If anyone was wondering, since it wasn’t shown here, the yellow Astron caps look like the Bumblebee but the dielectric film is Mylar instead of oil/paper. Same two aluminum foil/plates separated by Mylar film.
Good demo of the construction of film capacitors. The inside and outside foils are connected to their respective leads by a portion of each folded on the ends. Each end has dielectric under the fold to ensure that they don't short. Each foil has an equal amount of connections to their respective layers within the body.
This demonstrates the progress of plastics - from pure paper dielectric of 1920's to oiled paper of 1940's to metallized paper of 1960's to mylar and polypropylene metallized film of 1970's to multilayer ceramic SMD of 1980's and after. Since the dielectric thickness is smaller and permeability is higher, the same capacitance/voltage is now much smaller cap. Better contacts to foil/metal gives lower ESR and lower non-linearities. Now you really know that there is only improvements from antique capacitors.
@@FrankOlsonTwins what was left out was the factoid that as caps became smaller and more efficient they were designed that way for an application other than analog so to apply these awesome new capacitor designs to analog uses took a higher level of knowledge than the builders of old and there we have average builders using modern caps and resistors today in the same way, and being stuck between the old way and the new way with only the the factoid that these new components are better is silly and leaves so much to be caught up on with this change in analog design and modern components.
Some good points being made here, and honestly I've always been a bit split on this topic. On one hand, as caps have evolved, so too have their tolerances and specs. Perhaps there is a difference to be noticed from old tech to new by those who are paying close attention. The difference is subjective, at the very least(except for very leaky caps which are unsuitable for any amp!). This is physics, after all, and all of these elements have different properties which are more suitable for some tasks than others. Look inside any amplifier and you're likely to see ceramic, film, electrolytic, silver mica and possibly even tantalum caps- each fulfilling a different task based on its physical characteristics. One could populate an entire signal path with ceramic caps, but it is rarely done on any worthwhile equipment, largely to improving tone. On the other hand, all the guitar and amp manufacturers of old were using the most up to date cap technology they could get their hands on to manufacture their products- just as they still do today. So, in my opinion, a schematic and in spec parts will take you a long way...usually all the way! I have done a few cap swaps, but I'd really like to hear a truly scientific shootout of different cap types and brands. One thing I've learned over the years, you cannot just swap parts and be objective.
Always surprises me how low-tech the basic building blocks of electrical components are. The bumblebees were made with such basic material you could almost make them in your kitchen
Interesting. Smart idea using the gloves. Oils used in electronics like transformer oil contain PCB's, a cancer causing substance. Seems the casings are a phenolic resin compound, like the handles on a cooking pot. Very heat resistant and durable.
Thanks, yes I figured that since the cap was from the late 1950's it was probably "suspect" in terms of health. It's easy to just put on some gloves, rather than try to wash that oil from your hands and hope for the best.
When I was a grade-schooler, I made my own capacitors a couple of times, by rolling foil and waxed paper. They were disappointly “mushy” .. I couldn’t achieve that solid roll like the factory made ones 😁
if u put the plastic in the inner part of the jaws youll get alot more force and control over how deep u go, im talkin about the jaws on the inside of the pivot, not the inner part of the jaws where the cutter is, on the outside of the pivot u could also use the cutters to it works pretty well
Yeah, in hindsight, cracking them lightly with a pair of vice grips(or a vice!) might have been a bit more efficient. The issue I find with the inner jaws is that it requires more force, and hurts your hands more!
Great patience in sharing! Ah, the craptastic BumbleBombs, laced with PCB’s, ok for small voltages but usually become “leaky” and explode in real power circuits :(
On the practical side the Orange caps have much sturdier legs, the wire is a bit thicker so it is difficult to break them off accidentally. Working with the paper in oil types the legs are flimsy and snap off easily.
Determine the one whose foil has the highest coefficient of reflectively, using appropriate optical instruments. The higher the reflectivity of the foil, the more articulate and bright the treble notes will be.
I've skimmed over old circuits thinking these were resistors. I've never heard of a bumble bee capacitor until this very day. So, if I may, for the average layman who's never even heard of these, just by looking at them, how do you tell the difference between a bumble bee and a resistor ? I mean, geez, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a resistor.
