elcheapo resistors

[Toney]

Hi,
I've read a lot around this site regarding the tonal difference and quality of different capacitors.
Plenty has been said regarding various higher quality resistors  but what about regular run-of-the-mill Radioshack /Jaycar/Maplins? components.
They are really cheap and seem to mostly be from China.
I've taken care to get the transistors and ICs right for the thing I am building, but am using cheap off the shelf generic resistors and capacitors.
Any negatives with these cheap passive components???

[Peter Snowberg]

Caps are transistors can make quite a difference but resistors seem to be far more passive. Actually, the more passive the better.

I build with 1% metal film whenever I can but carbon film cheapie resistors work just fine too. I have thousands and thousands of carbon films.

The only resistors I try to avoid are carbon comps because of the noise.

On caps, I really like the Xicon polyester "greenies". They're cheap and they sound great to me.

[petemoore]

Ive been using 5% carbon film resistors distributes by Vellman...I must have bought 6 or 7    500pc 'ribbons of them.
 So I can't tell you really, except that there's a reason for a legend this pervasive and the noise levels don't really bother me.
 For biasing OA's I've been using LM386's, and  noiseless biasing is another option [alt] for reducing noise.
 I kind of wonder what the exact 'electron' differences there are between resistors...when they say 5% does that mean that they're off by less than 5% and stay right there even when current and voltage move around or do they have some 'sway' [transient drift characteristic] that 'moves around' with current and voltage fluctuations.
 Does reducing noise change the sound more than removing the noise you hear when signal input drop near the noise floor.
 Certain resistor positions get better mileage from 'fancy' resistors.
 In a setup for Jfet switching or probably some other 'out of the signal path' applications it should impart tonal differences to the circuit 'proper'.
 Large biasing resistors are a good place to A/B test different types of resistors...especially at inputs...whatever noise will be multiplied by amplifiers. So it would follow that where [the actual position and size of the resistors..large ones have larger noise] you're applying the resistance plays a role in noise, but often I see "All Metal Film Resistors"...and wonder just how necessary this is...

[Toney]

 In a setup for Jfet switching or probably some other 'out of the signal path' applications it should impart tonal differences to the circuit 'proper'..

Sorry trying my darndest to follow this ......should.....or shouldn't??

[jmusser]

I use whatever crap I happen to strip out of a chassis somewhere, along with what I have to buy that I can't scrounge. It serves my purposes just fine. Having said that though, if I wanted any type of consistantcy, I would go with the better quality 5% carbon film resistors. That's if you're building to sale. I haven't done enough experimenting to know how much difference there is between component types, and since I'm only building them for me, I'm satisfied with just having the "correct" value. R.G. Keen says "use what you got", and that's pretty much what I go by. The other thing he says, is the original companies tried to design broadly enough, that they could use the cheapest crap they could get. When it comes right down to it, we're building stuff to make guitars sound weird, not heart monitors.