Changing a capacitor - what does it actualy do to the sound?

[Doctor Dread]

Sorry for such a stupid question, but I'm reading about replacing the stock capacitors with Bubmlebees, Vitamin Qs, Jensens etc...

What do they actualy do?

Do they change overall sound of the guitar, or they just help in smoother (or whatever) manipuilation of the tone controls?

[lp59aholicDon]

Doc , all depends if you are changing to the same values and or using vintage over modern wiring, When I put Orange Drops in with my new WCR Fillmores , They truly came alive, the caps that were in there were sucking the life and tone out of good pickups Tones and harmonics just jump right off but then part of that were WCR's incredible pickups too
You can cure the harshness of some pickups with a higher value cap , you can also brighten up a dark front pickup by lowering the .022/400 Value cap

[Doctor Dread]

Now I see the point... will investigate further.

Thx, Don!

[61LPSG]

Originally Posted by Doctor Dread

Now I see the point... will investigate further.

Thx, Don!

Doc, What Don said, But keep in mind that the pots will also have an affect or effect on the tone. I like audio taper pots like you find in better guitars. Try different caps, they're easy to change. Make good clean solder-joints. You may not need expensive " Historically Correct" caps to get the tone you want. I have heard some great tone from inexpensive caps. Try .047uf,.022uf,and .010uf, and you may mix them up too...for example a .02 in the neck, and a .010 the bridge.
Anything will sound better than the polyester ones in some newer axes. Whether you use PIO's, ceramic disks, and and electrolytic cans is up to your ear. try to avoid any caps made in China, stick American, Japanese, or German made. Good luck, and keep us posted.

[61LPSG]

Sorry, I meant to quote lp59aholicDon.

[Blues Power]

i dunno about all this hype spending $10 or more on boutique caps. ive been using the radio shack caps 2 for $1.79 for 30 some odd years now with no ill effects.

from what i know about electronics the guitars voltage is too minimal to to utilize the better componants to its full potontial.

all i can see is that theyre made to closer specs. whereas the cheapos may be +/- 10% the boutiques will be +/-2% or 1%

i think thats what your hearing in the up grade

[dwagar]

IMO, if you want a vintage tone, the most noticeable change in tone is going to come from PIOs, and I'm a firm believer in vintage Bees.

you can roll off the tone knob and it sounds like you kicked in a wah pedal. Killer, killer tone.

[tarddoggy]

Originally Posted by dwagar

IMO, if you want a vintage tone, the most noticeable change in tone is going to come from PIOs, and I'm a firm believer in vintage Bees.

you can roll off the tone knob and it sounds like you kicked in a wah pedal. Killer, killer tone.

+1

[lp59aholicDon]

Originally Posted by Blues Power

i dunno about all this hype spending $10 or more on boutique caps. ive been using the radio shack caps 2 for $1.79 for 30 some odd years now with no ill effects.

from what i know about electronics the guitars voltage is too minimal to to utilize the better componants to its full potontial.

all i can see is that theyre made to closer specs. whereas the cheapos may be +/- 10% the boutiques will be +/-2% or 1%

i think thats what your hearing in the up grade

Peoples ears are sometimes different, I know this, I got my WCR Fillmores, installed them initially with the ceramic caps in place, I thought , man whats all the hype about these? not much better than my stock pickups, Then I got some Orange Drop caps from HolyGrail, WHOA ! the difference was like night and day , I havent gone the vintage wiring route, YET , actually waiting on a more vintage set of caps soon on the way , my pots were already good, the Gibson type with the lil gold dot centers and depressed circles in the back

[LoKi]

One of the best things you can do to your tone, if you want a full pickup sound is to take the tone control right out of the circuit... or better yet, the volume control too. Straight to the jack... EVH could tell you more about it.

Not my thing, I prefer to have a few tonal options... but I might cut the tone control off my bridge pickup, just to try it. I'm more of a neck player anyway, and that tone control gets a workout.

