"mustard" Philips Mullard capacitors

[Glass_painter]

Hi,

I have a chance to buy NOS bulk of these capacitors from the 60's.

Any sense in buying them? would it work? would it survive for the coming years?

Thanks,

Glass painter.

 

[JonSnell Electronic]

60 years old? Would you trust them? Probably will be OK as they don't degrade like electrolytics do.

 

[DF96]

Old 'mustard' caps are usually fine. For some peculiar reason they are often more expensive than the Philips/Mullard 'tropical fish' caps from the same era, which use the same polyester dielectric. Perhaps guitarists and their 'techs' believe they have magical properties?

 

[Merlinb]

Mustard caps are indeed coveted by guitarists for their use in classic Marshall amps. Tropical fish were used in some effects pedals and occasionally generate excessive prices too. Only certain values and voltage ratings are the desirable ones though! I sold all my mustard and tropical fish caps on eBay, to cash in on the hype.

 

[Glass_painter]

"Mustard" caps

Thanks all for the info.

Anyone used them for HiFi? good? bad?

Thanks again.

Glass Painter

 

[BinaryMike]

Cyril Bateman reports (in Linear Audio) that polyester caps can deliver excellent distortion performance if used far below their voltage specs. And Cyril's work is about as good as it gets!

 

[DF96]

They are competently made caps with a dielectric which is only slightly nonlinear so they are fine for coupling and decoupling in hi-fi. I might hesitate to use them in a filter, partly because they tend to be poor tolerance (10% or 20%).

 

[Merlinb]

Yes, distortion tends to fall as voltage rating (ie. dielectric thickness goes up). Which is a great opportunity to plug my book!

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[DF96]

I sold all my mustard and tropical fish caps on eBay, to cash in on the hype.

I bought tropical fish caps on ebay before they got too expensive, because they are what I grew up with. I bought some mustards, but only when they were cheap enough - typically smaller values than the guitar people are interested in. When I one day build another valve communications receiver it will look (partly) authentic 1960's technology inder the chassis.