Capacitors and Resistors?

I usually get caps off ebay. I can usually find whatever I want. I don't see how it's worth someones while to sell one cap for a dollar, with free shipping, but they do.
(which pretty much explains the demise of Radio Shack)

thats funny as hell...i mean whose to say if they arent losing money?

sarcastically I tell my brother my hobby is buying gear then selling it at a loss.:p
 
thats a huge difference in the video in tones from 500k to 3k...like brittle to mud. that dude put in some time.

i noticed his test he bought a full set of values of Orange Drops....those are $1 to $3...dude just get those. Orange Drops it is.
Thats not the same as a $150 Monster cable deal. Actions speak louder....he bought the Orange Drops.
the BumbleBee resistors are pretty high? wow I never knew that $124 for 2qty at MusiansFriend... Orange Drops is cool...and has the brand name.

its like mics, Shure is cheap good stuf... I dont hear it in the $8000 mics being much up from a used KSM44 for $500. Actually Barry Rudolgh said the KSM27 is more like a U87 than the 44 and its like $150....Orange Drop

its all money, if you have it to blow then blow it and enjoy the bumblebees with 1950 cloth on the wires but no one else will probably be impressed.
 
... that dude put in some time.

Yeah...maybe a bit too much. :D ;)

TBH...when I was doing my tone toggle switch mods, I also picked a few different cap values to try out...but unlike the guy in the video, I was adding two caps to the on-off-on mini-toggle...one would be a light HF cut, the other a bit more. I didn't touch the caps that are part of the Tone pot. It was just a mini-toggle addition that I cut in on the output wire going to the jack.

I already had a good idea what values were going to do what I wanted, because I checked the values they used on the guitar that had the factory installed tone toggle switch....and adjusted my value selection around them. Those are the Hag Swedes (original and reissues) that have the second toggle for cutting the HF...and I wanted to include the same on my other reissue Hags that were made without it...they were reissue revisions to the stock Swede (Select Swede, P90 Swede, etc).
So I drilled in-between the knobs/pots to add the mini toggle...and then soldered in the caps and cut that into the output wire. I think I did that to like a half-dozen guitars.

The Tone knobs still do the same thing as before, and the added toggle switch gives me that instant tone change, and it can be used in conjunction with the tone knobs, but I rarely bother with them, which is why I didn't bother to test/swap the caps on the tone knobs.
 
I don't even bother to swap out the cheap switches and pots that come on many of my guitars...until they're giving me some functionality issues (most never have)...otherwise, for the guitar "sound", they're not going to make much difference. The switch is either on or off, etc...and the volume and tone pots I usually leave full-on. AFA turning them down from full-on...well, there's no way to say that if I put a cheap pot on "8"...it will sound worse than an expensive pot on "8".
I mean...how do you define that or even compare it...? :D

If you're doing heavy gigs and you just want the security of using high-Q parts because you can't afford to have a switch go intermittent on you during a performance, etc...that's a different consideration. I mean...go all mil-spec then. :)
I have found there is very little difference in tone between cheap pots and high end pots. The difference is in how smoothly a pot operates. Nice pots feel nice....cheap pots feel cheap. Also, it's been my experience, that higher end pots last longer and don't start getting scratchy as soon. I have a 1966 fender strat. The volume pot started getting scratchy around 1986 and I replaced it. The tone pots are original and don't have one hint of scratchiness. They are still like brand new. So, one pot lasted 20 years and the other 2 over 50 years and STILL going strong.
Grab practically any Japanese guitar from the 1970s and if there are still original pots in it they will scratch and cut in and out and make all kind of noise. The wood and craftsmanship were top notch but they used very cheap electrical componets.

I bought a vintage Japanese Les Paul copy about a year ago and it is killer! But, I had to replace all 4 pots, the 3 way toggle, and the input.
cheap electronic components sound just as good as the high end ones but they ALWAYS crap out.
 
I agree Cool Cat $3 is not a lot to pay in the context of refurbing a guitar (BTW, don't ffs try to get the old cap off and re-use it!) but a rip off is still a rip off in my book. I shall have to do this in ££s...

