Tantalum Caps in TS808

[Paul Marossy]

What is the effect on the sound if you don't use the (2) 0.22uF tantalum caps and use electrolytics instead? Anyone try this? How did it sound?

[Steve C]

I've done this and didn't care for the electro in the tone control at all.  Seemed too bright to me.  I used the electros for awhile then changed to tants, and they just sounded a lot better IMO.

[Mike Nichting]

A lot of people like the Tantalum caps in the tone section. You can also replace them with film type, especially metal film sounds good.

 It's really a personal thing some like the Tants and some like Films.

Try them both and see what you think :-)

Mike N.

[Paul Marossy]

Yeah, I was thinking that some film caps would probably sound fine, too. I'll have to experiment a little bit...

I etched the GGG PCB and populated it all in one evening (last night). I finally decided to build the TS-808 just for the heck of it after building 20+ projects so far.  :wink:

Mainly, I'm just curious to see how this sounds compared to other things that I have built thus far.

[Mike Nichting]

Hey Paul,
I've heard that the Blue Magic pedal or whatever it's called at GGG is very nice too. It's supposed to be better than the TS.
Have you built it??

Mike

[Paul Marossy]

Mike,

Yep, I've built that one. I like it a lot. Give it a try, it's a fairly easy build compared to the TS.  

[george]

I've done this and didn't care for the electro in the tone control at all.  Seemed too bright to me.  I used the electros for awhile then changed to tants, and they just sounded a lot better IMO.

Just out of curiousity Steve, did you measure the actual capacitance of the electro's on a DMM? I'm just wondering whether the tolerance of the caps was a factor? After all, 0.22uF (the value of TS-9/808/10 tone caps) is pretty small for electrolytic which is usually used for capacitances of 1uF upwards?

Cheers
George

[Gil]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the tantalum are those which give the TS it's gritty character...

[Steve C]

Yeah, the ones I used were + or - 20% measured around 0.223 uf.  When I said too bright I meant with the tone control at max.  The tant I used didn't get quite as high for my taste, I wanted a smoother transition, and the electro I used kinda jumped on the high end.  Maybe it was that particular component?

[george]

Yeah, the ones I used were + or - 20% measured around 0.223 uf.  When I said too bright I meant with the tone control at max.  The tant I used didn't get quite as high for my taste, I wanted a smoother transition, and the electro I used kinda jumped on the high end.  Maybe it was that particular component?

I've got a TS-9 that is kinda dark sounding even with the tone maxed going into a fairly bright sounding amp, but it's nice ... it's got the tants but I wouldn't at all describe it as "gritty" sounding (not exactly "tube" but very smooth ...).

I guess my question is, are we being scientific or just falling for boutique pedal maker's hype.  Possibly the difference between electro's and tants is that I've heard that electo's are can be leaky - this could explain the sudden jump Steve's mentioned due to a current going thru the cap that shouldn't ....

BTW I've also got an SD-1 that I've fiddled with, changing clipping diodes and the input cap, but I'm not as satisfied with the tone as with a bog-standard TS-9 (which I wouldn't WANT to fiddle with! ;-)).  

I think "grit" would be more a result of pre- and post- clipping EQ and maybe differences between clipper diodes - it seems very easy to "miss the mark" with these kind of circuits; the TS-9 is probably a happy accident where everything is "just right" and if you try to "improve" on it (like Boss's SD-1) it doesn't really make it (IMHO) ...

just my $0.05 ... sorry if this rambles a bit ...

Cheers