Hey all i'm a new-bee to the effects building and the fourum and have read almost every article i can find on all these great sites,just wanted to ask a beginers question about cap size:..

Say i had a .1uf cap and am using it for my effect how do I select the size of the cap to use eg..dose it have to be larger dimentions than say the smal ceramic discs?(finger nail)or somthing like this canadian cat part number at digikey:p3488-nd,or somthing like it?(much larger)

also if anyone has any digi key part numbers of some of the sizes you use for projects i would be in your debt for ever lol  

sorry about the newbie question thanks guys!!

Welcome M.D.,

This place is here for questions.... complex or simple, it doesn't matter. Ask away!

Physical size isn't really important so long as it will fit in your project, but the technology of the cap is.

For caps around 0.1uF, my favorite style are called "film" caps. These sound better in most cases than ceramic caps. For general use, I like the inexpensive Xicon polyester caps.

This is a place where DigiKey don't really excel. Mouser has much better deals on signal caps. Take a look on page 496 of the current Mouser catalog under Xicon Film Capacitors. Part number 140-PF2A223K is a good one for 0.1uF @ 100V.

Circuit Specialists has some even better deals than Mouser on some parts, but a much smaller selection when it comes to signal caps. The following link is for the same cap mentioned above:
http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/967

I hope that helps.

Take care,
-Peter