Best tone cap for a telecaster that is too bright?

[Mikelamury]

My tele came with a .05uf cap on the 250k s1pot and a .01uf cap on the 250k tone pot and is too bright! I'm looking for a darker more twangy sound. Should I go with.022uf or .047uf tone cap?

 

[jeremy]

its too bright with the tone full up or you dont like how bright it is as you turn your tone control down?

 

[Mikelamury]

It's too bright when the tone is all the way up on 10. Sorry I should have clarified that.

 

[ErikH]

Start with .022uf. Still too bright, go with .047uf. Since it's a Tele, you can easily do this without soldering the cap in. Use small alligator clips to keep in place. When you find the value you like, solder it in.

 

[Clint 55]

You can also try an 100k volume pot. It's a good option for darkening things. Like mentioned above, you can try alligator clipping in resistors to see if you like that sound and then solder in a resistor or use a specified pot.

 

[alex1fly]

its too bright with the tone full up or you dont like how bright it is as you turn your tone control down?

As I understand it, this is the main reason to try different caps. I haven't ever tried it personally. A lower value pot would reduce the brightness of the pot at 10, but I don't know if there's any commonly used pots below 250k.

I rarely run my tone knob at 10 unless I'm doing some serious high gain chugging, or need a dark neck pickup to poke through with extra treble.

 

[Clint 55]

^ Uh huh. I just use 250k no load tones on everything with my choice of cap and adjust the sound of the whole guitar for general playing by changing the volume pot value.

 

[ErikH]

Lowering the tone pot value will help but changing the cap will have a more drastic affect at adjusting the high frequency roll-off, which is what is needed here. Caps are cheap to clip in and find the right value.

 

[Clint 55]

I recommended lowering the volume pot value if he wants the guitar darkened with the controls on 10. Imo the tone pot value is more about how broad of a sweep you want. It's unnecessary to go lower than 250 on the tone because it's a good value that it gets the cap mostly out of the way when it's on 10 so it's mostly in the coloring range but you don't have to turn it down that far to get a good darkening effect.

OP: try alligator clipping in resistors to the volume pot and caps to the tone pot and see what combo you like.

 

[beaubrummels]

If it's too bright all the way up, the cap won't make a difference. A better solution is a different volume pot value and/or different pickup for the bright position (unless the whole guitar is too bright, then a different pickup set might be better.)

 

[Clint 55]

^ Right. A 100k volume pot really warms things up without completely lopping off top end.

 

[ErikH]

The cap will make a difference even with the tone pot all the way up because it's technically still in circuit (unless it is a no load). I've used .047 and even .01uf like in the Eric Johnson Strat with great results. 250K pots all around. There's rounding off the top end and then there's chopping it off and messing with pot taper. 250k will have a smoother taper than 100k. Leave the pots alone, change the cap. It's quick and easy to do without much effort and will have an immediate affect and you won't have to sacrifice pot taper.

Don't forget that having a 250k volume and 250k tone pot (essentially in parallel) equates to roughly 125k resistance on the pickup. The lower the resistance, the more of it that gets shunted to ground. This is why you get brighter sounds from the pickups with 500K and even 1M pots, less goes to ground and more is going to the output jack. A 100k volume by itself might be OK but I can't imagine how dark it would be with a 250k tone in place.

 

[Clint 55]

In general, I agree. For the 2nd time, I never suggested using a 100k tone. I suggested trying a 100k volume. I even wrote that imo it's unnecessary to go below 250k for tone lol. I would suggest alligator clipping in resistors to the volume and caps to the tone to find the optimal combo.

 

[ErikH]

You missed the point. A 100k VOLUME will shunt more of the pickup to ground giving less output and a duller sound.

 

[Clint 55]

That's why I ultimately recommended trying using resistance and capacitance to find the ideal combo. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Pros to using resistance, it warms the full signal instead of cutting only highs; cons are what you mentioned. Pros to using capacitance to warm it up: using a bigger cap with the tone on 10 can make it nice and rounded but the cons are when you actually go to use the tone pot and turn it down it will be all bass and results in a duller sound. That's why I recommened alligator clipping in resistors to the volume and caps to the tone to see what ends up working the best for him.

Fwiw I have a resistor switch on one of my guitars that equates to volume pot values of around 300k, 200k, 125k, and 80k. None of the selections are muddy until I turn either of the controls way down.

 

[Mikelamury]

Remember I'm asking for Cap values for each pot. And the volume is a 250kS1pot which I don't want to sacrifice losing. The volume currently has a.05uf capacitor and the tone pot has a .01uf capacitor. What values should I use for each pot position?

 

[ErikH]

The cap on the volume pot is actually a trouble bleed. It’s there so that way whenever you roll the volume pot back it retains some high-end. You probably wanna leave that in place. Change the cap on the tone pot. Start with the values that I posted in my first reply.

Clint, I get what you’re saying about putting resistors across the volume pot, (I’m assuming you are putting the resistors across the two outter lugs), but the problem is the volume pot is a voltage divider at this point. The tone pot is not. They serve two different functions. In my experience, putting a resistor across a volume pot does not work well for the taper. When rolling the volume back it’s really weird. Tone pot, sure. I’ve done that to make 500k tone a 250k.

 

[Mikelamury]

It doesn't look like any treble bleed I've ever seen it's a VERY small cap. ( About 1/4 size of a dime or smaller) with no resistor on the lugs. Just looks like a very small tone cap. I called fender and they told me it was a .05uf capacitor on the 250k S1pot.

 

[Clint 55]

Clint, I get what you’re saying about putting resistors across the volume pot, (I’m assuming you are putting the resistors across the two outter lugs), but the problem is the volume pot is a voltage divider at this point. The tone pot is not. They serve two different functions. In my experience, putting a resistor across a volume pot does not work well for the taper. When rolling the volume back it’s really weird. Tone pot, sure. I’ve done that to make 500k tone a 250k.

I wired my resistor switch after the volume pot and it doesn't affect the pot's taper.

 

[ErikH]

It doesn't look like any treble bleed I've ever seen it's a VERY small cap. ( About 1/4 size of a dime or smaller) with no resistor on the lugs. Just looks like a very small tone cap. I called fender and they told me it was a .05uf capacitor on the 250k S1pot.

Sometimes a treble bleed won’t have a resistor at all. PRS guitars are that way they have a very small 180pf cap across the two non-ground lugs of the pot. No resistor.