unclej Posted December 7, 2004 Report Share Posted December 7, 2004 i've been trying to gather parts for a distortion pedal that i want to replicate and i'm having trouble finding anyone that will sell me 2 or 3 tantalum capacitors. i ordered most of the stuff through radio shack but they've discontinued them. i haven't had any luck on line finding anyone that will sell less than about a million..give or take. so my questions are: what are the properties that make them unique and is there a substitute cap that will work? oh, and the ones i need are a 1uf 25v and a 1uf 35v. the stomp box is the old mxr distortion + Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted December 7, 2004 Report Share Posted December 7, 2004 You could replace either one with an electrolytic cap - they just take up a lot more board space. As for the voltage ratings, I see no reason to use a 35 volt cap in a 9 volt powered box, but you can definitely use two identical caps, so if you think you need the 35 volt, just get two of them, and be done with it - for that matter, any voltage above that would work fine, so if all you can find is 50 volt or 63 volt, use 'em. I promise, the sound won't be affected by the voltage rating. If you're willing to look further afield than "Duh Shak", almost everybody else carries tantalums in qty 1 for reasonable prices - you'll just have to wade through the lot to find something that's the right size for your board. Mouser and Digi-Key both list several 1uF 35volt tantalum caps for less than a dollar each, and Small Bear lists a 1uF poly film cap that would be great if you've got room for it. And please, if you're building from scratch, do yourself a favor and use a different opamp - almost anything is better than a 741! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclej Posted December 8, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 thanks lk, and i don't think i'll ever order anything from "duh shak" again. they have the most inefficient webb site that i've ever seen and when you order in person they're helpful but order a lot of things from other distributors. this means two shipping costs, etc. the one thing that i'm curious about regarding the tantulam capacitors is that on the schematic and printed on the original board is a + sign by one leg of each of the caps. i know that most caps don't have pos. and neg. so i thought the tants might be different. even the schematic symbol for the tants is different than the other caps on the same drawing. but i'll order some different types and experiment with them. i've got the two original tantulams in the pedal that doesn't work so i could even substitute them if need be. thanks again for the help and the links. edited to say: special thanks for the mouser link..not only did they have everything i need plus a couple i didn't know i needed but their site is very easy to navigate and the checkout simple. i'll be using them in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted December 8, 2004 Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 Basically you can think of tants as tiny electrolytic caps - it's more complicated than that, but only if you want to know how they work. They were used by a lot of manufacturers because their small footprint helped optimize board space, not because they sounded good. The only times I've ever used them were repairs on older pedals for other people. If it's new, or for me, I avoid tantalum and ceramic caps and carbon comp resistors like the plague. I'll take real-world quiet and clean over any legendary "Mojo" tone quality any day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyG Posted December 8, 2004 Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 LK tant caps are generally considered to be serious anti mojo. mainly because they have a much lower life expectency than anything else and so are normally the first thing that needs to be replaced in old pedals. Uncle, if you can get miniature poly film caps then they will be fine for what you want, even electrolytics would do nicelly tho there is the space issue. i would have thought that unless you're trying to make the circuit tiny (im guilty of this, entire fuzz face circuit on a 2pence sized PCB anyone ) then you should have enough space for either of them oh, and like LK said. spend a bit more on the Op-Amp. get a half decent one for maybe a dollar or two. if you really wanna be flash then get a burr brown opamp, they're pricey but good from what ive heard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclej Posted December 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2004 well we cain't be havin' no bad mojo now can we? i've already ordered several of the replacements suggested above so i'll be able to try them out for space and sound. now that you mention it though i wonder if that's what's wrong with the effect that i have? hmmmmnnn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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