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 WTA - Capacitors In Guitar, Just swap one

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TSjudas
post Jan 14 2008, 03:16 PM, updated 18y ago

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i had just swap a mylar capacitor in my Yamaha Pacifica from the original 0.022uF to 0.01uF..
i am currently using a cheapo Rm0.30 mylar cap inside my guitar...
Sounds not bad (less bass- which i wanted) but i just wanted to know whether there anyone who knows bout switching a good tone capacitors ( higher quality) to the guitar will improve the sound??
Everdying
post Jan 14 2008, 03:25 PM

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it will make some difference...tho more ppl usually just change to better pots.
TSjudas
post Jan 15 2008, 10:00 AM

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Better pots??
Hmmm...i noticed that...might do that as well..
But i really dunno why one to choose
I wanted to swap a 500k POTS in the tone but found out there are a 1meg POTS...is 1 meg POTS good?? for a strat i mean?
supercolossal
post Jan 15 2008, 10:55 AM

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This might help you out. Different pot values have a lot to do with the high frequencies (treble) from your signals

http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/w101-controlpots.html
crazychris
post Jan 15 2008, 11:30 AM

Bass!!!
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ooo cool info man
judas, single coil wit 1M pot, u mus b reli a funky guy
sean392
post Jan 15 2008, 01:01 PM

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QUOTE(judas @ Jan 15 2008, 10:00 AM)
Better pots??
Hmmm...i noticed that...might do that as well..
But i really dunno why one to choose
I wanted to swap a 500k POTS in the tone but found out there are a 1meg POTS...is 1 meg POTS good?? for a strat i mean?
*
1M ohm pot for a strat will make it squeal XD
Might be too bright IMHO =/

TSjudas
post Jan 15 2008, 04:06 PM

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Thats what im thinking...to bright...thats why din dare buy
by the way , is the pots are linear ones or log ones??
linear = B
log = A
ajay67
post Jan 17 2008, 03:51 PM

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a changed all my 3 pots to made in usa one, but used back the capacitor. it sounded more "solid" (or maybe just inside my brain smile.gif )
gliew
post Jan 18 2008, 07:42 PM

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This article may help you, courtesy of http://www.haywirecustomguitars.com/58.html

-How does the tone capacitor value affect the sound of the guitar?
Most guitars and basses with passive pickups use between .01 and .1 MFD (Microfarad) tone capacitors with .02 (or .022) and .05 (or .047) being
the most common choices. The capacitor and tone pot are wired together to provide a variable low pass filter. This means when the filter is engaged
(tone pot is turned) only the low frequencies pass to the output jack and the high frequencies are grounded out (cut) In this application, the capacitor
value determines the "cutoff frequency" of the filter and the position of the tone pot determines how much the highs (everything above the cutoff
frequency) will be reduced.

The rule is: Larger capacitors will have lower cutoff frequency and sound darker in the bass setting because a wider range of frequencies is being
reduced. Smaller capacitors will have a higher cutoff frequency and sound brighter in the bass setting because only the ultra high frequencies are cut. For this reason, dark sounding guitars like Les Pauls with humbuckers typically use .02MFD (or .022MFD) capacitors to cut off less of the highs and
guitars like Strats and Teles with single coils typically use .05 MFD capacitors to allow more treble to be rolled off. The capacitor value however, only affects the sound when the tone control is being used (pot in the bass setting) The tone capacitor value will have little to no effect on the sound when
the tone pot is in the treble setting.



-What is the difference between 250K & 500K pots?
Either 250K or 500K pots can be used with any passive pickups however the pot values will affect tone slightly. The rule is: Using higher value pots
(500K) will give the guitar a brighter sound and lower value pots (250K) will give the guitar a slightly warmer sound. This is because higher value pots put less of a load on the pickups which prevents treble frequencies from "bleeding" to ground through the pot and being lost. For this reason, guitars with humbuckers like Les Pauls use 500K pots to retain more highs for a slightly brighter tone and guitars with single coils like Stratocasters and Telecasters use 250K pots to add some warmth by slightly reducing the highs. You can also fine tune the sound by changing the pot values regardless of what pot value the guitar originally had.



As for the type of pot, most websites recommend audio taper (ie logarithmic) pots for both volume and tone controls.
However, i personallly like using linear pots for volume and log for tone (as do Ibanez on most of their guitars). Makes the volume pot more balanced throughout the range of travel.

However, if you like to 'violin' (ie volume swells) using the volume pots, then log pots are better since changing with small movements from 8 to 10 you can get a bigger change in volume!

cheers
geoff
TSjudas
post Jan 23 2008, 01:45 PM

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Damn...Log taper are so hard to get
I think maybe in can get from Farnell...
I think i do prefer the linear taper in Volume and Log in tone...
Just that its that damn expensive to get those log tapers from Music Stores...Rm35 for a 250K pots....
Why ar??

supercolossal
post Feb 4 2008, 10:35 PM

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I think most pots in the guitar store are log tapers or audio taper. I think it's quite difficult to get linear taper pots in guitar shops.

 

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