Capacitance Value For Neck & Bridge Tone Pots For Humbuckers?

[jeremy]

ive used a .1 before, makes the tone control damn near useless for my needs but next time i open that guitar up i might try it for giggles since i use the .015 almost exclusively in that guitar

 

[SoPhx]

A Strat potentiometer rolls off signal from 0-250k with some variance in its travel due to taper. If you rolled off the high end to '5' to get the desired tone before, the larger cap only needs to be rolled off to '7' or thereabouts. If you roll it all the way off to Frippland, of course, there will be less high end in the signal than the smaller cap.

 

[jeremy]

no. the cap value changes the frequency of roll off. im going to make up these numbers but the concept is correct, a .1 cap starts rolling off at 800hz, a .047 at 1200hz, .02 at 2300hz, .01 at 3500hz. again, the frequency numbers are made up but a larger cap rolls off more of the mids. i usually like between .022 and .01

 

[SoPhx]

Uhh, yeah, when you roll it all the way to 0. Never mind...why are so many people on this forum such dim bulbs? Jesus Christ...

 

[jeremy]

no, not just when on 0. i use the full range of my tone control, seldom on 10 or 0 but being adjusted frequently. using a .1 cap, i cannot get the same roll off i do with a .01 cap, it doesnt sound the same. are you saying i could if i had a more precise pot?

oh, and thanks for the insult

 

[ehdwuld]

while you think that about them
they think the same about you
its a disagreement

thats how disagreements work

dont get mad

 

[beaubrummels]

Bridge humbucker kinda anemic? Try a .033 or .047 to bump up the low end.

Yeah...you don't lose any high end. Try it on a wimpy bridge pickup and get back to me.

Great. You have a JB in the bridge position. There are many pickup arrays with unbalanced bridge/neck volume. What I suggested was a cheap and easy way to beef up a bridge pu to balance better. It works very well. I use it on a R6 Goldtop with 50s pickups and the volume between pickups is well balanced now. Likewise, decreasing the tonecap value on the neck pickup to .015 would decrease the low end and clean it up a bit.

Nope...the tone cap acts as a crossover to shelve low-end response. Works the same way as a coupling cap in an amp---bigger value=more lows. Try a .1 cap in a Strat (50s value) vs. the modern .022 value. Then you can delete your post.

A Strat potentiometer rolls off signal from 0-250k with some variance in its travel due to taper. If you rolled off the high end to '5' to get the desired tone before, the larger cap only needs to be rolled off to '7' or thereabouts. If you roll it all the way off to Frippland, of course, there will be less high end in the signal than the smaller cap.

Your posts are not correct. A passive tone circuit can only cut frequencies, not boost. A passive RC network tone control is a low-pass filter (not a crossover nor a shelf EQ, and not a coupling cap which removes DC and connects circuit loads). It removes high frequencies at a specific corner frequency. The cap value sets the corner frequency and the resistor sets the db of removal above the corner frequency. So a 250k - 0.1 vs a 250k 0.022 cannot be made to sound the same no matter where you turn the knob because the corner frequency of rolloff is different.

https://www.premierguitar.com/articl..._Tone_Controls
https://www.premierguitar.com/articl...e-tone-control
https://www.stewmac.com/video-and-id...rol-works.html
https://medium.com/axes-xplained/how...k-4919aa71bb20
https://octavedoctor.com/guitar-tone-circuits/
https://www.bestbassgear.com/ebass/r...explained.html

I've previously created a test rig to test all this, so don't tell me to try it and get back to you.

 

[jeremy]

thats my understanding as well

 

[GuitarStv]

Nope...the tone cap acts as a crossover to shelve low-end response. Works the same way as a coupling cap in an amp---bigger value=more lows. Try a .1 cap in a Strat (50s value) vs. the modern .022 value. Then you can delete your post.

The standard tone cap circuit in a guitar acts to shelve high frequency response. Not low frequency. This is a passive circuit. It can't add anything in, just bleeds some frequencies to ground. If it was a low frequency shelf, then the lows would be bled to ground by turning up the pot. This is not what happens.

