@soaring138 - Could be treble bleed, or tone, or perhaps something else. What's the cap value- maybe that will give a clue. What type of pickups? Did you contact the pickup manufacturer?
@soaring138 - that's a tone cap. You can remove your existing tone cap (between tone pot and ground) and replace it with the one you received from Kloppmann. Use some alligator leads and clip them in one at a time and choose the one you like.
@johnplanetz i'm planning to shield my guitar with copper tape so i can eliminate the hum but,they say it will affect the thickness of the tone, based on your experience what do you think is the warmest tone capacitor ( jazz fusion tone ) on a HSS, 1 volume, 1 tone, 5 way configuration? thanks
@dpsd - I can't recommend a specific cap for your configuration. I recommend you try a few with alligator leads and see what you like. You may find that PIO lends a bit of warmth, and you may also want a larger capacitance value (see part 2) to roll off some of the highs, or just roll back on the tone pot a bit.
@dpsd - I can't recommend a specific cap for your configuration. I recommend you try a few with alligator leads and see what you like. You may find that PIO lends a bit of warmth, and you may also want a larger capacitance value (see part 2) to roll off some of the highs, or just roll back on the tone pot a bit.
Bottom line is that after a couple of foot-pedals nobody can tell the difference except maybe the guy who never plays outside his bedroom - nit-picking over this, that or something else doesn't make a good player. The audience doesn't know, doesn't care about these insignificant tone differences...which are a matter of personal taste anyways.
@knoxwood85 - I can't really recommend a particular cap type. In general, it's not the tone cap that's going to make you sound like slash :) He plays a Les Paul, so start with that.
@knoxwood85 Get some Duncan Alnico II Humbuckers, Slash edition. The tone cap wont change your tone unless the control is on zero. On 10 the cap has no affect on the signal.
@knoxwood85 i wanted this tone also and i got slash alnico pro 2 pickups and that was the biggest difference almost right away i got the tone i was looking for. as for the capacitors he uses orange drop caps...a 15 on the neck pickup and a 22 on the bridge. also a les paul is what u need...i got epiphone and made all the mods to it that the "appetite for destruction" les paul has. also u really want to get a marshall amp. this will get u the tone, but actually sounding like slash, GOOD LUCK!!
hi i see you know alot about this so maybe u can help me im looking for a capacitor to help with that slash tone for my epiphone les paul plus top what do u recomend or sugest
How would you desribe the difference between that Orange Drop sound and that of a Tropical Fish? Can I get more of a "Wah" response from the Tropical Fish when I rapidly rotate my Tone pot with a Tropical Fish installed?
Wow, I'm surprised at the difference. Especially that it's so dramatic even with the tone on 10. I guess my faves are the paper in oil (especially wide open) and fat gray.
@helloimkevin10 - reading, experimenting, tinkering. I have some links to books and resources in the FAQ at my blog at planetz (link in video notes).
I'd like to note that since leaving my last comments, I have realised that i was stating figures 10 times as large as what should be used, and corrected that before buying any caps. I've now selected a .027uF cap to go with the 280k pot.
Actually I take that back, I've just spotted the 2nd part of this vid which I shall now watch, and I have faith that It'll answer my question. Your videos are very useful btw, you have my word as soon as I've got the custom guitar... and a new amp... and a pedal, I will donate to you.
Quick question if it's not too much to ask, I'm currently in the process of discussing the details for a custom build I'm getting, and advice on which cap would be appreciated. This is for the tone circuit for a P90 neck pickup into a 280k audio taper pot, and I've found on the internet both .22 and .33 tropical fish... what would the difference between them be, and would you recommend a particular one?
@johnplanetz do you have any tips on how to stop the guitar from sounding good to not sounding as good I changed my volume and tone pot to 500k and I find at times lowering the the volume then hiring the volume to not sound as good do the tone capacitors stop that from happening ? thnx
Hi, i really hope you see this comment. I have a guitar with a....
1 DPDT pot
1 3way switch
I have a vol. pedal, and wanted to make my DPDT vol. pot into a tone pot that allows me to split coil my PU's. Is that possible? cause dimarzio has a push/pull switch that says "VOL/TONE pot" do these "tone caps" transform a pot into vol and tone?
@ac23AQ - sure, you can make it so that you have no volume control, and just have a tone control. the push/pull switch can be used for whatever you want. you'll need to rewire the circuit- you can't just add a tone cap to make a volume pot into a tone pot. please visit the guitarelectronics wiring diagram archive for examples. and as i always say, experiment setting up your circuit with alligator leads, before soldering! good luck!
Great demonstrating of the small differences in tone between different caps man. What voltage are all those caps? It might atribute to tonal differences..
@lauriedepaurie - these are pretty high voltage caps. In the video, you can see the max voltages printed on the side of some of the caps starting at about 0:30. Some are 400V, some are 100V, etc. Since the guitar signal is extremely low voltage (less than 1 volt), this isn't a critical thing to consider. However, the different construction of the caps for higher voltages may result in some minor differences in tone. Hard to say!
I actually liked the mystery yellow one. I tend to use the tone knobs a lot. I do a lot of cleans and get super anal about getting the right sound. People who do a lot of gain don't really need them I guess but for me it's a must. My configuration makes my guitar really trebley so I need the knob to back it off a bit and make it sound normal.
^^^ This comment Is @ the guy who says tone knobs are useless haha
@gpchris95 - Turns out that "mystery yellow cap" is a Type WMF 1S22 Polyester Film capacitor with a 100v rating, from CDE Cornell Dubilier. I doubt you'll be able to find it exactly, but if you experiment with poly film caps, I'm sure you'll find something similar that suits your sound. Good luck!
@gpchris95 I don't think they're useless, for everyone, but I don't use them. In fact now, just one pot with no caps at all, on SD hot p90s. That way, when you roll back the volume you're not rolling off high end, and you get a nice telly twang the further you go down. Almost sounds like taking the windings off the pickups in a way. Just my preference.
why are people saying that there are no differences? are you using horrible speakers on a 20 year old laptop or something? there is quite a bit of difference.
although that may just because some people have a more educated ear than others.
with that said, i like the russian and tropical fish the most.
@foreverjimmy - if you disconnect the tone cap, the tone control will do nothing and your pickups may sound just a touch brighter. the guitar will still work fine. for an example, see my video on modifying a tone pot to be no-load.
There's no difference....maybe the original sounded a little bit better...but this may be due to the real capacitance...value informed sometimes is not real...smaller value reduces bass and we can understand that as "increasings in treble"
I don't know how people can say they hear no difference. Do you have music on in the background or something? Even on a lo-fi youtube video through my shtity stock laptop speakers I can definitely hear a significant difference. Not so much with the more distorted slow power chords but everything else, definitely.
@ferretallica Between the caps of the *same value*, there is little to no difference. You need to listen to this without reading what cap it is, because that will bias what you are hearing. I'm listening to it with a pair of Sennheiser 515 headphones. If there is a difference it is probably because the cap is out of spec.
