What capactor's and resistor's should I use for my high gain

jasonp · Post by **jasonp** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 9:06 pm

Marshall build I want to do.

This amp will have a switchable 39k cold clipper along with jose master and diodes. Go from bright side of a super lead to an 800 and above.
Any thoughts or sugestions would be great!
Thank you,
Jason

Tone Junkie · Post by **Tone Junkie** » Tue Aug 10, 2010 12:40 am

I like sozo,s and carbon film but I dont know squat there just easy high quality and quite . What does your layout look like, sounds like a good idea for a high gain amp. Bill

Joe L · Post by **Joe L** » Sun Sep 05, 2010 8:15 pm

One watt 500v rated CF resistors from Mouser and non-metalized polyester film/foil caps such as the 225P or PS series or Mallory PVC series Orange drops or standard SOZOs if you need axials. It doesn't hurt to use polypropylene in the phase inverter in some cases but use a Mica for the fizz cap. I like ceramics for low value bypass in the signal path like the 470p in the tone stack and the 470p/470K in Marshalls.

The longer the signal path, the less it matters as long as you use decent quality stuff such as the cheap Xicon metalized polypros. Once you get past 3 gain stages with a lot of attenuation between stages it is hard to hear any component type differences.

On one end you have Trainwrecks where the damn color of the wire affects the tone and on the other, a 5150 with six stages.

..Joe L

kdmay · Post by **kdmay** » Sun Oct 17, 2010 6:21 am

Has anyone used these resistors? (Go to Parts, Resistors)

http://www.westlabs.com/Frames.HTML" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Metal film 1% 1 watt, the specs seem impressive but the price is to match! That said, in a plexi it's a $28 difference, so not too bad.....

jerrydyer · Post by **jerrydyer** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 2:57 pm

never heard of em...

demonufo · Post by **demonufo** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 4:11 pm

Probably sound fantastic in hi-gain solid state headphone amps.

No idea though to be fair.

For what it's worth, I have spent MUCH more than that on resistors before (now out of manufacture Riken Ohms, some of which were $6 each) and no, I definitely did not get anything like my "money's worth". They're not bad however, but I really wouldn't recommend them at the price. Partly since many values are now damned near impossible to find.

Kiwames are very popular for real high quality Carbon Films these days (also identical resistors under the Koa Speer brand which are cheaper. However, I don't know WHICH model of Koa Speer is the same as the Kiwames).
Metal Films generally don't float my boat in guitar amps, but some of the low-noise Vishay types are a definite "neutrality" improvement in many hi-fi builds that I used to mess around with in the not-so-distant past.

kdmay · Post by **kdmay** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 4:39 pm

demonufo wrote:Probably sound fantastic in hi-gain solid state headphone amps.

Hmmm, I have one of those on my list, maybe I should try them out!!

demonufo wrote:For what it's worth, I have spent MUCH more than that on resistors before (now out of manufacture Riken Ohms, some of which were $6 each) and no, I definitely did not get anything like my "money's worth". They're not bad however, but I really wouldn't recommend them at the price. Partly since many values are now damned near impossible to find.

Kiwames are very popular for real high quality Carbon Films these days (also identical resistors under the Koa Speer brand which are cheaper. However, I don't know WHICH model of Koa Speer is the same as the Kiwames).
Metal Films generally don't float my boat in guitar amps, but some of the low-noise Vishay types are a definite "neutrality" improvement in many hi-fi builds that I used to mess around with in the not-so-distant past.

Those Kiwames look interesting. Around the same price and you can get 2w and 5w versions, so presumably they could work in the B+ line too.

rip · Post by **rip** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 3:14 pm

I had a post a while back. Searching is your friend

http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php ... &sk=t&sd=a

Rip

Doug H · Post by **Doug H** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 6:29 pm

I ended up sold on the amtrans resistors. I excperimented with switching them in and out of the plate on V1 and am convinced it made a difference. To me they are a bit smoother than typical and classic cf but had a solid feel to them.

Theere's a multitude of tests I haven't done that occur to me, like .5w versus. A lot of modern half watts are spec'd at 350 volts or so, so maybe part of the old NOS voodoo is the resistors could handle more voltage without colouring the sound? So maybe any quality 1w resistor will be tops? Or the opposite, a stressed resistor running over spec adds that magic mojo. It probably depends what kind of tone you are after.