Generally speaking, capacitors are often bigger than resistors. If you saw one next to the other, you'd see the size alone is one of the big differences. Resistors are rated and used by wattage. Most resistors in a given vintage circuit 1/2 watt to 5 watts. They are also usually brown, and look similar to bakelite. Usually, the edges are square(not so anymore). Capacitors are have always come in many colors, often now orange and yellow. They were often rounded at the end, though now it just depends on the cap maker. There are factors that determine how big they are, such as capacitance and voltage. Usually the higher each number gets, the bigger the capacitor needs to be. Hope this helps!
What's interesting is the astron is solid and not mentioned for a guitar circuit far as I've seen. But both the orange drop and bumble are highly recommended and both of a spiral construction..
To be fair, I think the Astron caps were also spiral wound capacitors, but I think the plastic just fused in my specific cap- making it look like a hunk of plastic/aluminum. You're right though, I've never seen them in a guitar, I've only ever seen them in guitar amps...that is kind of weird. This one came out of a tube public address system.
WOW《☆》Amazing how much foil was in the orange drop & how tightly wrapped it was🤓👍🏾I would venture to say the orange drop would give better performance for a longer period🤓🗣🔊☮✌👍🏾
@@FrankOlsonTwins Insane it is , I had two 1970's Gibson SG's and one had brown kidney like caps and the other had ceramics and when I dialed down the tone knob , they both had this vomitting organic wah like woman tone , this week I tried Russian oil caps in a 2005 SG and there's was absolutely no magic whatsoever compared to the old ceramic I had in. Thans for your great demo !,.. hope the likes will pay for the BB's destruction !...Lol
There's also a really suggestive element to components like this. People sometimes hear what they want to, or what they think they should. I'm not immune to it either, if i spent $50 on a tiny component, I'm already biased about what i think it will do, otherwise i wouldn't have laid out the dough....
yes that is right, the oil they use to soak the paper is snake oil. this is where the saying comes from. I believe non-venomous snakes are better for jazz and blues but you need the venomous snake oil to rock out fully!
Good video, though no surprises. I don't understand why people buy (on eBay, etc.) old Bumblebee caps as if they were precious. First, they were made by the millions so they're not. Second, after at least 50 years if they're not BAD they're on their way to going bad. I don't even bother testing them, I take 'em out and replace.
First off. Only the sizes that were commonly used in certain items, like vintage guitars, have become scarce. Demand is driven by the accurate restoration vintage, and collectable equipment, (vintage Gibson guitars come to mind). Secondly, if the component hasn't failed in over 50 years, I'd say it's stable, especially for use in guitars where there is little voltage.
Good question! I believe more wraps increase the farad rating. For example, for any given voltage rating a smaller cap will usually be a smaller value and larger cap will be a larger value. You may also notice higher voltage caps are also larger than let voltage ones. There are many factors though, and that's an extremely simplified answer. I don't know exactly what factors contribute to tolerances, but i bet a specific wrap number/ foil thickness/substrate thickness/width are all part of the equation.
No. Generally more wraps = more capacitance. Capacitance is determined by the size of the plates and the distance between the plates. Tolerance is just how close to the rated capacitance it will be. so a 5% tolerance 100nf capacitor can store anywhere from 95nf to 105nf, and is considered a good product. Some electronics require tighter tolerances, like timing and tuning circuits. So they may use specialized 1% or lower tolerance capacitors.
the Bumblebee is a orange drop with a wax paper with oil interesting . thanks for this it's making me think twice about dropping more money on caps . not too sure !!
well, technically the bumblebee is actual aluminum foil, where the orange drop is an aluminum coated mylar. The mylar is folded so the aluminum is inside and never touches itself(insulated).
