What is the best cap/resistor material for DIY pedals?

'59

Active member
I'm starting to shift from DIY pedal kits to building my own circuits from modded diagrams. My question is though, what spec and material parts should I buy for my projects and where can I find them?
 
Re: What is the best cap/resistor material for DIY pedals?

I use tantalum for values above 1uf and metal film caps below 1uf. They are small and have a great resistance to noise. Most people don't like ceramic capacitors because of their loose tolerances, but you might find that in the right applications the slight bass cut that they impart can be quite useful.
 
Re: What is the best cap/resistor material for DIY pedals?

Every time I say don't use ceramics, I find some amazing sounding audio circuit thats chock full of them..

This **** is a dark art!!!!! no rules!! Anarchy!
 
Re: What is the best cap/resistor material for DIY pedals?

Tolerances are probably gonna be the really important part
 
Re: What is the best cap/resistor material for DIY pedals?

Even the inexpensive (and "no name") metal film resistors tolerances are tight and they are quiet. So, unless you are trying to recreate some type of vintage mojo circuit, I wouldn't be too picky on resistors in terms of paying big money for mil spec Vishays or the like. On a related note, I'm doubtful that you would hear much difference between metal film and carbon film (or carbon comp) resistors in a stomp box outside of maybe what would be caused by the looser tolerances of the carbon resistors. For capacitors though, I do prefer to use electrolytics of known quality (ie Panasonic). For film caps, I really don't hear any differences in pedals between brands but the cheap box caps can stretch the limits for tolerances. That's my experience anyway with cheaper brands like "Topmay" (sold by Small Bear and most likely under other brand names, or un-named, by other vendors). On the other hand, the cheap dipped film caps I've used have been tighter in tolerance.

I'm not an electronics tech or pro pedal builder. More of a hack ... :)
 
Re: What is the best cap/resistor material for DIY pedals?

I use tantalum for values above 1uf and metal film caps below 1uf. They are small and have a great resistance to noise. Most people don't like ceramic capacitors because of their loose tolerances, but you might find that in the right applications the slight bass cut that they impart can be quite useful.

I do the same. Composite ceramic caps are good very small small values, like 150pF.



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