Cap Question or Help Me, DVM, Your My Only Hope

[marnold***]

I'm pondering this upgrade to my Charvel Tele. Since I will be gutting the electronics, I will need new caps for the tone pot (assuming I decide to put a tone pot back in) and for the Jerry Donahue mod. Is .047 the "standard" cap for a Tele/single coil tone control? Are the caps available at my local Radio Shack good enough for the project or would I be better off ordering them some place else?

[tot_Ou_tard]

You had me cracking up that title Princess Marnold!


Darth Voodoo?

[Spudman***]

Darth Voodoo, Spud Vader, Tonebewankanobi, tOt the Hut, Princess Marnold, Carpc3po...where the heck am I?

[duhvoodooman***]

Darth Voodoo?

That's Obi Wan Duhvoodoo, unless I go over to the Dark Side and start charging $300+ for my ZYS's...

Marnold, re: your question, the cap size most often associated with single coils is 0.022uf. It's really tied to the pot resistance that you use. Single coil guitars generally use 250K pots, and 0.022uf caps will maintain a nice bright tone, while 0.047 will filter filter out more high end and darken the tone. For the 500K pots used in most humbucker guitars, the 0.047's are about optimal and 0.022's will usually sound too bright. But there are no absolute "rules" and it depends upon the sound you're trying to achieve.

I'd recommend a decent quality polyester film cap. If your local RS carries them, fine. Otherwise I'd order them from someplace like Small Bear Electronics, who carry a nice assortment. FYI, many people consider Sprague Orange Drops to be the ne plus ultra of film caps (do you have any idea how long I've been waiting to use the term "ne plus ultra"??). They'll run you somewhere around $0.50 - $0.80 apiece, depending upon capacitance rating. I'd get a few .022's and a couple of 0.047's to have on hand for humbuckers. I'd stay away from ceramic caps, as they have a reputation for sounding somewhat harsh or grainy.

[marnold***]

Thanks for the info, DVM. Well, I ran to the local RS and they have precious few caps in stock--none of the right size or type. Looks like I'll have to do some more planning before I do this.

Most places I've seen have the cap values reversed from what you said, .047 for single coil and .022 for humbuckers, viz Guitar Fetish.

Any more "princess" cracks and I might have to relocate a certain pointy headstock, if you get my drift

[duhvoodooman***]

I've seen this both ways. Some people say a Fender is too bright with .022's and some say a humbucker is too dark with .047's. Others say Fenders are supposed to be bright and 'bucker's should sound dark. That's what I mean about it being a matter of taste, and why it's a smart idea to have some of both sizes on hand. Go with what sounds best to you....

[ShortBuSX]

I'd recommend a decent quality polyester film cap. If your local RS carries them, fine. Otherwise I'd order them from someplace like Small Bear Electronics, who carry a nice assortment.

But why such high voltage caps? 600v???

[duhvoodooman***]

I guess 'cuz they use 'em in amps, too, where 400 - 500V DC is pretty commonly encountered.

[Tone2TheBone]

Darth Voodoo, Spud Vader, Tonebewankanobi, tOt the Hut, Princess Marnold, Carpc3po...where the heck am I?

Tonebewankanobi......LMAO

[marnold***]

Just to resurrect this thread slightly, on the Telecaster forums I found a link to this capacitor test where ceramic, polyester film, and paper in oil caps were tested both by switching through them and listening and also on a meter. Cool stuff. Basically, the differences are there but they are very minor. Thankfully caps are cheap so you're not talking about a ton of cash either way. It sounds like the differences could be far greater in a situation where more "juice" is applied, viz, an ampf.