what is interesting with these caps is that when you unroll them down to the centers....you are finding no evidence of a lead plate. There should technically be one in the center and then one at the end of the roll on the outside. When you broke them open.....the plates appear to be on the ends of the roll opposite each other. SO its like the length of the sandwich roll is the factor as opposed to the thickness of the roll between center and outside.......which is really odd considering the literature on capacitors. The eary era caps were labeled with a line to denote the outside lead.....and later assembly line caps like an orange drop didn't necessarily have that exact notation if it had the line. There are those that try to measure and determine the outer foil lead.......but this obviously contradicts that !! I can't visually tell if something is obscured with the lead plates. I would suggest that instead of breakig them open with a set of pliers......that you get a small dremel with a carbude disc to cut the caps in half for a sectional display......then do it with another set where you can break the surface capsule to get at the guts. BUT A GREAT INFORMATIONAL PRESENTATION. The real situation is the composition of the internal materials....the chemistry. You can't visually assume its all the same materials between manufacturers whether it looks like paper or wax paper or a film of plastic, and even the aluminum foil. The application of "electrons" in chemistry at the molecular/atomic level is different between Chemistry and Electronics
Essentially Yes, they are rolled up foil with some sort of insulator to keep it from shorting itself out. However, now they are mostly rolled up mylar, with one side being conductive, and the other side not. It's rolled in such a way that the conductive part doesn't short out. As to HOW they work, well that's another video entirely....
Not too easy to explain but they work with the electrical field. When they charge one side of the foil gets fueled with electrons. More than protons so that foil gets negative. The other foil at the other side of the insulation (plastic, ceramic, paper in oil for example) gets empty of electrons leaving protons alone and making a positive charge. So you have one foil negative and the other positive fixed in place because the attraction of one charge and the other because the electric field that appears when you charge the capband the near one charge is from the other. When you close the circuit by capacitor legs the electrons flows from one foil to the wire and enter the other foil creating a current and a voltage and discharging it.
More than any other out of spec capacitor? They tend to be pretty leaky. I probably wouldn't trust them in a power supply or high voltage tube amp output stage, but in a guitar or as a coupling cap, seems pretty harmless if they sound good. When they start to sound bad, they get pulled.
Haha, the gloves! I didn't wear them for the first one because I knew it was made up of just plastic and aluminum. The 50 year old caps though, I thought might have some "questionable" chemicals inside. The bumblebee one, especially smelled chemical-y. Capacitors are used in electronics to regulate electricity in very particular ways. Some are like batteries that fill and drain, functioning much like a water tower would- keeping a bit of power in reserve for when needed. In guitars, they work a bit differently. A capacitor(like the ones in the video) only allows certain frequencies to pass through them. So they can alter the electricity coming from your pickup simply by passing through it. Turning the treble down, is just adding more capacitor. It's how most EQ's work on any amp.
@@FrankOlsonTwins , Actually nothing ever passes "thru" a cap as the plastic film insulates the two ends. All any cap can do is charge and dis-charge. With DC it stays charged until something drains it, with AC it charges and dis-charges at the rate of the freq. allowing current to flow in the rest of the circuit, that's why it's value and not what it's made of matters.
Hi, my name is Emilio and I live in Brussels Belgium, I am a luthier and in my quest to do as much as possible myself, I would like to manufacture my own 0.047uf and 0.022uf paper-in-oil capacitors professionally, make one it's easy but one that gets a professional finish isn't. I would like to know if you can help me, what kind of machine I can use, how to give the correct coating that is hard like bumblebees, or has an aluminum can. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this message.
to manufacture caps, you'll have to either make a machine or buy an old one. i don't know much about cap building, but I'm sure it involves getting a decent tension of the paper and foil. Also, i think the leads are spot welded to the foil, so that's something to consider. Once you make a few dozen you'll get a feel for your work flow and what is working. Regarding the plastic, I think that will take some research to find out what will have the correct properties for your cap. I believe bumblebees were injection molded. Many others are simply dipped in plastic. Lots to think about but it sounds like a fun endeavor! Best of luck!!
What is missing from all of these caps is "tone". That's because there's no such thing as a "tone cap" that has a special attribute that makes magic sounds because of reasons. There's caps that meet specifications for the electrical circuit and those that don't. Listen with your ears, not your eyes.
1st of all great informative video, thanks. I cant believe the uneducated Bumblebee disciples, they just don't understand that a cap value is the same whatever the material its made from, if they do happen to notice a difference in tone its most definitely a tolerance issue. Most caps have a tolerance of 10% which could make a difference.
I recently had a bad experience with new reissue bumblebee caps- i installed them in an amp for a friend and they didn't actually work at 200v. I then installed some polyester caps, ($2 each) that work and sound great...
