Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

[357mag]

Just wondering if changing the capacitors in an Epi Les Paul to say Orange Drops would be a worthwhile thing to do. Seems some guys do and some just leave them. I've never monkeyed with changing stuff in my Strats when I was playing them, other than upgrading the pickups of course.

Is an Orange Drop capacitor better quality than what comes in the Epi's?

 

[blueman335]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

Caps have no effect on tone until you dial down the tone pot, and even then the type of cap makes very little difference.

What PU's are in your LP now? That may be a much better place to spend your money.

 

[357mag]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

Thanks for the info. I have two Epi Les Pauls. One came with Gibson 57's and she sounds real nice. I'm leaving that alone. But the second one which will be arriving in a day or two will have Epiphone Pro-Buckers or something. I've heard the Epiphone pickups aren't all that good but I will plug it in first and listen.

I do have some Duncan's in my box of parts here. I got a JB, an Alnico II Pro, a Jazz Model neck, and a Pearly Gates set.

 

[Oinkus]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

The type of cap or manufacturer does not change the sound. I remove all hardware and wiring from an Epi and then upgrade all of it, tuns out pretty good for me.Stock pups in my last one were awful , supposed to be classic 57s. Mix and match those pups you have in a box , that A2 Pro probably sound good anywhere you install it in a LP type guitar. Lots of love for the PGs around here

 

[stringbender11]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

Thanks for the info. I have two Epi Les Pauls. One came with Gibson 57's and she sounds real nice. I'm leaving that alone. But the second one which will be arriving in a day or two will have Epiphone Pro-Buckers or something. I've heard the Epiphone pickups aren't all that good but I will plug it in first and listen.

I do have some Duncan's in my box of parts here. I got a JB, an Alnico II Pro, a Jazz Model neck, and a Pearly Gates set.

I'd see how the new Epi sounds - lot's of people like the pro-buckers. As far as the cap change I dont know from personal experience, but lot's people in an Epi forum I'm a member of do the change and really like the results.

Personally I love those Alnico II's btw, something to consider if you do decide to swap out the PUs.

 

[dystrust]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

Do you actually use your tone control? If you don't, then upgrading caps is pointless because they'll all sound pretty much the same with the pot on 10. I do use mine and I like to wire my guitars 50s style, so I install orange drop caps. IMO they're better than extra cheap ceramic disc caps, due to either better tolerances or less variability. OTOH I hear zero difference between an orange drop and PIO caps that cost 5x as much.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

Provided the capacitors you use are the same value, the type of capacitor is not going to have any effect on what you hear from a guitar.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

One came with Gibson 57's and she sounds real nice. I'm leaving that alone. But the second one which will be arriving in a day or two will have Epiphone Pro-Buckers or something. I've heard the Epiphone pickups aren't all that good but I will plug it in first and listen.

I think Probuckers sound better than Gibson '57's, but that's just my opinion.

With the spare PU's you have, if you swap out the Probuckers, I'd definitely use the A2P (is it bridge or neck?). Some guys here like PG's; I'm not a fan.

 

[Mr. B]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

I use to buy used sets of Epiphone pickups out of Epi G-400's (SG) for guitars students had at the high school. They were actually a good set of pickups AFTER you took the covers off and scraped about a pound of wax off the top of the bobbins. I could usually get them somewhere between 15 and 25 dollars, and that is usually all my students could afford, but they were much better than the crap that came in many of their low-end guitars. I wouldn't discount the Epi Pickups until you try them.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

I use to buy used sets of Epiphone pickups out of Epi G-400's (SG) for guitars students had at the high school. They were actually a good set of pickups AFTER you took the covers off and scraped about a pound of wax off the top of the bobbins. I could usually get them somewhere between 15 and 25 dollars, and that is usually all my students could afford, but they were much better than the crap that came in many of their low-end guitars. I wouldn't discount the Epi Pickups until you try them.

Definitely don't rule out Probuckers, they're the best Asian-made PU Epi's put in their guitars. As far as the other (older) Epi HB's: Nothing to get excited about, but like you said, removing the wax helps. If you're going to open them up, you might as well swap mags too. Another that would improve the sound would be swapping coils to get a mismatch, which would help clarity. But then, that's more than most people want to do, especially since you can get better-quality PU's used for a decent price.

