Who Makes Sprague Atoms

From postmaste–(at)–riodeel.com Tue Sep 14 20:37:18 CDT 1999
From: Ned Carlson Newsgroups: alt.guitar.amps
Subject: Re: Sprague Atoms
Date: 14 Sep 1999 16:06:01 -0500
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Rich Koerner wrote:
> But one interesting thing is that all the ones that are loose inside the
> bag sitting on my desk waiting for Karen to ship them back to New Sensor
> is the words, “UNITED CHEMI-CON” as the last printed line.

Why? Sprague TVA Atoms have been made by United Chemicon
for a long time.
UCC has a big factory in Lansing, North Carolina.

The Orange Drops aren’t made by Sprague either.
They’re made by SBE in Barre,Vermont.

In both cases you can get the part as a Sprague thru Vishay’s
distributor network or under the original manufacturer’s
brand name (In small quantities usually easier to get
them as Sprague).
The part numbers are identical.

The only “fake” Spragues I’ve ever seen weren’t
actually fakes, they were imported capacitors
distributed either by Sprague or Sprague’s current
owners, Vishay.

I have one right here, in an orange wrapper,labelled:
22uF63V
516D(M)
85C
N9138
Sprague

And I have a nearly identical one (470 uF 50V)
that’s clearly labelled “Taiwan 85C Sprague”.

Needless to say, Vishay owns the brand name and is
entitled to label Sprague on anything they care to,
actually, it surprises me that the TVA’s and the
Orange Drops are as close to the old ones as they are,
they certainly could’ve gone the cheaper route,
and imported the same stuff that Illinois does.


Ned Carlson Triode Electronics “where da tubes are!”
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