What Type of Caps do You have in your Guitar??

[ES350]

Re: What Type of Caps do You have in your Guitar??

They wanted EMGs/JB/Jazz sets, the whole 80's metal thing, blah blah blah, all new components...so we saved the parts; harnesses, caps, pots, pickups, etc. We offered them back, but a lot of the guys couldn't care less...a lot of parts dealers (Angela, etc)had this stuff going cheap back then too. I like the BB's and the Spragues are good too, just a little more detailed/high end. Caps do make a difference, but it's pretty subtle...

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: What Type of Caps do You have in your Guitar??

I use Sprague Vitamin Qs as I have a bunch of them, 0.022 uF / 200 Volts. Not high enough voltage rating to use in amps, so i put them in guitars. It is uncertain whether they are better than any other high-end caps, but i have them, they cost me very little, and they give me some peace of mind.... my guitars have good pickups, pots and switches, so for me it's the obvious thing to do. It could be different if i didn't have these caps on hand and i was going to have to pay serious $$$ for them.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: What Type of Caps do You have in your Guitar??

This from the Rick Turner guest luthier day last tuesday:

Originally Posted by Lewguitar View Post

Hey Rick and Jol! Good to see you both here.

I have three more questions that I'd love to hear your opinions on:

It has to do with passive tone controls on electric guitars and different capacitors of the same value (.02) but different compositions.

1) Do you hear a difference in the tone of a .02 ceramic disc cap, a .02 Sprague orange drop type cap, a .02 bumble bee cap and a .02 oil cap such as the Jensen or Hovland when used as the tone cap in a normal electric guitar with high impedance pickups?

I think I can hear a difference between different caps in certain parts of a guitar amp circuit but I'm not sure I notice a big diff or any diff when caps of the same value but of a different composition are substituted in a guitar's passive tone circuit.

I can't understand why there would be a big difference since all you're doing is sending treble to ground using the cap to block frequencies that you don't want sent to ground when you're turning the tone control down.

What do you think? If you do hear a difference in tone or feel, why do you think there is a difference?

2) What type of caps do you prefer to use in a passive tone circuit in an electric guitar with normal high impedance pickups?

3) What's your favorite way to retain highs and keep a guitar from getting muddy when you turn down the volume control using high impedance pickups? Do you like the 50's mod where the tone control is attached to the middle terminal of the volume pot - like Hamer does? Or do you like any treble bleed resistor/capacitor designs where you place a R/C network across the volume pot? What do you like and why?

Many thanks again! Lew
Lew

1) It is possible that there could be minor differences, but the cap is not literally in the signal path in a passive treble rolloff tone control. It just drains highs off to ground as part of a low pass LRC circuit. In order to really hear any differences, you'd have to try different caps that had been very carefully measured to you knew that the capacitance was well within 1 or 2 percent from brand to brand. I think that could account for people hearing differences...there being actual differences in capacitance among the devices.

There are most definitely differences in caps that are passing the signal you're listening to. The high end audio press bubbles over with this vs. that cap., and they're not all smoking jimson weed.

2) I tend to use polypropylene or ceramics. I also tend to go light on the value so the pot is more useful over it's entire range.

3) I tend not to compensate with the resistor/cap trick. I do, however, love putting in an all pots bypass switch, usually but not always on a push/pull pot. With certain pickups, it's amazing what happens when you get the pots completely out of the way and they're not loading down the pickup(s) with their shunt resistance to ground.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: What Type of Caps do You have in your Guitar??

So my take on Rick's answer is that he doesn't feel there is any reason to use expensive caps in a guitar's tone circuit because there's no reason to believe it makes any difference. The treble frequencies that pass through the cap when the tone control is turned down don't stay in the audio signal as they might in a guitar amp or audio amp. Instead they go to ground never to be heard again.

As for what caps I use, I use Sprague Orange Drops or sometimes Hovlands or Mallaory 150's.
But I hear no difference between the three. To be honest, I don't hear a diff between a cheap ceramic disc cap and an expensive oil cap like the Hovlands.

I DO hear a diff when a Orange Drop, Mallory 150 or Hovland are used in certain parts of a guitar amp where the output of the cap stays in the audio signal. But in a guitar's tone circuit the signal does NOT stay in the audio signal. It goes to ground.

 

[SrDeMaFp]

Re: What Type of Caps do You have in your Guitar??

I haven't gotten picky enough to worry about my caps yet. I have the shiny green Chiclet caps from Radio Shack or from a local store that does a lot of electrical work. So far, I'm still learning my preferences for pickups and pot values in certain guitars. The caps will come in time, I'm sure.

I'm with ya. Honestly, right now most of my guitars don't even have a tone pot and if they do it's a "dummy" pot just to fill the hole. It's nice to have the option (like a few of my guitars do have) but, my main guitars are my "gigging" guitars and it's not really necessary for the "balls-out" tone I tend to go for. Plus, I'm a "meat and potatoes" type of guy. If I had (working) tone controls in all of my guitars, I'd be spending more time dicking around than actually playing. Just like I do with my Floyd'd geets.:lmao: