CORNELL DUBILIER - TC74

[Structo]

Tech Caps seem to be made in Shanghai, China?

[David Root]

According to RJ's site, they are "Made in USA". I'm planning a 5E8A head, the current 5E8A thread has got me all worked up....!!

So, it looks like F&T or these TC caps, or off to Ebay for orange Spragues.

Maybe the cheapest Chinese caps would have the right ESR?

How about a higher than normal choke, like say 10H, with a super fast Black Gate on the first B+ cap? I have some Black Gates left.

Woooo! I just checked Mouser's pricing on the Mallory TC caps. RJ is much cheaper, but they're still up there with what the Black Gates used to sell for.

If you use these TC s at the same capacity as the tweed schematics/layouts show, are they tighter than the old ones or do you still have to put in higher value ones to tighten the bass a tad?

[RJ Guitars]

Great thread going here...

I dunno what is up with Mallory and the cost of those TC filter caps. I buy them in quantity when I can find them and almost always have to wait as if they are manufacturing them after I order them. Each time I order they seem to go up a couple bucks each... but the Wreck purists love them and the results seem to justify the cost for many folks... (I don't use them myself).

Tech-cap says right on them "made in USA"... hopefully that is meaningful. They are also rated at 500V which I kinda like. The price on them has started to climb but the last big order I bought was still about 1/3 of the cost of the above mentioned CDE/Mallory's.

I did find some modern production CDE filter caps that look real nice but appear to be a different technology than the old TC Mallory's.

I've also got about eight (NOS) of the old paper cartridge 20uF 450V CDE Mallory caps that might be very appropriate for a tweed era build... don't need much for them if you hear them calling your name. Might be able to get more too.

Has anybody built an Express or ODS with all Nichicon caps in it and made the claim it sounds like the real deal? That would save us all a lot of money if it were true...

rj

[Cliff Schecht]

RJ I have bags of those old paper electrolytics. The only reason I don't throw them out is I'm sure they will have some sort of environmental impact. Once I learn how to recycle electronics in Lubbock I'll probably have a few hundred pounds worth of parts to offload.

I've built a Rocket using all Nichicon ultra flat caps (400V rated 22uF) and some 47uF 450V small Nichicon's as well. IMO the amp sounded great aside from the weird buzzing issue that the amp has always had. I'm pretty sure that buzz was from underrating the power transformer too much though, not the caps. I can probably give a definitive answer to this question in about two weeks .

[diagrammatiks]

i can't imagine the nichicons sounding exactly the same as the exact caps that were used in the express or ods...

Although it definitely depends on the specific.

nichicon tvx are the only axials they still make but they are labeled standard use by nichicon.

the lkx is supposed to be their newer audio line of ultra low esr caps. rated up to 105C

[FYL]

Tech Caps seem to be made in Shanghai, China?

Used to be manufactured by UCC (United Chemi-Con), dunno about the current situation.

[RJ Guitars]

We definitely need a specification correct Wreck - transformers, layout, wire, and etc., then use the cheap caps... of course if we did the same thing and built two amps with Mallory caps they would sound different anyway so it's always a challenge. You gotta love analog electronics. Not much doubt in my mind Ken Fischer would have been able to build a fantastic sounding amp using Nichicon caps if that is what he had laying around at the time.

[diagrammatiks]

We definitely need a specification correct Wreck - transformers, layout, wire, and etc., then use the cheap caps... of course if we did the same thing and built two amps with Mallory caps they would sound different anyway so it's always a challenge. You gotta love analog electronics. Not much doubt in my mind Ken Fischer would have been able to build a fantastic sounding amp using Nichicon caps if that is what he had laying around at the time.

ya. the hardest part has been trying to figure out which limitations actually contributed to the sound.

I've built a few single ended test circuits using all film filter caps that behave completely differently then anything i've played before.