For a boutique shop to be making paper & foil caps, I understand why they would charge a high price. But as a tech and independent builder, there's no way I'd buy a $10 cap for any build or repair.... Worse, I feel is how bigger cap companies have raised the price of specific capacitors and resistors that are popular with the diy and amp repair crowd(axial caps, CC reistors for example). So now, anything resembling a factory looking repair, costs 5 times what any other repair would.
Oil and paper have sweet spots on the tone control that others do not have....They mix better with the treble sounds without getting woofy. If you never use your tone control you are probably not aware of it.....Most people leave it on 10 bridge pickup with gain on 11 all their life....lol.... Holdsworth used his tone control on bridge pick up for his violin tone....Many clean jazz players use neck pickup with rolled back tone control for dark tones and softer music.....I vote oil and paper.
Yeah, there must be a reason high quality amplifiers, preamplifiers and microphones use paper in oil caps. I've even seen many old schematics that indicate which caps should be paper in oil caps! I'm always shocked when I see ceramic caps inside guitars! They tend to be cheap guitars though...
Bumblebee caps are prefered amongst guitar guys only because of its leakage! They were not the best seal as plastic would deform from heat and the capacitor would start getting moisture, thus accelerating paper degradation and later on leakage. They were one of the worst and most changed ones on old tube tvs and radios and they'll last 1/4 of a regular paper wax or ceramic tubular ones. Oil in paper is another crappy capacitor that was notorious for exploding on across the line or horizontal circuit filters.
Foil and a dielectric wrapped together for all. Two leads separated by an insulating material. So how could any current flow "THRU" it, DC or AC??? It can't ,That's why the only "tone" determining factor is it's value not how it's painted on the outside. 100 bucks for look like bumble bee's, your paying for the paint not the tone. A cap charges and dis-charges in an audio circuit, letting current flow in the circuit, not thru the cap. How long it takes to charge and dis-charge (its value) determines freq. Different constuction is for different enviroments.
![Eminem - Somebody Save Me (feat. Jelly Roll) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Vwa0HenQMi4/mqdefault.jpg)
I could definitely see the mojo way more inside the bumblebee cap😉
i think I heard some escape when i cracked the case🤫
If anyone was wondering, since it wasn’t shown here, the yellow Astron caps look like the Bumblebee but the dielectric film is Mylar instead of oil/paper. Same two aluminum foil/plates separated by Mylar film.
thanks
Good demo of the construction of film capacitors. The inside and outside foils are connected to their respective leads by a portion of each folded on the ends. Each end has dielectric under the fold to ensure that they don't short. Each foil has an equal amount of connections to their respective layers within the body.
Thanks!
This demonstrates the progress of plastics - from pure paper dielectric of 1920's to oiled paper of 1940's to metallized paper of 1960's to mylar and polypropylene metallized film of 1970's to multilayer ceramic SMD of 1980's and after. Since the dielectric thickness is smaller and permeability is higher, the same capacitance/voltage is now much smaller cap. Better contacts to foil/metal gives lower ESR and lower non-linearities. Now you really know that there is only improvements from antique capacitors.
It's true, caps have gotten amazingly small
@@FrankOlsonTwins what was left out was the factoid that as caps became smaller and more efficient they were designed that way for an application other than analog so to apply these awesome new capacitor designs to analog uses took a higher level of knowledge than the builders of old and there we have average builders using modern caps and resistors today in the same way, and being stuck between the old way and the new way with only the the factoid that these new components are better is silly and leaves so much to be caught up on with this change in analog design and modern components.
Several things left out but since you know more than me and the techs that showed those attributes of old are no longer with us you win, happy happy.
Some good points being made here, and honestly I've always been a bit split on this topic. On one hand, as caps have evolved, so too have their tolerances and specs. Perhaps there is a difference to be noticed from old tech to new by those who are paying close attention. The difference is subjective, at the very least(except for very leaky caps which are unsuitable for any amp!). This is physics, after all, and all of these elements have different properties which are more suitable for some tasks than others. Look inside any amplifier and you're likely to see ceramic, film, electrolytic, silver mica and possibly even tantalum caps- each fulfilling a different task based on its physical characteristics. One could populate an entire signal path with ceramic caps, but it is rarely done on any worthwhile equipment, largely to improving tone.