0.047mfd Panansonic foil cap 5% tol from CPC/Farnell 24pence.
0.047mfd Sprague OD 10%* from Northern Guitars. £2.09! That is a huge mark up for something that will make Jack S difference to the sound.

*Someone touched on tolerance? This factor is always forgotten. Caps are generally +or- 10% (but can be 20%). Pots are rarely any better than 20% so you could have two nominally identical guitars where the cap is top tol and the tone pot bottom for one guitar and vice versa for the other.

The same pitfall exists when swapping out "crap" caps for ODs. How do you know the one you are putting in is not 30% higher or lower in value than the incumbent? I value my time better than watching YTs about guitar 'tronics but I bet NOBODY puts either cap on a CR bridge?

Add winding CRL variance for the pups and cable capacitance and the whole thing is a mess.

I will run some numbers later, when I wake up for the simple tone "top chop" in guitars at the tolerance extremes. (if 'er indoors does not find me a job! Asleep atmo, must not make a noise!)

Dave.
 
Do you guys test the components with a multitool before using, and if so, say they're above or below value? Do you add another cap/resistor to get them to target value or just roll with what you get?
 
Do you guys test the components with a multitool before using, and if so, say they're above or below value? Do you add another cap/resistor to get them to target value or just roll with what you get?

Not for using in a guitar...I mean, if the cap value is a little off, it will just affect the tone a little differently, but it's not going to matter, because your going for the total sound. IOW...in your guitar, how should a 0.022uF affect the tone? There's no absolute reference, so a particular one might affect your guitar tone differently than in my guitar. So just get the values you think you want...see how it sounds, adjust as needed to something else...but I would not try to fix/account for a 0.022uF cap that was maybe actually 0.024 or 0.020...I mean, it's really not that important.
That said...I've used like a pair of say, 0.022uF caps in parallel to double the value, which would be significant.

Here...read this...it's good info:
Auditioning Tone Capacitors
 
Not for using in a guitar...I mean, if the cap value is a little off, it will just affect the tone a little differently, but it's not going to matter, because your going for the total sound. IOW...in your guitar, how should a 0.022uF affect the tone? There's no absolute reference, so a particular one might affect your guitar tone differently than in my guitar. So just get the values you think you want...see how it sounds, adjust as needed to something else...but I would not try to fix/account for a 0.022uF cap that was maybe actually 0.024 or 0.020...I mean, it's really not that important.
That said...I've used like a pair of say, 0.022uF caps in parallel to double the value, which would be significant.

Here...read this...it's good info:
Auditioning Tone Capacitors


Agreed, even a 20% tolerance for capacitors is not going to matter in isolation but peeps are in the business of COMPARING things!

It is not really possible to say how cap values alter a guitar's response because it is just a shunt capacitance and its influence will depend on the source impedances feeding it, and they will change anyway!

I can say that a nominal 0.022 cap will have a reactance of 8k at 1kHz at bottom of a 10%tol and of 6.6k at the top. You would be very unlucky to have two Strats (say) with caps that far apart but if you did I think you would notice!

The same argument of course applies to guitar amps, pedals etc. Run a response check and there will be a good 3-4dB variation between samples. Mind you NOBODY ever gives a response spec for their guitar gear! If they did they would have to hold to expensive published values!

Dave.
 
Do we have an in and out the door smiley?

I need one for this thread :D

For years I thought caps and pots wee hogwash.
Then I had this one les paul. It had Seymour Duncans in it. Seth Lovers to be exact. This guitar was unbelievabley dark. How could a set of pups designed by the inventor of the paf be soooo freaking dark?
I was gonna toss em, but figured let me first put a new harness in.. Took out the stock wiring, and put in some CTS pots and some Vitamin Q pqper in oil caps (.022)
I'll be damned if that guitar didn't come to life! Darkness gone and sweet paf tone arrived!

Good pots AND caps DO make a difference. No snake oil

Ok, I came in and now I'm out!
:D
 
Do we have an in and out the door smiley?

