Commodore 64
November 29th, 2011, 07:55 AM
It is commonly assumed that with the pot at max, the tone cap does not effect the signal from your guitar (i.e., it's not affecting the tone). In other words, if you have a .1 cap and a .01 cap, they would sound exactly the same with the pot maxed. I'm not 100% convinced of this based on personal experience.
Last week, I was working on a Ray Benson Samick (kinda like a tele with strat forearm contour). The neck PUP sounded really muddy and the bridge was nothing special. The neck PUP had no adjustment screws and I didn't want to take off the strings and PG. So I replaced the .047 cap with a .015 cap. I thought the guitar was noticeably brighter. The owner thought so too, and I didn't tell him I had replaced the cap.
Caveat: I don't know my *** from my elbow about electric engineering
It is my understanding that the resistance from the pot and the capacitance of the cap work together to roll-off high frequencies in your guitar signal. The resistance makes more of the signal "bounce off" the pot and head down to the amp input because the signal is like water and follows the path of least resistance. So, the only way that the capacitor would be out of the equation would be if the pot resistance was high enough to bounce ALL of the signal to the amp input. I don't know how to calculate whether this happens or not, and I'm not sure how much the resistance at the amp input factors into the equation either (I know 68k resistors are commonly used in front of the ground for the input jacks).
I just know what I heard with that Ray Benson Samick, and it has piqued my curiosity.
Last week, I was working on a Ray Benson Samick (kinda like a tele with strat forearm contour). The neck PUP sounded really muddy and the bridge was nothing special. The neck PUP had no adjustment screws and I didn't want to take off the strings and PG. So I replaced the .047 cap with a .015 cap. I thought the guitar was noticeably brighter. The owner thought so too, and I didn't tell him I had replaced the cap.
Caveat: I don't know my *** from my elbow about electric engineering
It is my understanding that the resistance from the pot and the capacitance of the cap work together to roll-off high frequencies in your guitar signal. The resistance makes more of the signal "bounce off" the pot and head down to the amp input because the signal is like water and follows the path of least resistance. So, the only way that the capacitor would be out of the equation would be if the pot resistance was high enough to bounce ALL of the signal to the amp input. I don't know how to calculate whether this happens or not, and I'm not sure how much the resistance at the amp input factors into the equation either (I know 68k resistors are commonly used in front of the ground for the input jacks).
I just know what I heard with that Ray Benson Samick, and it has piqued my curiosity.