[lp59aholicDon]

Originally Posted by LoKi

One of the best things you can do to your tone, if you want a full pickup sound is to take the tone control right out of the circuit... or better yet, the volume control too. Straight to the jack... EVH could tell you more about it.

Not my thing, I prefer to have a few tonal options... but I might cut the tone control off my bridge pickup, just to try it. I'm more of a neck player anyway, and that tone control gets a workout.

I couldnt cut out the controls. to me its like cutting more tonal options out of the equation your tone will become less varied, less mixed , I can control alot of tone with my hands but those knobs are too damn handy for me Its like saying, Ah I Need to lose weight, and cut off a whole leg to do so
F%^&*( EVH, He is just another guitarist, Yeah he may have sold millions of records , he can do what he wants with his tone and guitars, has no bearing on what I do, or want to achieve

[sapi]

Originally Posted by dwagar

IMO, if you want a vintage tone, the most noticeable change in tone is going to come from PIOs, and I'm a firm believer in vintage Bees.

you can roll off the tone knob and it sounds like you kicked in a wah pedal. Killer, killer tone.

+2, tried and tested with black beauties. Obviously we are talking LP style tone, etc.

All the best!

[LoKi]

Originally Posted by lp59aholicDon

I couldnt cut out the controls. to me its like cutting more tonal options out of the equation your tone will become less varied, less mixed , I can control alot of tone with my hands but those knobs are too damn handy for me Its like saying, Ah I Need to lose weight, and cut off a whole leg to do so
F%^&*( EVH, He is just another guitarist, Yeah he may have sold millions of records , he can do what he wants with his tone and guitars, has no bearing on what I do, or want to achieve

Yea I'm really not an EVH fan at all, and I love my volume and tone controls, thats for sure!

I think its amazing though, what your pickups actually sound like when the controls are out of the equation. Its like a different world. If they could make a set of pots that were full bypass when you turned them up to 10, I'd be interested... Either that or some nifty wiring trick... Hmmm.

[lp59aholicDon]

Originally Posted by LoKi

Yea I'm really not an EVH fan at all, and I love my volume and tone controls, thats for sure!

I think its amazing though, what your pickups actually sound like when the controls are out of the equation. Its like a different world. If they could make a set of pots that were full bypass when you turned them up to 10, I'd be interested... Either that or some nifty wiring trick... Hmmm.

I dont think the wiring would be that hard to do. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm Got me thinking too

[WildeStarr]

Originally Posted by LoKi

One of the best things you can do to your tone, if you want a full pickup sound is to take the tone control right out of the circuit... or better yet, the volume control too. Straight to the jack... EVH could tell you more about it.

WORD!

[Doctor Dread]

Originally Posted by LoKi

Yea I'm really not an EVH fan at all, and I love my volume and tone controls, thats for sure!

I think its amazing though, what your pickups actually sound like when the controls are out of the equation. Its like a different world. If they could make a set of pots that were full bypass when you turned them up to 10, I'd be interested... Either that or some nifty wiring trick... Hmmm.

They made them. CTS no-load pots. Exactly what you want. When you reach 10, there's a notch, a small groove inside and you feel the click. Then the pot is bypassed and works simply as a piece of wire. Rolling back, you have to applly a little pressure to unlock bypass.

Have those on anoter Strat in 250K. Used as a tone, gives you razor sharp trebble but with a slight growl, very nice sound. And if you bypass vol too, guitar turns rabbid. Very aggressive.

So the word you are looking for is NO-LOAD.

[ArchEtech]

I'm putting some lace alumitones into my chambered standard. What would caps possibly do for me?

[LoKi]

I've seen no-load pots, and wondered if thats what they did. I always assumed the notch was a complete 'off' switch, but now I see it goes the other way around. I might have to give it a shot.

[Doctor Dread]

If you do, please post results. They produce good results even on cheap single-coils, wonder what they'll do with this powerful humbuckers.

