10-07-2015, 09:10 PM
1) nothing lasts forever... but the film capacitors like orange drops and mallory 150s etc... do last longer than electrolytic capacitors. in the early ampeg days they used black cat, and other oil filled coupling caps. Those tend to leak and go bad just like electrolytics. Just repaired an old Reverberocket with leaky coupling caps.
that being said I've also had silver mica caps sputter and pop strait out of the bag. brand new and no good.
2) I usually use Solen Fast caps for those values. I think Sozo also makes some great caps in those values.
3) those goofy tropical fish looking caps are almost always cracked... I can't say I've ever heard or measured a problem with one, but I usually replace them just for good measure. I don't think they were selected for having good tone or anything like that. Its not as though fender bought those blue mallory caps because they sounded good. they were reliable and relatively cheap. it wasn't until the late 80s and 90s that people started freaking out about the "tone" of capacitors.
4) Mallory 150s are great caps. I use them all the time unless someone requests something else. Ampeg never really used capacitors that are well known or said to have good tone... I would say just go for the 150s.
if the footprint doesn't agree, I think the Panasonic ECWF(L) caps are fine. they are a decent quality polypropylene cap. and they tend to have a smaller footprint.
here is an example of one from digikey in .33uf at 400V
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en...-ND/656378
that being said I've also had silver mica caps sputter and pop strait out of the bag. brand new and no good.
2) I usually use Solen Fast caps for those values. I think Sozo also makes some great caps in those values.
3) those goofy tropical fish looking caps are almost always cracked... I can't say I've ever heard or measured a problem with one, but I usually replace them just for good measure. I don't think they were selected for having good tone or anything like that. Its not as though fender bought those blue mallory caps because they sounded good. they were reliable and relatively cheap. it wasn't until the late 80s and 90s that people started freaking out about the "tone" of capacitors.
4) Mallory 150s are great caps. I use them all the time unless someone requests something else. Ampeg never really used capacitors that are well known or said to have good tone... I would say just go for the 150s.
if the footprint doesn't agree, I think the Panasonic ECWF(L) caps are fine. they are a decent quality polypropylene cap. and they tend to have a smaller footprint.
here is an example of one from digikey in .33uf at 400V
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en...-ND/656378