[Doug Houston]

Tex, have you any inderstanding at all what these old Sprague capacitors are? They are leaky...have resistance across them. It has been a mystery among learned radio technicians what inhabits the heads of those guitar amplifier fans. They are removed from equipment because they are the cause of malfunctioning.

I understand that musicians have no savvy whatsoever of electronics, but being a graduate electrical engineer, and having designed electronic equipment for 65 years or so, and/or serviced it as well, It is beyond my comprehansion, how old, leaky capacitors can give just decent performance of audio amplifiers, much less admirable quality of output. In my aged eyes, this is unabashed insanity.

Are you in a position to explain how any degraded capacitors, regardless of capacitance ratings, can make an audio amplifier work properly? I'd want more of an explanation than: "I dunno, but they do".

I don't choose to come across as a lone protector of society. When I replace those old Sprague "Black Beauties, be they color coded or marked with ratings. I relegate them to the trash can. Indeed, I can sell them to some eager buyer, but I view this as tantamount to slipping a drink to an alcoholic. The deed doesn't hurt me, but the results do.

Clue me, please.