Yet another Cap question.

[arjepsen]

I'm in the initial planning of getting stuff for an express.
Since I live in Europe, on of the main sites I'm buying from is
www.banzaieffects.com

Searching around this forum, it seems to me that people regard the tone from Polyester caps over polypropylene.
A lot of names have been thrown out, (ps6,pvc,225,mpp etc.)
I found the 225's at the above mentioned site. However, as far as I can see on that site, they're only rated for 100V.... is this correct??
They also have the xicon mpp variant though. However, aren't these polypropylene, and not polyester?

Regards.
Anders

[declan]

Anders,

I know this is not answering your question but my advice is to check the pricing from mouser & allied in the US

I also was going to purchase components in europe and even with import duty, VAT and shipping Mouser & Allied were significantly less expensive

[arjepsen]

Thanks for the reply.
I've been thinking about ordering from at least allied, but so far, my attempts at calculating the cost, didn't give me anything saved.

And I think one of my main questions is regarding the xicon mpp's, since they seem to be p.propylene, as far as I can tell, and the rest of the suggested caps seem to be polyester....

[arjepsen]

btw, I live in Denmark, and I think (correct me if I'm wrong), that there may be differences in all the tax/vat-stuff in different european countries.

[Ron Worley]

Anders-


Here's a link to my Bill of Material for the Express, it tells you where to get most things (albeit US based). Hope this helps!

https://tubeamparchive.com/viewtopic.php?t=5319

Ron

[arjepsen]

Thankyou very much.
That's the one I'm currently working from, but I am trying to find european suppliers.

[tob]

Anders,

you can use the Mallorys or Wima MKS4s if you buy from Banzai. I built my Express clone using the MKS4s and it sounds killer.

Tubetown, another German store (http://www.tube-town.net/ttstore/), also has Roederstein MKT 1813s, which are pretty good sounding. They're rated at 400VDC though, so they will only work in your preamp section.

Cheers,
Tobias

[arjepsen]

Thanks a bunch
But... it still doesn't answer my main questions...

Banzai has both the xicon mpp's and the 225's, both wich have been spoken highly of on this forum. (plus they're about the only place in europe I've found that has RV4 type pots)
However, the 225's on banzai are listed as only 100V??? wich confuses me, since people seem to talk about using them throughout the amp.
Also, it seems polyester is the prefered type of cap, soundwise, but aren't the mpp's p.propylene??

[Fischerman]

I think most people that use polyester film/foil caps do so because that's what the originals used. And there are some that when asked will tell you to use the same type caps just so you're starting from as close to an established baseline as possible. I think the difference is so subtle that when people post to say that their amp doesn't sound good...it's not cap-type that's the problem...it's something much bigger/more obvious and the difference is not subtle. But you'll never really know unless you try for yourself...which is why I use polyester...I had to try them and once I bought 'em I'm using 'em.

Those caps are available in different voltage ratings. 400v should be fine throughout the amp but I usually try to get 630v. Many vintage amps used 400v caps throughout and they often ran at higher voltages than an Express. Go to Mouser and find the caps (it's not as easy as I expected but I did eventually find them at Mouser) and you'll see there are several different voltage ratings.

[dave g]

If I'm not mistaken, aren't the new PVCs polypro as well?

Whatever the dielectric is, they sound great. I don't think you can go wrong with any of the caps you mentioned, and there's even more good stuff out there like M150s as well.

[jelle]

Thanks a bunch
But... it still doesn't answer my main questions...

Banzai has both the xicon mpp's and the 225's, both wich have been spoken highly of on this forum. (plus they're about the only place in europe I've found that has RV4 type pots)
However, the 225's on banzai are listed as only 100V??? wich confuses me, since people seem to talk about using them throughout the amp.
Also, it seems polyester is the prefered type of cap, soundwise, but aren't the mpp's p.propylene??

225's come in different voltage ratings...100v is cool for effects but not for tube amps...I suggest the WIMA MKS4 as the most neutral sounding cap of the alternatives mentioned. They sound most like the 6PS series that were in some real wrecks. I use both in my Dumble style builds.

MPP's are polypropylene...haven't tried those but the 715 orange drops polypropylene as well as the WIMA polypropylene (MKP?) give me a headache.

Good luck and do not worry too much!
Leaddress is way more important!