Capacitor Comparison for Electric Guitar

[Guitarfreak]

I'll start this thread to document my own findings as well as lend a hand to anyone wondering the effects of different capacitor types and values. I soldered two wires to my tone pot: one to the third connection and one to the bottom of the pot, and at the other end, I attached two alligator clips. The clips each attached to one leg of each capacitor. I played around with each and noted their inherent tonality along the entire range of the pot. What I found surprising was that the capacitor actually had an effect on the guitar's tone even with the pot maxed out.

This was a fun experiment and yes I could actually hear the difference between them. I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to. The 100v Orange drops sounded kind of crackly and didn't respond well to gain. The poly film and ceramic disc ones were pretty vanilla, didn't have much flavor good or bad. The 400v Polyester Orange drops sounded pretty plain as well, it wasn't until I put in the Polypropylene ones that I heard it and said hey, that's nice lol.

The monolithic caps I half expected to put on and have a good laugh, but they just might be the best sounding caps that I have. It's got a really (I know you hate this word) w.a.r.m. tone, and it's really responsive to knob tweaking...like really responsive... you can chop off almost the entire signal. The highs come through but aren't crackly or harsh at all. Very smooth sounding all around. I'll link to it so you can see what I am talking about.

Here's what I tried...

Ceramic Disc .022 (50v)
Ceramic Disc .047 (50v)

Poly Film .02 (100v)
Poly Film .047 (100v)

Orange Drop .022 (100v)
Orange Drop .047 (100v)

Orange Drop - Polyester .022 (400v)
Orange Drop - Polyester .047 (400v)

Orange Drop - Polypropylene .022 (400v)
Orange Drop - Polypropylene .047 (400v)

Monolithic .1

And here's that link:
http://www.guitarelectronics.com/produc ... _Bass.html

Hope to get some sound clips up soon. Feel free to post questions/comments

[whomper]

Originally Posted by Guitarfreak

I'll start this thread to document my own findings as well as lend a hand to anyone wondering the effects of different capacitor types and values. I soldered two wires to my tone pot: one to the third connection and one to the bottom of the pot, and at the other end, I attached two alligator clips. The clips each attached to one leg of each capacitor. I played around with each and noted their inherent tonality along the entire range of the pot. What I found surprising was that the capacitor actually had an effect on the guitar's tone even with the pot maxed out.

This was a fun experiment and yes I could actually hear the difference between them. I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to. The 100v Orange drops sounded kind of crackly and didn't respond well to gain. The poly film and ceramic disc ones were pretty vanilla, didn't have much flavor good or bad. The 400v Polyester Orange drops sounded pretty plain as well, it wasn't until I put in the Polypropylene ones that I heard it and said hey, that's nice lol.

The monolithic caps I half expected to put on and have a good laugh, but they just might be the best sounding caps that I have. It's got a really (I know you hate this word) w.a.r.m. tone, and it's really responsive to knob tweaking...like really responsive... you can chop off almost the entire signal. The highs come through but aren't crackly or harsh at all. Very smooth sounding all around. I'll link to it so you can see what I am talking about.

Here's what I tried...

Ceramic Disc .022 (50v)
Ceramic Disc .047 (50v)

Poly Film .02 (100v)
Poly Film .047 (100v)

Orange Drop .022 (100v)
Orange Drop .047 (100v)

Orange Drop - Polyester .022 (400v)
Orange Drop - Polyester .047 (400v)

Orange Drop - Polypropylene .022 (400v)
Orange Drop - Polypropylene .047 (400v)

Monolithic .1

And here's that link:
http://www.guitarelectronics.com/produc ... _Bass.html

Hope to get some sound clips up soon. Feel free to post questions/comments

aaaamazing

what were the resistance measured on each cap?

what was the tolerance -20% +50% ??

what was the leakage current on each?

what is the equivalent circuit of each with your pot
what is the theoretical difference due to teh deltas?

not sure you are not really comparing kiwi to kumquats

or you might just be the golden eared person that
stereophile mag wants to sell a subscription to

[Guitarfreak]

Ceramic Disc .022 (50v) (20% Tolerance)
Ceramic Disc .047 (50v) (20% Tolerance)

Poly Film .02 (100v) (5% Tolerance)
Poly Film .047 (100v) (5% Tolerance)

Orange Drop .022 (100v) (10% Tolerance)
Orange Drop .047 (100v) (10% Tolerance)

Orange Drop - Polyester .022 (400v) (?)
Orange Drop - Polyester .047 (400v) (?)

Orange Drop - Polypropylene .022 (400v) (5% Tolerance)
Orange Drop - Polypropylene .047 (400v) (5% Tolerance)

Monolithic .1 (+/- 2%)

All that other stuff idk about. I don't even know what the tolerance value means. This is my first dabbling in the world of capacitors but I think it is a good start

[jagcmos]

Originally Posted by Guitarfreak

Ceramic Disc .022 (50v) (20% Tolerance)
Ceramic Disc .047 (50v) (20% Tolerance)

Poly Film .02 (100v) (5% Tolerance)
Poly Film .047 (100v) (5% Tolerance)

Orange Drop .022 (100v) (10% Tolerance)
Orange Drop .047 (100v) (10% Tolerance)

Orange Drop - Polyester .022 (400v) (?)
Orange Drop - Polyester .047 (400v) (?)

Orange Drop - Polypropylene .022 (400v) (5% Tolerance)
Orange Drop - Polypropylene .047 (400v) (5% Tolerance)

Monolithic .1 (+/- 2%)

All that other stuff idk about. I don't even know what the tolerance value means. This is my first dabbling in the world of capacitors but I think it is a good start

Tolerance values just mean that the actual value can vary +/- of the percentage.

[Guitarfreak]

Oh that makes sense, that might be why I didn't hear much difference between the two ceramic caps.