You are right that a .1 cap does sound darker than a .022 cap . . . but this happens because the .022 capacitor filters out fewer highs than the .1 cap.

 

[Artie]

The standard tone cap circuit in a guitar acts to shelve high frequency response. Not low frequency. This is a passive circuit. It can't add anything in, just bleeds some frequencies to ground. If it was a low frequency shelf, then the lows would be bled to ground by turning up the pot. This is not what happens.

You are right that a .1 cap does sound darker than a .022 cap . . . but this happens because the .022 capacitor filters out fewer highs than the .1 cap.

Exactly. I don't know what SoPhx is talking about.

 

[pittbull]

.015 cap vs.022 cap the .015 cap is going to be brighter then the .022? I would like to have the .015 for both neck and bridge,now I have .022 in the neck and bridge Humbuckers I would like the bridge humbucker to sound brighter even though both of my tone knobs on my les Paul are always on 10

 

[Seashore]

.015 cap vs.022 cap the .015 cap is going to be brighter then the .022? I would like to have the .015 for both neck and bridge,now I have .022 in the neck and bridge Humbuckers I would like the bridge humbucker to sound brighter even though both of my tone knobs on my les Paul are always on 10

That's going to change how it behaves when you turn it down but it won't have an impact on brightness when it's full on. If you don't use the bridge tone knob, try bypassing that pot, and/or going to a higher value volume pot (assuming it's 500k right now, try 1 meg) - or even a blower switch to throw the bridge pickup to the jack.

 

[pittbull]

Both of my volume pots are 500k

 

[Seashore]

Both of my volume pots are 500k

If it was my LP, I would try bypassing the bridge tone knob first, then if I still wanted it brighter I'd bypass the volume knob too, so the switch puts the bridge pickup straight to the jack.

If you like the sound with the tone knob taken out, you could do a no load tone pot so you have brighter tone when the pot's all the way up, but you still have the control. If you prefer the sound with both of them bypassed, you can rig a blower switch, or do a 1 meg volume pot in addition to a no load tone. But just bypassing them first is free to try and will tell you which direction to go.

What pickups are in there now?

 

[ehdwuld]

.015 cap vs.022 cap the .015 cap is going to be brighter then the .022? I would like to have the .015 for both neck and bridge,now I have .022 in the neck and bridge Humbuckers I would like the bridge humbucker to sound brighter even though both of my tone knobs on my les Paul are always on 10

If you have two .022 caps
put them in series and create an .011

Don't let the middle connect touch the pot

It will look like this

Center Lug of Tone pot > .022 > .022 > Ground

 

[GuitarStv]

.015 cap vs.022 cap the .015 cap is going to be brighter then the .022? I would like to have the .015 for both neck and bridge,now I have .022 in the neck and bridge Humbuckers I would like the bridge humbucker to sound brighter even though both of my tone knobs on my les Paul are always on 10

Roll your bridge and neck tone knobs back to 5 or 6 and volume back to about 8. Then dial your amp in. Presto - you now can make the guitar sound brighter or darker as needed with the roll of the tone pot. You also have a built in boost with the volume pot if you want to kick a solo up a notch.

If you tone knobs are always on full you haven't disled your amp in right.

 

[Chistopher]

If you tone knobs are always on full you haven't disled your amp in right.

But what if I don't have tone knobs :bigeyes:

 

[GuitarStv]

Send back your defective guitar and buy one that is correctly made.

 

[donaldr]

Roll your bridge and neck tone knobs back to 5 or 6 and volume back to about 8. Then dial your amp in. Presto - you now can make the guitar sound brighter or darker as needed with the roll of the tone pot. You also have a built in boost with the volume pot if you want to kick a solo up a notch.

If you tone knobs are always on full you haven't disled your amp in right.

That's own I build my sound. I'm leaving a margin to adjust easily from the guitar instead of always playing with the amp/pedal tone controls. And I can do it while playing