Opinions on cap values

[madialex]

I have a different strat I am using to test pickups in, actually a squire strat with the big headstock and rosewood board. It is not new and has been tinkered with as far as the electrics go. It has the real fender 5 way, all old school wiring but the caps are not the same one the 2 tone pots and I don't know what values they are. This guitar sounds a lot darker than my other one did I guess because of the rosewood board and no telling what wood the body is.

My question is this. What value caps would work best in this guitar. Any builders out there want to chime in, or anyone really. I have said a million times I don't know shit when it comes to the technical side of electronics. Any advice will be greatly appreciated......

[Dave Kerr]

If the caps are color coded, this might help identify the values. If it's sounding muddy, try a 0.01µf cap. Hell, try removing the caps altogether, if it still sounds muddy you know it's something else.

[David Schwab]

Ir depends on the resistance of the pickups. The higher the DC resistance, the more the effect of the cap.

Having said that, I like .02 for guitars, and .05 for basses.

Strats usually had .05 caps.

[Spence]

I use a wax and paper 0.1 mF cap in my Strat. I like what it does as I roll it off. Previously I had used 0.022 caps.

[Possum]

think about your customers....

What are your customers going to be using is what should concern you most. Unfortunately very few of them are messing around with exotic caps or changing values, so you should use a stock piece of shit ceramic .022uf cap because thats whats in most guitars. If you jazz your guitar up to sound better than off the shelf guitars that most are playing your pickups aren't going to sound the same in their guitars. either that or jazz up your guitar and make sure you tell them your pickups will sound like your sound clps if they do the same. The truth is that almost all factory made guitars have substandard caps and pots, I almost universally tell my customers to put good pots in their guitars, I've personally had a bunch of guitars that sounded way better after putting in even just slightly better pots. I'm messing around with diferent kinds of caps now to see what that does. there are some guitars out there that no matter what pickups you put in them the pots will make them sound like muffled dying squirrels, I got a Jay Turser like that with Alpha mini-pots, changing them made it into a real player.

[David Schwab]

You made a very good point.

I once had an old Hayman guitar that was very muffled sounding. It turned out they had 100K volume and tone pots in it. I'm assuming they thought they was the correct value for their oddball pickups, but changing them to 500K really made that guitar come alive.

Perhaps the way to go is to supply new pots prewired like EMG does.

[NightWinder]

Superb observation Possum. Also remember your amp,cables, tubes. Any r&d I do with standard equipment. Using a boogie for R&d? na. Marshalls and fenders are the most heard amps in the world, period. Cables.....$19.99 monster cable....is truely what the masses buy. Tubes- Gt tubes from guitar center......Most important....get the proper value pots, and read them to make sure. Super shitty ceramic.022cap, shitty cable, shitty tubes, strait into a stock fender.....Marshall. I would'nt use a dual rectifier though. Fender deluxe's....you can really hear how hard your pickup is hitting the preamp...........Badass!!

[Possum]

another point....

well now this is boomeranging back to the old question what amp do you use for a test amp? When I first started doing this I was using a blues junior alot and really liked it back then. Unfortunately blues juniors aren't good test amps, they are real gainy and I think cathode biased so they make everything sound really good. Espeically crappy fender pickups, I guess thats the point. When I went to silverface fenders and blackfaced them they really point out whats not working in pickup sets. Lollar always said you really need one of every kind of amp so you can hear what your pickups do in each kind of amp. I've found that my '73 deluxe reverb is probably the best all round test amp, if it sounds good in that thing it will sound good in everything else out there. So here's a question for you, if you had to buy a tube marshall you could take to a small venue what would it be and would it sound typically Marshall? I mean like 20-30 watts. I've never played a Marshall and all the ones at GC look like crap to me....

[madialex]

well now this is boomeranging back to the old question what amp do you use for a test amp? When I first started doing this I was using a blues junior alot and really liked it back then. Unfortunately blues juniors aren't good test amps, they are real gainy and I think cathode biased so they make everything sound really good. Espeically crappy fender pickups, I guess thats the point. When I went to silverface fenders and blackfaced them they really point out whats not working in pickup sets. Lollar always said you really need one of every kind of amp so you can hear what your pickups do in each kind of amp. I've found that my '73 deluxe reverb is probably the best all round test amp, if it sounds good in that thing it will sound good in everything else out there. So here's a question for you, if you had to buy a tube marshall you could take to a small venue what would it be and would it sound typically Marshall? I mean like 20-30 watts. I've never played a Marshall and all the ones at GC look like crap to me....

