That is interesting that the Sprague caps look to be identical to the holy grail CDE/Malloy caps. There is a post somewhere in the archives here in TAG where someone visited a single plant where both of them we being made.... when the CDE Mallory 0.1uf cap reserves dried up I started using and selling the Spragues for traditional Wreck builds and they sounded indistinguishable ... i had more folks worry about finding flea clips than original caps.
RJ Guitars wrote:That is interesting that the Sprague caps look to be identical to the holy grail CDE/Malloy caps. There is a post somewhere in the archives here in TAG where someone visited a single plant where both of them we being made.... when the CDE Mallory 0.1uf cap reserves dried up I started using and selling the Spragues for traditional Wreck builds and they sounded indistinguishable ... i had more folks worry about finding flea clips than original caps.
An odd looking little forked connector. It is sorta like the old school diy form of a turret... this is what KF used on all his builds. They press into the perf board known by its trade name of "Vectorbord". Neither of these are especially fun to work with in comparison with the modern alternatives, but were a big piece of the state of the art in their day... although modern boards and turrets were well established even before the days of Trainwreck. They were somewhat utilitarian like the thin Bud chassis and were handy for prototype builds.
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RJ Guitars wrote:An odd looking little forked connector. It is sorta like the old school diy form of a turret... this is what KF used on all his builds. They press into the perf board known by its trade name of "Vectorbord". Neither of these are especially fun to work with in comparison with the modern alternatives, but were a big piece of the state of the art in their day... although modern boards and turrets were well established even before the days of Trainwreck. They were somewhat utilitarian like the thin Bud chassis and were handy for prototype builds.
Ahhhh. No worries on the flea clips. A regular turret board will suffice!
RJ Guitars wrote:That is interesting that the Sprague caps look to be identical to the holy grail CDE/Malloy caps. There is a post somewhere in the archives here in TAG where someone visited a single plant where both of them we being made.... when the CDE Mallory 0.1uf cap reserves dried up I started using and selling the Spragues for traditional Wreck builds and they sounded indistinguishable ... i had more folks worry about finding flea clips than original caps.
Lucky me. I have over 20 packs of nos orange drop caps lots of .1s too!
I have a bucket of each of the other values used In the Wreck builds of you want to swap out any of them... plus the mother lode of the Mallory TC filter caps
RJ Guitars wrote:I have a bucket of each of the other values used In the Wreck builds of you want to swap out any of them... plus the mother lode of the Mallory TC filter caps
Here's the million dollar question....how much effect do filter supply caps have on the wreck tone? I was planning on using JJ cans and am curious how much this will affect the overall tone?
RJ Guitars wrote:An odd looking little forked connector. It is sorta like the old school diy form of a turret... this is what KF used on all his builds. They press into the perf board known by its trade name of "Vectorbord". Neither of these are especially fun to work with in comparison with the modern alternatives, but were a big piece of the state of the art in their day... although modern boards and turrets were well established even before the days of Trainwreck. They were somewhat utilitarian like the thin Bud chassis and were handy for prototype builds.
I find it funny as no one seems to give a hoot that the other terminals Ken used are still made today and also looks like JM is using them as well. And im not talking about the vector clips I previously thought were OEM wreck parts.
RockinRocket wrote:...I find it funny as no one seems to give a hoot that the other terminals Ken used are still made today and also looks like JM is using them as well. And im not talking about the vector clips I previously thought were OEM wreck parts.
O.K., took me a second to follow you... the ones I show in the photo above are the originals like those used in the Francesca build. It turns out for me that the later flea clips are not so much the issue but you can't find the white perf board. The modern flea clips and perf board also have a different diameter hole and center to spacing than the Francesca era builds.
In my later versions I altogether eliminated both turrets and flea clips... I created a set of PCB boards in the same layout as the original boards I was able to drastically reduce the amount of metal and number of tag ends and built the quietest and most reliable of any of my Express fabs so far. Sacrilegious for sure but has the best of the Express behavior without including the worst.
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lpd wrote:...Here's the million dollar question....how much effect do filter supply caps have on the wreck tone? I was planning on using JJ cans and am curious how much this will affect the overall tone?
Again, it's sacrilegious but my best sounding Express uses JJ can caps and Mercury Magnetics transformers rather than the NOS Mallory filter caps and Pacific transformers. We can debate forever whether it sounds better or even similar to a real Express. However, in the hands of the right player it can be very convincing...
FWIW, I sell a few parts to JM occasionally and he has bought more than one combination of caps for builds or rebuilds... YMMV
RJ, probably you will think I'm crazy but I like much better the vector board and flea clips than turrets. Go figure!!
I still have the boards for the Liverpool that I haven't build yet but one day I will pull that off!!!!
I think all caps, trannys and tubes are important to an express and also important but overlooked is the volume pot. I wish we could find slow taper pots from the 70's!!
No, I don't think you are crazy. In fact you have my absolute respect. Keeping the exact specs to build a clone is a tough request and those that can consistently make it work are real craftsman in my book. I'm on my own unique agenda and its also a path that not everyone will want to follow... I appreciate what you and all the TAG forum folks add to the mix of things.
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