rock soderstrom
Tour de France
Interesting question, I have no experience with this except for rare chips for old organs and synthesizers. (Octave divider, filter etc.) As long as they work, I'm happy to have found them and use them for repairs.
Recycling - giving old equipment a new life.
- Thread starter rock soderstrom
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Help Support GroupDIY Audio Forum:
NOS semiconductors (new old stock) that have been properly handled (static free) and stored should be as good as they were. Semiconductors do not deteriorate with age when not powered up. That said older solid state is not generally better. That industry has enjoyed massive technological improvements over the years/decades, so newer versions of even the same part number can be better.
There are some unobtanium parts that are only available from such sources. I have old designs that used single sourced parts that are now obsolete so you gotta do what you gotta do...
JR
Those Wima 'polished turd' caps as I call them are invariably leaky , any signs of degradation of the outer exoxy dip means moisture ingress and likely poor insulation resistance , Jennings era Vox used them extensively.
Mullard mustards on the other hand I have NOS and working examples of that are more than 50 years old ,still good as new , performance wise
Later plastic encapsulated types tend to be more resiliant ,
Epoxy filled plastic even better ,
Certainly good advice never to use an untested reclaimed component without first satisfying yourself its in good condition ,
even though thats what seems to have been inferred I was saying
I make no claims to know what goes on inside solid state devices over time , but tubes ,as long as their kept in favourable storage conditions dont degrade either .
Mullard mustards on the other hand I have NOS and working examples of that are more than 50 years old ,still good as new , performance wise
Later plastic encapsulated types tend to be more resiliant ,
Epoxy filled plastic even better ,
Certainly good advice never to use an untested reclaimed component without first satisfying yourself its in good condition ,
even though thats what seems to have been inferred I was saying
I make no claims to know what goes on inside solid state devices over time , but tubes ,as long as their kept in favourable storage conditions dont degrade either .
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- May 18, 2020
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I generally steer clear of old-stock/used electrolytics, probably for this reason, or from being warned against it. But i will definitely research it more.
I‘ve never come across those black Wima‘s in person, only seen them in Vox amps photos.
Admiral-dk
Well-known member
Rock - I would add a 220K resistor across the RCA / next to the Grid from the Reverb Tank .... Just in case you have a bad connection (plug, cable or spring), so you avoid nasty (and very LOUD) noises + PickUp Coil usually likes a Load
Per
Per
rock soderstrom
Tour de France
Will do, sounds good. Thanks Per
sortedaudio
Member
Sometimes these improvements can come around to bite you! For example replacing the 2N3055 output triplets in a Quad 303. When Quad designed the amp RCA were quotinq a min Ft of 800kHz, which was good at the time. As the 2N3055 "improved" so did the Ft, and coupling in the wiring to the devices on the heatsink, with the increased gain, caused the output stage to oscillate, often destroying the transistors. When repairing Quad 303s I prefer older devices with a lower Ft.
or fix the design so it's stable with faster modern devices...
The 3055 is an obvious example because it is(was) a hugely popular device. I used them back in the day because they were the original BSH (brick sh__ house) hard to kill device. There have been multiple newer process technology upgrades using the same old part number to not lose sales. I have even seen power FETs using the 3055 part number, not exactly a drop in part.
JR
rock soderstrom
Tour de France
I would also like to have such a tool, very useful if you have little space to screw. Can also be used for polishing
You got me all excited hahaGood old stuff - here is what I collected and wait for a tech with time - the material is nearly out of business. One is 90% - the others have a running power supply
rock soderstrom
Tour de France
mobyd
Well-known member
One significant exception here is the old Philips/Mullard 4 legged (E,B,shield,C) RF germaniums (AF117, AF118 etc) in the TO-7 package. Irrespective of care taken in storage or handling, these puppies die due to tin whiskers shorting them out internally. The hugely expensive Reticon SAD1024 bucket brigade devices appear to have some sort of age related internal rot degradation.
I find it hard to imagine that there could be NOS SAD1024s in the wild that have been sitting untouched all this time. Those have been really scarce for decades.
I also seem to recall some ICs with process flaws, like one brand of op amps that suffered from "purple plague" (apparently a quirk of mixed aluminum and gold interconnections).
JR
PermO
Well-known member
Oh wow, that Grundig box is sweet !
I would carefully drill te rivets out to remove the text panels and give it a sanding and a nice funky paintjob.
Cut some thin sheet aluminium and create new text panels.
I love these old industrial designs.
I would carefully drill te rivets out to remove the text panels and give it a sanding and a nice funky paintjob.
Cut some thin sheet aluminium and create new text panels.
I love these old industrial designs.
rock soderstrom
Tour de France
That’s the plan! I am not sure about the paintjob. Normally I would do that but in the last time I have developed a strange love for this "used" look! I like the combination of old and new in my projects at the moment.
I love to design front- and backplates for boxes like this.
Me too
I still have to drill out all of this super small rivets!
Looks like you could easily mount up the guts of several stomp boxes in there .
Why not add a chorus/phase to the delay .
The mini console with the sloped panel ,ergonomically is hard to beat for hands on tweekage .
I'd probably just Dymo tap labels up for the existing front panel , to keep as much of the original style as possible .
Why not add a chorus/phase to the delay .
The mini console with the sloped panel ,ergonomically is hard to beat for hands on tweekage .
I'd probably just Dymo tap labels up for the existing front panel , to keep as much of the original style as possible .
rock soderstrom
Tour de France
Yep, you are right. I am thinking about cool combinations at the moment. My favorite is a delay into a MS20 style filter (or better the filter at first?). I can design my own circuit for this or use existent stuff. We will see.
+1
I've been thinking about that, too. I will probably scan the old front panel to take elements from it, as I did with VU meters before. I like the original design and would like to take something from it for my new baby.
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I generally never recombine wet/dry signal in the device on time domain effects , its always in parralel with the source ,
So a guitar pickup goes to the amp input dry , then a DI is used to take a split to the effects , which are reproduced over the monitors or recorded to sepperate channels .
The effects channel is already lofi enough without needing extra amp crunch added I find .
Individual needs may vary but might be something worth considering .
So a guitar pickup goes to the amp input dry , then a DI is used to take a split to the effects , which are reproduced over the monitors or recorded to sepperate channels .
The effects channel is already lofi enough without needing extra amp crunch added I find .
Individual needs may vary but might be something worth considering .
rock soderstrom
Tour de France
My planned desktop low fi effect device will live in a parallel AUX path of my mixer.
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