@nathanihensel Nope, my hearing is fine. If a cap is rated a certain capacitance, that's all that matters. How it's made does not change the tone when used in this application. But you have to measure them. If you take the different clips from the video above, and remove the caption telling you what it is, and hen mix them up, you wont be able to tell the difference.
I'm a luthier and pickup maker (SGD Lutherie), and I've done these experiments many times over the years.
@DavidRavenMoon Well I don't know what you've been stuffing in your ears... But I heard a marked difference with my eyes closed, using high quality headphones. Age, materials, and design of the capacitors all affect the tone. We are talking negligable differences if you are plugged into a 100 Watt Marshall stack, but there is a difference
@Rafterman123 I have perfect hearing. All those things you are saying about caps does not matter when used in a passive tone control circuit. The guitar's signal is NOT passing through the cap. It's in parallel to the pickup. The only part of the signal passing through the cap is being shunted to ground. So unless the cap's rated capacitance value is off, they will all sound the same. So you can have a difference between two of the same type of caps as well.
@Rafterman123 Also, the guy in the test was not strumming exactly the same between tests. This might have been accidental or unconscious based on what he expected to hear. This is called conformation bias. This was not a proper double blind test, and we don't know how the capacitance of the wired used in the switch box altered the results. And some paper in oil caps are fake anyway, like the Gibson Bumblebee repros. So how do you know what you are getting.
@nathanihensel He's right. I build pedals and guitars and did/do extensive testing over years. Now I'm also involved in pro-recording.
Once the capacitance is matched there is no way to tell two caps apart in guitar circuits - except that ceramics are microphonic.
An expensive paper cap that's under value will be "warm" instead of "dull", and one that's over will be "open" instead of "brittle" or "cold". The language used depends on the mythical value of the cap.
@nathanihensel It's easy to test too. Get two cap types that you think are polar opposites: So, a paper, bumble or fish, and measure a few really sh!tty ceramics 'till you find one the same exact value.
Make a test jig, offer to blind test someone else who believes the cap myths - and see just how uncomfortable they are to be tested.
The other recognized deal is performance variation and bias. Playing can easily be different enough take to take in recording "tests" to bias them.
What I found curious is that I think I perceived more variation between the caps when the pot was at 500k than when all the signal was hitting the caps.
To me, the differences could be described as subtle, but very very much there.. Do you think that much of the tonal differences could be due to value tolerances or would, say, 20% variation be this perceivable? Caps can have a huge tolerance from spec, especially vintage (read "old") ones.
@sprintertwo - Thanks! Yes there are some variances in capacitance- please see the followup Q&A in part 3 and 4 of this video, in which I measure all the capacitances.
@johnplanetz Thanks for the videos! Hey by the way, the Orange Drop 225P are Polyester film, not Polypropylene. Are all of these caps the same value? did you measure the value?
@MrMutron - yes that was a mistake. There should already be a popup annotation at that point in the video saying "Correction: this 225p orange drop is polyester film. The 715p orange drops in part 2 are polypropylene". Did that not show up for you? I showed all the value measurements in the followup Q&A in part 3.
@MrCrapheadist i don't use crappy phones. there are things important to me and there are things you can nitpick. for me personally, i don't hear a difference and therefore, in MY case, when no problem exists, these offer nothing. my target for music is people that aren't audiophiles that over-analyze subtle differences i guess... these observations are valid, but just like benchmarks with PC's, not typically seen or noticed in any significant way. Than again I am FAR from a tech.
Interesting that people hear no difference... Orange, Mallory and Tropical sound fattest. Russian sounds very clear and articulate. Epiphone and yellow vintage sound real tinny. Unfortunately I have never heard any combination that sounds good turned down all the way on clean sounds. It might have to do with the amount being cut. Need to try different pots too...
hey man good video, invaluable information....let me ask you something...the quality of capacitors can make too much noisy your guitar when you use overdrive?
@George2ec - under high gain you may hear more emphasis of the caps qualities, but i don't think it's really about noise. you can hear distorted examples of all these caps in my video "Guitar Tone Capacitors, part 4: Followup Q&A - Ceramic and distorted examples"
So capacitor type doesn't make an iota of difference. Can't say I'm surprised.
BTW, to the extent that cap type actually matters, the best cap for a tone circuit should be a crappy cap, right? After all, the tone cap's job is to subtract certain frequencies from the signal, not to pass them on (unlike, say, a coupling cap). So a crappy cap will do the best job of dumping the bad parts of the signal to ground, which is a good thing.
@1Doz - different cap types have different characteristics with temperature variations, etc. lower quality may mean more variable, more inconsistent. Unless you're looking at boutique PIO caps, these things aren't that expensive anyway. Orange drops are like $1.50. Mallory is $1. Greenies (poly film -the most commonly used in production guitars) are $0.25. Ceramics are even cheaper. So price really doesn't matter if you're just making a few guitars. In 1000's, it might matter more.
The fact that caps are cheap doesn't mean you're not wasting your money replacing them. It just means you're not wasting a lot of money. I would guess that at extreme temps you might get a small change in value. But unless you're a Buddhist monk playing the guitar while annihilating yourself with gasoline, the difference will probably be negligible.
Very well done video! Seems a shame to do all that work when at the end of the day there is very little tone difference, even when watching your waveform analysis spectrem in the back ground. The difference in tone is so small that I wonder if it is disernible to thee human ear. Seems like a lot of extra work for not much of a payoff. This of coarse is only my opinion. Very good quality video though.
very cool demo. Capacitors however do not make a huge, if any difference in tone (speaking about the different materials). The actual capacitance value, be it .022uF or whatever your guitar may have is really the only factor that will change the tone of your guitar
Great, great, great review. I never saw nothing like these review ever! I have never heard capacitors side by side. Thanks very much for sharing these John.
CC resistors add mojo IF they have a large voltage and a significant swing. The mojo in that case is distortion of the order and level that sweetens the sound. It comes from voltage affecting resistance. So, I wonder if cap material mojo is likewise a matter of voltage affecting capacitance. Bottom line, I neither hear nor SEE any difference. There's what, 2V on the grid input of VI in any given tube amp? Compare to 150V at the plate. Same scale at lower voltages in transistors. Interesting vid.
thanks for posting. i've always been suspicious that paper and oil caps were snake oil, considering that the voltage in a guitar is so low, but this definitely confirms it. they all sound almost exactly the same. the biggest difference is the variation in your attack and playing between each sample. i thought that there would be more noticeable differences once the pot was turned down more, but that's clearly not the case. i'll be picking up cheap ones henceforth.
