February 4, 2010

Crazy Tone Thing

Guitar Tone Capacitors Capacitors, Electronics, Epiphone Riviera P93, Video 328

After much deliberation, experimentation, determination, and the inevitable procrastination and distraction… I’ve finally completed this comparison of tone capacitor material types and capacitance values. In part 1, I’ll evaluate a bunch of different dialectric material types to see how they change the character of the sound. In part 2, I’ll cover how different capacitance values affect the range and usefulness of the tone pot.

First, I built this Tone Thing 🙂 It’s a piece of cardboard on which I mounted 7 different capacitor material types, and 7 Orange Drops of different capacitance values, and one Bourns 500k audio taper pot. This is connected up with alligator clips to my Epiphone Riviera P93, in parallel with the signal at the output jack (the same place as the master tone in a regular guitar circuit).

The caps in this corner are all .022uF of different dialetric material types. Pictured left to right: Orange Drop 225P 100V (polypropylene), Mallory 150 series (metallized polyester film), Russian K-409 PIO (paper in oil), mystery vintage yellow cylinder (now identified– CDE polyester film/foil), the original Epi tone cap (probably mylar polyester film), mystery vintage gray cylinder (now identified– Mullard Mustard polyester film/foil), and a vintage tropical fish (polyester film). Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a .022uF tropical fish – this one is a .033uF. It will have a slightly different cutoff frequency, so it’s not quite all apples and apples, but I wanted to include it here anyway because it does have an interestingly different sound to it.

For each material type, I play at 4 knob positions: 10, 7, 5 and 1 (measured on the multimeter at 499k, 238k, 41k and 3k ohms). For the examples, I wanted to keep each part short and simple – not too melodic or difficult, both to avoid distraction in comparing, but also to try with my limited playing skills to be as consistent as possible between each take. By the end of this video, you will be very sick of the three little phrases I play 28 times each in the video! 🙂

Stay tuned for part 2, covering all the Orange Drops at different capacitance values, and the exciting conclusion 🙂

p.s. Thanks Jack for sending the PIO!

See part 2 for a description of RC filters, and how a guitar tone controls works, and how to choose a good capacitance value for tone.

See part 3 for a bunch of followup Q&A and some more audio examples.

See here for some blind tone comparisons.

328 Comments

Like tone? In depth capacitor comparison: - My Les Paul Forums
February 4, 2010 @ 10:22 pm

[…] over at planet z has begun a very systematic audio/video comparison of how capacitors affect tone. Crazy Tone Thing lanet z Part 1 is up, where he compares how different cap materials (paper in oil, ceramic, polypropylene, […]

Reply
jack
February 4, 2010 @ 10:28 pm

Brilliant as always 😀 A real public service. Thanks John.

Reply
- jack
  February 4, 2010 @ 11:11 pm
  
  So to my ears, the orange drops (polypropylene) sound quite a bit brighter than paper in oil. (and both of them sound more ‘full’ than the stock cap that came with the riviera). This is more evident when the tone knob is open all the way, the differences are less evident when tone knob is closed up. At least thats my initial impression.
  Seems to me tho that the cap question should be answered last (after amp selection and pickup selection) as you say above, since those two probably have a much bigger impact. But after amp/pickups are selected, maybe the cap selection can compensate (make brighter or warmer) any deficiencies in the amp/pickup combo.
  Definitely something to consider. Looking forward to part 2!
  
  Reply
Crazy Tone Thing 2: The Sequel :planet z
February 17, 2010 @ 12:41 am

[…] with part 1 of this video, Everything is played on my Epiphone Riviera P93 with Vintage Vibe Guitars P-90 pickups, through my […]

Reply
Do PIO caps really change your tone? (tonemojo content) - Page 6 - My Les Paul Forums
March 4, 2010 @ 9:35 am

[…] wasn't all that great. I also record my SG but haven't posted the clips as of yet. This guy Crazy Tone Thing lanet z (which has been posted here already) does the comparison but the only problem is the cap he selects […]

Reply
Tone Caps Follow-up :planet z
April 13, 2010 @ 1:15 pm

[…] received a lot of questions and comments about my tone cap videos part 1 and part […]

Reply
Another Tone Cap Shootout :planet z
July 13, 2010 @ 12:49 pm

[…] There are a variety of boutique guitar tone capacitors which I haven’t tried, and didn’t include my tone cap comparisons. […]

Reply
Philip
July 31, 2010 @ 8:00 pm

Getting more treble from a pickup without changing it.

I was watching your video on youtube about the tonal characteristics of different tone capacitors which btw was very informative. But the question I have for you is I have an epi G400 SG and I am looking to increase the treble response of the bridge pup without changing it. I did some research and posted a question on geek chat if you are familiar with it but didnt really get any good advise from that. Then I contacted a seller on ebay who was selling treble bleed kits and they recommended a russian pio .15uf cap which they said would really brighten up the treble response of the pup. I just wanted to get your feelings on this before I get the cap installed along with the CTS pots I am putting in the guitar (which btw are audio taper pots). Please get back to me at the email address provided as soon as you can.

