[HAM] Recapping

[David Anderson]

Kon,

Thanks.

Yes, simply replacing the old capacitors with new ones of the same uF  
value will not duplicate the performance of the old ones due to the  
way the increased DF/ESR of the old capacitors affects both the  
output level and the bandwidth of the filter.

Trying to replicate the exact behavior of aged capacitors sounds like  
a nightmare to me. In videos from the era, Jimmy Smith seems  
reasonably happy playing a factory-fresh B-3. My approach is that  
I'll play the instrument as long as I can with its original TG  
capacitors, and if and when I determine that they've gone past a  
certain point, I'll reset the whole thing back to original specs  
using my decade capacitor to match new capacitors to the inductors.

Entropy gets into everything. You can adapt to it, but you can't stop  
it.

And no amount of TG tinkering will make you a better player :-)

David

On Mar 4, 2008, at 3:05 AM, Kon Zissis wrote:

> Hi David.
> A few people who love the current sound of their wax paper capped pre
> 1964 TG's  have written that they want to recap their TG's with new
> capacitors that are of the exact same mfd values as the current mfd
> values of the aged wax paper caps so that they can indefinitely  
> preserve
> the current sound that is produced by the wax paper caps before they
> gradually drift up even more in mfd value thus spoiling the current
> sound.
>
> Your  posts about dissipation factor and equivalent series  
> resistance (
> ESR ) in the 44+ year old aged wax paper caps are very useful reading
> for those who want to set up the new replacement capacitors to closely
> recreate the current  sound characteristics of the aged  wax paper  
> caps.
> All the best.
> Kon