To me, the Mallory was the most articulate and least muddy as the tone was rolled off. The Russian PIO was next. The Orange Drop is LAST! YOWSA! Granted, the attack might have been slightly different as each pass occured, but to consistently play clearer when just the Mallory was in, is hard to believe was intentional or a coincidence. Enough passes that led to the same conclusion happened for me to trust my judgement. YMMV! VERY COOL!
biggest variable is playing. it's a completely different waveform going in every time. try using a looper pedal to get closer to isolating the relevant variable
@TheKingWrecker What did you expect? Minute nuances in difference at youtube quality... Have to say I hear a very small difference in 'eq'. Nothing as spectacular as picking up a different style guitar, but a bad cap can make expensive p/u's sound like crap. Some (like PIO) are fairly muddy, could be the voltage tho.. I tend to use PIO because it 'reacts' to playing. PIO's tend to feel more natural, but I'd be happy not to hear a difference... PIO's are expensive!!!
@pierogoku - thanks for the noticing that! The 225p is indeed polyester and 715p is polypropylene. In my capacitance value comparison video, they're all 715p's. This .022 here is a 225p.
Hi John, nice videos. Someday I'll build a guitar with your advice - but let me ask you something... How about the voltage? Does it matter when we're talking about guitar caps? Thanks (Vinícius - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
@cmtepreu - The voltage rating is essentially irrelevant for guitars, which are extremely low voltage. But the different construction of the caps may result in some minor differences in tone.
All 22nF sound the same, 33nf a bit darker. But having more expensive cap makes audiophile happier. So go for it who needs it. I've got mallory radial polypropylene 22nf to prevent thinking that something could compromise my sound in guitar, but I don't really believe that it changes anything. Just avoid tantalum, ceramics and electrolitycs. You could even create Your own caps if You like, just copper foil, paper, candle, 2 wires. Audiophiles hear with their eyes, that's the secret. Great job!
whats up, no love for the ceramic caps? all ceramic caps are not created equal. Very hard to argue with the growl from a good ceramic cap on a single coil pickup, its just mean!. the yellow ones are much better these days, check out mojotone's dijon, 22s in a LP on the neck PU and 47 on the bridge really wake up a LP. The oil and cap ones.thats a tough call, one can be so different from the others, i think they are more temperature sensitive also.
John, great process and video. I'm just wondering if you happened to measure the actual capacitance values. Some caps have pretty high tolerance range and some of the tonal differences could be accounted for by different actual values. Just curious. In any case, we like your video and have featured it in Guitar Kit Builder online magazine. Please let us know if you have any objections. Thanks again for a great video.
@guitarkitbuilder - thanks for the link. yes, this turned into a 4-part video series. in part 3+4, I go through a bunch of Q&A, including the actual measured capacitances.
@billzumwalt - thanks for the tips!! You are absolutely right- the yellow is a CDE, type WMF cap which is polyester film, and what I called a "fat gray cylinder" is a Mullard Mustard Foil/Film type. Amazing how easy these are to find once you have the right keywords! I'll annotate the video with note about it.
This series of videos is brilliant! Thanks so much for taking the time to be meticulous and exacting; you've given us tone geeks everything we need to make a decision: empirical measurements AND subjective tonality.
I like the tone of the Russian paper & oil. It offers a good balance of harmonic richness and forward presence, w/ the vintage tropical fish being my second choice. I also like the power and authority offered by the Mallory.
And they're ALL better than those cheap ceramic caps :-)
After listening to this test it confirmed what ithought all along.No real differance between any of these,this tone cap.thing has amused me ever since i saw a old original wax Fender cap.go for $50.00 on ebay.To think i chop these old duds out of every vintage radio i repair and throw them away i could have made a lot of money off goofy fools willing to buy trash.Please if you value your tube amps. never use old wax caps.,striped oil type bumblebees for coupling caps.you may cook your outputs.
i salute your ingenuity...and labor....but it seems to confirm my view that .022 is more or less still .022...no matter what...there is not enough diff in the original epi cap and all the others..especially by the time you are running thru a cranked amp and have adjusted the amp eq and with several pedals going....people...out there...spend your time and energy on practice and lessons....no one ever got hired for a gig because they had a high dollar cap in their guitar....but..thanks..!!
Why dont you have a ceramic cap in with those? Ceramic caps are used quite often in production guitars. I tried a ceramic cap in my SG, it sounded ok but i went back to the original film cap. No big deal I was just wondering why you didnt include a ceramic cap, and i'm to lazy to read the entire comments, lol
@Jerrysway - I didn't have a ceramic cap on hand at the time, but I did another round of recordings in part 3 of this video series "followup Q&A". take a look/listen!
In a passive tone-cut circuit in a guitar, there will be absolutely zero perceptible sonic advantage to using an Orange Drop over any other type ,Mallory, polyester film etc..
It has been proven many times all over the world from many engineers.
in a passive circuit there is no sonic difference. if you hear something it's more like the attack of the hand on strings. in an amp situation then I would say yes there is a difference.
I came into this expecting all the cap types to sound identical, but kept an open mind. Rather than just reading about it, I actually tried it :) I measured all the cap values, and controlled everything else in the setup as best I could- and in listening to the recordings, i can hear subtle but real differences that can only really be accounted for by cap material and construction.
These are after all analog components with a degree of nonlinearity- they are not ideal high-pass filters as you might expect on paper. In the end, I 100% agree that spending top dollar for caps is silly. The differences are too subtle. But if you hear a difference that you like, then go for it. If not, no big deal :)
If you're interested, see part 3 of this video for the cap measurements, and a better explanation of my recording setup, etc...
@johnplanetz I too have tried and experimented and thought I heard differences. but when you what there to be something you convince yourself there is even when there is not. since has proven that in a passive circuit this is not possible ---- no matter what you think. sound can be measured with better tools then ears. also how they proved the existence of extra harmonics produced with tube (mojo).
It is simply wrong to state that all caps of the same capacitance behave identically. Perhaps you have misunderstood your sources, or they have not actually done their homework. For example, it is well known that ceramic caps have wide tolerances and vary with temperature and frequency- which is why you don't find cheap ceramic caps in quality audio gear. Many cap characteristics vary with the construction and material type (leakage, inductance, resonant peaks, temperatures stability, etc).
What effect these variances actually have on the audio is debatable. It is subtle, but clearly audible even in blind tests (try the examples at my blog). You are right- there are better tools than ears. Use a sweep oscillator through a switched array of caps of the same capacitance, and run the audio through a spectrum analyzer- you WILL see differences. But what's the point? Can you HEAR the differences or not? If not, don't worry about it! If yes, then choose what you like.
Did you measure and match the ACTUAL capacitances of these capacitors? If not, this is pretty much meaningless. I would be surprised if these didn't have a huge spread from nominal rating, especially the old stuff. Capacitance matters in low-voltage passive bleeder circuits; composition doesn't.
What do you know about Illinois brand .022 Microfarad Metalized Polypropylene capacitors? Non-inductive dielectric with self-healing windings provides total sonic purity. 10% tolerance. 630VDC voltage rating. I'm thinking about these.
