Amp Build: Ceriatone Kraken 50

[FourT6and2]

Just a guess, but I think Olaf might not like micas because of some people encountering ones that leak DC? I think I'm going to use those Philips KP caps. I seem to recall Larry and Aiken and a few other builders liking those. I have some in 100pF, 510pP, 470pF, and 560pF. I'll use the 100pF as the fizz cap and I haven't decided on treble cap values yet. The clips above are with 500pF treble peaker and 560pF tone stack treble cap.

I had about ten Micas leaking, Mike. In 3-4 amps.
Ever since I'm using the blue Muratas. 2kV.

Thanks, Olaf. Yeah I've heard of people with similar problems. I'll look into the Muratas. Any reason not to try those blue Philips KP series? I don't see too many people using foil caps in pF values in guitar amps. Usually mica or ceramic. I guess because those are easier to find?

Data sheet: http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/28681.pdf

For my BE100 clone, I used WIMA FKP (Polypropylene) for my 100pf, 220pf, 500pf, and 680pf

Oh that's right! You notice any real "tone" differences between them and mica or ceramic? I know people say ceramics sound gritty compared to mica.

 

[scottosan]

Just a guess, but I think Olaf might not like micas because of some people encountering ones that leak DC? I think I'm going to use those Philips KP caps. I seem to recall Larry and Aiken and a few other builders liking those. I have some in 100pF, 510pP, 470pF, and 560pF. I'll use the 100pF as the fizz cap and I haven't decided on treble cap values yet. The clips above are with 500pF treble peaker and 560pF tone stack treble cap.

I had about ten Micas leaking, Mike. In 3-4 amps.
Ever since I'm using the blue Muratas. 2kV.

Thanks, Olaf. Yeah I've heard of people with similar problems. I'll look into the Muratas. Any reason not to try those blue Philips KP series? I don't see too many people using foil caps in pF values in guitar amps. Usually mica or ceramic. I guess because those are easier to find?

Data sheet: http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/28681.pdf

For my BE100 clone, I used WIMA FKP (Polypropylene) for my 100pf, 220pf, 500pf, and 680pf

Oh that's right! You notice any real "tone" differences between them and mica or ceramic? I know people say ceramics sound gritty compared to mica.

I agree that ceramic is gritty. I think MICA's often give me ear fatigue. The WIMAs are balanced/neutral. I just wish they make them axial leaded

 

[marcus262]

from what I have read online about comparing them,
ceramic is gritty (or more distorted?) and mica is cleaner but some say it does have harsher high frequencies.

 

[riffermadness]

Alright man. Too much anticipation. We gotta hear some clips. Get that shit recorded dude.

NO Doubt,got me Drooling!

 

[CrazyNutz]

from what I have read online about comparing them,
ceramic is gritty (or more distorted?) and mica is cleaner but some say it does have harsher high frequencies.

I wouldn't say they are more distorted, but they have a texture, it adds a pleasing complexity to the distorted tone. The silver mica's are smoother.

This is most noticeable in treble cap of the tone stack, and bright caps on gain/volume controls. Also in treble peakers, where you have a 470pf bypassing a large resister, etc.

 

[FourT6and2]

Alright man. Too much anticipation. We gotta hear some clips. Get that shit recorded dude.

NO Doubt,got me Drooling!

I think I've posted like 20 clips by now lol

 

[FourT6and2]

from what I have read online about comparing them,
ceramic is gritty (or more distorted?) and mica is cleaner but some say it does have harsher high frequencies.

I wouldn't say they are more distorted, but they have a texture, it adds a pleasing complexity to the distorted tone. The silver mica's are smoother.

This is most noticeable in treble cap of the tone stack, and bright caps on gain/volume controls. Also in treble peakers, where you have a 470pf bypassing a large resister, etc.

I guess I'll try these Philips since I have 'em already. 100pF in the PI, 500pF treble peaker, aaaand either 510pF or 560pF tone stack.

 

[FourT6and2]

Holy crap, look what I just found. A gut shot for a custom 800 Zakk Wylde. Check out the treble caps on the board. They used those Philips polyprop film caps: https://image.ibb.co/gY0Suk/PC022824.jpg

 

[IndyWS6]

Holy crap, look what I just found. A gut shot for a custom 800 Zakk Wylde. Check out the treble caps on the board. They used those Philips polyprop film caps: https://image.ibb.co/gY0Suk/PC022824.jpg

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

P.S. Your work is substantially better

 

[SpiderWars]

I should swap the 560pF coupler and 47pF treble cap in my Trainwreck Rocket clone from black mica to some blue ceramic Muratas I have and post some clips. But I doubt an iphone clip will show anything. The circuit is so simple and there aren't many more caps in the circuit so it seems an ideal test bed for it.

I actually already went from Murata to mica and def noticed the differences mentioned. But I can't really say which I liked more. Must crank it next time, which is always fun with that amp.

 

[FourT6and2]

Holy crap, look what I just found. A gut shot for a custom 800 Zakk Wylde. Check out the treble caps on the board. They used those Philips polyprop film caps: https://image.ibb.co/gY0Suk/PC022824.jpg

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

P.S. Your work is substantially better

I don't know if it's good or bad. But it's pretty cool. I think it's just a bit of confirmation that I'm making the right choice by using them over micas or ceramics since Marshall has used 'em, Larry Amplification uses them, and Aiken has voiced his desire to use them.