On the other hand, all the guitar and amp manufacturers of old were using the most up to date cap technology they could get their hands on to manufacture their products- just as they still do today. So, in my opinion, a schematic and in spec parts will take you a long way...usually all the way!
I have done a few cap swaps, but I'd really like to hear a truly scientific shootout of different cap types and brands. One thing I've learned over the years, you cannot just swap parts and be objective.
Always surprises me how low-tech the basic building blocks of electrical components are. The bumblebees were made with such basic material you could almost make them in your kitchen
yeah, i find that kind of inspiring! making a cap would be a fun experiment...
well I always fall on the quote. When you think life is absurd.... remember we tricked a rock into thinking. Then we called it a computer
I have made my own paper and oil caps, it's a lot of fun!
Interesting. Smart idea using the gloves. Oils used in electronics like transformer oil contain PCB's, a cancer causing substance. Seems the casings are a phenolic resin compound, like the handles on a cooking pot. Very heat resistant and durable.
Thanks, yes I figured that since the cap was from the late 1950's it was probably "suspect" in terms of health. It's easy to just put on some gloves, rather than try to wash that oil from your hands and hope for the best.
Great demo - thanks man!
...THAT WAS VERY INFORMATIVE-!!!
When I was a grade-schooler, I made my own capacitors a couple of times, by rolling foil and waxed paper. They were disappointly “mushy” .. I couldn’t achieve that solid roll like the factory made ones 😁
Getting the correct thickness of foil seems tedious as well...MIght be fun as a rainy day project, but I already have so many of those!
I could roll a tight joint.
I've ALWAYS wanted to do just that!!
Very insightful. Thanks
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks so much, interesting find!
Thanks!
if u put the plastic in the inner part of the jaws youll get alot more force and control over how deep u go, im talkin about the jaws on the inside of the pivot, not the inner part of the jaws where the cutter is, on the outside of the pivot u could also use the cutters to it works pretty well
Yeah, in hindsight, cracking them lightly with a pair of vice grips(or a vice!) might have been a bit more efficient. The issue I find with the inner jaws is that it requires more force, and hurts your hands more!
Great patience in sharing! Ah, the craptastic BumbleBombs, laced with PCB’s, ok for small voltages but usually become “leaky” and explode in real power circuits :(
Thanks! I've never seen a bumble bee explode, but I've seen many that were out of spec!
@@FrankOlsonTwins Maybe I try a capacitor from an air conditioner, 370 vac 35 mfd, that should really soup up my Lester Paul guitar, woooaahhh man.
The PIO bumblebees do, they crack at the seam.
I've seen the mylar bumblebees pass ridiculous amounts of power without a peep tho.
On the practical side the Orange caps have much sturdier legs, the wire is a bit thicker so it is difficult to break them off accidentally. Working with the paper in oil types the legs are flimsy and snap off easily.
Agree, modern caps have tried to address this issue, and often you can find a durability rating for the legs, for whatever that's worth!
could see on the tone in the bumblebee ..
Determine the one whose foil has the highest coefficient of reflectively, using appropriate optical instruments. The higher the reflectivity of the foil, the more articulate and bright the treble notes will be.
That made me LMAO!
Bc hiny things have value!
I've skimmed over old circuits thinking these were resistors. I've never heard of a bumble bee capacitor until this very day.
So, if I may, for the average layman who's never even heard of these, just by looking at them, how do you tell the difference between a bumble bee and a resistor ? I mean, geez, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a resistor.
Generally speaking, capacitors are often bigger than resistors. If you saw one next to the other, you'd see the size alone is one of the big differences.
Resistors are rated and used by wattage. Most resistors in a given vintage circuit 1/2 watt to 5 watts. They are also usually brown, and look similar to bakelite. Usually, the edges are square(not so anymore).
Capacitors are have always come in many colors, often now orange and yellow. They were often rounded at the end, though now it just depends on the cap maker. There are factors that determine how big they are, such as capacitance and voltage. Usually the higher each number gets, the bigger the capacitor needs to be.
Hope this helps!
Thanks, nice to know
No problem!
What's interesting is the astron is solid and not mentioned for a guitar circuit far as I've seen. But both the orange drop and bumble are highly recommended and both of a spiral construction..