When I put an old 100k piher in to me it moved the tone towards that old school sound, lots of bark, open and firm sounding with some top end sizzle. Cheap cf I tried sounded similar but didn't have the same mid range bark, some other brand was more compressed, not as firm, the amtrans sounded most the same but wuith less sizzle.

Ti my ear and IMO...mystic voodoo bs? maybe I gear things that aren't there? I did come up to my amp a few times and without knowing which way the switch was on the back, played a bit and guessed right almost all the time.

dailey · Post by **dailey** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:58 pm

If you want something tried & true that's going to last for decades, I'd stick with Vishay Metal Oxide's, Ohmite power & orange drop coupling cap's. the best sounding amp's throughout the many years of great tone and players are base-lined with these products. it sounds like from your description you are building a 2ch amp with a dirty & dirtier ch select. maybe the 2ch plexi style amp I posted in the tech section might be something to consider. here's a look at the schematic. alot of room left for modern tweaks if the need is there, however the level & balance of tone and gain are abundant. I can post clips if you have an interest after viewing the schematic.

wishing a Happy NewYear to you all!

Dennis

SteadyEddie · Post by **SteadyEddie** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 11:37 pm

Doug H wrote:I ended up sold on the amtrans resistors. I excperimented with switching them in and out of the plate on V1 and am convinced it made a difference. To me they are a bit smoother than typical and classic cf but had a solid feel to them.

Theere's a multitude of tests I haven't done that occur to me, like .5w versus. A lot of modern half watts are spec'd at 350 volts or so, so maybe part of the old NOS voodoo is the resistors could handle more voltage without colouring the sound? So maybe any quality 1w resistor will be tops? Or the opposite, a stressed resistor running over spec adds that magic mojo. It probably depends what kind of tone you are after.

When I put an old 100k piher in to me it moved the tone towards that old school sound, lots of bark, open and firm sounding with some top end sizzle. Cheap cf I tried sounded similar but didn't have the same mid range bark, some other brand was more compressed, not as firm, the amtrans sounded most the same but wuith less sizzle.

Ti my ear and IMO...mystic voodoo bs? maybe I gear things that aren't there? I did come up to my amp a few times and without knowing which way the switch was on the back, played a bit and guessed right almost all the time.

Sorry to drag up an old topic but I was doing research and this spoke to me. Hopefully some of y'alls experience can help me out here:

I've got a Ceriatone 1987 clone that I've hot-rodded into something like a Bray-style amp. I've done all the experimenting I want with capacitors, now I'm looking at resistors. The amp came with carbon comps, but it's not Allen Bradleys, I'm pretty sure. With caps, I gravitate away from darker caps like Sozos, to more open caps like CDE DME series. So I was going to experiment with plate resistors first. I think the mixer resistors and input resistors would also be good candidates since signal actually passes through them.
Basically, I like my tone but I'd like it to be a bit more "open" and hear the nuances of the guitar and strings, but not at the expense of it sounding harsh or fizzy.

rsi · Post by **rsi** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 11:09 am

Partsconnexion has a lot of different resistors. I got the resistors for my last build from them. I used the pink Takman CFs for all the 1/2 watt resistors except for the preamp plates where i used Arcol CCs.

Doug H · Post by **Doug H** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 1:31 am

I think a lot of modern high end resistors are made with beoing in the audio9 path in mind, not so much being on the plate of a high voltage tube. You have to wonder what the "stabillity" was in the old high stabillity resistors.

rollyerown · Post by **rollyerown** » Wed Feb 08, 2012 1:19 am

I'm particular about caps, but resistors to me don't make a big difference. I use carbon film for the signal path and metal oxide for power supply. I've tried others in the signal path including carbon comp and to me it just doesn't make much difference, and what difference i did note wasn't to my ear as good as carbon film.
Now caps DO make a considerable difference to my ear at least. Sozos are great and can really make the tone thicker and richer harmonically, but the fact is theres a time and place for everything and if you really spend the time to try different caps in different locations you may find what i did. that would be that as good as sozos are i prefer mallory or other *lesser* caps in some locations, especially the tonestack. Your best bet is to try a lot of stuff and see what works for you. But a lot of swapping back and fourth is required for you ear to truly start to hear the difference clearly enough to know what works.

uiovbged332 · Post by **uiovbged332** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 7:37 pm

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