 

[daan]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

+1 on the cap change. WIring the pup directly to the output will change the sound more than any $$$ capacitor.
I had a couple of those LP-Jr's that cost $99. SIngle bridge HB in those. I put P90s in mine, and just put the HB in my parts box. I ended up trying one of them out as a Tele neck pup, and it actually sounded fantastic in there. Go figure.
They didn't sound BAD in the Jr's, I just like P90s too much to not put them in everything. SO just give them a try (adjust the height back and fortht, too) before you spend $ changing stuff.

 

[Wattage]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

There is nothing good going on electronically inside an Epi. That said unless you are just working on your soldering chops changing out the caps won't do a damn thing for you.

Caps, pots, wiring and switches when you do the pickups will do wonders.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

Depends on if
A) You use the tone pots at all and
B) How the guitar overall sounds anyway

Plus - plain old better pots may be a better first move.

 

[357mag]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

There is nothing good going on electronically inside an Epi. That said unless you are just working on your soldering chops changing out the caps won't do a damn thing for you.

Caps, pots, wiring and switches when you do the pickups will do wonders.

Seems contradictory. I'm not going to change the caps since I always keep the tone controls full on. I may swap the pickups though.

 

[O'Rourke]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

I wouldn't bother unless you're changing the value as well. I like a .015uF on the bridge and a .01uF on the neck wired 50's style but it's a matter of taste. You could try the 50's style wiring with the stock caps easily as well.

 

[DreX]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

Just wondering if changing the capacitors in an Epi Les Paul to say Orange Drops would be a worthwhile thing to do. Seems some guys do and some just leave them. I've never monkeyed with changing stuff in my Strats when I was playing them, other than upgrading the pickups of course.

Is an Orange Drop capacitor better quality than what comes in the Epi's?

Here's a decent cap comparison video

I think this is the sort of thing where even if you can prove there is a difference, it's ridiculous for someone to show any kind of strong preference for one over the other, or to spend any good money on them. Gibson has been ridiculed for selling fake Bumblee caps. It says something when you have to resort to an X-RAY MACHINE to determine something your ears should supposedly be able to discern.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

^ well caps don't have a discernible tone you can pinpoint, simply as they are a subtle filter on the pickup (which is the strongest tonal element in an electric guitar). So its not really surprising that you would need to X-ray them.

It also puts any blind test of caps (as in 'pick which the super expensive one is') into complete non scientific realms.....you era 99.9% listening to the tone of a pickup and rig (which you've never heard before - the typical crap youtube sound notwithstanding) and trying to discern differences you'd barely hear in the room with your own rig.

 

[DreX]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

If 99.9% of what you hear is not the cap, hypothetically speaking, them the cap accounts for 0.1% of the sound, and I think even that's being generous. A lot of guitarists are purists / vintage fetishists, and I only wish they would admit they want paper in oil caps for the sake of vintage correctness, and not because they sound like anything special.

One description said paper in oil caps have a "warm, creamy, sparkly" sound, which to me, sound more like instructions on what you're supposed to hear, and not an impartial recounting of what is actually heard. When you roll off the highs, "warm" and "creamy" are an inevitable outcome no matter what sort of cap you use. The idea that you wouldn't achieve these tonal qualities until you drop cash on paper in oil caps is absurd. And "sparkly", I thought the whole point of a tone knob was to send sparkle away.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

A lot of guitarists are purists / vintage fetishists, and I only wish they would admit they want paper in oil caps for the sake of vintage correctness, and not because they sound like anything special.

Thank you. I'm amazed at what some people spend on caps, when there are much more important factors in tone.

 

[greekdude]

Re: Is changing the caps in an Epiphone Les Paul worth considering?

Seems contradictory. I'm not going to change the caps since I always keep the tone controls full on. I may swap the pickups though.

Not so much contradictory IMO. What Wattage meant is that changing individual passive components and especially caps wont do a thing for the sound or reliability of the whole guitar. But since stock pups suck and stock electronic components are prone to failure, replacing both the pups and the electronic components will give a good sound (pups) and a reliable guitar (rest of components).

Now as a side note, humbuckers put in series are more eager and drastic to respond to tone control changes than when in parallel or single-coil mode. So single-coil pups or humbuckers in parallel which are hard to darken might want higher cap values, while humbuckers in series might want lower cap values.
Nice article here : http://www.seymourduncan.com/tonefiend/guitar/customize-your-caps/