Caps

JCP · Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 8:46 am Post subject: Caps

These days I'm looking for the roundest, warmest tones from my electronics. My mainly British amp collection has all the high end and more that I need.

What caps are recommend for the warmest (even a bit dark) tones? Bumble Bees, Black Beauties (if these, where would be a good resource?) Jensen oil and paper? What values?

Thanks

CAFeathers · Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 10:20 am Post subject:

I'm in the process of checking out the Mallory 150's in several different values.

JCP · Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 3:41 pm Post subject:

Hope you'll report what you find, CA.

Are you looking for a particular tone, or a "know it when I hear it" kind of thing?

CAFeathers · Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 4:11 pm Post subject:

Nothing in particular. I'll know it when I find it.

owwdatune · Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 2:50 am Post subject:

How does the tone capacitor value affect the sound of the guitar?
Most guitars and basses with passive pickups use between .01 and .1MFD (Microfarad) tone capacitors with .02 (or .022) and .05 (or .047) being the most common choices. The capacitor and tone pot are wired together to provide a variable low pass filter. This means when the filter is engaged (tone pot is turned) only the low frequencies pass to the output jack and the high frequencies are grounded out (cut) In this application, the capacitor value determines the "cutoff frequency" of the filter and the position of the tone pot determines how much the highs (everything above the cutoff frequency) will be reduced. So the rule is: Larger capacitors will have lower cutoff frequency and sound darker in the bass setting because a wider range of frequencies is being reduced. Smaller capacitors will have a higher cutoff frequency and sound brighter in the bass setting because only the ultra high frequencies are cut. For this reason, dark sounding guitars like Les Pauls with humbuckers typically use .02MFD (or .022MFD) capacitors to cut off less of the highs and guitars like Strats and Teles with single coils typically use .05MFD capacitors to allow more treble to be rolled off. Keep in mind that the capacitor value only affects the sound when the tone control is being used (pot in the bass setting) The tone capacitor value will have little to no effect on the sound when the tone pot is in the treble setting.

SAguitar · Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 11:56 am Post subject:

Nice, concise explanation. Thanks, ~T~! Cool