To be fair, I think the Astron caps were also spiral wound capacitors, but I think the plastic just fused in my specific cap- making it look like a hunk of plastic/aluminum. You're right though, I've never seen them in a guitar, I've only ever seen them in guitar amps...that is kind of weird. This one came out of a tube public address system.
@@FrankOlsonTwins probably saw a bit of heat then during it's tenure..
Might be best to hide this all from your local hazmat department.
Damn!
I didn't expect all this xD
WOW《☆》Amazing how much foil was in the orange drop & how tightly wrapped it was🤓👍🏾I would venture to say the orange drop would give better performance for a longer period🤓🗣🔊☮✌👍🏾
Yeah, and it's incredibly thin "foil"!
The paper and oil caps have over 60 years of use in 59 Les Paul’s and still going strong how long do you want your caps to last?
That Astron cap was interesting!
Yeah, tons of flaky foil...40 years of heat and high voltage was too much i guess!
Really interesting
Thank you ! Just understood that premium price they ask for BB's is just snake oil ! Lol
Yeah, I'd never pay more than a few buck for a paper in oil cap. Sometimes these things are selling for like $100 each. Insane.
@@FrankOlsonTwins Insane it is , I had two 1970's Gibson SG's and one had brown kidney like caps and the other had ceramics
and when I dialed down the tone knob , they both had this vomitting organic wah like woman tone , this week I tried Russian oil caps in a 2005 SG
and there's was absolutely no magic whatsoever compared to the old ceramic I had in. Thans for your great demo !,.. hope the likes will pay for the BB's destruction !...Lol
There's also a really suggestive element to components like this. People sometimes hear what they want to, or what they think they should. I'm not immune to it either, if i spent $50 on a tiny component, I'm already biased about what i think it will do, otherwise i wouldn't have laid out the dough....
@@FrankOlsonTwins Totally right and I agree !
yes that is right, the oil they use to soak the paper is snake oil. this is where the saying comes from.
I believe non-venomous snakes are better for jazz and blues but you need the venomous snake oil to rock out fully!
Good video, though no surprises. I don't understand why people buy (on eBay, etc.) old Bumblebee caps as if they were precious. First, they were made by the millions so they're not. Second, after at least 50 years if they're not BAD they're on their way to going bad. I don't even bother testing them, I take 'em out and replace.
Yep, a bad cap is a bad cap. Find a source of new quality caps and stick with it!
First off. Only the sizes that were commonly used in certain items, like vintage guitars, have become scarce. Demand is driven by the accurate restoration vintage, and collectable equipment, (vintage Gibson guitars come to mind).
Secondly, if the component hasn't failed in over 50 years, I'd say it's stable, especially for use in guitars where there is little voltage.
Do more wraps equal tighter tolerance?
Good question! I believe more wraps increase the farad rating. For example, for any given voltage rating a smaller cap will usually be a smaller value and larger cap will be a larger value. You may also notice higher voltage caps are also larger than let voltage ones. There are many factors though, and that's an extremely simplified answer. I don't know exactly what factors contribute to tolerances, but i bet a specific wrap number/ foil thickness/substrate thickness/width are all part of the equation.
No. Generally more wraps = more capacitance.
Capacitance is determined by the size of the plates and the distance between the plates.
Tolerance is just how close to the rated capacitance it will be.
so a 5% tolerance 100nf capacitor can store anywhere from 95nf to 105nf, and is considered a good product.
Some electronics require tighter tolerances, like timing and tuning circuits. So they may use specialized 1% or lower tolerance capacitors.
the Bumblebee is a orange drop with a wax paper with oil interesting . thanks for this it's making me think twice about dropping more money on caps . not too sure !!
well, technically the bumblebee is actual aluminum foil, where the orange drop is an aluminum coated mylar. The mylar is folded so the aluminum is inside and never touches itself(insulated).
