ALL ASTRONS MUST GO! (+ Jupiter vs Vishay vs Astron tone comparison) 

Fun reading the comments and the wildly differing opinions! This is why I like doing these comparisons, you guys get to be the judge yourself vs relying on hearsay. Cheers! - Tanner

Amazing reading the differences people hear when the only variable per channel is one capacitor in the input section where the signal is cleanest and the frequency response is full range, with every other capacitor in the amp, especially in higher gain locations, being the kind people hear as “bright/thin/harsh.” Absolutely amazing. Magical, even.

For what the Vishay's cost, they're hard to beat. I think good condition vintage amps deserve a couple more bucks for a true film and foil capacitor and Jupiter's are perfect for Fenders. BTW, everyone makes mistakes. It's how you fix them is what matters. Great job.

No difference - at least not a big enough to make a difference if performing for an audience or recording. Love the cleanliness of your work.

Nice job! I like the red Jupiters and the WMFs. The vishays and m150's are metalized poly and the Jupiters, wmf, etc are film and foil construction like blue moldeds and other vintage caps.

With my hearing loss, I can’t tell the difference.

Great comparison! Listened through my studio monitors and even added a Distressor plugin to try and get the differences to stand out. My thoughts: on the first strumming clip, I didn't hear any noticeable differences. With the single note comparisons, the differences were more noticeable. For the guitar and amp settings in the video, the Astrons sounded best to my ears. There's more noise and overdrive that add fulness and a character that's not in the other caps. The Jupiters come in second. While they lacked the character of the Astrons, they sounded clean and even. The Vishay caps seemed to have a slight nasal quality (a narrow peak in the midrange), but only compared to the other two. If I wasn't able to hear them back to back to back with other caps, I would probably say they sound great as well. So no real losers in this comparison, and as much as I like the character of those particular Astrons (I wouldn't assume all 60 year old yellow Astrons would sound the same), I agree with the owner's choice to replace them for the sake of reliability.

The Astron’s sounded the fullest and warmest. Next the Jupitors , they were a bit leaner sounding. The leanest sounding are the Vishays .

I was surprised by the difference. Astrons FTW.

Glad that you kept the "blue molded caps" as those rarely go bad . . . I installed Jupters in my clone 5F2 and 6G15 reverb unit . . . spent a bit more $ but worth the effort and both units sound good . . . nice job on the install 😎 👍 👍

IMO, the Astrons sound the fattest, then Jupiter, then the vishays. Both Jupiter and vishay sound noticeably shrill and tighter. For a vintage amp, I would try to stick with the Astrons, unless obviously function is effected, then I would swap them out. I would have bet money that I couldn't tell a difference from a recording... It's noticeable.

Blue SoZos are quite satisfying.

I didn’t want to believe it but the Jupiter’s sound basically identical to the original!

Looking good! W/ out headphones, the old Astron sounded slightly smoother and rounder w/ a tad less brilliance. New caps sounded great w/ no noticeable difference. I might be inclined to argue in all geekness that the Jupiters size and presentation visually on an old board are more pleasing to the eye. Great riffing as always! Sounded like a jag or jazzmaster. Thx for the share. Nice way to start the day. Off to shellac a RI Tweed Bassman cab 💨✨

Astrons all the way. They sounded fuller than any of the other caps. The others sounded thin and tinny to my ears. Having said that, you can probably use the EQ to restore the fullness.

I hear a subtle difference, primarily on the strummed chords. The old Astrons are a bit darker. For the single note playing, the differences between the 3 caps is negligible, and any of them would be fine. Adjusting the tone controls on the guitar and the amp would probably reveal further differences, but then the comparison would get complicated, with too many variables to say which are "best".

Needs a Dan Worall style null test to pick out the differences between the clips. On a decent-enough home-studio setup I couldn't hear enough difference to form a strong opinion. None sounded bad in any way.

Looking forward to listen on my studio monitors...can't hear any difference at all from my TV speakers.

The old caps are a bit duller on top, but I probably couldn't tell if I wasnt watching then change on the video.

It would have been nice to see what the capacitance readings were for a comparison. It seemed like there was more gain and fullness with the Astrons. The Jupiters sounded great. Expensive but it seems to be the closest to the Astrons. Great work making things right. Keep up the content. I really enjoyed this.

I heard no difference coming from my studio monitors. Thanks for doing this, though. I was very curious how much different brands of capacitors change the sound.

It sounded really nice, but to be honest in only heard a very slight difference between the 7 dollar ones and the 2 dollar ones me personally I keep it all original cause it's a freaking awesome amp

My experience is that blue molded caps hold on and last long time. Completely opposite to that yellow molded Astron caps are almost always leaking. When electrolytic caps are getting changed, yellow molded should go as well. There is another issue that can result in red plating of the output tubes. Bad connection to the grid pin of the tube. Faulty or dirty socket and bad contact of the wire that is bringing the negative bias voltage to the socket. In any case, when you move the chassis, it might start red plating again. Regarding coupling and tone stack caps, they all sound a bit different. Though to be abke to hear it good one should play at lower levels and clean. Great caps are capable of fransducing more details and transients. If the level is above the headroom of the amplifier, that difference is masked with too many things getting saturated, and compression starts kicking in. This doesn't mean one should not test it at higher volumes as well. In the case of repairing old amplifiers, I check all cables and all soldering points to prevent cold contacts. If I find a cold connection in an eyelet, I do reflow every single one with some flux and a bit of a new tin.

If the replacement caps have the same capacitance and neither old nor the new ones are leaky, why would there be any difference in “tone” ?

My bet for tone control cap replacements will be the Jupiter's, the Astrons have a bit of wool the owner has likely become accustomed to, the Vishays were noticibaly brighter than either. I wonder how successful stuffing the Astron cases with your Vishays might be... I haven't really heard of any attempts

Astrons are best

Practically no difference that I can hear...

no difference