@JimmyPage968. i'm in total agreement there. i really don't think it makes sense to spend that kind of money on tone caps. you'd be better putting that money into a better amp or something. a couple bucks apiece sounds about right for those mojo caps :)
@johnplanetz I think they're around $1.50 a cap. It's reasonable to me. Do you have an idea where to get vintage style braided pushback wire for a cheap price?
Not knocking your vid. It was usefull to me, BUT.......hardly worth changing caps for amost a zero sound difference. Pickups, preamp valves, pots....yes. But i won't be losing sleep over the tonal variation between caps.
There definitely are SLIGHT differences between all of them, mostly noticeable on the treble end (the 12th fret demonstrations), and to my ear the tropical fish sounds the smoothest.
There definitely are SLIGHT differences between all of them, mostly noticeable on the treble end (the 12th fret demonstrations), and to my ear the tropical fish sounds the smoothest.
I just managed to get my hands on a vintage tropical fish cap (.047uF) for 50p, im sticking in my Squier Mike Dirnt Sig P Bass Along With Some Seymour Duncan SPB-3 And Ernie Ball 250k Pots.....Yummmm. Ill Be Sure To Post A Before And After Video.
Hello !
I bought knew Pickups, and with them, there was a capacitor... Could you explain, where I have to weld it in ?
I think bitween ground and Tone-poti ... but not sure.
Thanks !
BRUNO
soaring138 2 weeks ago
@soaring138 - Could be treble bleed, or tone, or perhaps something else. What's the cap value- maybe that will give a clue. What type of pickups? Did you contact the pickup manufacturer?
johnplanetz 2 weeks ago
@johnplanetz Hello! The value is 0.04µF... for 3 Single PU (Strat) Kloppmann.
Thanks for your help !
soaring138 2 weeks ago
@soaring138 - that's a tone cap. You can remove your existing tone cap (between tone pot and ground) and replace it with the one you received from Kloppmann. Use some alligator leads and clip them in one at a time and choose the one you like.
johnplanetz 2 weeks ago
@johnplanetz Thanks. Done. And by the way, I made the Treble Mod... Very good job John !
soaring138 1 week ago
@johnplanetz I hope you know how respected these videos are in the community,
-Cheers
pwnedforlife 4 weeks ago
I like the fat grey one lol
RolfGuitar 1 month ago
@johnplanetz i'm planning to shield my guitar with copper tape so i can eliminate the hum but,they say it will affect the thickness of the tone, based on your experience what do you think is the warmest tone capacitor ( jazz fusion tone ) on a HSS, 1 volume, 1 tone, 5 way configuration? thanks
dpsd 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
@dpsd - I can't recommend a specific cap for your configuration. I recommend you try a few with alligator leads and see what you like. You may find that PIO lends a bit of warmth, and you may also want a larger capacitance value (see part 2) to roll off some of the highs, or just roll back on the tone pot a bit.
johnplanetz 1 month ago
@dpsd - I can't recommend a specific cap for your configuration. I recommend you try a few with alligator leads and see what you like. You may find that PIO lends a bit of warmth, and you may also want a larger capacitance value (see part 2) to roll off some of the highs, or just roll back on the tone pot a bit.
johnplanetz 1 month ago
Bottom line is that after a couple of foot-pedals nobody can tell the difference except maybe the guy who never plays outside his bedroom - nit-picking over this, that or something else doesn't make a good player. The audience doesn't know, doesn't care about these insignificant tone differences...which are a matter of personal taste anyways.
HardRockLeadGuitar 1 month ago
thx for this good comparison...very nice. Even though I think changing your pick (plectrum) will affect your tone much much more.
Dateninkontinenz 1 month ago
Tropical Fish FTW.. To my ear, it has the warmest tone, fat mids, and crisp highs
ASquared007 2 months ago
hello im looking for a capacitorthat will give me the most slash sound what would u recomend
knoxwood85 2 months ago
@knoxwood85 - I can't really recommend a particular cap type. In general, it's not the tone cap that's going to make you sound like slash :) He plays a Les Paul, so start with that.
johnplanetz 2 months ago
@knoxwood85 Get some Duncan Alnico II Humbuckers, Slash edition. The tone cap wont change your tone unless the control is on zero. On 10 the cap has no affect on the signal.
DavidRavenMoon 2 months ago
@knoxwood85 i wanted this tone also and i got slash alnico pro 2 pickups and that was the biggest difference almost right away i got the tone i was looking for. as for the capacitors he uses orange drop caps...a 15 on the neck pickup and a 22 on the bridge. also a les paul is what u need...i got epiphone and made all the mods to it that the "appetite for destruction" les paul has. also u really want to get a marshall amp. this will get u the tone, but actually sounding like slash, GOOD LUCK!!
6stringzstrummin 1 month ago in playlist More videos from johnplanetz
hi i see you know alot about this so maybe u can help me im looking for a capacitor to help with that slash tone for my epiphone les paul plus top what do u recomend or sugest
knoxwood85 2 months ago
Holy cow, never seen such a deep explanation on tone.
educassiano 2 months ago 3
Fat Gray Cylinder rules.
caracterav 2 months ago
How would you desribe the difference between that Orange Drop sound and that of a Tropical Fish? Can I get more of a "Wah" response from the Tropical Fish when I rapidly rotate my Tone pot with a Tropical Fish installed?
deeeecraig2 3 months ago
Wow, I'm surprised at the difference. Especially that it's so dramatic even with the tone on 10. I guess my faves are the paper in oil (especially wide open) and fat gray.
KaltorRotis 3 months ago
you know lot about capacitors. where did you learn all this?
helloimkevin10 3 months ago
@helloimkevin10 - reading, experimenting, tinkering. I have some links to books and resources in the FAQ at my blog at planetz (link in video notes).
johnplanetz 3 months ago
I liked the tropical fish tone !! thats sound great..
endofjuliascreamo 4 months ago
I'd like to note that since leaving my last comments, I have realised that i was stating figures 10 times as large as what should be used, and corrected that before buying any caps. I've now selected a .027uF cap to go with the 280k pot.
rabbitspliff 4 months ago
Of course there is a variation of picking, but we can find the tendency.
BRIGHT&THIN=Mallory, Original Epiphone
DARK&(bit)MUDDY=RussianPaper, Vintage Fat Gray
FAT&Responsable=OrangeDrop, Vintage Yellow
But this tendency has changed when TONE=1, Mallory& Original Epiphone got muddy.
I don't put Orange Drops into my amplifier too often, but it sounds good on your video. Thank you for a valiable shootout!
masalee1024 4 months ago
Actually I take that back, I've just spotted the 2nd part of this vid which I shall now watch, and I have faith that It'll answer my question. Your videos are very useful btw, you have my word as soon as I've got the custom guitar... and a new amp... and a pedal, I will donate to you.
rabbitspliff 4 months ago
Quick question if it's not too much to ask, I'm currently in the process of discussing the details for a custom build I'm getting, and advice on which cap would be appreciated. This is for the tone circuit for a P90 neck pickup into a 280k audio taper pot, and I've found on the internet both .22 and .33 tropical fish... what would the difference between them be, and would you recommend a particular one?
rabbitspliff 4 months ago
@johnplanetz do you have any tips on how to stop the guitar from sounding good to not sounding as good I changed my volume and tone pot to 500k and I find at times lowering the the volume then hiring the volume to not sound as good do the tone capacitors stop that from happening ? thnx
wipers86 5 months ago
Comment removed
wipers86 5 months ago
I honestly cant thank you enough! could you do a similar video on caps for amps?
