Guitar Capactors

[Jcm800_6550]

Ive Heard that upgrading can improve your tone but i dont know anything about them or which ones are the best for my type of sound and guitar.

 

ill be putting them in my 1961 reissue sg and i play classic rock-grunge nothing too heavy.

 

im looking for a better treble response , thanks guys:thu:

[ΨWindingΨ]

Ive Heard that upgrading can improve your tone but i dont know anything about them or which ones are the best for my type of sound and guitar. ill be putting them in my 1961 reissue sg and i play classic rock-grunge nothing too heavy. im looking for a better treble response , thanks guys:thu:

Well....

I bought a 100 upgrade kit and I think the pots made more of a diff, but I at least have period correct type of caps.

I think they probably do, but not as much as some claim. Check out RS Guitarworks for their kits. Nice stuff and nice bunch of guys.

[Tupelo Son]

Check out the www.rsguitarworks.net forums. You will find your answer and then some. LOTS of great info on guitar wiring there.

 

They also sale pre-wired upgrade kits(caps, pots, etc) for several well known guitars.....And they ARE upgrades, not just generic kits.

[k4df4l]

http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2008/Mar/Auditioning_Tone_Capacitors.aspx

 

http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2008/Apr/Auditioning_Tone_Capacitors_Part_II.aspx

 

How to choose the right tone capacitor for guitar and bass? 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.

 

 

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/category/wiringresources.wiring_faqs/#q5

[Wyatt]

Better treble response? Then you would probably just want something as simple as a Orange Drop 715 or 716 series. These are polypropylene. A good hi-fi cap that some find brighter and tighter. You could try and Auricap or Hovland as well, but I think the OD will perform exactly how you want.

 

Most of the high-end,dedicated guitar caps being sold by guitar parts companies are paper-in-oil or polyester film are picked for a warmer, tone; not what you asking for.

 

The biggest deal is value and tolerance. Ceramic caps in some guitars have a +80/-20 tolerance, so they can vary *greatly* from their stated value. Measure the caps that come out of the guitar with a DMM and measure the caps that go into it and find out how different they are, it could be huge and may make more (or all) of the difference compared to cap type, which is highly debated. You could also just opt for a .015uF cap as well, it just raises the frequency cutoff point a little.

 

Still don't have enough treble, consider swapping the Tone pot out for a 1M pot. The higher the pot value, the less high end shunted to ground when dimed (despite Premiere Guitar's assurance, a 500K pot is running 500K of resistance to ground when the pot is dimed; it's not the same as being removed, it will still shunt signal off to ground, a 250K pot will allow even more to shunt to ground a 1M pot will allow significantly less to shunt to ground). Once again...measure what comes out to see if it's significantly lower than 500K, if it is, then a 500K pot that is more on target or even runs a little high may be all the difference needed. Moving to a 1M will have a bigger effect than using a .015uF cap because the cap just limits what frequecies go to ground, where as the pot will allow less of those frequencies to ground when dimed.

[Burningleaves]

Better treble response? Then you would probably just want something as simple as a Orange Drop 715 or 716 series. These are polypropylene. A good hi-fi cap that some find brighter and tighter. You could try and Auricap or Hovland as well, but I think the OD will perform exactly how you want. Most of the high-end,dedicated guitar caps being sold by guitar parts companies are paper-in-oil or polyester film are picked for a warmer, tone; not what you asking for. The biggest deal is value and tolerance. Ceramic caps in some guitars have a +80/-20 tolerance, so they can vary *greatly* from their stated value. Measure the caps that come out of the guitar with a DMM and measure the caps that go into it and find out how different they are, it could be huge and may make more (or all) of the difference compared to cap type, which is highly debated. You could also just opt for a .015uF cap as well, it just raises the frequency cutoff point a little. Still don't have enough treble, consider swapping the Tone pot out for a 1M pot. The higher the pot value, the less high end shunted to ground when dimed (despite Premiere Guitar's assurance, a 500K pot is running 500K of resistance to ground when the pot is dimed; it's not the same as being removed, it will still shunt signal off to ground, a 250K pot will allow even more to shunt to ground a 1M pot will allow significantly less to shunt to ground). Once again...measure what comes out to see if it's significantly lower than 500K, if it is, then a 500K pot that is more on target or even runs a little high may be all the difference needed.

Good post.