I need one for this thread :D

For years I thought caps and pots wee hogwash.
Then I had this one les paul. It had Seymour Duncans in it. Seth Lovers to be exact. This guitar was unbelievabley dark. How could a set of pups designed by the inventor of the paf be soooo freaking dark?
I was gonna toss em, but figured let me first put a new harness in.. Took out the stock wiring, and put in some CTS pots and some Vitamin Q pqper in oil caps (.022)
I'll be damned if that guitar didn't come to life! Darkness gone and sweet paf tone arrived!

Good pots AND caps DO make a difference. No snake oil

Ok, I came in and now I'm out!
:D

Original harness miswired,
Original caps wrong values,
Original pots wrong values,
Components wrongly marked,

'It'appen.

Dave.
 
Original harness miswired,
Original caps wrong values,
Original pots wrong values,
Components wrongly marked,

'It'appen.

Dave.

Bullshit. In this case everything was right Just not quality components :D
Ok now I'm really out. :D
 
How rude! Did you test the Cs and Rs for value?

Dave.

Yup. I guess I'm a bloody genius!:)
I can pick, measure and wire a better quality harnesses than Gibson.
(Not too hard,))
Hahaha! I coukd make a fortune!
:D

Ok, now I'm really, really, really out!
(I promise)
Good night.
:D
 
Has he gone?

Well, we can only hope. Always one! The general thrust of this thread has been that provided the capacitors is of the right value the TYPE does not matter as far as the sound quality (dark, light, sky-blue-pink) is concerned.

The audio industry as a whole, guitars being only a small part, has a gaggle of con men trying to separate you from 100s, even 1000s of $ or£ for cables and other basic parts. Do not be fooled!

Dave.
 
Clearly we are all m missing things here. Power cords should be our first port of call - think of the improvement in the sound.

Explained here (Don't you US guys have any trading standards department to look at rogue traders?)

Neotech NEP-3001 MK III Powercord Deep Cryo Treated - Powercords -

Since we are often said to be a year or two behind the States in most things I suspect Rob that any Trading Standards people they had have long since been starved of federal funds thus made ineffective (as ours have) and then sold off to private firms that only look for profits.

Fork! Our own HIRS is now SO short of cash and hence good people that they simply doe not have the time, staff and complex know-how to tackle the Googles and Amazons of this terrible, terrible, grabby selfish world.

Dave.
 
Re Trading standards again?
Even if there was an effective force in both countries I suspect the people would look at the monies asked for the snake oil products and say to those who have been burn't.."You obviously have the disposable income to pursue this hobby. We are here to protect people from danger and serious hardship. Now learn from your mistake and DON'T BE SO FUCKING STUPID IN THE FUTURE!"

Dave.
 
Old Russian Muffs sound different pedal to pedal because of tolerances.

I think it gives them character so I don't see the need to be anal about tolerances when it comes to guitar gear.
 
Old Russian Muffs sound different pedal to pedal because of tolerances.

I think it gives them character so I don't see the need to be anal about tolerances when it comes to guitar gear.

Not sure I get your drift G? My point was people always seem to forget/not know about tolerances and then pronounce "night and day" differences between nominally identical pieces of kit. There is also the fact that a PCB get can the wrong value stuffed or a component missed. Happened to me.

"Nobody" ever checks frequency response, gains or (when valve swapping) DC conditions before and after.

Dave.
 
Has he gone?

Well, we can only hope. Always one! .

Dave, now that is what's rude^^ ;)

In the real world I've re-wired thousands of guitars with better components, and while the on paper specs and measurements may be the same, good components always sound better. I hear it and my customers hear it. Everyone is happy, no harm is done.

I will admit there's plenty of snake oil salesmen and stupid customers, but my biggest complaint is only how pricey some components have become due to the popularity.

Call it snake oil if you will, but you pull out a .022 ceramic cap that looks like an M&M and replace it with a PIO cap of the same value, it will sound different. And by all acvounts, better. Even after the honeymoon period customers remark at how much better it sounds.

You can argue and belittle me all you want, I don't care.
I have my truth based on observation.
 
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