what is interesting with these caps is that when you unroll them down to the centers....you are finding no evidence of a lead plate. There should technically be one in the center and then one at the end of the roll on the outside. When you broke them open.....the plates appear to be on the ends of the roll opposite each other. SO its like the length of the sandwich roll is the factor as opposed to the thickness of the roll between center and outside.......which is really odd considering the literature on capacitors. The eary era caps were labeled with a line to denote the outside lead.....and later assembly line caps like an orange drop didn't necessarily have that exact notation if it had the line. There are those that try to measure and determine the outer foil lead.......but this obviously contradicts that !! I can't visually tell if something is obscured with the lead plates. I would suggest that instead of breakig them open with a set of pliers......that you get a small dremel with a carbude disc to cut the caps in half for a sectional display......then do it with another set where you can break the surface capsule to get at the guts. BUT A GREAT INFORMATIONAL PRESENTATION. The real situation is the composition of the internal materials....the chemistry. You can't visually assume its all the same materials between manufacturers whether it looks like paper or wax paper or a film of plastic, and even the aluminum foil. The application of "electrons" in chemistry at the molecular/atomic level is different between Chemistry and Electronics
So capacitors are just tightly rolled up foil? I had no idea. How do they work then? What exactly do they do?
Essentially Yes, they are rolled up foil with some sort of insulator to keep it from shorting itself out. However, now they are mostly rolled up mylar, with one side being conductive, and the other side not. It's rolled in such a way that the conductive part doesn't short out.
As to HOW they work, well that's another video entirely....
Not too easy to explain but they work with the electrical field. When they charge one side of the foil gets fueled with electrons. More than protons so that foil gets negative. The other foil at the other side of the insulation (plastic, ceramic, paper in oil for example) gets empty of electrons leaving protons alone and making a positive charge. So you have one foil negative and the other positive fixed in place because the attraction of one charge and the other because the electric field that appears when you charge the capband the near one charge is from the other. When you close the circuit by capacitor legs the electrons flows from one foil to the wire and enter the other foil creating a current and a voltage and discharging it.
Liutopia sa vous parle bumblebee , je trouve qu'ils son bon .
You do know those bumble bee capacitors can fuck things up right?
More than any other out of spec capacitor? They tend to be pretty leaky. I probably wouldn't trust them in a power supply or high voltage tube amp output stage, but in a guitar or as a coupling cap, seems pretty harmless if they sound good. When they start to sound bad, they get pulled.
Thanks for the video. Damn that was a lot of foil in the orange drop. Is the organ music by Jimmy Smith?
Yeah, a surprising amount of foil...and very thin! Thanks for checking it out!
Oh, the organ is a midi arrangement!
Orange drop should be film foil not metalized one
Why didn't you wear a glove for the first cap? And what is a capacitor anyway?
Haha, the gloves! I didn't wear them for the first one because I knew it was made up of just plastic and aluminum. The 50 year old caps though, I thought might have some "questionable" chemicals inside. The bumblebee one, especially smelled chemical-y.
Capacitors are used in electronics to regulate electricity in very particular ways. Some are like batteries that fill and drain, functioning much like a water tower would- keeping a bit of power in reserve for when needed.
In guitars, they work a bit differently. A capacitor(like the ones in the video) only allows certain frequencies to pass through them. So they can alter the electricity coming from your pickup simply by passing through it. Turning the treble down, is just adding more capacitor. It's how most EQ's work on any amp.
A great 11 year old video about what a capacitor is ruclips.net/video/ZYH9dGl4gUE/видео.html
@@FrankOlsonTwins , Actually nothing ever passes "thru" a cap as the plastic film insulates the two ends. All any cap can do is charge and dis-charge. With DC it stays charged until something drains it, with AC it charges and dis-charges at the rate of the freq. allowing current to flow in the rest of the circuit, that's why it's value and not what it's made of matters.
Cool video. Side note wear gloves! Those things can have lead and PCB!
Good point. I did wear gloves for the Bumblebee, for that very reason!
Hi, my name is Emilio and I live in Brussels Belgium, I am a luthier and in my quest to do as much as possible myself, I would like to manufacture my own 0.047uf and 0.022uf paper-in-oil capacitors professionally, make one it's easy but one that gets a professional finish isn't. I would like to know if you can help me, what kind of machine I can use, how to give the correct coating that is hard like bumblebees, or has an aluminum can. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this message.
to manufacture caps, you'll have to either make a machine or buy an old one. i don't know much about cap building, but I'm sure it involves getting a decent tension of the paper and foil. Also, i think the leads are spot welded to the foil, so that's something to consider. Once you make a few dozen you'll get a feel for your work flow and what is working. Regarding the plastic, I think that will take some research to find out what will have the correct properties for your cap. I believe bumblebees were injection molded. Many others are simply dipped in plastic. Lots to think about but it sounds like a fun endeavor! Best of luck!!
