I am looking for a good (reasonably priced) source for "Bumble Bee" caps.  A friend of mine is re-wiring his Les Paul and is looking for 2 of these caps.  They are .002uF (I think).

Does anyone know where I can find any of these?  Thanks

AL

nope, but the capacitors section at http://www.angela.com/ has vitamin q's which have even more rep than the buzzy bee caps afaik.

hth!

Although I think it's a waste of money, you can buy them here:

http://www.soundchamberrepairs.com/caps.htm

Those look familiar...I have them Spragues in my Dyna ST 70..great amp. Circa 1959.
 Maybe that could have been part of what was wrong with my Dyna preamp...I scavenged some bad caps [well AFAICT] from that one...some just didn't seem to work, and they were huge.
 Two words I associate with happy caps...New and Free.
 The Free ones arent new, and the new ones arent free.
 Sad caps would be the opposite, old and expensive.
 Sorry for my sardonic humor, I know ppl get sticky [I used to sometimes] about the EXACT part vibe...whatever...
 I just decided a while back I like my amps parts [well the whole thing..why not.] new or newer.
 I can see the whole 'ventage vibe' thing and still prefer a new build to vintage specs. Caps dry out, pots switches and jacks get dirty...etc.
 Some of these modern parts have earned improved track records.

:shock: Yikes! That soundchamberrepairs site is just insane. What amazing ripoffs.

I'm from the "the caps make a difference" school of thought, but when it comes to tone caps in a guitar, ANY film/foil cap is going to be great. In an amp, the specialties of any cap will be heard HUNDREDS of times more because of the higher voltage and current involved. In a guitar, any good cap should be just fine. If you can't find a good film/foil cap in the right value, even a regular old Xicon metalized mylar cap will sound great.

If you want to go for what could be just about the absolute best cap in that application, look for polystyrene caps. These are film/foil and they're fairly ultimate. You can't use them in tube amp apps for the most part because they can't take heat. The only downside to them is that they have small leads so it's best to mount them in place with a dot of silicone rubber.

There's my 2 cents.

-Peter

Well I guess putting 50 year old paper caps into amps will keep the repair industry afloat! :roll:

Hey, thanks for all the responses.  I was afraid they were all going to be riduculously priced - and they are.  But they're cheaper than what he had found originally - $35 - $50 OUCH!!!  My friend makes his living repairing guitars and amps (and he's darn good at it) so he's aware of the rip-offs -he was just putting out feelers.  But at those prices I doubt he will end up doing the "upgrade".  But thanks again.

AL

hello there,  can one of the more ee oriented guys out there (peter, mark, etc.)  explain to me why the material composition of a cap matters in a guitar (or any circuit for that matter)  when all you're doing is shunting signal to ground?  obviously the value matters in tone difference, and i can see where material composition would matter where stages are coupled and where signal passes through the cap.  but i just can't see why what a cap is made of makes any difference when you're shunting certain frequencies to ground and the frequencies you end up hearing are not passed by the cap.  i always thought that if you measured the value of the old bumble bee caps that they would be far out of their value spec and that's probably why people that just randomly put them in their axes without checking the value would hear a difference compared to a fresh modern cap.  could anyone out there explain this to me?   thanks very much.       rh

I guess it's also the bit that doesn't get passed that is changed a bit because of the cap... Not sure though.

Quote from: rhinsoni always thought that if you measured the value of the old bumble bee caps that they would be far out of their value spec and that's probably why people that just randomly put them in their axes without checking the value would hear a difference compared to a fresh modern cap.  could anyone out there explain this to me?   thanks very much.       rh

I think you hit the nail on the head there, at least in lots of situations.

I have done A/B comparisons between types of caps and the difference between films and ceramics can be very striking. When you start comparing films to films, things get a bit blurrier but in that case I think construction technique starts to matter more than materials (at least in pedals). Some caps are made by attaching wires to the end of a long piece of tape and then winding that tape around the "core". These caps with have a good bit of inductance built into them. The capacitance of the plates at the end of the winding is coupled to the leads by way of the inductance of the long plates. "Better" caps are non-inductively constructed so that the plates are attached to the leads along their whole length. I think this difference accounts for a huge about of the difference between various film caps.

There are lots of other specs that go into a cap besides the capacitance and the voltage rating. I won't profess to know why they make the differences they do, but you can sure hear it between different cap types *at elevated voltages*. I'll bet that many of the variances are not frequency linear. As you approach the working voltage of the cap, the effects get most pronounced.

With all that said, in a pedal or especially inside the guitar, the absolute value is probably going go make the most difference by far as long as you're using good caps.

Take care,
-Peter