Guitar Tone Capacitor Types

Cornell dubilier orange drop 022μf tone capacitors for guitar and bass pack of 2.

Guitar tone capacitor types.

Tone control capacitor types. The easiest way to think of a tone capacitor is that in the typical tone circuit they are a high frequency removal device. I often receive e mails and calls from guitarists who don t use the tone control at all mostly complaining about tones that are darke and lifeless hotspots when closing the tone pot and a basically useless taper of. There are many values used in the wide range of guitars on the market but the tests here focus on these two values.

Orange drop 022 microfarad tone capacitors. I ve marked the capacitor wires in blue and given a top and bottom view of the wiring setup it s a fairly standard setup and even though yours may appear a bit different the capacitor tone pot are likely the same. A larger value that rolls off high frequencies to a greater degree is 0 1uf. A common value for a tone capacitor in guitars is 0 022 microfarads or 0 022uf as an abbreviation.

Not all guitar capacitors sound the same even if they share the same values and you may be surprised at the sonic difference such a small component can make. At a top level there are mini pots and full size pots. The chance of getting the correct value is low when using capacitors. The type of cap is not as important as the value of the cap for guitar.

In an amp your cap type is much more important as the signal is being passed through the cap all the time. Volume control speaks for itself. We all use pickups capacitors tone caps and pots as tone shapers. Tone capacitors are the most misunderstood component in a guitar.

Tone control enables you to change the sound including how you mute or blend the signal from guitar pickups. Remember the tone cap is always part of the guitar circuit and it even influences the tone when the tone pot is fully opened. The smaller the capacitor like 022 015 or less the less the treble is removed this is because the filter frequency shifts higher so more high frequency remains. With your guitar s tone pot wired into the circuit pre capacitor the tone pot controls how much high frequency content is rolled off by the capacitor.

However using resistors in a guitar can open up new tonal possibilities as well. Audio grade polypropylene dielectric material is extremely stable and accurate across a wide range of frequencies and. Guitar pots are used to affect and control volume and tone. When you think of tone shaping a couple of items might come to mind.

Quite often the capacitor will be of the ceramic disc variety resembling the image in fig 1. We have a few different types of tone caps available. High tolerance leads to a very unpredictable tone from one guitar to another because the actual value of the capacitor can vary wildly. One end soldered to the pot s arm and the second leg is soldered to the bottom of the pot or somewhere else in the ground circuit.

In a guitar you re not hearing the cap itself you re hearing what the cap is impeding.