New Sozo caps

[Mark]

I thought the Sozo in the picture was a hand made cap and not one of the standard series. I might have an old Mallory and a Sozo. I'll have to go through the box.

[M Fowler]

The problem I have is we want guys to post gut shots of their amps so we can peek in.

Then some knuckle head always chimes in oh my why did you use that type or brand of cap you should have used my favorite not yours because mine get that magical tone your caps can't possibly achieve.

Bottom line solder in what you want.

[jeff12]

The problem I have is we want guys to post gut shots of their amps so we can peek in.

Then some knuckle head always chimes in oh my why did you use that type or brand of cap you should have used my favorite not yours because mine get that magical tone your caps can't possibly achieve.

Bottom line solder in what you want.

+1

[vibratoking]

I am not a believer in 'magic' caps. I think Sozo is ripping its customers off. But the utube link provides very little information. There really is very little actual testing being done there. He tested at one fundamental frequency. You really need to look at many different frequencies to be complete. Phase shift and group delay are ignored as well as any transient analysis. There are many other params to test before the analysis is complete. So no information there for me.

[martin manning]

I am not a believer in 'magic' caps. I think Sozo is ripping its customers off. But the utube link provides very little information. There really is very little actual testing being done there. He tested at one fundamental frequency. You really need to look at many different frequencies to be complete. Phase shift and group delay are ignored as well as any transient analysis. There are many other params to test before the analysis is complete. So no information there for me.

The interesting thing is the input of a harmonic-rich waveform and the quantitative spectral analysis of the output. Seems like a good way to look for what people say they hear in different caps. No problem to run the test over a range of fundamentals.

S Bench's test in "The sound of Caps" clearly shows some nonlinearity in a ceramic cap where this test did not show any difference (according to the author, since the results can't be seen clearly).

[Reeltarded]

I just finished replacing 90% of the caps in one of my amps from mustards to GOOD-ALL. whole different amp. ehh

[cbass]

I hope you didn't put those in a marshall .they don't look good at all in there
For tweeds they look about right

[Reeltarded]

I think redplated tubes sound a little better.

[Bob S]

And black caps sound better cos they look bad ass.
If it waddles & quacks it's a duck.
probably

[ckpop]

There is no right or wrong with different caps. It is a recipe and a balance of everything else with the caps you choose. That could be type of wire, resistor type, voltages and output transformer and how they all come together.

Example I had a Blackface Super reverb in the shop and it was one of the best sounding Super reverb amps I have every come across in 20 years.
I opened it up and guess what ? Metal oxide resistors on the plates, 716p in some locations, Different 10" speakers not the original ones.

So with some metal oxides and polypropylene caps most would throw their arms up with disgust to put those parts in a Vintage blackface super.

Believe me this turned my world upside down being a purist, It just didn't make sense and went against my cork sniffing ways.

So now my OCD is in full swing trying to unlock why the amp was magic.

Bottom line ....... just make the amp sound great no matter what you use.

[JoeCon]

What think is hard for you guys building amps for someone else is tuning the amp for their ears. What sounds good for me might not be right for your customer. I can tweak my amp to suit me but how do you do that for each different sale?

You guys that do that are awesome, no matter what parts you use.

[MKB]

Relative newbie here; been hanging out over at the Dumble forum mostly, but have built in the past quite a few Marshall copies and modded other amps to be more Marshally. Been doing this for 30 years.

My last 1987 clone used very nice parts (AB 1 watt CC resistors, Orange Drop PP caps, a clone OT from a well known builder I can't remember, NOS Mullard EL34's), and even though it was a nice amp, it didn't sound like a Marshall. Changing the CC resistors to standard 1/2w CF's was a big help, but the amp still had a shrillness in the highs I couldn't tweak out.

Changing the tone stack treble cap from mica to ceramic was another big step, and swapping out the Orange drops for some CDE polyesters helped too. It turned out each step in component type towards the Marshall standard got me closer. But it still wasn't warm enough in the highs, too much sizzle. I tweaked this thing for a year with no success.

I finally installed Sozos throughout, and this was the icing on the cake, and finally took the trebles to where they needed to be (although a bit depressed until they broke in). Sozos to me sound like they have a sharp knee low pass filter effect; they let the amp be bright but block the sizzle. They sound extremely Marshally IMHO.

I do not build amps for others, but IMHO I will always use Sozos in Marshall builds as they are a sure thing. They just sound right in the circuit. They are more expensive, and there may be other cheaper caps that do the job as well, but for the one-off amp, I see no reason to screw around with anything else. The Sozos just sound right. As Forrest Gump would say: "One less thang".

I have used them in other amps and effects in certain places to tame sizzle a bit. Am even considering using one or two in certain spots in my current Dumble build if the OD section gets too sizzly. But I would probably never use them in a Fender, it would probably suck all the life out of the highs in say a Deluxe Reverb.

[Ken Moon]

On this amp, I went all boo-teeky, and used 10 different types of caps (and at least 5 different types of resistors), in all the proper boo-teeky places, and I can't hear any difference from the same amp built with generic film caps from eBay and all MF resistors.

I've had several "golden-eared" friends over to try, and they all failed too.

I agree with Mark that it's all BS, just a placebo effect, a desire to confirm that the money spent on those expensive components wasn't wasted.

[img761]http://i514.photobucket.com/albums/t346 ... wiring.jpg[/img]

[xtian]

I agree with Mark that it's all BS, just a placebo effect, a desire to confirm that the money spent on those expensive components wasn't wasted.

+1, but, MAN, that's a candy-store build. Yummy!

[M Fowler]

Very nice build Ken.