Help with Capacitor on Volume Pot

[david503]

Hi all, had a question about what this capacitor does on my volume pot. Guitar is an HSS with a Pearly Gates HB in bridge and two Stack 4 pickups in middle, neck positions, standard 5 way switch. With caps as shown in picture (471 on volume pot, 103 on tone pot) the guitar is very dark and 'fat' sounding and the tone control rolled down has an even darker 'cracked wah' tonality to it.

Based on advice from another forum, I switched the caps (471 now on tone, 103 on volume) and it was a major improvement. Just curious - what is the purpose of the cap on the volume pot? What would be different if I removed it entirely?

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Help with Capacitor on Volume Pot

Treble bleed

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Help with Capacitor on Volume Pot

The treble bleed cap allows some treble through as you turn the volume down. So the tone gets brighter. This is to compensate for the loss of highs you normally get when turning down the volume due to the impedance changing and loading the pickup.


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[david503]

Re: Help with Capacitor on Volume Pot

Ok thanks, that helps. If I'm doing my conversions right, the 471 cap on the volume pot seems about sized right. Think I need to run some wires out of pick guard and try some different caps on the tone pot to find what sounds best, the 103 on the tone pot may be what I'm not liking.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Help with Capacitor on Volume Pot

Ok thanks, that helps. If I'm doing my conversions right, the 471 cap on the volume pot seems about sized right. Think I need to run some wires out of pick guard and try some different caps on the tone pot to find what sounds best, the 103 on the tone pot may be what I'm not liking.

Typically you want a .0022uF cap. That’s 222.


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