Capacitor question

[acorkos]

I just repaired a Fender Blues Jr, which had intermittent static noise...noise that would get significantly louder as the reverb pot was turned up. C23 in the reverb circuit was leaking electrolyte, so I replaced it...and I swapped out the TL072 IC while I had the PCB out, put in a socket for the IC as well. I couldn't find a .47uF/100V electrolytic cap locally, so I put in a mylar cap of correct value instead. It seems to be working normally...is there any problem with not using the electrolytic cap? Thanks for your input.

[Leo_Gnardo]

is there any problem with not using the electrolytic cap?

No problem at all. IMHO it's better quality than electrolytic, at least it will never leak spuzz (electrolyte) as another cap in that amp already has.

[acorkos]

thanks

[drewl]

"Spuzz". Ha, good one.

I usually call capacitor shit "schmegma"

Get alot of stuff at work with cap crap leaked all over making a nasty mess.

[nickb]

No problem at all. IMHO it's better quality than electrolytic, at least it will never leak spuzz (electrolyte) as another cap in that amp already has.

"spuzz!" you've invented a new word. I like it

[Leo_Gnardo]

"spuzz!" you've invented a new word. I like it

Aw heck no, I got "spuzz" from Bob Bradshaw, the effects-switching system wizard. Also heard it used by John Campion, founder of ShowPower and now quite the successful executive. Once again I stand on the shoulders of giants, and happy to give them credit.

In any case, beware that capacitor spuzz/schmeg, it's generally sodium hydroxide plus other mystery chemicals, none of 'em good for ya. And corrosive besides.

[Tom Phillips]

And be careful how and where you use the word "Spuzz."
Reference the Urban dictionary definition at Urban Dictionary: spuzz

[Justin Thomas]

Same goes for "spooge." And probably every other word we use to describe cap goo. "Electrolyte" sounds too much like "what plants crave."

Justin

[Leo_Gnardo]

And be careful how and where you use the word "Spuzz."
Reference the Urban dictionary definition

Yeh I know. It does make for a laugh. And we were using it wayyyy before Urban Dictionary was born.

Besides, it lends itself to colorful and amusing portmanteau usages. "When I looked in that old Fender's doghouse, it was spuzz-o-rama!" You shoulda seen that cap turn into a spuzzrocket after I hooked it up backwards!

Besides, UD seems to concentrate on those kind of definitions. When did you ever see anything technical in there?

While we're at it, there's a similar old tech word that was used apparently decades before I started looking inside chassis: spudge/spudging. As in "this tool is useful in spudging." Apparently it means adding extra component leads to an already soldered connection. For instance on a tie strip, when you melt the solder, poke a hole thru it so the new lead can be placed. Find that one in your UD. Or anywhere else. I got my fave spudging tool, how about you?

[Justin Thomas]

I also have a ziploc bag full of spudgers. I used them to replace the screen on my Kindle. Spudgers come in metal and a variety of different floors and shades of plastic... they're used for prying apart tight spaces without marring the surfaces of the components.

Justin

[Tom Phillips]

Well... UD has "Balls to the wall" basically defined correctly. I remember a female coworker acting offended, or at least surprised, when I used the expression in a status meeting ~30 years ago. Reference Urban Dictionary: balls to the wall

[eschertron]

I first became aware of UD when travelling through rural Ohio and passed Fangboner Road

Apparently, Urban Dictionary is crowdsourced and accepts odd, unreasoned, and otherwise juvenile entries. The definitions at UD don't even make sense. It's a shame to take a colorful and potentially interesting term and reduce it to such rubbish. It clearly has nothing to do with vampires. sigh.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Well... UD has "Balls to the wall" basically defined correctly. I remember a female coworker acting offended, or at least surprised, when I used the expression in a status meeting ~30 years ago.

Isn't there always someone around to be offended? Seems to be such a today thing what with our current crop of "SJW's" and special snowflakes . . . but no it's been going on since forever. Maybe your coworker had just been to an AC/DC concert? It's kind of kool when the tables are turned, and a woman uses these figures of speech. That's when the stiffs start to choke, aherrrrrmmmm.....

Well I guess we solved the OP's problem awhile ago, on to better things. Got a '70 Major here needs a new kit of KT88's.

[olddawg]

I had a female office manager not speak to me for a year once because I said she was being "anal" about one of my invoices. I finally aske her what her issue was? She said I had called her an asshole. I told her it was a fuedian term for being over meticulous to detail. Then she wouldn't talk to me because I had insinuated she was stupid evidently. Sometimes you just can't get past certain phrases.

[eschertron]

I had a female office manager not speak to me for a year once because I said she was being "anal" about one of my invoices. I finally aske her what her issue was? She said I had called her an asshole. I told her it was a fuedian term for being over meticulous to detail. Then she wouldn't talk to me because I had insinuated she was stupid evidently. Sometimes you just can't get past certain phrases.

If it's anything like the office where I work, there are certain people who cannot accept the idea that they are not always right, all of the time. And, yes, slipping a vocabulary word that they don't understand into the conversation is a sure-fire way to raise their hackles.