Lets Talk Capacitors

[ESPImperium]

Im in the middle of finalising a orderlist of parts for my EC-1K and Horton Tempest mods, but im a bit confused on what Capacitors i should use;

 

Im either gonna use theese:

Capacitor - Allparts Vitamin Q - 400v

http://www.allparts.uk.com/capacitor-allparts-vitamin-400v-p-2254.html?p=product

 

or theese:

Capacitor - Sprague Orange Drop - 200v

http://www.allparts.uk.com/capacitor-sprague-orange-drop-200v-p-2270.html?p=product

 

Or should i just get a Ceramic Disc like theese ones???

 

Whats the diffrence in tone??? And whats the diffrence in tone with the diffrent values???

 

Thanks again.

[Doctor Morbius]

The more expensive caps will/should have much tighter tolerances. I use Sprague Drop Orange caps in my projects but they are clearly smack dab in the mid range for guitars. If I were working on high end instruments I'd spring for the oil jobbies.

 

 

 

That seems like a lot of long green for a ceramic cap. If you were in the States I'd mail you a couple.

[ArKay]

I have Vitamin Qs in my Bacchus, but I couldn't tell the difference. It has P90s though so it sounds different from my other LP clones anyway.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

Higher value (uF) means that more treble will be removed for a given position on the tone control. Voltage is unlikely to be significant.

 

As for which type gives the *best* tone - or even noticeable tonal differences, I mostly doubt they could be told apart in a blind test. Personally I use orange drops, usually because I have them: either left from amp building, or because guitar fetish sells 'em cheapish. There's something psychologically wrong about the tiny cheap ceramic caps, but I'm not sure I could *hear* the difference.

[ESPImperium]

Looks like im gonna get the Vitiman Q ones now, with the .047uF, but also do the 100K resistor Trble Bleed mod so that not too much treble is rolled off.

[Wyatt]

I've used this description before and often just link to an old post, but I may try and appreciate it here.

 

Imagine your guitars tone is a evergreen or Christmas tree. The point is the highest frequency and the big, bushy bottom is the lowest frequency. A tone control is an axe cuts the tree at some point and makes everything above that cut disappear (this is where my metaphor fails, because the top really just fades away slowly as you roll the tone back).

 

The cap value decides how high or low on the tree the cut is made. The higher the value the cap, the higher the cut. So, a 0.10uF cap will just take off the high treble, a 0.022 will take off treble and start to take off the upper midrnage, a 0.047uF cap starts creeping into the midrange, etc.

 

Traditionally, peopl,e use .04uF with Fender style SC's and .022 with Gibson P-90's and Humbuckers. But there are no hard rules, for instance, I actually have switched at using. 022 with Tele's, it allows me to shave off the spank and twang of a Tele PU but retain some "hair" and upper mids and give me more of a P-90 sound.

[Pope on a Rope]

Buy a bag of assorted caps from Radio Shack and some test leads. You should try experimenting with different values. You may prefer something other than the standard .022 and .047 caps.

[Doctor Morbius]

My last project didn't even have a tone cap. Tone suckers they are. Tone suckers.

 

[NOS68]

 

Buy a bag of assorted caps from Radio Shack and some test leads. You should try experimenting with different values. You may prefer something other than the standard .022 and .047 caps.

 

 

I've been thinking about picking up one these for that same purpose. They have it in kit form too for $12.95

[Quarter]

I like and use mainly Orange Drops, they are a quality cap and reasonably priced. That and its fun to say and reminds me of the wild days long ago

[Pope on a Rope]

 

I've been thinking about picking up one these for that same purpose. They have it in kit form too for $12.95

 

 

That would be a useful gadget for a guitar tinker.

[bass_n_drums]

I'm kinda new at the capacitor department. i've doing some research and ordered some NOS sprague Vitamin Q .022 @200 and NOS Mullard Tropical Fish .022 and I have to say that I can tell the difference on my Gibson Classic with Sprague VQ. I was able to hear it more prominently on my ESP LDT EC1000 with a Mullard TF. I guess the Capacitor on the ESP was cheaper.

[Ancient Mariner]

BnD - what kind of difference did you hear, and did you like the tone better or did it just sound different? Also did you replace like with like values over the original?

[bass_n_drums]

 

BnD - what kind of difference did you hear, and did you like the tone better or did it just sound different? Also did you replace like with like values over the original?

 

 

. The difference for the Gibson was just less brittle. and brightness.The clarity is the same. The Mullard made my ESP clearer and the lows seem a bit less but not by much at all. I like it alot better than the stock caps I had. I'm sure about the original values or the original. I just went along with what the majority have recommended and it sounds like an upgrade IMO.

[Mr_GoodBomb]

Most of my guitars don't have them.

[Johnny Z]

I think sometimes people get carried away with stuff like caps and tubes.

 

Since this is about caps I recommend a .022uf or .047uf disk, depending on your taste and the pups your using and a GOOD Audio Pot, since the pot is what really makes the cap work. I think it's more important than which cap you choose. Working voltage really isn't a concern with guitar caps so buying a 200V or 400V cap seems like overkill. For about a $1 you can recap your guitar.

[ashasha]

This is one of those topics that I am really kind of on the fence about.

 

On one hand we are talking about signal levels that are so incredibly low that as long as the cap's actual value is accurate that there shouldn't be much difference between types and their performance. And like someone said we aren't actually doing anything to our tone here; the signal isn't passing through the cap to the amp so there is no processing being done. All we are doing is varying the frequency of the signal that is being shorted to ground by changing the level of the pot. Its a basic RC circuit and couldn't be any simpler. Oil filled or whatever shoudn't be a factor in the performance of this circuit using basic common sense.

 

But the other side of me says that there could be some credence to the type of cap being used as being important. Because while we are just shorting some of the signal to ground in basic theory, what is actually happening is that the cap is, well...a cap so it is charging and discharging and we use that electronic function in this circuit to get it to do what we want.

 

We don't see it as that because we are looking at the effect of the whole circuit on our signal, not what is actually happening to the electrons themselves. And I am too frickin doped up on painkillers to remember exactly how all this works, but my point is that different types of caps (not values; types like oil, ceramic, etc) will have different response characteristics because of the rate of charge and discharge. This will in turn create some kind of roll off (this is just my theory, not a fact I've proven).

 

So if this was the case then a higher quality cap may actually have a sharper cut off where as a cheaper one may kind of just start to attenuate frequencies on a much longer slope so that it would be kind of muddy.

 

I don't know, its just {censored} that I wonder about when I am sitting alone or having sex.