I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

[Snake Aces]

This is becoming my thing lately. First I did it on a 24.75" scale with a Jazz neck humbucker and now I did it on a 24.75" scale with an Alnico II Pro neck humbucker. Sounds great! I had a .022uf on it, it was a Russian made paper-in-oil type cap. Good caps but I just like it when my neck humbuckers are as articulate as they can be.

 

[MacBradley]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

I like caps on in series on neck pickups to filter out some of the ultra low end. Are you talking about a cap on the humbucker's tone pot?

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

I like caps on in series on neck pickups to filter out some of the ultra low end. Are you talking about a cap on the humbucker's tone pot?

Oops, I should have clarified. Yeah, I am talking about removing the cap from the tone pot. It's like having a tone pot that goes to 11.

 

[jake_xms3_punk]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

It's a great mod for extra top end, an even better mod I think is a no load tone pot, easy to make and gives you the best of both worlds.

 

[GilmourD]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

Oops, I should have clarified. Yeah, I am talking about removing the cap from the tone pot. It's like having a tone pot that goes to 11.

So, is the tone pot even wired in, then?

Basically, basically you're increasing the total load from 250K to 500K by removing the tone control from the circuit. Essentially the same idea as going from 500K V/T to 1meg V/T. It doesn't work out EXACTLY the same, but it's the same general ballpark.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

Yeah, the tone pot is wired in and functional.

 

[AlexR]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

Ah, 2 volume controls then.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

Ah, 2 volume controls then.

2 volume, 2 tones. 500k all around. Push-push volumes for coil splits. To make the tone control functional without a cap I just soldered in a piece of wire in place of the cap. Not sure if this is the "right way" to do it but it seems to work.

 

[GilmourD]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

2 volume, 2 tones. 500k all around. Push-push volumes for coil splits. To make the tone control functional without a cap I just soldered in a piece of wire in place of the cap. Not sure if this is the "right way" to do it but it seems to work.

So, basically, you have a variable resistor between hot and ground rather than a capacitor which is selectively allowing certain frequencies to pass.

When you turn down the "tones" you just lose volume, eh?

Is your tone connected to the input/outer lug on the volume, like this?

Or is it connected to the middle/output lug?

Either way, I feel like you should be losing output as you'd be leaking all frequencies to ground through the resistance rather than just treble through the capacitance.

ArtieToo?

 

[jake_xms3_punk]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

You can just clip them out the circuit no need to add wire or anything else there. the pots will be inactive and do nothing except just act as a bridge to the next connection, I've done it many times until I discovered no load pots.

 

[AlexR]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

Without a cap, it is now a volume control. No filter so the whole signal will go to ground.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

2 volume, 2 tones. 500k all around. Push-push volumes for coil splits. To make the tone control functional without a cap I just soldered in a piece of wire in place of the cap. Not sure if this is the "right way" to do it but it seems to work.

How do you explain that, with no caps on the tone pots?

What you have is 4V/0T, not 2V/2T. What used to be your tone pots are now additional volume pots, each wired in parallel to its original volume pot.

 

[jake_xms3_punk]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

They won't act as volume pots unless you ground the third lug. A tone pot does nothing without a cap. It's basically like a true bypass pedal; with a cap the pedal is on, without a cap the pedal is off and it's in bypass mode and the signal goes straight to the output jack.

You shouldn't solder anything in place of the cap.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

They won't act as volume pots unless you ground the third lug. A tone pot does nothing without a cap. It's basically like a true bypass pedal; with a cap the pedal is on, without a cap the pedal is off and it's in bypass mode and the signal goes straight to the output jack.

The middle lug is grounded, so it is indeed a volume pot. It's just a parallel volume pot. It doesn't divide hot signal between output and ground, like a regular guitar volume pot. Instead, it [variably] sends everything that enters it to ground. The Pots Formerly Known as Tone Pots now variably split the signal between nowhere (the open lug) and ground, while a standard tone pot splits that signal between output and ground.

 

[jake_xms3_punk]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

The middle lug is grounded, so it is indeed a volume pot. It's just a parallel volume pot. It doesn't divide hot signal between output and ground, like a regular guitar volume pot. Instead, it [variably] sends everything that enters it to ground. The Pots Formerly Known as Tone Pots now variably split the signal between nowhere (the open lug) and ground, while a standard tone pot splits that signal between output and ground.

Ye I just read it all again properly and edited my post adding that you shouldn't add a wire in place of the tone cap

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

How do you explain that, with no caps on the tone pots?

What you have is 4V/0T, not 2V/2T. What used to be your tone pots are now additional volume pots, each wired in parallel to its original volume pot.

You seem to be confused a bit. I never removed the cap from the bridge tone pot. That is still there.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

Ye I just read it all again properly and edited my post adding that you shouldn't add a wire in place of the tone cap

I just de-soldered the wire I had in place of where the cap was on the neck tone pot and now, like you said, the tone pot does nothing. It merely acts as a "bridge".

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

Ok, so now when I tried to re-solder the wire I removed (the one that I put in place of the cap on the neck tone pot) it does as some of you have said and acts as a volume pot. Not a normal volume pot either, it's full volume until you turn it all the way down; then it drops out completely. Not sure why it was functioning as a tone pot before and now it does not, but here we are.

So, anybody know a good place to order a .01uf cap in Europe? I didn't like the .022uf and that's the lowest value I could find in music stores around me. I can check an electronics store tomorrow. I would like to keep my tone control in this specific guitar on the neck pickup. The other guitar I did this to is an HSH that I do not ever use the tone control on the neck pickup.

 

[jake_xms3_punk]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

I just de-soldered the wire I had in place of where the cap was on the neck tone pot and now, like you said, the tone pot does nothing. It merely acts as a "bridge".

View attachment 61502

Awesome! It's really is a great mod and you described it perfectly "tone goes to 11" it really is one brighter lol

 

[jake_xms3_punk]

Re: I just removed another capacitor off a neck humbucker

Ok, so now when I tried to re-solder the wire I removed (the one that I put in place of the cap on the neck tone pot) it does as some of you have said and acts as a volume pot. Not a normal volume pot either, it's full volume until you turn it all the way down; then it drops out completely. Not sure why it was functioning as a tone pot before and now it does not, but here we are.

So, anybody know a good place to order a .01uf cap in Europe? I didn't like the .022uf and that's the lowest value I could find in music stores around me. I can check an electronics store tomorrow. I would like to keep my tone control in this specific guitar on the neck pickup. The other guitar I did this to is an HSH that I do not ever use the tone control on the neck pickup.

Without trying to sound like a broken record here, no load tone pots! It will sound exactly as if there is no cap in the circuit as it does now full on at 10 and as you turn it down past 9 the cap kicks in, best of both worlds as I've said before.

You should be able to find any value cap you need with a Google search or even eBay. failing finding anything in Europe I doubt the shipping for a cap would be expensive from overseas.