🔑 word today folks is CERAMIC! LmFiAo 🤣 💥🔨
sound harsh, react differently to load
What is missing from all of these caps is "tone". That's because there's no such thing as a "tone cap" that has a special attribute that makes magic sounds because of reasons. There's caps that meet specifications for the electrical circuit and those that don't. Listen with your ears, not your eyes.
That's a wide pallet you just painted, care to expand on your knowledge?
Show Gostei Brother ☠🔱
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1st of all great informative video, thanks. I cant believe the uneducated Bumblebee disciples, they just don't understand that a cap value is the same whatever the material its made from,
if they do happen to notice a difference in tone its most definitely a tolerance issue. Most caps have a tolerance of 10% which could make a difference.
I recently had a bad experience with new reissue bumblebee caps- i installed them in an amp for a friend and they didn't actually work at 200v. I then installed some polyester caps, ($2 each) that work and sound great...
I was pretty concerned that your plier might slip and catch your hand....
Hmmm, good point! Perhaps next time I'll wear some safety gloves!
And here I am wondering how they can charge $10+ for paper and oil caps...
For a boutique shop to be making paper & foil caps, I understand why they would charge a high price. But as a tech and independent builder, there's no way I'd buy a $10 cap for any build or repair....
Worse, I feel is how bigger cap companies have raised the price of specific capacitors and resistors that are popular with the diy and amp repair crowd(axial caps, CC reistors for example). So now, anything resembling a factory looking repair, costs 5 times what any other repair would.
Oil and paper have sweet spots on the tone control that others do not have....They mix better with the treble sounds without getting woofy. If you never use your tone control you are probably not aware of it.....Most people leave it on 10 bridge pickup with gain on 11 all their life....lol.... Holdsworth used his tone control on bridge pick up for his violin tone....Many clean jazz players use neck pickup with rolled back tone control for dark tones and softer music.....I vote oil and paper.
Yeah, there must be a reason high quality amplifiers, preamplifiers and microphones use paper in oil caps. I've even seen many old schematics that indicate which caps should be paper in oil caps! I'm always shocked when I see ceramic caps inside guitars! They tend to be cheap guitars though...
Yeah, lots of greasy tones lie within those paper-in-oil caps...
Ótimo sempre quis saber o que tem dentro
No problemo!
So capacitors are kind of like Willy Wonka... Thanks Frank Olson Twins!
This video proves the well-known superior tonal qualities of the Sprague Bumblebee are clearly visible to the naked eye.
Bumblebee caps are prefered amongst guitar guys only because of its leakage! They were not the best seal as plastic would deform from heat and the capacitor would start getting moisture, thus accelerating paper degradation and later on leakage. They were one of the worst and most changed ones on old tube tvs and radios and they'll last 1/4 of a regular paper wax or ceramic tubular ones. Oil in paper is another crappy capacitor that was notorious for exploding on across the line or horizontal circuit filters.
I can attest they are generally pretty bad in amps.
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Wow how can so much stuff be inside such a small cap🥴
Crazy right? It's always surprising!
I notice that everytime I open up one of those *Bumblebee* caps to dissect its materials, I find *Tuna Fish* in there..
Don't worry, these caps are dolphin safe!
What type of tuna tho? Chromatic? Polyphonic? Strobe?
Foil and a dielectric wrapped together for all. Two leads separated by an insulating material. So how could any current flow "THRU" it, DC or AC??? It can't ,That's why the only "tone" determining factor is it's value not how it's painted on the outside. 100 bucks for look like bumble bee's, your paying for the paint not the tone. A cap charges and dis-charges in an audio circuit, letting current flow in the circuit, not thru the cap. How long it takes to charge and dis-charge (its value) determines freq. Different constuction is for different enviroments.
Depend original or fake?
These are original
Like9🤩👍🏻🌸🌺☀️☀️🌺
rhey taste good with hot sauce
highly toxic oil and foil
Piece of doo doo inside
Yeah, not great!!