What does the capacitor in the neck Invader do?

[Driverfrown]

Re: What does the capacitor in the neck Invader do?

Expanding on this :
Each coil of a seymour duncan Invader has a white finish wire and a black start wire inside the pickups guts and then the color coding is done adding a red lead to the screws white finish wire and a green lead to screw coils black start wire.
Here is the thing they put this 103 aka .01uf cap in between this color lead change connection point as it is soldered between the screw coils finish white and its re-identified red wire going to the control cavity ...not between the slug finish white and the screw finish red.( the connection is not between the coils ) at least not until the series connection is made. If you switch the series to parallel or split modes it will change significantly.

I prefer to add filters via toggle switches so I always remove these caps because when they fail you have to disassemble just to test it ( there is always a dead coil reading with these using the re-identified leads) even when cap is functional must be checked internally.

[KNUCKLHEAD]

Re: What does the capacitor in the neck Invader do?

Hmmm ~ In over 30 yrs. i never came across a Cap stock on a pickup

[Silence Kid]

Re: What does the capacitor in the neck Invader do?

A unique solution; wonder why they didn't just brighten it by changing the wind, rather than adding a cap?

[trevorus]

Re: What does the capacitor in the neck Invader do?

A unique solution; wonder why they didn't just brighten it by changing the wind, rather than adding a cap?

It's a lot of wire on the bobbin for lots of output. This makes a darker pickup. Adding a cap is a tunable, and CHEAP solution to trim (or block) lows.

[thanaton]

Re: What does the capacitor in the neck Invader do?

A few things; putting the capacitor between the coils is no different than putting it before or after the entire pickup. I've never seen an invader, but Driverfrown says that the capacitor is not actually in between the coils. If they did put it in between the coils, it might just be out of convenience. If the pickup were in parallel, only one coil would get the capacitor, no matter where they put it.

The series cap also increases the resonant peak slightly. The degree to which is does so depends on the capacitance of the guitar cable. A longer cable with a higher capacitance will cause any pickup to have a lower peak, but the higher the capacitance of the cable the more "helpful" that capacitor is at retaining a higher peak in the pickup, because the series cap acts as a mild shield against allowing the cable's capacitance to resonate with the pickup.

If it's true that the value of the cap is 10nF, it probably has a pretty mild effect overall. It's a conservative value for a series cap.

[Driverfrown]

Re: What does the capacitor in the neck Invader do?

Yeah I think the logic they are using is to allow for split to slug to not be effected by the cap, and also to allow split to screw to retain the inline cut. I personally don't like it there for an invader
because I would not normally have it wired in parallel or split but I can see how it would be more versatile
to some degree if someone did. The inline to hot path .01uf cap when split to screw makes the neck output similar to a cocked wah without the high cut.
Good point about the resonant peak .

[devastone]

Re: What does the capacitor in the neck Invader do?

I appreciate all the responses.

You can see why I'm confused. I googled the subject and found a variety of answers before posting on this forum. I even read about someone who had purchased a neck Invader and returned it to the seller after being unable to take a reading on a multimeter. The capacitor prevents this, at least in humbucker mode.

Would anyone know how strong the capacitor is? The lettering on the capacitor is 1K1 103.

103 is 10nF (nanofarads) = 0.01uF (microfarads), that is the capacitance, not really what I would call "strength".

*EDIT* Holy crap, I responded before I realized this thread was a zombie...

[allstarrme]

Re: What does the capacitor in the neck Invader do?

A unique solution; wonder why they didn't just brighten it by changing the wind, rather than adding a cap?

If you look at the wind of the invader neck, it is actually the same as the jazz neck, and the full shred neck, probably the A2p as well.

most of the early designs were just variations of another, the custom bridge, full shred bridge, distortion neck are all similar winds, with the distortion neck just being less winds. The distortion bridge, JB and invader bridge are all the same winds too, much different tones from each.

The real difference between all of these are the magnet type and the pole material. The invader neck is all muddy mids because of the cap head screws and ceramic magnet. rather than change the wind they added a cap to make it less muddy. look at the tone charts, same output resistance, much different tones and actual output.

I am not a fan of the invader neck, but put in some super distortion poles rather than cap heads and change the magnet for an A5 and you've got a full shred neck and thats a winner. adding a A2 would make it a clearer a2pro.

[Silence Kid]

Re: What does the capacitor in the neck Invader do?

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. It's almost a wonder each Duncan pickup didn't wind up just a different value cap on a similar wound bobbin

[thanaton]

Re: What does the capacitor in the neck Invader do?

If you look at the wind of the invader neck, it is actually the same as the jazz neck, and the full shred neck, probably the A2p as well.

most of the early designs were just variations of another, the custom bridge, full shred bridge, distortion neck are all similar winds, with the distortion neck just being less winds. The distortion bridge, JB and invader bridge are all the same winds too, much different tones from each.

The real difference between all of these are the magnet type and the pole material. The invader neck is all muddy mids because of the cap head screws and ceramic magnet. rather than change the wind they added a cap to make it less muddy. look at the tone charts, same output resistance, much different tones and actual output.

I am not a fan of the invader neck, but put in some super distortion poles rather than cap heads and change the magnet for an A5 and you've got a full shred neck and thats a winner. adding a A2 would make it a clearer a2pro.

Assuming those cap screws are steel, they would increase the inductance somewhat, so even if the coil was exactly the same as the Jazz, you still end up with something like a hotter wind. I'm not saying you don't know this already... just to clarify.

I'd bet the real reason for the muddy sound would be eddy current damping from those heads. That would have a more prominent effect on the tone than the bump in inductance. I've never heard an Invader neck pickup clean, but I can't imagine that damped pickup using a high pass cap to clean up the bass sounds all that wonderful.