Floridaboy7777 5 months ago
Monumental work... 5 stars!
PENTADACTYLON 6 months ago
You can tell (barely) that all except the orange drop seem to be a little bassy with the chording. Very interesting vid. Thanks for posting!
wseeback 6 months ago
Hi, i really hope you see this comment. I have a guitar with a....
1 DPDT pot
1 3way switch
I have a vol. pedal, and wanted to make my DPDT vol. pot into a tone pot that allows me to split coil my PU's. Is that possible? cause dimarzio has a push/pull switch that says "VOL/TONE pot" do these "tone caps" transform a pot into vol and tone?
ac23AQ 6 months ago
@ac23AQ - sure, you can make it so that you have no volume control, and just have a tone control. the push/pull switch can be used for whatever you want. you'll need to rewire the circuit- you can't just add a tone cap to make a volume pot into a tone pot. please visit the guitarelectronics wiring diagram archive for examples. and as i always say, experiment setting up your circuit with alligator leads, before soldering! good luck!
johnplanetz 6 months ago
@johnplanetz O WOW THANK YOU SO MUCH! YOU SAVED MY TONE!
ac23AQ 6 months ago
Great demonstrating of the small differences in tone between different caps man. What voltage are all those caps? It might atribute to tonal differences..
lauriedepaurie 6 months ago
@lauriedepaurie - these are pretty high voltage caps. In the video, you can see the max voltages printed on the side of some of the caps starting at about 0:30. Some are 400V, some are 100V, etc. Since the guitar signal is extremely low voltage (less than 1 volt), this isn't a critical thing to consider. However, the different construction of the caps for higher voltages may result in some minor differences in tone. Hard to say!
johnplanetz 6 months ago
A perfect video. I would like to have it in german!!! Thank you.
micheloderso 6 months ago
@micheloderso - thanks! Sorry I don't speak German! :)
johnplanetz 6 months ago
Thanks for doing this :)
VoxJ 6 months ago
@johnplanetz - thanks for the reply! I just googled it and you can get them on eBay for like 2 bucks. Awesome! I'm definitely going to try these out!
gpchris95 6 months ago
I actually liked the mystery yellow one. I tend to use the tone knobs a lot. I do a lot of cleans and get super anal about getting the right sound. People who do a lot of gain don't really need them I guess but for me it's a must. My configuration makes my guitar really trebley so I need the knob to back it off a bit and make it sound normal.
^^^ This comment Is @ the guy who says tone knobs are useless haha
gpchris95 6 months ago
@gpchris95 - Turns out that "mystery yellow cap" is a Type WMF 1S22 Polyester Film capacitor with a 100v rating, from CDE Cornell Dubilier. I doubt you'll be able to find it exactly, but if you experiment with poly film caps, I'm sure you'll find something similar that suits your sound. Good luck!
johnplanetz 6 months ago
@gpchris95 I don't think they're useless, for everyone, but I don't use them. In fact now, just one pot with no caps at all, on SD hot p90s. That way, when you roll back the volume you're not rolling off high end, and you get a nice telly twang the further you go down. Almost sounds like taking the windings off the pickups in a way. Just my preference.
rollomaughfling 6 months ago
why are people saying that there are no differences? are you using horrible speakers on a 20 year old laptop or something? there is quite a bit of difference.
although that may just because some people have a more educated ear than others.
with that said, i like the russian and tropical fish the most.
00hazel001 7 months ago
the only differences i heard were from the russian paper in oil and the 0.33 micro farad one
undergroundamericana 7 months ago
What will happen if I don't use a cap on tone pots ?
foreverjimmy 7 months ago
@foreverjimmy - if you disconnect the tone cap, the tone control will do nothing and your pickups may sound just a touch brighter. the guitar will still work fine. for an example, see my video on modifying a tone pot to be no-load.
johnplanetz 7 months ago
There's no difference....maybe the original sounded a little bit better...but this may be due to the real capacitance...value informed sometimes is not real...smaller value reduces bass and we can understand that as "increasings in treble"
destroyersoueu 7 months ago
There's no difference.
destroyersoueu 7 months ago
I want that Vintage fat grey, it sounds killer to me
epiclife247 7 months ago
I love the sound of the tropical fish
justanotherkiwi 8 months ago
I don't know how people can say they hear no difference. Do you have music on in the background or something? Even on a lo-fi youtube video through my shtity stock laptop speakers I can definitely hear a significant difference. Not so much with the more distorted slow power chords but everything else, definitely.
ferretallica 8 months ago 6
@ferretallica Between the caps of the *same value*, there is little to no difference. You need to listen to this without reading what cap it is, because that will bias what you are hearing. I'm listening to it with a pair of Sennheiser 515 headphones. If there is a difference it is probably because the cap is out of spec.
DavidRavenMoon 4 months ago
@DavidRavenMoon
your ears must be out of spec
nathanihensel 2 months ago
@nathanihensel Nope, my hearing is fine. If a cap is rated a certain capacitance, that's all that matters. How it's made does not change the tone when used in this application. But you have to measure them. If you take the different clips from the video above, and remove the caption telling you what it is, and hen mix them up, you wont be able to tell the difference.
I'm a luthier and pickup maker (SGD Lutherie), and I've done these experiments many times over the years.
DavidRavenMoon 2 months ago 2
@DavidRavenMoon Spot on.
Peteyuse 2 months ago
@DavidRavenMoon Well I don't know what you've been stuffing in your ears... But I heard a marked difference with my eyes closed, using high quality headphones. Age, materials, and design of the capacitors all affect the tone. We are talking negligable differences if you are plugged into a 100 Watt Marshall stack, but there is a difference
Rafterman123 2 months ago
@Rafterman123 I have perfect hearing. All those things you are saying about caps does not matter when used in a passive tone control circuit. The guitar's signal is NOT passing through the cap. It's in parallel to the pickup. The only part of the signal passing through the cap is being shunted to ground. So unless the cap's rated capacitance value is off, they will all sound the same. So you can have a difference between two of the same type of caps as well.
DavidRavenMoon 2 months ago
@Rafterman123 Also, the guy in the test was not strumming exactly the same between tests. This might have been accidental or unconscious based on what he expected to hear. This is called conformation bias. This was not a proper double blind test, and we don't know how the capacitance of the wired used in the switch box altered the results. And some paper in oil caps are fake anyway, like the Gibson Bumblebee repros. So how do you know what you are getting.
