Wiring Up Guitar Electronics 4, Connecting Tone Cap

http://www.planetz.com/?p=310 .
In this video, I demonstrate how to connect a tone capacitor to the a pot.
It's an Orange Drop 103, or .01 microfarad cap. The pot I'm using here is a CTS EP086 500k Audio Taper.

See my other videos for pot and cap evaluation and selection, getting the electronics in and out of a semi-hollow body, etc. For another example of soldering caps to pots, see my Treble Bleed Part 2 video.
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[krisjingle]

hi , i noticed on your cap, it was rated for 600v. do you really think you would need that much or was it just a added value to have that much for the rated uF chosen ?

[johnplanetz]

@krisjingle - That's the maximum voltage for the cap, above which the dialectric would break down. It's essentially irrelevant for guitar applications, since guitar signals are generally well under 1 volt. I don't consider voltage ratings at all when buying caps for guitar.

[1273seant]

hi-i have just done a few mods to my guitar-tone split mod and push pot pot---if fitting a tone cap to a push pull pot do you put the tone cap on the bottom half ie round section as normal and then loop a piece of wire from that to one of the lugs on the botton of push pull pot-ie one of the spare pins -also i bought some caps i meant to buy 0.033uf cap but bought 0.33uf instead -can i use the 0.33uf and what is the difference beween the two---thankss sean

[johnplanetz]

@1273seant - you can think of the push pull pot as a regular pot with a totally independent dpdt switch underneath, with the the pot-shaft as the actuator. You can see my blog at planetz. com/?p=1037 for more info on push/pulls, or visit the wiring diagram archive at guitarelectronics. com. A .33uF will not be useful as a tone cap - it will be waaay too dark. See my vids on tone capacitance values for more information.

[bestijarules]

I have a pot with a plastic back, so where do I solder the ground for the cap?

[johnplanetz]

@bestijarules - first confirm that it's not just a removable plastic cover. I've purchased some Alphas that came with plastic pot back-covers that are easily removed. If the pot body is really plastic, you can just find some other metal ground point to connect your grounds.

[MrGuitarbike]

Would this work with a soldering gun? and to keep constant heat could I just tape the trigger?

[krisjingle]

@johnplanetz thank you , i wasn't sure but , good to know . i am refurbishing my ES-335 i am using 223m /100 v . thank you for your vid's , they are well explained and truly helpful.

[bestijarules]

Thanks , will try that out.