As a youngster all those years ago I remember gazing into TV sets and Amplifiers, radio's etc and seeing
lots of brightly coloured capacitors which incidently was the main attraction for me in electronics and got me started
the last few years though the colours seem to have disappeared....gone are the bright reds, blues and greens seemingly
replaced with drab dark blues and blacks, I know this is a small issue to some but for me it is a major
disappointment.

Are there still companies around that supply my lovely preferred coloured components and if so can you
point me in the right direction please?

Neil.

 

Are there still companies around that supply my lovely preferred coloured components and if so can you
point me in the right direction please?

If you buy in high enough quantity, you can have manufactures trick them out to your specs. Otherwise, no. Most of us don't care what color a part is.

 

Are there still companies around that supply my lovely preferred coloured components

There are Orange Drop capacitors and Mallory dark blue...most resistors have pretty stripes, but basically, no.
Engineers don't care what color a capacitor is more than I don't care what color my car is.
It starts and runs. If it doesn't attract cops, it's fine with me. Pretty much the same with capacitors, inductors, and resistors, and the manufacturers feel the same way. If you want, "pretty colors" try Rustoleum or finger nail polish.

 

As a youngster all those years ago I remember gazing into TV sets and Amplifiers, radio's etc and seeing
lots of brightly coloured capacitors which incidently was the main attraction for me in electronics and got me started
the last few years though the colours seem to have disappeared....gone are the bright reds, blues and greens seemingly
replaced with drab dark blues and blacks, I know this is a small issue to some but for me it is a major
disappointment.

Are there still companies around that supply my lovely preferred coloured components and if so can you
point me in the right direction please?

Neil.

There are new-old-stock parts on eBay and other vendors of vintage parts - orange drops, and many other colorful named capacitors. It just takes time and faith (that a part sitting in a bin for 50-years are as good as the day they were made).

 

It just takes time and faith (that a part sitting in a bin for 50-years are as good as the day they were made).

When it comes to film caps, I wouldn't be surprised if they are good. Were good film caps available in 1967? I was pretty young back then.

I resurrect antique guitar amplifiers, so I see a lot of old parts. The last one I did had paper and beeswax capacitors. Not very confidence inspiring.

 

A Google of "Capacitor Color Codes" should bring up some interesting hits and examples of how those old capacitors were color coded, much like how resistor color codes work. Some examples of old color coded capacitors.

Ron

 

Some of those old capacitors may have been custom colored at the assembler's request to make it easy to properly load the boards with the correct devices (which were likely hand loaded on the boards at that time).

 

As a youngster all those years ago I remember gazing into TV sets and Amplifiers, radio's etc and seeing
lots of brightly coloured capacitors which incidently was the main attraction for me in electronics and got me started
the last few years though the colours seem to have disappeared....gone are the bright reds, blues and greens seemingly
replaced with drab dark blues and blacks, I know this is a small issue to some but for me it is a major
disappointment.

Are there still companies around that supply my lovely preferred coloured components and if so can you
point me in the right direction please?

Neil.

You mean like these?

 

You mean like these?

I was actually thinking more about electrolytics ....

 

If you buy in high enough quantity, you can have manufactures trick them out to your specs. Otherwise, no. Most of us don't care what color a part is.

Like I said it's not a big deal to most people but it is to me!

Neil.

 

They were Mullard C280 series capacitors. You had to be careful bending the wires outward or the separated from the end of the capacitor. I still have some of them.

Les.

 

Hello,

I think you mean those droplet size tantalium capacitors:
http://www.marvac.com/fun/tantalum_capacitor_codes.aspx

For other types cof capacitors you could have a look here:
http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/funwithtubes/How_To-Reading_Codes.html

Bertus