DavidRavenMoon 2 months ago
@nathanihensel He's right. I build pedals and guitars and did/do extensive testing over years. Now I'm also involved in pro-recording.
Once the capacitance is matched there is no way to tell two caps apart in guitar circuits - except that ceramics are microphonic.
An expensive paper cap that's under value will be "warm" instead of "dull", and one that's over will be "open" instead of "brittle" or "cold". The language used depends on the mythical value of the cap.
Peteyuse 2 months ago
@nathanihensel It's easy to test too. Get two cap types that you think are polar opposites: So, a paper, bumble or fish, and measure a few really sh!tty ceramics 'till you find one the same exact value.
Make a test jig, offer to blind test someone else who believes the cap myths - and see just how uncomfortable they are to be tested.
The other recognized deal is performance variation and bias. Playing can easily be different enough take to take in recording "tests" to bias them.
Peteyuse 2 months ago
I think that the Mallory and the Russian Paper-in-oil are my favorite. They sound very warm.
hotgluefingerboard11 8 months ago
tone knob on a guitar is fucking useless....cut it out.
stripes5150 8 months ago
russian seem the best...
PENTADACTYLON 9 months ago
Outstanding methodology and presentation.
What I found curious is that I think I perceived more variation between the caps when the pot was at 500k than when all the signal was hitting the caps.
To me, the differences could be described as subtle, but very very much there.. Do you think that much of the tonal differences could be due to value tolerances or would, say, 20% variation be this perceivable? Caps can have a huge tolerance from spec, especially vintage (read "old") ones.
sprintertwo 9 months ago
@sprintertwo - Thanks! Yes there are some variances in capacitance- please see the followup Q&A in part 3 and 4 of this video, in which I measure all the capacitances.
johnplanetz 9 months ago
@johnplanetz Thanks for the videos! Hey by the way, the Orange Drop 225P are Polyester film, not Polypropylene. Are all of these caps the same value? did you measure the value?
MrMutron 8 months ago
@MrMutron - yes that was a mistake. There should already be a popup annotation at that point in the video saying "Correction: this 225p orange drop is polyester film. The 715p orange drops in part 2 are polypropylene". Did that not show up for you? I showed all the value measurements in the followup Q&A in part 3.
johnplanetz 7 months ago
I am now wiser. Thank you.
garlic555 9 months ago
for those of u who don't hear a difference, use good quality headphones.
MrCrapheadist 10 months ago
@MrCrapheadist i don't use crappy phones. there are things important to me and there are things you can nitpick. for me personally, i don't hear a difference and therefore, in MY case, when no problem exists, these offer nothing. my target for music is people that aren't audiophiles that over-analyze subtle differences i guess... these observations are valid, but just like benchmarks with PC's, not typically seen or noticed in any significant way. Than again I am FAR from a tech.
TheKingWrecker 9 months ago
Interesting that people hear no difference... Orange, Mallory and Tropical sound fattest. Russian sounds very clear and articulate. Epiphone and yellow vintage sound real tinny. Unfortunately I have never heard any combination that sounds good turned down all the way on clean sounds. It might have to do with the amount being cut. Need to try different pots too...
supersoulrecs 10 months ago
tropical fish is the fullest going by that equilizer
on the picking parts
i dont like it with epiphone
shantubesha 10 months ago
@shantubesha I heard the same.
Its very slight, but its definitely audible.
clayphish 8 months ago
best are tropical fish and orange drops
Ang3lus2006 10 months ago
Capacitors do make a HUUUGE difference in sound after all!!
makismanos 11 months ago
Awesome video.. many thanks.
RobsterJay 11 months ago
hey man good video, invaluable information....let me ask you something...the quality of capacitors can make too much noisy your guitar when you use overdrive?
George2ec 11 months ago
@George2ec - under high gain you may hear more emphasis of the caps qualities, but i don't think it's really about noise. you can hear distorted examples of all these caps in my video "Guitar Tone Capacitors, part 4: Followup Q&A - Ceramic and distorted examples"
johnplanetz 11 months ago
So capacitor type doesn't make an iota of difference. Can't say I'm surprised.
BTW, to the extent that cap type actually matters, the best cap for a tone circuit should be a crappy cap, right? After all, the tone cap's job is to subtract certain frequencies from the signal, not to pass them on (unlike, say, a coupling cap). So a crappy cap will do the best job of dumping the bad parts of the signal to ground, which is a good thing.
1Doz 11 months ago
@1Doz - different cap types have different characteristics with temperature variations, etc. lower quality may mean more variable, more inconsistent. Unless you're looking at boutique PIO caps, these things aren't that expensive anyway. Orange drops are like $1.50. Mallory is $1. Greenies (poly film -the most commonly used in production guitars) are $0.25. Ceramics are even cheaper. So price really doesn't matter if you're just making a few guitars. In 1000's, it might matter more.
johnplanetz 11 months ago
@johnplanetz
The fact that caps are cheap doesn't mean you're not wasting your money replacing them. It just means you're not wasting a lot of money. I would guess that at extreme temps you might get a small change in value. But unless you're a Buddhist monk playing the guitar while annihilating yourself with gasoline, the difference will probably be negligible.
1Doz 11 months ago
Very well done video! Seems a shame to do all that work when at the end of the day there is very little tone difference, even when watching your waveform analysis spectrem in the back ground. The difference in tone is so small that I wonder if it is disernible to thee human ear. Seems like a lot of extra work for not much of a payoff. This of coarse is only my opinion. Very good quality video though.
doepoacher 11 months ago
very cool demo. Capacitors however do not make a huge, if any difference in tone (speaking about the different materials). The actual capacitance value, be it .022uF or whatever your guitar may have is really the only factor that will change the tone of your guitar
thorftw 11 months ago
@thorftw - see part 2 of this video for an explanation and evaluation of the capacitance values.
johnplanetz 11 months ago
Great, great, great review. I never saw nothing like these review ever! I have never heard capacitors side by side. Thanks very much for sharing these John.
TheDriveMaster 11 months ago
This is a very well thought out vid and informative, not like some ppl on here trying to show off thanks for the up.
voodoochilie 11 months ago
CC resistors add mojo IF they have a large voltage and a significant swing. The mojo in that case is distortion of the order and level that sweetens the sound. It comes from voltage affecting resistance. So, I wonder if cap material mojo is likewise a matter of voltage affecting capacitance. Bottom line, I neither hear nor SEE any difference. There's what, 2V on the grid input of VI in any given tube amp? Compare to 150V at the plate. Same scale at lower voltages in transistors. Interesting vid.
yonatan703 1 year ago
thanks for posting. i've always been suspicious that paper and oil caps were snake oil, considering that the voltage in a guitar is so low, but this definitely confirms it. they all sound almost exactly the same. the biggest difference is the variation in your attack and playing between each sample. i thought that there would be more noticeable differences once the pot was turned down more, but that's clearly not the case. i'll be picking up cheap ones henceforth.
fmilktoast 1 year ago
what tone cap did SRV use? heard it was maybe a .022 paper in oil?
beeeastmaster 1 year ago
To me, the Mallory was the most articulate and least muddy as the tone was rolled off. The Russian PIO was next. The Orange Drop is LAST! YOWSA! Granted, the attack might have been slightly different as each pass occured, but to consistently play clearer when just the Mallory was in, is hard to believe was intentional or a coincidence. Enough passes that led to the same conclusion happened for me to trust my judgement. YMMV! VERY COOL!
