Capacitor Change

[Rolland]

I am trying to add a new capacitor to my Strat. The voltage says 250. Do I need to use only capacitors with 250V ? Also are these special tone capacitors or can I just buy them from any electrical shop?

[Emeric]

There are many many websites on the internet that deal with wiring rewiring guitars. Here's one:
http://home.swbell.net/jatchley/wiring/index.html

Best to pick these type of parts up at a good electronic component store, or even radio shack.

Emeric

[Dondello]

Are you sure it's 250V and not 250 microfarads or something? I wouldn't expect to find a capacitor rated at 250V in a guitar in a million years...

[loudnaybor]

There should be another number besides the voltage on the capacitor. This is the capacitors size in farads, usually micro-farads. The voltage rating isn't nearly as important, but go larger rather than smaller.
You also need to get the same type of capacitor. Electrolytic, Ceramic disk, etc., there's a bunch of different kinds. They all behave a little differently.
Go to a REAL electronics store and they should be able to help you figure out what a good replacement would be.

One other thing.....
A real electronics shop should have a cap tester. They can tell you if the cap is good or not, and also what size it is, in case it isn't printed on the cap. Sometimes they use a color code too.

[This message has been edited by loudnaybor (edited 12-01-1999).]

[HoGung]

Differently rated capacitors will cut more or less treble depending on their rating in farads.They are cheap and you can experiment with different ones and different wiring configurations.The tone control on a stock Strat just controls the amount of highs going to ground(technology unchanged since the 50's) and a handful of Radio Shack capacitors would be fine for trying out different sounds.A real good book on guitar wiring stuff is: Guitar electronics for musicians by Donald Brosnac.

[This message has been edited by HoGung (edited 12-01-1999).]

[Rolland]

Thanks Everyone for the advice! heh, it's a Strat. I'm not sure if the cap's really 250, that's what I saw on the tone pot. Or maybe it could be the price tag too.

By the way, I changed the capacitor from a 0.01 to a 0.047 - swinging from extremes you might say! The sound that I get now is thicker and grungier, quite unlike that of a normal Strat, since 0.47s are normally used for humbuckers. But hey, if it sounds good and doesn't explode, what does technique matter?

Thanks Hogung, I didn't know that Strat caps only control treble. Do they boost or cut the bass as well?

[HoGung]

Capacitors in your typical passively wired set-up only affects the highs.