Very good points from everyone, thanks a bunch for the input. I never thought of it from possums standpoint but it is a very good one. Thanks a lot guys!

[NightWinder]

Man, those fenders are just killer. I love the Deluxe reverbs....Just sooo open.....MArshall makes some nice combos with a 12". The Preamps are from the jcm 800's. typically 50wts. Unfortunately the use of a powerbrake in smaller venues is nessesary for any powertube distortion to accure. Also keep in mind, the 1x12, so volume would not be nearly as loud as connecting a 4x12 to it, so a brake might not be nessesary at all. A 64 MArshall 20wt combo w/2-10' and a pair of EL84's should however tickle your spine, if you can find one. MArshall also made the "capri" with a 10' and the cousin the "mercury", but these amps are more collectable rather than playable.....
I would try a 800 combo, with a 1x12. You'd be surprised at the volume, and the overall coolness in tone. They are rather cheap, and can bve found on ebay. You can also plug into a 4x12, which is another option for comparisons sake. dON'T expect any modern gain out of it. Plenty of Crunch, but not a real gain blaster. throwing a overdrive in front and slamming a 12 pak is always fun. I used to have a Fender SuperTwin that I got From Ted Nugent....Never got it past 3. Just rediculasly loud and never really actually broke up. I had to use an overdrive with that. I also replaced the speakers with classic lead 80's. Everyone talked about that for a long time. I used that setup for a few yrs exclusively. The cleans were stunning. I should say, It took 6 6L6's.....and was tremendously heavy. You should pick one of them up,well not you but your buddy that carries your amp for ya. All of a sudden he will be clear that being old as dirt....has its advantages!!!LOL
The new marshall combos such ass. Dig for an earlie 80's combo.

[Possum]

got a Marshall....

I remember reading about an odball amp they made in the 80s called a Marshall model 4001 Studio 15. They made less than 500 of them. I think this will do the trick and give me an authentic AD/DC and bluesbreaker tone plus its a cool amp with some cool features I'd have to spent probably $2000 or more to get, this one cost me about $650. They get great reviews except a very small few who had problems with them, maybe they were the later ones made, they are PC board and use 6V6 tubes with 12ax7 preamp tubes. May get a cab for it if it really kicks butt. Anyway thanks for the advice, looking forward to getting an authentic Marshall tone for sound samples, I don't think the shred heads relate to my tones through a Princeton '73, even my blues junior just won't do AC/DC very well.....

[David Schwab]

The new marshall combos such ass. Dig for an earlie 80's combo.

I did some recording back in the 80's on a 2X12 Marshal combo. That was a great sounding amp! It had a great crunch tone. I had a friend with a 1X12 SS Marshal combo that sounded quite good too. He used to play an old Harmony with gold foil pickups through it, and surprisingly it got this great SRV tone.

[Zhangliqun]

I'm sure I'm far from alone in this, but I make a point of asking my customers what sort of pots and caps they are using, in addition to what wood the body and fingerboard are made of, plus the overall rig it's played through, etc.

Even with all that info you obviously never really know what that particular customer's guitar+rig's tonal personality is without actually playing it, but it's ballpark enough to know toward what tonal direction I should tweak the wind.

[David Schwab]

I'm sure I'm far from alone in this, but I make a point of asking my customers what sort of pots and caps they are using, in addition to what wood the body and fingerboard are made of, plus the overall rig it's played through, etc.

Even with all that info you obviously never really know what that particular customer's guitar+rig's tonal personality is without actually playing it, but it's ballpark enough to know toward what tonal direction I should tweak the wind.

Another good point. And don't forget the strings. Two identical guitars often sound quite different from each other, all other things being equal.

Without sticking your pickups in that particular guitar, it's pretty hard to know exactly what the pickups are going to sound like. We can get close though. But if the customer says the guitar is too dark, or too bright, etc., that can help.

Then you get those customer that want it brighter, yet warmer...

[NightWinder]

I was using a Amp I have Built By Dave West(not built for me, but one he built personally), which was just killer. Best amp i ever heard....the best sounding marshall style amp. 2 channel too, from back in 83'. Does some weird shit now, the clean channel Hums a high pitch, and the overdrive channel works flawless? I just mentioned that in terms of comparison and having to stick with the "Usual Suspects" for developement.
Personally, there are just some awsome amp companys out there now, and I really can't believe people are still giving marshall their hard earned cash when there are companys that make better amps, and sound like what a reaL MARSHALL should.......I just player a Dr.Z 30wt. head. Jesus Crist!!!! Talk about natural blues tone.....Just Damn Raw....