KP11520 1 year ago
Best for me:
Mallory and Russian
guillerob99 1 year ago
biggest variable is playing. it's a completely different waveform going in every time. try using a looper pedal to get closer to isolating the relevant variable
SensibleMusician 1 year ago
interesting. i hear absolutely no difference between them.
TheKingWrecker 1 year ago 12
@TheKingWrecker right, man :-((
bolijack 9 months ago
@TheKingWrecker What did you expect? Minute nuances in difference at youtube quality... Have to say I hear a very small difference in 'eq'. Nothing as spectacular as picking up a different style guitar, but a bad cap can make expensive p/u's sound like crap. Some (like PIO) are fairly muddy, could be the voltage tho.. I tend to use PIO because it 'reacts' to playing. PIO's tend to feel more natural, but I'd be happy not to hear a difference... PIO's are expensive!!!
lauriedepaurie 6 months ago
@TheKingWrecker quite a difference there is! between some of them!
olegsokolov 3 months ago
Very interesting, indeed.
JeffKnight 1 year ago
Sweet video. What program did you use for the graphic equalizer? It's wonderful.
HappyOrangeTheBand 1 year ago
@HappyOrangeTheBand - that's the Spectrum Meter in Steinberg Wavelab
johnplanetz 1 year ago
Orange Drop 225p are polyester caps ;D
pierogoku 1 year ago
@pierogoku - thanks for the noticing that! The 225p is indeed polyester and 715p is polypropylene. In my capacitance value comparison video, they're all 715p's. This .022 here is a 225p.
johnplanetz 1 year ago
You really make a goood job man !!!
OldviSinger 1 year ago
Great vid. Thanks
TheSu2003 1 year ago
this was some usefull stuff... thanks.
davidesandrini 1 year ago
Great Work, very helpful.
ekjade 1 year ago
Hi John, nice videos. Someday I'll build a guitar with your advice - but let me ask you something... How about the voltage? Does it matter when we're talking about guitar caps? Thanks (Vinícius - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
cmtepreu 1 year ago
@cmtepreu - The voltage rating is essentially irrelevant for guitars, which are extremely low voltage. But the different construction of the caps may result in some minor differences in tone.
johnplanetz 1 year ago
they all seem not to affect much of the tone, at least where I can tell a difference.
bpl711 1 year ago
@bpl711 they don't effect the tone , they determine where the roll off point is and ,at what slope.
HackerGuitarist 1 year ago
@HackerGuitarist your stupid.
rekcubC93 1 year ago
I really like the yellow cde
sonick808 1 year ago
no polystyrenes to test ? i'd be curious how they sound....
sonick808 1 year ago
All 22nF sound the same, 33nf a bit darker. But having more expensive cap makes audiophile happier. So go for it who needs it. I've got mallory radial polypropylene 22nf to prevent thinking that something could compromise my sound in guitar, but I don't really believe that it changes anything. Just avoid tantalum, ceramics and electrolitycs. You could even create Your own caps if You like, just copper foil, paper, candle, 2 wires. Audiophiles hear with their eyes, that's the secret. Great job!
adrs2 1 year ago
IDK if its cause im from the caribbean but i like the tropical fish one and orange drop
JRDShamrock 1 year ago
whats up, no love for the ceramic caps? all ceramic caps are not created equal. Very hard to argue with the growl from a good ceramic cap on a single coil pickup, its just mean!. the yellow ones are much better these days, check out mojotone's dijon, 22s in a LP on the neck PU and 47 on the bridge really wake up a LP. The oil and cap ones.thats a tough call, one can be so different from the others, i think they are more temperature sensitive also.
Liking that tropical fish too! never tried.
cup0joe 1 year ago
whats up, no love for the ceramic growlers?
cup0joe 1 year ago
Excellent Vid!
RonBurgundyBitches 1 year ago
John, great process and video. I'm just wondering if you happened to measure the actual capacitance values. Some caps have pretty high tolerance range and some of the tonal differences could be accounted for by different actual values. Just curious. In any case, we like your video and have featured it in Guitar Kit Builder online magazine. Please let us know if you have any objections. Thanks again for a great video.
guitarkitbuilder 1 year ago
@guitarkitbuilder - thanks for the link. yes, this turned into a 4-part video series. in part 3+4, I go through a bunch of Q&A, including the actual measured capacitances.
johnplanetz 1 year ago
i'm liking the russian paper +oil. the tropical fish isnt bad either.
CoandCaSSTB 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Hi brother needs to chat a, Asian women busizz4me.info
JakseUksar34 1 year ago
absolutely useful!!!
thx for share
daxweb 1 year ago
John, I really appreciate what you are doing with these real comparison videos. I have link them to several forum discussions. Keep up the good work.
billzumwalt 1 year ago
BTW, the yellow can and the Fat Mustard cap are both Polyester/foil types.Probably a CDE and Mullard/phillips.
billzumwalt 1 year ago
@billzumwalt - thanks for the tips!! You are absolutely right- the yellow is a CDE, type WMF cap which is polyester film, and what I called a "fat gray cylinder" is a Mullard Mustard Foil/Film type. Amazing how easy these are to find once you have the right keywords! I'll annotate the video with note about it.
johnplanetz 1 year ago
This series of videos is brilliant! Thanks so much for taking the time to be meticulous and exacting; you've given us tone geeks everything we need to make a decision: empirical measurements AND subjective tonality.
I like the tone of the Russian paper & oil. It offers a good balance of harmonic richness and forward presence, w/ the vintage tropical fish being my second choice. I also like the power and authority offered by the Mallory.
And they're ALL better than those cheap ceramic caps :-)
freakybuzz 1 year ago
well done! Great review and the spectrum is a real touch :)
taoofthings 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
i really like the tropical fish (499k), the russian paper in oil (238k) and the mallroy (238k)
MJMorrey 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
i really like the tropical fish one, the russian paper in oil and the mallroy
MJMorrey 1 year ago
Comment removed
MJMorrey 1 year ago
Comment removed
MJMorrey 1 year ago
After listening to this test it confirmed what ithought all along.No real differance between any of these,this tone cap.thing has amused me ever since i saw a old original wax Fender cap.go for $50.00 on ebay.To think i chop these old duds out of every vintage radio i repair and throw them away i could have made a lot of money off goofy fools willing to buy trash.Please if you value your tube amps. never use old wax caps.,striped oil type bumblebees for coupling caps.you may cook your outputs.
olradguy 1 year ago
i salute your ingenuity...and labor....but it seems to confirm my view that .022 is more or less still .022...no matter what...there is not enough diff in the original epi cap and all the others..especially by the time you are running thru a cranked amp and have adjusted the amp eq and with several pedals going....people...out there...spend your time and energy on practice and lessons....no one ever got hired for a gig because they had a high dollar cap in their guitar....but..thanks..!!