 

[FourT6and2]

I should swap the 560pF coupler and 47pF treble cap in my Trainwreck Rocket clone from black mica to some blue ceramic Muratas I have and post some clips. But I doubt an iphone clip will show anything. The circuit is so simple and there aren't many more caps in the circuit so it seems an ideal test bed for it.

I actually already went from Murata to mica and def noticed the differences mentioned. But I can't really say which I liked more. Must crank it next time, which is always fun with that amp.

Yeah, I'd like to hear your thoughts. BTW, here's a graph that may be helpful to anybody interested:

Yellow: 47K
Pink: 39K
White: 33K
Within each group, the lower line = lower value cap.
So, low-to-high = 470pF/500pF/560pF

 

[SpiderWars]

Cool. Duncan's Amp Pages are such a great resource.

 

[CrazyNutz]

Holy crap, look what I just found. A gut shot for a custom 800 Zakk Wylde. Check out the treble caps on the board. They used those Philips polyprop film caps: https://image.ibb.co/gY0Suk/PC022824.jpg

Look how small that mid cap is in the tone stack. Looks like a 0.0022nf, If that's really what it is the mids will be through the roof.


BTW I have tried film caps in the 1000pf - 100pf range, they are typically warmer sounding than ceramic, or mica. I might grab some like you have and give them a shot.

 

[duesentrieb]

I would like to highlight again that I've switched from Micas (black) to Muratas (in PTP ish) or Wimas (PCB) or both for safety reasons - after I had some serious DC-bleeding issues with the Micas years (!) ago.
At that time Larry was already aware of that. 2009. Here's the old (german) thread.
http://www.tube-town.de/ttforum/index.p ... 746.0.html
Later more and more guys had the same issues. Ever since I'm asking DIYer to stay away from them. Not sure if they can be found in commercial amps.

For sure - between the certain brands is a difference, although I know very few people who actually swapped identical valued (!) caps and recorded/analysed that. Not even coupling Cs, where some people hear (as we here say) the gras grow.

We could also talk about the difference using Elkos vs PP vs Tantalum at the cathode.
Currently I do like tantalum the most, most probably because I like the looks of them and in PCB builds 2.5mm spaced Elkos are a fucking pain to solder.

Anyway, very cool amp, Mike. Don't you want to build one of my PCBs?

Here's an amp by a friend of mine who used one of my PCBs (kind of Smallbox, with tweaks though and of course a tube loop).



.

 

[duesentrieb]

Cannot upload the file, shit.

"Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached."

Will send you the pic if you want, via email.

 

[scottosan]

I would like to highlight again that I've switched from Micas (black) to Muratas (in PTP ish) or Wimas (PCB) or both for safety reasons - after I had some serious DC-bleeding issues with the Micas years (!) ago.
At that time Larry was already aware of that. 2009. Here's the old (german) thread.
http://www.tube-town.de/ttforum/index.p ... 746.0.html
Later more and more guys had the same issues. Ever since I'm asking DIYer to stay away from them. Not sure if they can be found in commercial amps.

For sure - between the certain brands is a difference, although I know very few people who actually swapped identical valued (!) caps and recorded/analysed that. Not even coupling Cs, where some people hear (as we here say) the gras grow.

We could also talk about the difference using Elkos vs PP vs Tantalum at the cathode.
Currently I do like tantalum the most, most probably because I like the looks of them and in PCB builds 2.5mm spaced Elkos are a fucking pain to solder.

Anyway, very cool amp, Mike. Don't you want to build one of my PCBs?

Here's an amp by a friend of mine who used one of my PCBs (kind of Smallbox, with tweaks though and of course a tube loop).



.

Olaf, you have PCB's available?

Thanks
Scott

 

[duesentrieb]

Well, "available" would be an exaggeration, Scott.
I have some every now and then. If you guys would like to build something (only those who are experienced like Scott or Mike), shoot me a mail.
No commercial interests from my side btw. Still a hobby for me and ever will be.

Tried to attach a zip, which also failed. Is that my Linux computer?

 

[FourT6and2]

Nah, something is wrong with the forum maybe. Probably out of server storage space.

Send me an email if you can, Olaf. I'm interested to see what you've got.

 

[FourT6and2]

Holy crap, look what I just found. A gut shot for a custom 800 Zakk Wylde. Check out the treble caps on the board. They used those Philips polyprop film caps: https://image.ibb.co/gY0Suk/PC022824.jpg

Look how small that mid cap is in the tone stack. Looks like a 0.0022nf, If that's really what it is the mids will be through the roof.


BTW I have tried film caps in the 1000pf - 100pf range, they are typically warmer sounding than ceramic, or mica. I might grab some like you have and give them a shot.

Yeah, looks to be a Mallory 150 0.0022uF.

Also, just look how simple the circuit is. There's nothing to it lol. But I bet that amp sounds fantastic.

If you're looking for the same Philips KP series, there's someone on eBay selling them in various 630V values in the pF range: https://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odkw=& ... p&_sacat=0