Ace Frehley Budokan Questions

[Fried Fish]

Hello Everyone,

 

 

Newbie here on this forum board!

 

I've got an Ace Frehley Budokan LP (the one with the richlite fingerboard). There are two tiny blue colored capacitors inside of the control cavity. Would there be any tone differences or changes if I were to swap those out with something else like Orange Drops, Vitamin Q paper in oil, ceramic, polyester, Mallory, etc...etc?

 

 

Second, if I were to rewire my guitar to have all three pickups on with the switch in the center position (currently, it's the middle and bridge pickups), would this also make any significant tone changes with output sound? I can only imagine what three pickups running through a Marshall stack would sound like!!!!

 

 

Thanks.

[Rabs]

Hello and welcome...

 

What your asking is one of those subjects we talk about A LOT on here..

 

Some will tell you it makes ALL the difference and using some Bumblebees or Orange Drops will give your guitar a more vintage tone and some will say it doesn't make much difference...

 

I think that they DO make a difference but they are often small, and as we always say on here, once you add any kind of distortion into the mix then tone differences are almost inaudible... and then it also depends on any amp settings and pedals used etc etc

 

taken from this site http://www.diyguitarmods.com/guitar-capacitors.php

"Capacitors are useful in guitar wiring because they can be used to route high frequencies away from the guitars output jack and away from the signal that goes into the amp. The effect of this is a softer, warmer, more mellow tone which is controllable depending on the value of the capacitor used.

 

The range of frequency that is sent to ground is determined by the value of the capacitor. Generally, Capacitors in the range of .001 mfd (micro farad) to .1 mfd take out highs in the frequency of the guitar signal that often sound pleasant. The .1mfd capacitor will sound very muffled because much more of the high and mid frequencies have a path to ground. The .001mfd capacitor will be hard to even notice because only the harder-to-hear high frequencies will be effected. The most common values found in guitars are .022 mfd and .047 mfd capacitors. Quite often .022 mfd capacitors are paired with humbuckers and .047 mfd caps are paired with single coil pickups."

 

 

So it sort of depends on what pickups you have and what range of frequencies you want to highlight or hide. I have some of those small blue ones on my LP Tribute Goldtop and I LOVE the sound of that.. So its all down to personal preference (as is everything :))

 

As for the pickup wiring im not sure, but there are people on here who know all about it so im sure you will get more responses :)