baldwin 54pl capacitor question

[fodman]

hello all,been a while since i have had a question. going to recap a 54pl, the amp is tube so i know i will need high voltage capacitors there. my question is since the tone circuit has transistors it should be low voltage. there are some 250 volt paper caps in the tone circuits. i have not had time to check the actual voltages on these capacitors.. wouild it be safe to use 100 volt capacitor here. as this was when tubes were on the way out could they could have been using up the large stock of capacitors on hand.

[gtc]

Hard to say without the benefit of seeing the schematic and what was originally specified. That said, it was not unusual for manufacturers to sometimes use whatever component value was in stock as long as space under the chassis, or on a board, permitted.

[fodman]

thanks for the reply, i i will check voltage and use higher voltage if needed. i have many boxs of 100 volt film capacitors on hand..

[Larason2]

If those paper caps were used in tone generation, then the voltage probably isn't as much of a concern. However, if I recall correctly, the pitch did vary according to the value of the caps, and it's going to be pretty tricky to find modern film caps that fit the values correctly so they are all at the right pitch. So I would leave them if they work ok. If you have some values that have drifted to the point they can't be padded to get the right pitch, then replace those only, but others have rolled their own paper caps rather than use a new film. However, if you have the right values on hand it's worth a try.