Hobbiest Electronic dabblers go find your stash

Rob Keeble

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GTA Ontario Canada
I came across a site that had me thinking I made a huge mistake throwing out my Philips Electronics Engineer kit last year in a clean up. (Yeah its gone.:()
The capacitors in there could have qualified for enough coin to buy some new machines by the looks of things in this post

http://artbarsnstripes.blogspot.ca/2011/04/luxe-radio-musical-instrument-company.html

I just chuckled away like crazy to think guys are going out of their way to buy capacitors that are so old just to have that "genuine" part on the restored guitar.

So go dig out that stash of old greased up paper caps from old Tube/Valve radios, ( I used to have such a stash of these things when I was around 15 lol) they may be worth a few dollars to some of these people.

I find it hard to fathom how those caps make the guitar sound special. There is good reason we moved on from making paper capacitors sealed with wax. Amazing what nostalgia is worth.
http://www.ebay.com/gds/About-Vintage-Fender-Gibson-Guitar-Tone-Capacitors-/10000000003350736/g.html

Yeah lets go back to tape hiss and snap crackle pop of the vinyl .....convince me it sounds better. Right.:huh: Distortion is distortion and noise is noise. Last I looked at it on a oscilloscope. :D
 
Never underestimate the power of a 'genuine' vintage item to part people from their cash.

Check out the amount of effort they go to in some of the stewmac videos to rewind and pot broken old pickups to make them appear to be genuine vintage items.
 
Yeah lets go back to tape hiss and snap crackle pop of the vinyl .....convince me it sounds better. Right.:huh: Distortion is distortion and noise is noise. Last I looked at it on a oscilloscope. :D

I have been buying vinyl and listening to it. It's not that it sounds better to me, it's that the listening experience is better.

You have to have more patience, and sit and actually listen to the songs the way the artists wanted you to listen, without having the ability to jump around, without it being and issue.

Tube amps definitely sound 'better' than solid state for guitars and such.

My favorite sunday morning podcast/internet radio show used to do 'jukebox' shows, where he'd post a list of songs on his jukebox, put mics up to the speakers, and then he'd punch the buttons so you could hear ALL of the clicks, whirrs and ka-chunks. Good stuff.
 
Seems guitar centric. Most of the passionate original parts activity seems to be guitar or amplifier centered. Do we see the same focus on trying to keep old stereo systems or tube radios going?
 
Rob, yes, distortion is distortion, and most guitarists want it...in controllably varying degrees. But it has to be the right kind, with primary emphasis on the odd-numbered harmonics.

But like you, I don't completely understand the allure of something like a vintage capacitor. (Mainly because I never use the tone knobs on the guitar, so the cap is never in the circuit.)
 
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