Tone cap Question

[eclecticsynergy]

...such low value caps are also a cheap and easy way to mimic the effect of very long capacitive cables (Bill Lawrence did recommend a 2.2nF for an Hendrix coily cable greasy midrange)...

I've sometimes thought bout trying out a primitive passive 'midboost,' switching in both a small cap to ground and a large cap inline with the signal to cut bass.

I was concerned that I might lose enough power that it wouldn't feel like a boost at all. Maybe if I were to think of it as a 'chewy' switch instead....
Still, I admit the biggest reason I never tried it was laziness.

Ever try anything like that, and/or do you see any reason(s) why it might not work well?
And thanks again for sharing so much knowledge & expertise with us around here.

The other subtle mid treatment I really like is the old PRS sweet switch, using a passive delay chip.
No experience using that with singlecoils, of course, and that chip is long since discontinued.

 

[jeremy]

is that what the old prs sweet switch was?

 

[eclecticsynergy]

is that what the old prs sweet switch was?

Yep. A cheap passive delay chip, the 1513-135y made by Data Delay Devices. It's a fast-rise 135 ns delay, originally designed to simulate the response of the 100ft cables Carlos Santana used in the days before he switched to wireless systems. It gives a high end rolloff and some slight phase shift as well as the delay.

 

[freefrog]

I've sometimes thought bout trying out a primitive passive 'midboost,' switching in both a small cap to ground and a large cap inline with the signal to cut bass.

I was concerned that I might lose enough power that it wouldn't feel like a boost at all. Maybe if I were to think of it as a 'chewy' switch instead....
Still, I admit the biggest reason I never tried it was laziness.

Ever try anything like that, and/or do you see any reason(s) why it might not work well?
And thanks again for sharing so much knowledge & expertise with us around here.

The other subtle mid treatment I really like is the old PRS sweet switch, using a passive delay chip.
No experience using that with singlecoils, of course, and that chip is long since discontinued.

I also think that using two caps as hi-pass and low pass filters would weaken the signal, because that's my experience. ;-)

Now, the hi-pass cap doesn't seem necessary to me for a simple reason: when a low value capacitor is used to shift down the resonant peak, it also tends to rise its Q factor, making it narrower and pointier... So it's effectively as if the mids were boosted, relatively to the rolled off high range but also relatively to the bass (illustration under this post*).


[And thx for the kind words while I often feel as an old geek rambling out loud. At least I try to share. ]

The PRS sweet switch was really an elegant solution IMHO, since a delay line is a series of small inductors separated by caps to ground... It was certainly selected as mimicing the influence of a long cable on passive PU's with a touch more realism and I don't see why it wouldn't work with single coils.


*I share again below a pic already posted here: a same humbucker played in chords direct to the board through a 1M input, with 1ft of cable then 50ft... IOW, with a stray capacitance of 40/50pF vs 2000 to 2450pF. Hi-mids enhanced of 3dB or more in the second case...

 

[Mincer]

As far as types pf caps, I've always used whatever I had around. Metal film, orange drop, fancy vitamin q, cheap disc...to me it is always about the value. I use .047 for both humbuckers and single coils.

 

[Teleplayer]

I’ve not a fan of 0.047 as it goes very dark towards the end of the tone range. I mostly tested values between 0.015uF and 0.033uF. These are probably worth trying if you want to experiment. Otherwise just put a 0.022uF and don’t worry.

 

[Chistopher]

I use a 10nF (0.01uF) cap with a 4k7 resistor in series. This makes a more subtle tone control and the resistor stops it from getting nasally at 0.

 

[GuitarStv]

I’ve not a fan of 0.047 as it goes very dark towards the end of the tone range. I mostly tested values between 0.015uF and 0.033uF. These are probably worth trying if you want to experiment. Otherwise just put a 0.022uF and don’t worry.

I've found that unless you're searching for a particular sound, 0.022 seems to work pretty well in most guitars with most pickups. It's where I always start.

 

[jeremy]

i do the same. 4/5 guitars have a .022, the others have .01, .015, .033, .047, and one with .1 but thats coming out next time the strings get changed.