Anyone tried Black Beauty caps??

[jamesjung21]

Hey guys,

Did anybody try vintage black beauty caps?

How do they sound like, compared to mil. vintage Vitamin Q and Jensen?

How about Cornell Dubilier 'black cat' ?

I know that they are far too old, but I have a 'heap' of black beauty caps in my lab...

Cheers,
JayJay

[fdegrove]

Hi,

I know that they are far too old, but I have a 'heap' of black beauty caps in my lab...

While I've heard of Black Beauty pots from ALPS I never heard of caps by the same name...

Who made these?

Cheers,

[jamesjung21]

Hey Frank,
Here's a quotation from someone else...

THESE RICH SOUNDING CAPACITORS WERE USED BY MARANTZ,MCINTOSH,FISHER,WESTERN ELECTRIC,EICO AND SOME TOP OF THE LINE GIBSON & FENDER GUITARS WERE USING SIMILAR BUMBLE BEE CAPACITORS FOR THEIR TONE CONTROLS .

They are manufactured by Sprague, like Vitamin Q.

And here's a picture of'em:

[fdegrove]

Hi,

These are really very early mylar caps...
I haven't really compared them on purpose but I bet they sound rather muffled and rounded.

They should be great for restoring old guitar amps_ I suppose everyone could tell you that_ but I feel the Jensen to be a far more "accurate" sounding capacitor.

Since they're filmcaps there's no reason to junk them...
They're actually catching a fair amount of green one nowadays it seems.

Cheers,

[jamesjung21]

Yeah...

Most vintage caps have really short frequency response range, don't they?

I was planning to make some $ from'em and buy Jensen caps anyway...

Cheers
JayJay

[djmiddelkoop]

While I've heard of Black Beauty pots from ALPS I never heard of caps by the same name...

Strange, for someone who claims having so much experience in audio.

JayJay, they are paper caps, oil impregnated.
How do I know? From an old ad in "the radio amateurs handbook" dated 1953.

If they are any good ? Never tried them, although I have some.
I guess they are worthwhile the try.

Dick.

[fdegrove]

Hi,

Strange, for someone who claims having so much experience in audio.

Not my fault...I'm just 47 years old...Not 147.

For a resume of my career and the size of my boots please send an e-mail.
We don't want to bore the fans to pieces, or do we?

Anything useful you want to add?

Cheers,

[Raj1]

Hi,

I don't think Frank trys to come accross as being a know it all, no one man can know every single thing there is, least he was honest enough to say he hadn't heard of the caps.

I've always found his advice both on this Forum and in private messages, to be very honest and open minded. Actually I was just browsing the forum this morning amazed at just how much of an effort he makes to help others, valuable time spent sending circuits etc.

Sorry Frank I didn't mean to sing your praises in this way, nor am i after any kind of favour, but the work you do here is really appreciated by most of us.............

Thanks
Raja

[rcavictim]

One of my hobbies is the collection and restoration of vintage television receivers from the 40's. While they used pretty much all waxed paper caps I find some black beauties that smeone put in later as a fix and I always just change them all during a recap and restoration from a reliability perspective with orange drops or something fairly new and reliable. I've run across leaky (electrically) black beauties. If I were building a new tube amp (and I do on occasion) I would not use NOS black beauties. Some of the new polypropelene and foil caps are superb, and not expensive.

If you must use vintage new or used caps, best to put them on a capacitor leakage and value checker like the old Eico or Heathkit that had the magic eye tube. These testers are very useful for identifying leakage or value shift. They can also be used to form old electrolytics. Speaking of which, I make a habit of checking and forming new electrolytics also.

[jamesjung21]

Thanks guys!
-James