  I like polystyrene caps in a Rangemaster, they make it seem less icepicky and smoother to me.  They looks nice alongside blue axial electros too.  Different RM's I had seen have polystyrene and/or film caps, you could use Philips mustards.  Here is a pic of one I built that has a TRW Polystyrene and a Philips Mustard.

[claytushaywood]

In amp building subbing polystyrene for silver mica usually smooths things out, and ceramic disks are gritty which can be desirable.  SM is edgy in a not so pleasant way smetimes.  At low voltages in a pedal these things are not discernable to some people, others claim a world of difference.  The subject of tonal coloration of cap types has been kind of beaten to death, either you buy it or you don't.  I do.  I like polystyrene caps in a Rangemaster, they make it seem less icepicky and smoother to me.  They looks nice alongside blue axial electros too.  Different RM's I had seen have polystyrene and/or film caps, you could use Philips mustards.  Here is a pic of one I built that has a TRW Polystyrene and a Philips Mustard.

Oh I definitely agree with you on the rangemaster not being good with silver mica's- I absolutely hated the pedal when i had a silver mica cap as one of the input caps on my switch. I even found theh panasonic metal film caps didnt sound nearly as good as the green caps or ceramics. 

I've really dug silver mica's in a lot of pedals though- any modulation pedal- I noticed quite a difference between ceramic and silver mica in my zen drive build too. 

I just did a major overhaul of my fender- I used .022uf's for the bass and mid caps and a silver mica for the treble.  it seems everyone recommends using silver mica for the treble cap and even the bright switch.  I have been thinking it's too edgy.  so would polystyrene be worth a try I guess?

Do you know a good source of em... I just put in an ebay order for a bunch of stuff- dude didnt have many polystyrene's... I hate ordering on ebay with all the shipping charges and BS.