Dr Z on caps

From dr–(at)–cgroup.net Sat Jan 11 20:15:20 CST 1997
From: Mike Zaite
Newsgroups: alt.guitar.amps
Subject: Orange Drops
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 1997 20:44:27 -0500
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In an earlier post Mark Gavin commented on my use of custom coupling
caps.
I am not the first amp builder to so.
Mesa, Matchless, and Victoria amp companies come to mind as ones who use
there own forulated recipe.
I hope I dont start another Carbon Comp Resistor war.
But since it was brought up….. here goes.
In the early amps I built I used NOS Astrons and Black Sprage ( P10 )
caps I found I liked the responce they gave in differant circuits
in the amps. The responce was some what slower allowing a slight swell
in the notes. Living in a large blue collar town with many large
electronic industries I had access to these NOS caps threw Surplus
stores. As my orders increased the availability of these componants
dwindled, also large amounts of these caps were shipped overseas, at
ridiculous prices.
Doing some research I found that these caps commonly known as Molded
Caps are no longer in production due to the wax impregnating process
which is highly carcinogenic.
Which lead me to a cap manufacture who built me SCR ( ie. Special Cap
Request ). I requested a thicker film and a dialectric which closly
reproduced the responce of Wax Molded Caps.
Also some added benifits are 1) Due to high number of caps I had to
order and all caps having the same lot # I find a nice consistency from
amp to amp. 2) With more of my amps being exported, the proprietary caps
gives me some security against knock-offs, I think any way.
Later DR.Z