Re: box vs film caps (if that even makes sense)

Posted by tabbycat on
URL: http://guitar-fx-layouts.238.s1.nabble.com/box-vs-film-caps-if-that-even-makes-sense-tp25024p25091.html

buy some cheap kits from ebay and play with them. for £6 you can cover a ton of bases with ceramics and greens, and fill in the gaps with odd values and fancy stuff as and when.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/278-Pcs-30-Values-Polyester-Film-Capacitor-Assorted-Assortment-Kit-470pf-470nf-/251506641374?hash=item3a8ef6c9de

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/30-Values-300pcs-Ceramic-Capacitor-2pf-0-1UF-Assortment-Kit-MA-/171937379038?hash=item28084432de

as to deciding which type to use and when, if it's a clone i tend to look at the original. for example lots of cap snobs are down on ceramics but quite a few vintagey clones i've built have been exclusively ceramic apart from the electros (1uf and above). fender blender may have been one of them. ad50 another. can't remember which now. but if the original pcb was ceramic i go ceramic, same with film. if they sounded crap i would try another but they invariably sound amazing.
in my head i tend to have a kind of idea that for modulation films (greenies or box) are better suited as they are claimed to be a bit cleaner. whereas for fuzz and dirt ceramics are an option too as a little noise may add to the texture. but there is a lot of cork sniffing out there in cap land, so i may have just caught that prejudice from reading too much into too little too often (see last link in this post).

greenies are pretty good caps i think, miro describes them as 'underrated' in his component guide http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.co.uk/p/components.html which is why i suggested the above kit.
but they can get big from 100nf so if you have a few bunched up you may need to plan a bit before soldering.

and finally...

The 'Sound' of Capacitors..
http://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?t=8625