Do vintage resistors and capacitors matter in fuzz pedals or is it magical-thinking?

Mr_Claw

Hi all,

Was thinking about getting my ToneBender Mk2 rebuilt. It already has a trio of OC81Ds in, but was wondering, if I bought a set of vintage Iskra, Piher, Mustard, Phillips, and Tropical Fish components, would that make any difference at all - or is it just magical bullsh*t? 

I know nothing about electronics, but I'd guess that if you buy a 1K resistor then it's a 1K resistor - regardless of who made it. Or am I wrong...?

Thanks,

C

roberty

The old resistors might be a bit noisier

TOAN NOISE

Sporky

You're basically right. Transistors and diodes can make an audible difference in some circuits, resistor and cap types don't.

Carbon film resistors - IIRC - have wider tolerances and more self-noise, and a different value might change the sound. 

I still specced my Castledine wah with tropical fish caps just because they look ace. 

Danny1969

Well capacitors can make a small difference in some circuits, more so when used for coupling and driving into a low impedance. Probably wouldn't notice in a pedal at signal voltage but might notice in an application like the output of a headphone amp driven from a single supply. 

LastMantra

It's more the exact value/spec of the part rather than make or age or anything like that.
Saying that, different makes, types can have different ACTUAL (different tolerances) value.
So it's sometimes worth trying different components of the same GIVEN value.

Vintage parts won't necessarily sound better, but they may sound different. 

Mr_Claw

LastMantra said:

It's more the exact value/spec of the part rather than make or age or anything like that.
Saying that, different makes, types can have different ACTUAL (different tolerances) value.
So it's sometimes worth trying different components of the same GIVEN value.

Vintage parts won't necessarily sound better, but they may sound different. 

Looking it up, the original parts/values in the TBII are:

RESISTORS

• 1 X 470R 
• 1 X 1K
• 1 X 8.2K
• 1 X 10K
• 3 X 100K

CAPACITORS

• 2 X 4.7uF  63V
• 1 X 47uF  40V
• 1 X 10nF  250V
• 1 X 100nF  160V
• 1 X 10nF  100V

Are these likely to be affected? TBH I don't know the values of the parts in the circuit in my pedal as-is...

Thanks,

C

ICBM

Sporky said:

Transistors and diodes can make an audible difference in some circuits, resistor and cap types don't.

They do in much higher-voltage amp circuits. (I know we're talking about pedals here, but just for completeness.) The differences are caused by the self-distortion characteristics becoming audible at the (much) higher DC and AC voltages applied to them. At pedal voltages, resistors and most caps don't have any significant self-distortion.

The only type of caps which I think do make a difference in pedal circuits are tantalum polarised caps which are sometimes used instead of electrolytics, but are fairly rare. They're all in the 1uF range or higher as far as I know. They are generally avoided in 'proper' audio circuitry (in the signal path) for exactly the same reason - they also cause much more distortion, even at low voltages.

LastMantra

Mr_Claw said:

LastMantra said:

It's more the exact value/spec of the part rather than make or age or anything like that.
Saying that, different makes, types can have different ACTUAL (different tolerances) value.
So it's sometimes worth trying different components of the same GIVEN value.

Vintage parts won't necessarily sound better, but they may sound different. 

Looking it up, the original parts/values in the TBII are:

RESISTORS

• 1 X 470R 
• 1 X 1K
• 1 X 8.2K
• 1 X 10K
• 3 X 100K

CAPACITORS

• 2 X 4.7uF  63V
• 1 X 47uF  40V
• 1 X 10nF  250V
• 1 X 100nF  160V
• 1 X 10nF  100V

Are these likely to be affected? TBH I don't know the values of the parts in the circuit in my pedal as-is...

Thanks,

C

Thing is you might find that a dirt cheap ceramic cap might sound better than a good quality high tolerance one, just because the cheapy might have a much lower value than what is printed on it and that's what works for the pedal. 
Usually the input cap is worth trying a few. 

Just trial and error, really. Others I'm sure will know a lot more than me though.