AMERICANBUS 1 year ago
Why dont you have a ceramic cap in with those? Ceramic caps are used quite often in production guitars. I tried a ceramic cap in my SG, it sounded ok but i went back to the original film cap. No big deal I was just wondering why you didnt include a ceramic cap, and i'm to lazy to read the entire comments, lol
Jerrysway 1 year ago
@Jerrysway - I didn't have a ceramic cap on hand at the time, but I did another round of recordings in part 3 of this video series "followup Q&A". take a look/listen!
johnplanetz 1 year ago
they explain it here as well
tdpri.com/forum/just-pickups/126084-ceramic-disk-tone-caps-vs-sprague-orange-drop-tone-caps.html
usuckamydick 1 year ago
what waist of time buddy!!
In a passive tone-cut circuit in a guitar, there will be absolutely zero perceptible sonic advantage to using an Orange Drop over any other type ,Mallory, polyester film etc..
It has been proven many times all over the world from many engineers.
in a passive circuit there is no sonic difference. if you hear something it's more like the attack of the hand on strings. in an amp situation then I would say yes there is a difference.
that being said go cheap, Leo did!
usuckamydick 1 year ago
I came into this expecting all the cap types to sound identical, but kept an open mind. Rather than just reading about it, I actually tried it :) I measured all the cap values, and controlled everything else in the setup as best I could- and in listening to the recordings, i can hear subtle but real differences that can only really be accounted for by cap material and construction.
johnplanetz 1 year ago
These are after all analog components with a degree of nonlinearity- they are not ideal high-pass filters as you might expect on paper. In the end, I 100% agree that spending top dollar for caps is silly. The differences are too subtle. But if you hear a difference that you like, then go for it. If not, no big deal :)
If you're interested, see part 3 of this video for the cap measurements, and a better explanation of my recording setup, etc...
johnplanetz 1 year ago
@johnplanetz I too have tried and experimented and thought I heard differences. but when you what there to be something you convince yourself there is even when there is not. since has proven that in a passive circuit this is not possible ---- no matter what you think. sound can be measured with better tools then ears. also how they proved the existence of extra harmonics produced with tube (mojo).
usuckamydick 1 year ago
It is simply wrong to state that all caps of the same capacitance behave identically. Perhaps you have misunderstood your sources, or they have not actually done their homework. For example, it is well known that ceramic caps have wide tolerances and vary with temperature and frequency- which is why you don't find cheap ceramic caps in quality audio gear. Many cap characteristics vary with the construction and material type (leakage, inductance, resonant peaks, temperatures stability, etc).
johnplanetz 1 year ago
What effect these variances actually have on the audio is debatable. It is subtle, but clearly audible even in blind tests (try the examples at my blog). You are right- there are better tools than ears. Use a sweep oscillator through a switched array of caps of the same capacitance, and run the audio through a spectrum analyzer- you WILL see differences. But what's the point? Can you HEAR the differences or not? If not, don't worry about it! If yes, then choose what you like.
johnplanetz 1 year ago
i liked the russian and the vintage fat thx a lot man!
kiketor 1 year ago
Did you measure and match the ACTUAL capacitances of these capacitors? If not, this is pretty much meaningless. I would be surprised if these didn't have a huge spread from nominal rating, especially the old stuff. Capacitance matters in low-voltage passive bleeder circuits; composition doesn't.
Golodkin 1 year ago
@Golodkin - yes i measured the cap values, and answered other related questions in part 3, "Followup and Q&A".
johnplanetz 1 year ago
What do you know about Illinois brand .022 Microfarad Metalized Polypropylene capacitors? Non-inductive dielectric with self-healing windings provides total sonic purity. 10% tolerance. 630VDC voltage rating. I'm thinking about these.
JimmyPage968 1 year ago
@JimmyPage968 - i have no experience with those- try them and see if you like them!
johnplanetz 1 year ago
@johnplanetz I'm actually thinking about mojo dijon caps now. i would get Luxe Bumblebees but i don't want to spend $50 on 2 caps.
JimmyPage968 1 year ago
@JimmyPage968. i'm in total agreement there. i really don't think it makes sense to spend that kind of money on tone caps. you'd be better putting that money into a better amp or something. a couple bucks apiece sounds about right for those mojo caps :)
johnplanetz 1 year ago
@johnplanetz I think they're around $1.50 a cap. It's reasonable to me. Do you have an idea where to get vintage style braided pushback wire for a cheap price?
JimmyPage968 1 year ago
@JimmyPage968 - allparts has 25 feet for $11. stewmac has longer lengths. shorter lengths on ebay... good luck!
johnplanetz 1 year ago
@johnplanetz Thanks mate! I'm going to be getting a Eden Les Paul body hopefully soon and i'll try and post a video of it when i can.
JimmyPage968 1 year ago
Not knocking your vid. It was usefull to me, BUT.......hardly worth changing caps for amost a zero sound difference. Pickups, preamp valves, pots....yes. But i won't be losing sleep over the tonal variation between caps.
darrenw5094 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
I see you have nothing to do too?
bloodthirstysavage 1 year ago
That Fat Gray Cilinder is a Mullard according to my knowledge. Great demo!!
Zztop128 1 year ago
#1 Vintage yellow cylinder. #2 The fish. #3 Mallory.
rjake61 1 year ago
Great job!! exactally what i was looking for!
5Spekter 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
There definitely are SLIGHT differences between all of them, mostly noticeable on the treble end (the 12th fret demonstrations), and to my ear the tropical fish sounds the smoothest.
SpenceMcComb 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
There definitely are SLIGHT differences between all of them, mostly noticeable on the treble end (the 12th fret demonstrations), and to my ear the tropical fish sounds the smoothest.
SpenceMcComb 1 year ago
Comment removed
SpenceMcComb 1 year ago
I just managed to get my hands on a vintage tropical fish cap (.047uF) for 50p, im sticking in my Squier Mike Dirnt Sig P Bass Along With Some Seymour Duncan SPB-3 And Ernie Ball 250k Pots.....Yummmm. Ill Be Sure To Post A Before And After Video.
TheBassInferno 1 year ago
there is much variacion in tone quality with .02 cap? what is better to rock and roll
music? thanks for espond
chilponaco 1 year ago
Maybe scientific or mathmaticly but I can't tell any difference to my ears!!
bpl711 1 year ago
IMO you're deaf if you can't hear a difference. I liked the vintage yellow cylinder the most and the original epiphone the least.
baseballnolie34 1 year ago