Is using All Allen Bradley Carbon Comp Resistors on a Board a good idea???

[jazzy cian]

Hey everyone,
Im new to the forum. What does everyone think about using all Carbon Composition Resistors on the JTM45 board? I am in the process of building a JTM45 Bluesbreaker and have used all CCs for the main board and tremelo board with Sozo caps and Niks Ceriatone Capacitors.

Heres a good article for explaining the effects of CCs and a lot of people say they are noisy!! Im torn, I dont know what to do!!

http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/carbon_comp/carboncomp.htm

Heres pics of the boards, I have soldered them so Im reluctant to change them without asking some expert opinions!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53586980@N06/

Should I , A) go ahead and try this board

                B) take them off and just use modern resistors

       or      C) Use CCs only in certain positions??

[cmoore]

I don't know.....I have definitely changed out my share of noisy, 100k. CC, plate resistors in Fender amps. It is usually related to the age of the CC's. They can be noisy. I tend to use Carbon Film for 95% of resistor requirements. With that said....
It would not be whole lot of work at this point to switch. If it really weighs on your mind, just go ahead and make the change now. I would, but really, my gut says.....You will be fine, do not give it a second thought, unless you stay up at night mulling it over. Know what I mean.....?
I have the ut-most respect for RG Keen. But, as far as tone and resistors....that is the last thing I would worry about. If guys can truly hear the difference in a resistor based solely on the component make up, I feel sorry for them. They must hear everything from interference from the weather to frequency noise in the micro wave bandwidth.  The biggest change in the tone of your amp will come from speakers, preamp tubes, and changing the VALUE (not brand, color or type) of coupling caps.
Nice OT by the way. In the future you may also like to to try steel from Edcor, Hammond, TDS, and Heyboer.
JMO of course.
Good Luck
The JTM 45 is a nice amp

[jazzy cian]

Cool,
Thanks for the reply! I have been mulling this over for ages on other forums and even Nik got involved at one stage!! (And yes i do know all about thoughts of amps keeping me awake at night, usually coz i want to do something and dont have the money!! Ha!) Yeah both my transformers are Hammonds, and a Hammond 7H choke!! I wanted some Marstran or mercury magnets but I live in Ireland and so the shipping from the states pretty much costs the same as the transformers, I find that everything from the states has overpriced shipping for international orders. I mean Nik can post stuff for half the price and hes further away!!! So I had to get the transformers from germany!! I decided after loads of input from different people to just get Carbon Films and keep a few CCs in a few places on the board!! SHould have it built in a few weeks, I cant finish it until my friend makes the cab for me!! I will post pics when I finish it and hopefully post a few sound clips if it sounds good and I can get hold of a mic!!

[cmoore]

Looking forward to some sound clips.
I believe i am familiar with that supplier in Germany.....Tube World or something like that. I think he sells Hammond exclusively. If all I had to choose from was Hammond, I would not be bothered at all.
Best

[wyatt]

Honestly.  I would just leave on the AB's until you've heard them.

If they are real Allen Bradley's and not cheap contemporary CC's, they were CC's made especially for fidelity purposes.  They were the top of the heap for amps...in 1965 or so.  And they are getting hard to come by for a reason price here in the U.S. to come by as amp cloners are hoarding them for their own brands.

Guitar amps are NOT about high fidelity, they are generally about warm organic overdrive, even when "clean," most vintage amps still had some hair to the tone.  Now, I'm not a believer in "magic parts" or vintage parts sounding better, I only stock NOS parts for vintage repairs, but the AB's were the best CC's ever made for amps, and since you already have them installed, I don't see any reason to second guess yourself until find out how they sound.  If you get a high noise floor, you can always remove them later, that's the best thing about knowing how to build an amp.

[jazzy cian]

Cool, thanks for the reply wyatt!

Yeah im fairly sure they are all allen bradleys!! Got them from a reputable source. I ordered some modern carbon films to put in the power section at least because the last thing I want is something to fail at the expense of my tubes! Im going to leave some CCs just in certain areas. Hopefully this will work out!