Would you replace THIS capacitor

. The paper cap on the left . Probabaly 30 years old. Amp has been stored a good while, but seems to have been exposed to humidity due to some rust around the fuse cap. The amp sounds marvelous; no clicks buzzes and hums. I have been advised to leave it alone untill it exhibits noise problems. I see the old paper cap is 1/2 discolored and its disconcerting to me. I've heard they can and do dry out and go "open" whatever that means..or even "short out" in teh worst case and cause cause major probelms. Ive heard to just leave it be untill noise problems occur, and Ive also heard to replace it as preventative maintenance.;
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n...1/jerr2116.jpg

Note; the Spraque Atom on the right I am less concerned with, as it looks to have been more or less replaced along the way.

Yes -- you can plainly see the electrolyte seeping through the cardboard jacket.

HTH

Quote:

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Originally Posted by phantomman

Yes -- you can plainly see the electrolyte seeping through the cardboard jacket.

HTH

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Thats where the tone is man! -leaking caps! hahaha

[I actually had a tech tell me he wanted my old leaking caps cause some guys said they wanted that sound ..true- they werent the big paper ones but the small ceratones that had drifted in value though]. Thanks

When a PCB-laden cap is heated, the fumes leach out into the atmospere. Now I ain' no militant tree-hugger y'unnerstan' but they's no disputing that the oil is toxic -- carcinogenic, in fact.

Bad enough that I'm already tempting fate with a nicotine monkey on my back......

:bonk

Only 30 years old?!?!

I'd replace both of those!

Drop both of them and any other electrolytics in the amp.
The caps he was talking about being desirable are the signal and coupling caps; the white/yellow ones in that picture. They can turn leaky in terms of DC voltage but not physically leaky like the electrolytics (where the electrolye leaks).
Electrolyics really ought to be replaced every decade regardless of whether or not they show symptoms such as bulging or splitting.

I also would replace both.

Caps are relatively cheap I can't think of a reason not to replace them. If you're concerned and loosing sleep over it, just replace them. Why wait for a problem.

What Zeiss said. Take em out. The only 'tone' coming from lytics is value dependent (filtering stages) not brand/age.

You never know when a greasy looking cap like that will just fuse out and fail. I'd yank it and any other 30 year old electrolytics for new ones.

Cheers,
- JJ