Advice On Tone Capacitor Construction & Quality:

Inspector #20

Inspector #20

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Need some sound advice from our EE members. Put simply, what is the most modern, most reliable, closest tolerance and physically smallest tone capacitors I can get for use in guitars and where can I get them???

I want 0.01uf and .015uf and preferably the same style.

Also, i need advice on what voltage values and%or other specs to look for.

Thanks!!!
 
So, I am looking for something in the 2% to 5% variation, preferably small, like a chiclet...
 
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So, I started looking at all the different types of capacitors and realized that in a guitar - where it is operating on milivolts - it really doesn't matter. I decided to go with .018uf (0.018uf, 18nf) 250v metalized film poly capacitors (5% variance) and .01uf (0.01uf) 100v radial metalized poly film capacitors, both in 'box-type' configuration with 16mm leads. These little square caps are much easier to fit and take up less space than the PIO K40Y's.

I have tested a lot of different values on my guitars lately with an aim to make the tone controls 100% effective across the entire span of it movement, without the mud usually found below 6-7 on most guitars that I have played - including the venerable custom shop models from the major USA builders.
 
Those caps are good. If you want smaller, go for a radial ceramic. You can get close tolerance in that material too. Alternatively go for a cap a little smaller than you want, then add an even smaller cap in parallel - just add the values. Pick the smaller padding capacitor based on tone. A ratio of something like 10:1 in the values will let you get very close to ideal. Every pickup has a different inductance, so will demand a different tone cap to give you the control you are after.
 
DonP said:
Those caps are good. If you want smaller, go for a radial ceramic. You can get close tolerance in that material too. Alternatively go for a cap a little smaller than you want, then add an even smaller cap in parallel - just add the values. Pick the smaller padding capacitor based on tone. A ratio of something like 10:1 in the values will let you get very close to ideal. Every pickup has a different inductance, so will demand a different tone cap to give you the control you are after.
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Thank you, Don...

I got 50 of each for $10.00 total. I'm doing a lot of repairs here lately and i was totally out of the oddball values, although I have plenty of .047uf and .022uf's on hand...
 
DonP said:
Those caps are good. If you want smaller, go for a radial ceramic. You can get close tolerance in that material too. Alternatively go for a cap a little smaller than you want, then add an even smaller cap in parallel - just add the values. Pick the smaller padding capacitor based on tone. A ratio of something like 10:1 in the values will let you get very close to ideal. Every pickup has a different inductance, so will demand a different tone cap to give you the control you are after.
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Bandmates were amazed at how the tone control on the double neck works. When I would roll it off to zero, the singer would look back to see what I was doing.

It's just a 1meg CTS tone pot with a 0.01uf capacitor, and when rolled to zero, it sounds more like a mid boost than anything else.
 
Robert Herndon said:
Bandmates were amazed at how the tone control on the double neck works. When I would roll it off to zero, the singer would look back to see what I was doing.

It's just a 1meg CTS tone pot with a 0.01uf capacitor, and when rolled to zero, it sounds more like a mid boost than anything else.
Click to expand...

The 0.01uF is the key to the sound. It's what I mostly switch my guitars to. 0.022s just sound like mud to me.
 
DonP said:
The 0.01uF is the key to the sound. It's what I mostly switch my guitars to. 0.022s just sound like mud to me.
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So, what the ear perceives as a mid boost or hump, is really the trimming of frequencies around the middle???

Have you ever tried .018uf???
 
Robert Herndon said:
So, what the ear perceives as a mid boost or hump, is really the trimming of frequencies around the middle???

Have you ever tried .018uf???
Click to expand...

It's all about how the capacitor interacts with the pickup's inductance. 0.01 results in a slight midrange boost which sounds good. Once you get up as high as 0.022, that boost is pretty much gone, and all you have is rolled-off highs. I have tried 0.018. I think that is one of the values I have in my tele. I have a range of six values from .0047 to .022 on a rotary selector switch. It's a bit like on some 335s, only more of them and more logically arranged.
 
I have a bunch of poly caps left over when Radio Shack went out. They look like green chicklets. I have them in a range of values. They were cheap as dirt.
 
Chubbles said:
I have a bunch of poly caps left over when Radio Shack went out. They look like green chicklets. I have them in a range of values. They were cheap as dirt.
Click to expand...

Worth playing with values to see what sounds good. No need to open the guitar, just leave the tone control at max and touch them externally hot to ground. The easiest way to do that is to unscrew the barrel of the jack.
 
DonP said:
They will do very nicely. Leads are thick enough that they won't move, and you can place them exactly where you want them
Click to expand...

Nicely sized too....not huge like orange drops.

I was talking with a Luthier chum - he builds replicas of Kris Derrig's Les Paul - and he told me that all these old capacitors sound different because of age-induced drift...which is why people can hear a difference.
 
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