New Astron caps?!?

[maxkracht]

$70. for a doghouse cover and $40 for a brass plate, and they don't even have the Astron brand stamped on them so you can show off to your friends. I wonder if their hardware sounds as good as the stuff fender made?

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[JD0x0]

Oh yay. More $14-$25 coupling caps that'll definitely sound better than the $0.15 cent films you can get off Mouser

I'd maybe consider using them for repairs if the customer wants to keep the aesthetics, and doesn't mind overpaying for caps. I can't ever see myself doing a build with these, unless again, it's commissioned and those caps are specifically asked and paid for.

[mhuss]

the look is important to owners of vintage Fender amps.

Good point, as long as the clones are at least as good as 150s...

[Charlie Wilson]

If you want to spend a bunch of money and probably get a good sounding Astron style cap.
http://www.tweeddeluxe.com/recpro-capacitors.cfm
CW

[seveneves]

If you want to spend a bunch of money and probably get a good sounding Astron style cap.
http://www.tweeddeluxe.com/recpro-capacitors.cfm
CW

WTF?!? $45 for a 0.1 cap?



$44 for a label stuck around some other manufacturer's cap?

The seller's going to be SPEEDing from his SHOP to his bank with your $$$!

[WhopperPlate]

Holy begezus Batman , at the request of a client I ordered some of those tweed speed shop caps and used them in a high power tweed type circuit with good results , but they weren’t priced like that , they were expensive but nowhere near this . Price has inflated about 3x what I remember … well that’s a wrap on those for me

To my ears they were a bright midrangey cap out of the box. I tried them in other circuits in specific positions for some coloration , but I ended up back at 6ps everywhere mostly.

with the tweed circuit I listen to it often at gigs, and test it myself occasionally, and it seems to mellow out over time. With preamp gain overdrive tones it felt like staring at the sun kinda , just a tad bit gritty with the harmonic content . Imo Might work better for lower gain poweramp overdrive tones, as they were obviously intended …alas I won’t be trying again with those price tags…

[Colossal]

Thanks for the report on these, Charlie. I was wondering if they are aluminum or actual tin foil, like the old Red Astrons, or even a paper in oil?

[WhopperPlate]

Thanks for the report on these, Charlie. I was wondering if they are aluminum or actual tin foil, like the old Red Astrons, or even a paper in oil?

I can only quote the website :

Yellow Astron Capacitors

Made in the USA, RecPro capacitors are constructed with the right stuff; the exact same dielectric and electrode materials, winding impregnant, swaging and lead composition utilized back in the '50s by Astron in their Blue Point yellow capacitors, used most famously by Fender in their Tweed series amplifiers. Moreover, with regard to manufacture, the dielectric and subsequent winding are heat-treated throughout assembly, and subjected to vacuum as well as pressure during cooling to complete the process - just as was the practice, back in the golden age of America's musical instrument industry.

Please note: The cap packaging (phenolic tubular casing with epoxy end-caps) differs slightly from the originals (molded with plugs) - yet, the RecPro capacitor enclosure offers a higher level of protection against temperature changes, moisture and humidity, shock, etc.

So, if you are chasing period-correct tone, it makes sense to use capacitors constructed with the same materials using the same methods employed in the '50s and '60s - because there is a difference. For Tweed-era amplifiers, these capacitors provide the confidence in knowing that the right part is in the circuit - the most authentically correct component short of NOS (which are impossible to find these days).