pickup cap vaules?

[Metalman_666]

A question for all you pickup techies on this forum

I emailed EMG about my lack of bass in my 81b. The tech wrote back:

"You could try a different cap value on the 81. We supply a 0.1mf cap with our active stuff. A 0.0033mf cap will give you the most rolloff."

What is he talking about??

[68 lost souls]

Re: pickup cap vaules?

He means that the capacitor being used in the circut they supplied has a value of .1mf and that a 0.0033mf capacitor will get rid of more treble making it more base sounding.

EDIT: Just wait for a few others to respond aswel as I am still not 100% sure of my knowlodge on electronics.

[ArtieToo]

Re: pickup cap vaules?

I'm guessing that the EMG is an active pickup, so that cap value may be in a pre-amp. That means that its affect on tone could be completely different than it would be on passives.

With passive pickups, a .0033mf cap will give you much more high end than a .1mf. It should have no affect on bass at all.

But as I said, within an active pre-amp, that could all be different.

[Kent S.]

Re: pickup cap vaules?

I'm guessing that the EMG is an active pickup, so that cap value may be in a pre-amp. That means that its affect on tone could be completely different than it would be on passives.

With passive pickups, a .0033mf cap will give you much more high end than a .1mf. It should have no affect on bass at all.

But as I said, within an active pre-amp, that could all be different.

EMG uses a 0.1uF cap standard for their bass and guitar pups, the greater value is because of the lower Z of the pups. Seeing that lower case *m* though doesn't tell me is it's actually micro (u) or milli (m) ... I would have to assume that EMG is saying 0.0033mF which would be 3.3uF as opposed to 0.1uF (which would be 0.0001mF). The greater cap value would roll off more highs.

[ArtieToo]

Re: pickup cap vaules?

EMG uses a 0.1uF cap standard for their bass and guitar pups, the greater value is because of the lower Z of the pups. Seeing that lower case *m* though doesn't tell me is it's actually micro (u) or milli (m) ... I would have to assume that EMG is saying 0.0033mF which would be 3.3uF as opposed to 0.1uF (which would be 0.0001mF). The greater cap value would roll off more highs.

Ah . . . that makes sense.

[Metalman_666]

Re: pickup cap vaules?

oh ok. so he's saying if it's too focused on the high end changing the cap value would roll off the highs, sort of like a tone control?

[Kent S.]

Re: pickup cap vaules?

oh ok. so he's saying if it's too focused on the high end changing the cap value would roll off the highs, sort of like a tone control?

I think he is talking about the tone control cap ... I'd double check with the tech at EMG support though