I recorded a before and after audio clip on my video camera in case any of you were interested in hearing the difference.
In both clips I tried to keep the environment the same, i.e. same amp settings (volume at 1 o clock, bright switch on brightest setting, all other controls at 12 o clock), same guitar (Ibanez Artcore semi hollow with 2 Gibson classic 57 humbuckers and Gibson historic pots), same tubes (Tungsram / Mullard 12AX7, RFT EL34s), using Hotplate set to load, line out into EHX Magnum 44 power amp to lower the volume, same camera position etc.
You will hear in each clip that I played the same thing, i.e.
1) Clean chord on bridge pickup, rolling up the guitar volume to
2) Fully distorted chord on bridge pickup, rolling down the guitar volume to
3) Clean lick on bridge pickup, rolling up the guitar volume to
4) Fully distorted lick on bridge pickup, changing pickup selector to
5) Clean chord on neck pickup, rolling up the guitar volume to
6) Fully distorted chord on neck pickup, rolling down the guitar volume to
7) Clean lick on neck pickup, rolling up the guitar volume to
8 ) Fully distorted lick on neck pickup
One very minor complaint I had about the Sozos were that they seemed a tiny bit muffled and compressed sounding at times, which I couldn't seem to dial out. The PVCs sounded slightly brighter and more open with none of that compressed feeling.
At this point I should point out a couple of things:
1) When I had the Sozos in, the presence cap was actually a Mallory 150.
2) The Sozos didn't get the full 100 hours break in time. I estimate that I had played the amp for approx 30 hours, so maybe the lack of break in contributed to what I didn't like about them. I admit that perhaps I should have been more patient, but the tinkerer in me got the better of me!
The verdict for me was that I preferred the PVCs, certainly with my main humbucker equipped guitar as heard in the clips. That was just as well, as the Sozos were so well installed in the turrets that it was a real PITA to get them out, and let's just say that a couple of them didn't make it out alive
Having said that, I would happily use Sozos again, particularly if I was going for a darker sound.
I was a little bit unsure of what to expect in this experiment, even to the point of perhaps expecting that there would no noticeable difference between the caps. But if you listen to two equivalent sections of the clip one after the other you will notice that the Sozos are darker and the PVCs are brighter.
Just for fun, I have also attached a frequency analysis plot of each clip that was produced using Audacity. The analysis was for a portion of the 'fully distorted chord on bridge pickup' section of each clip (after the last note of the chord was plucked).
I noticed that there was a clear dip in the amplitude of frequencies in the large area of purple on the left of each plot. This dip happens at a higher frequency for the PVC caps (just after 4000Hz) compared to the Sozos (just before 3000Hz).
