Guitar Amp Grade Capacitors ???

[Chuck H]

It's not beating. Dai was careful to find actual ghosting. Cranked Marshalls beat like crazy when you bend while playing more than one note and you can hear it all over the place (All Right Now-Free, almost anything from Angus, etc.). Ghosting is different and Dai did well to locate examples that show the difference. Ghosting happens because the musical note creates a differential tone with the power supply. Beating is usually the differential between two played notes. Although this phenomenon doesn't always seem to beat. It's often heard as a bassy drone underlying an upper register two string bend.


Chuck

[dai h.]

Ironman II cross promotion forced embed disable on AC/DC vids, but we get the idea.

beating notes is how every guitarist tunes up right?

oh, I get it now. You thought that wasn't ghosting. Scratching my head for a second there.

[MWJB]

Chuck wrote "The amps I've been building lately use plain ATOM caps. I try to idealize my grounds and I get no audible ghosting. These are high gain non master volume amps that live with the volume cranked. Much higher gain than any vintage amp. GW is up to his snake oil sales techniques to infer that vintage amps used a lesser cap than the ones he's using. Too bad too, because if you weed out the BS the GW Signature amp pitch sounds pretty good anyway. Selling pseudo tech to pie eyed players just cheapens the picture for me." I don't see that is what he is saying, he says that the Kendrick caps are modelled after Sprague Atoms, it's the value (100uf after the rectifier) that he is saying helps keep things together when pushed.

[stratele52]

the kendricks caps look to be made in asia ( China, taiwan ?)

I wont buy them but I'll buy Sprague Atoms or F&T

[MWJB]

"the kendricks caps look to be made in asia ( China, taiwan ?)"

Do you have anything to back that up with? If not, why post it. I don't see how that can be determined simply by looking at a photo. If you call/e-mail Gerald, I'm sure that he will tell you where they are made.

But if we're going to play the guessing game, I'd guess US or German manufacture.

[fyl]

But if we're going to play the guessing game, I'd guess US or German manufacture.

The lettering is typical of Richey, Xicon and other Asian manufacturers.

[MWJB]

Xicon isn't a manufacturer...few of the accepted "brands" that we see are. Lettering & shrink wrap can surely be specified by the client?

[MWJB]

Quick check, I can't find 40uf 500v, 20uf 500v in Nichicon brand? 450v seems to be the highest voltage.

They are undoubtedly made somewhere, it's quicker to ask than to speculate.

[fyl]

Xicon has been producing caps since 1973 under the Transcap brand. Anyway this point is moot as they're phasing out their elco activity, replacing their products with Lelon-sourced models.

http://www.mouser.com/pdfdocs/LelonXiconcaps.pdf

[stratele52]

ALL asiatic caps have those black minus "arrow"

I NEVER see that on US, German or other quality caps

[MWJB]

Doesn't prove anything, doesn't even prove that all the caps with the Kendrick brand are manufactured in the same company...if you order enough caps from a company, I'm sure they'll give you pink shrink wrap with green arrows if you want.

I rarely see Asian axial caps with a 500v rating, other than Illinois and Gerald is not selling them.

Just ask him...

[stratele52]

It's my experience with parts said that. But I don't have written proof from this company.

But if I see a Strat with Epiphone peg head I will think it is not a Fender, but I had no proof, except experience.

[MWJB]

Well, my experience says otherwise...but proof is proof, experience is experience.

What did Gerald say?

[R.G.]

ALL asiatic caps have those black minus "arrow"

I NEVER see that on US, German or other quality caps

One truism in USA and European manufacturing today is that there are two kinds of companies: those that manufacture in low-labor-cost countries, and those that are going broke.

It makes me a little nuts to hear the mindless repetition of the idea that made in Asia equals low quality. Actually, it makes me a little nuts to hear mindless repetition of any convenient mantra.

First, as noted before, it's quite easy to get a capacitor made for you with anything you want printed on the plastic sleeve. Second, how exactly do you know the origin of those "US, German, or other quality caps"? The odds are very, very high that the US, German, or other company gets them custom made in a low-labor-cost country and is just being quiet about it because of exactly the mojo myth that gets so readily bandied about.

==> NOTHING you see on a shrink-label gives you any assurance about where the part came from. <==

I suggest you read this: Counterfeits for an introduction. It's probably worse if a product does insist it came from a quality manufacturer. That makes it a target.

Second, I have real, direct, personal experience with getting stuff manufactured in Asia. I can tell you first hand what's real about it. Here's a sampling of reality.

"Asian" is a convenient geographical term, not a monolithic group of people. If you ever want to start a fight, suggest to a Korean that he's Japanese, or a person from Japan that he's Korean, or a person from China that he's Japanese. Or Vietnamese, or, or, or. The "asian" you speak of is very large, and very diverse.

They are, however, all either already or learning to be adroit businesspeople. They will sell you what you want to pay for, and what they can make money selling you. I personally lived through the era when "Made in Japan" was a synonym for "cheap junk". Ask the auto industry how that worked out over time.

The villains, if there are villains, in the quest for quality are the USA/European MBAs who insist on selling the cheapest junk they can sell. You can get whatever you want from an Asian seller - including the cheapest junk possible. As well as counterfeits. But you can also get quality.

There is a magic secret to getting quality anywhere. Hold on. It's...

==> You have to work at it. <==

If you're willing to pay for quality, you can do it by simply writing big checks. That will (sometimes) get you good quality. Or you can pay for it by writing smaller checks and putting in the personal labor to get good stuff by educating yourself about what good stuff is and then going and working to get it.

Sadly, there is a way to make lots of money by chanting the mantra that "only US/German/Euro/whatever is any good" and there is a section of the population that will not only accept that for the truth, they will repeat your advertising for you to show other uninformed people how much they "know".

You want quality components? Put in the work to identify (a) what quality is, in numbers and not myth/legend and (b) manufacturers who provide that, no matter where the manufacturer is.

You want quality that you can afford? You're going to have to work at it, not just repeat the mantra.

[Gtr_tech]

audio example from around 2:40:

YouTube - Van Halen - Drop Dead Legs

I listened to this over and over until FINALLY it dawned on me what that was.



I actually think it sounds kinda cool.

I think thats an octave effect (octave below). Thats what it sounds like to me.