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olman

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Does any one have info on ceramic caps? My LP with .022 Mojo caps, and 57 Classic neck, and 57 Classic Plus bridge, is just too dark for my 68 year old ears. They are genuine Gibby pickups. From what I understand, the ceramic caps are brittle sounding. Is this correct? I would like to brighten and clarify the tone. But I don`t want brittle. My preference is for very clear and even ocross the board. I use D`Addario 10`s. I didn`t really want to lay out the cash for new pickups. Hell, these are new. This is an Epi Classic Plus. Any suggestions are welcome, and open for consideration. I would like to get somewhere between The 490R and the 498T and the 57 Classics. Is this even possible with the 57`s, in any way?Will ceramic caps do the job? They are a cheap way to go. Or, any other .022 uf, 500 volt caps of any kind for brightness. Thanking you in advance.

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IMO, (can't ever write that statement with too large letters)

any other .022µF will sound just the same (± the nominal tolerance).

The tone circuit is just a variable low pass filter, if you are using good components

changing just the materials won't change anything.

 

Different values for the caps or a treble bleed might help, as might rewiring your guitar '50s style (ie tone before volume).

I know Gibson '57 Classics are good enough, no fault there ;)

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The tone circuit is just a variable low pass filter' date=' if you are using good components

changing just the materials won't change anything.

 

Different values for the caps or a treble bleed might help, as might rewiring your guitar '50s style (ie tone before volume).

I know Gibson '57 Classics are good enough, no fault there ;)

[/quote']

 

There has been a large amount of discussion about this topic. I agree with Biff that the tone is a variable low pass filter. Changing the value of the cap will change the roll off point and therefore the sound of the guitar. I re-worked a guitar using the 50's wiring style (new pots and caps) and '57 classics and the result was grand. IMO the key is to use quality components. I used Hovland caps, but other quality caps will probably work just as well. You will find those who say a cap is a cap is a cap and others will say it makes a difference; everyone has an opinion. I have found that using quality components in passive (or active for that matter) filters makes a difference. Generally, caps are cheap, so pick up different ones and find what sounds good to you. Let us know how it goes.

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What about your amp? I, too, at age 55 have lost some high-frequency hearing.

After I replaced the stock humbuckers on my Dot, mainly due to the muddy sound

(especially the hot bridge pickup), the Mean 90s definitely sounded much brighter

but not as bright as I wanted. Turns out that my Hartke amp just isn't as bright

sounding as some other amps, even with the treble control turned all the way

up. So maybe some day I'll replace it. Also, it's my understanding that with the

tone control at 10, the cap is pretty much not in play; so that's about as bright

as it's gonna get with your guitar.

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About the only thing you can do is to disconnect the tone controls all together. That'll give you maximum high end with no attenuation. Or, a less drastic approach would be to change the tone pots for 1 Mohm units, again, to improve that isolation from ground. You can drop down to .015mF units but as it has been pointed out the effect will only really be noticeable at the '0' end of the dial; with your tone controls at '10' the 500K of resistance that the pot adds to the circuit pretty much renders the capacitor irrelevant.

 

There are many areas where it is worthwhile to invest in top-quality caps. Typically this involves active circuits in high-grade audio equipment where the capacitor is actually in the signal path. However, in a guitar's tone circuit, the cap is connected directly to ground; you never hear the stuff that goes through it. Therefore any 'distortion' caused by a 'cheap' cap is moot since it never reaches your ears. I crap myself laughing every time I hear some guy gushing about 'bumblebee' caps or ultra-high voltage units. Sheezit, a bumblebee is a cheap low-grade cap... the only reason Gibson used them is because they had huge stocks of them for use in their amp circuits.

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Well guys, I have no cheap components in my guitar. all genuine Gibson. My amps are, Peavey Classic 30, and a brand new Epi VJ stack. ( love that amp). I`m not much of a wiring tech, and have a very basic understanding. I would like to just brighten it up, leaving the option of tone controls. It is much darker on the VJ than the Peavey. I am not interested in cheap components. I don`t care if the caps cost $30.00 if I get what I want sound wise. This is a MOJO harness and I have no Idea what type of caps they are, or who makes them for him. Are the treble bleeds those Little devils between the posts? If so I don`t knoe what value they are. Can`t read print that small. What value could I put in to increase Highs?

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I see 50's era .022uf Bumble Bee caps on Fleaybay going for $40.00 (and more) each, and crap myself. Do people honestly gamble on those even though they are paper in oil caps (that may be dried out rat turds by now, 50 years later) and they had 20% +/- tolerances back in the day.

If you just gotta know if different cap materials sound different you can try some Sprague, Mallory, Sozo, etc., for less money. Just use jumpers with alligator clips and try different caps till you find some you like (maybe you'll hear a difference, maybe not, it's all subjective) .

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While this may not totally apply...here is my input.

I build/modify pedals (not for a living...yet), but I do make some cash for it.

Anyway.

I find film caps give a smoother response, whereas ceramic caps are a bit grittier (sharper, etc).

This applies to various types of pedals, particularly Overdrive/Fuzz/Distortion.

When building a Fuzz pedal, for the tone control, I use ceramic caps, for distortion, I use film caps (and yes, I can tell the difference).

 

How this applies to a guitar's tone control, I do not know. I have never tried ceramic caps in my guitars.

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Well, there's always the internal resistance of the cap and the maybe a frequency response that may or may not affect the sound, but I think I'll let a friend with doctorates in physics and math to think about that.

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It's really not a question of "cleaner"; the cap and pot values determines the roll off frequency point (the point at which the frequency begins to be decreased by the pot) and the slope of the roll off in db per octave. I believe the slope is 6 db/octave in this configuration since it appears to be a 1st order circuit.

 

I'll repeat the warning from above

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Here's a good place to get good caps.

 

http://www.mouser.com/catalog/629/666.pdf

 

The ones you want are 200v, top right on the page. They have a .01uF (I've never used one) which should leave more highs. Considering the cost of the caps and s/h, you might want to get an assortment to experiment with.

 

I'd guess you have 500K pots. If you have 250K pots instead, switching to 500K will retain more highs. If you do have 500K's, you might try 1M on the tone and/or volume to get more highs.

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http://www.smallbearelec.com

http://www.pedalpartsplus.com

More specifically for caps :

( http://www.pedalpartsplus.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=PPP&Category_Code=CAP )

 

Both are a good places to get caps too. I buy most my stuff from them (except for some enclosures that they don't

carry, for that I go to mouser).

 

And olman222, for guitars, I can't say with 100% certainty. But with my pedals, I find that the film type caps are cleaner that ceramic.

 

You might also want the experiment with different values.

Caps wired in Parallel add their values, so there are endless possibilities. Wired in series, well..thats another story. ( WARNING, ANOTHER TECHNICAL LINK: http://www.tpub.com/neets/book2/3e.htm )

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