Brownface replacement caps

[71model]

Any advice on best replacement caps for a Fender Brownface era amp. Are Nichocon's a good choice?
I was under the impression that Mallory 150 and Sprague Orange Drops where the "thing" to have.
This is for signal and filter both.
Thanks

[azatplayer]

I really really like the russian K40Y-9 PIO caps in these amps. Paper in oil sound right to my ears. I thiunk consensus is most of the xxx-con caps are ok.

[Structo]

Depending what you already have inside, many Fender fans like the coupling caps that Fender used.
I'm not as familiar with what they used in the Brown face amps but if they are the blue or yellow Astron caps then leave them alone unless they are real leaky.

For filtering caps, you have a lot of choices.
Most expensive is not always the best.

[6G6]

The earliest ones were still using up the Astrons.
Then they went to the blue ones that everyone loves.
There were, of course, some that were mixed.

[71model]

This one was mixed. It had some round paper caps the dia of a 20 ga shell(I know that's weak), and some blue molds. I had it serviced and got it back with some hifi caps "Nichocon"(black). Is this acceptable, I ask for it to be as original as possible? I don't have beef, just want to get it done correctly and utilize good resources.


Thanks for the input

[Cliff Schecht]

I'd drop some Sprague Atom's in there and call it done. I never mind opening up a restored amp and seeing those in there. Allyn's Tech Caps are great as well and conveniently much smaller for those hard to recap areas.

[orrong65]

Sprague Atoms for the electrolytics, blue molded for the coupling caps and tone caps, NOS ceramics for the pf caps, including the treble tone stack cap. Second choice instead of blue molded would be Mallory 150s, which dont sound quite as sharp as the orange drops and others.

Avoid the audiophile polystyrene and silver mica caps, they can be too efficient, and sound too sterile. Definitely not for the 'brown tone'.

The key is to get vintage caps that have been tested for leakage at high voltage, not just the 9V of the typical multimeter.

[selloutrr]

for the money the mojo oil caps are really nice.

sozo reissed the "blue" caps

the metal case russian paper / oil caps are nice but do to the metal housing can have grounding issues. so wrap them in heatshrink.

your next best choice is track down vintage. contact bob rissi of risson amps. he has a stash of nos fender from the 50's -70's

[71model]

Do the Blue Molds leak? Some of the Blue Molds were taken out of 2 of my amps and replace with HiFi caps. (Not what I asked for, lesson learned).

You Fellas are great! I feel really good about the reply, at least I know what to do now.
Thanks

[selloutrr]

all caps can leak and drift. time is the enemy, actually caps that are used on a regular basis are more likely to be in tolorance then caps that have set on a shelf for years. but there is no gaurantee. tone caps can last forever if not abused, i.e. stored in an oven or a swimming pool, lol I know extreme but the enviroment plays a big part.

I've seen 100's of vintage amps where the tone caps are still trucking along. I've had to change out just as many bad ones.
I've noticed a trend that if the electrolytics are changed about ever 10years and the amp has been stored in a climate controlled enviroment and used on a regular basis. The rest of the parts all seem to have a better tolorance to original spec. probably due to less stress from unregulated voltage.

has anyone else noticed this?

it sucks to have to change the tone of an amp but when the original part is not available or funds limit the choice in parts all you can do is put in the next best thing. the good news. you can always restore it to original spec at a later date.

[71model]

good post, I think I'm goin with the last sentence on restoring. I just need to broaden my resources, get a real Fender Guru.

[selloutrr]

You are in luck since it's a fender amp all you need to do is open up the amplifer find the number stamp and verify the circuit.

fender has released the schematics and layout for every vintage amplifier, blakface and brown.

Refer to the schematic and layout to make sure your circuit has not been modified and if so and you are happy with the changes draw in the changes to the schematic for future reference.

go online and look up risson amplifiers contact bob rissi and request a price for the parts you need. he is very nice and brilliant when it comes to fender ampifiers!

or ebay if you want blue caps

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=blue+m ... 86.c0.m359