[refin]

Originally Posted by Blues Power

i dunno about all this hype spending $10 or more on boutique caps. ive been using the radio shack caps 2 for $1.79 for 30 some odd years now with no ill effects.

Same here...............I have some original bumblebees and vitamins,and can't hear that BIG difference that some say they do.

[overdriver]

Me too! I go as far as orange drops IMO they look Cool. And do not sting me in the wallet.Like the bumble bees.

[taypeng]

hey just to chip in my 2cents worth, i swapped my ceramic caps for russian PIOs. I can't say for sure what it does to the tone since i changed the pups at the same time.

But i can safely say, if you're planning to make the switch, you should consider wiring it the vintage way. There's significant treble loss when i turn the gain knob down now. I didn't have that with ceramic caps.

[mrkenny]

Originally Posted by LoKi

One of the best things you can do to your tone, if you want a full pickup sound is to take the tone control right out of the circuit... or better yet, the volume control too. Straight to the jack... EVH could tell you more about it.

Not my thing, I prefer to have a few tonal options... but I might cut the tone control off my bridge pickup, just to try it. I'm more of a neck player anyway, and that tone control gets a workout.

I'm sort of a, less is more kid of guy. I have a 50's Harmony Stratotone to which I've added a second DeArmond pickup. I decided on a selector switch and volume, no tone controls. It was an interesting exercise that turned out fine in the end. There's something cool about having a guitar that just has one knob.

[eddie_bowers]

You can make your own "No Load" pots. I did it for my neck pickup tone control. It's easy, just follow the steps at:
Project Guitar :: Checking DC resistance on your potentiometers
It works perfectly. I didn't do it on my bridge because it sounds harsh as it is.
I was worried that you might hear a pop or something when it goes to 10, but you don't.
I don't think this works for volume controls because the signal side of the pot would have no connection. I just used 1 Meg pots for volume.

-Eddie

[LES STORY]

Hey What Do You Guys Think Of The Mojo Djoun And Vitamin T Caps .

[noslen1968]

I heartily recommend rewiring your LP. My experience is that is brought out more of a natural wood tone and not so artificial as it was before, and the tone/volume pots actually do what they are supposed to, it will spoil you but for less than $100 - Vintage Mahogany Rewire

[essguitarman]

I recently found that somewhat of a treble bleed mod sounds great on my lp standard. I connected the first and second lug on the volume pot together with a sprague .001uf cap and a 90k carbon composition resistor. I did his to each volume pot. I also wired in a momentary kill switch for the neck pickup. I'm also thinking of putting in vitamin Q caps...any opinions?

[JustinMcCorkle]

Peoples ears are sometimes different, I know this, I got my WCR Fillmores, installed them initially with the ceramic caps in place, I thought , man whats all the hype about these? not much better than my stock pickups, Then I got some Orange Drop caps from HolyGrail, WHOA ! the difference was like night and day , I havent gone the vintage wiring route, YET , actually waiting on a more vintage set of caps soon on the way , my pots were already good, the Gibson type with the lil gold dot centers and depressed circles in the back

I have a set of Filmores in a guitar I play a lot. I got the whole kit from Wagner, pickups, pots, caps, the works. I installed the pickups first, then plugged it in and played it. I thought killer man this thing really got a lot better instantly. I then took the old pots and caps out and put Wagner's pots and caps in. I sat there for a minute thinking I cannot friggin believe this. It made ALL the difference in the world. It REALLY brought those pickups to life. Of course the pots and caps in it were crap to begin with. That was my first time installing pots and caps, now I do it to all of them. WCR has a GREAT line of pickups. Wagner has NAILED every application I've needed so far. A great guy, and extremely talented. I highly suggest if you get them to get his prewired pot and cap kit. It's worth every penny!

[weirdotis]

Why would you buy one cap over another? Like Vitamin Qs over Bumblebees, or vice versa.

[xsouldriverx]

i changed gibsons stock pots and .022 caps to an rs kit with .015 PIO caps and it made a dark, almost unplayable guitar into a nice rock machine.IMHO they make a difference.