Reply
- John
  August 4, 2010 @ 3:21 am
  
  Putting in a tone cap of smaller capacitance may brighten up your
  sound a bit, but it’ll be subtle. Modifying the tone pot to be
  no-load will have a bigger impact (as it completely removes the tone
  cap from the circuit, when on 10). See this post for a demo and
  explanation of how-to do that.
  When selecting your new pots, you can choose higher resistance and
  that’ll reduce the load on the pickups, brightening up the sound a
  bit. IOW, if you currently have 250k ohm volume pots, change them to
  500k. If you have 500k, you could try 1meg.
  You may have to do some experimenting to find the right combination…
  Hope this helps,
  John
  
  Reply
Listening tests of high end capacitors...
September 6, 2010 @ 3:18 am

[…] Here is an interresting link regarding guitar tone capacitors. Crazy Tone Thing lanet z Part 1,2,3,4 on youtube YouTube – Guitar Tone Capacitors, part 1: Evaluating Material Types […]

Reply
Ilya-v
October 9, 2010 @ 5:46 am

John, thank you so much for your efforts producing this test for us,
I’m glad someone finally did.

I always link this page when an argument about cap stars 🙂

As stated by one of the first posters David, the difference is non
existant that it completely does not matter what cap you use.

The only benefit is for the person who sells you those “VINTAGE SPECS CAP”

Gibson even sells a pair of “Bumblebees” for 113$ WOW what a rip off.

Your guitar cable changes your tone more with EVERY FOOT than a
million “bumblebees” 😉

Cheers

Reply
- John
  October 9, 2010 @ 4:14 pm
  
  Hey there,
  
  I don’t think the differences are non-existent, because I do hear small differences. However, I totally agree that the differences are too subtle to warrant spending a lot of money on. You’re right that so many other variables play a much bigger role in the sound.
  
  $113 for a cap (or pretty much anything over $5 or $10) is ridiculous!
  
  Cheers,
  -John
  
  Reply
  - Pat
    December 7, 2014 @ 6:39 pm
    
    The real bumblebees are another matter. They do make a big difference in the sound and are well worth exploring if you are seeking some of those traditional 59 burst tones. IMHO the pickups pots are cap are more important that getting a “custom shop” type guitar. Sadly 99% of modern caps including Russian PIO and other exotic old “style caps” are still modern caps with much better “specs” and fewer defects than the old ones… those “defects” are what you want …so most modern cap exchanges are a waste of time.
    
    Reply
Mystery Caps Identified - Planet Z
October 26, 2010 @ 7:14 pm

[…] my tone cap material types comparison, there were a couple vintage caps which I couldn’t identify. I referred to them anonymously […]

Reply
Yet Another Tone Cap Shootout - Planet Z
October 28, 2010 @ 7:49 am

[…] Back in July, I mentioned a tone cap shootout by Steve over at KernelOfWisdom, which included some more boutique caps that I hadn’t included in my tone cap comparison project. […]

Reply
Austin
December 29, 2010 @ 7:52 pm

Brilliant, I hear some subtle differences. That may be due to the slightly differences of their actual capacitance. However, the original cap and the Orange Drop sound more balance to more although the Russian and the next vintage yellow cylinder do have some characters I like for soloing.

Reply
Herfinnur
November 4, 2011 @ 4:32 pm

I don’t understand how people cannot hear a difference between the different capacitors: are they listening through laptop speakers?

Reply
- John
  November 4, 2011 @ 5:45 pm
  
  Everybody’s ears (and priorities) are different. I’m no golden-ears, but I can certainly hear differences even on my laptop speakers.
  And, as I often say to my daughters, sometimes you only hear what you want to hear… 🙂
  -John
  
  Reply
Csaba
December 5, 2011 @ 2:55 am

I can hear the difference too. One thing left over from the test when the pot is at full (500k) positon: just simply subtitute a capacitor with a short circuit.
I wonder if there is anybody that can tell me why can I hear the difference when the pot is at 500k. Because the capacitor value doesn’t affect the tone (if the cap is more then 1nF).

Reply
Kondenzátory kytarového zvuku, část 1: Hodnocení typy materiálů | ulož to stahuj zdarma
December 8, 2011 @ 3:31 pm

[…] https://www.planetz.com/?p=652 . In part one of this video on tone capacitors, I demonstrate the sound characteristics of 7 different capacitors with dialectrics of different material types. The caps I try here are: Orange Drop 225P 100V (polypropylene), Mallory 150 series (metallized polyester film), Russian K-409 PIO (paper in oil), mystery vintage yellow cylinder (identified as WMF 1S22 Polyester Film 100v from CDE Cornell Dubilier), the original Epi tone cap from my Riviera (probably mylar polyester film), mystery vintage gray cylinder (identified as Mullard/Phillips Mustard polyester foil/film 630v), and a vintage tropical fish (polyester film). Everything is played on my Epiphone Riviera P93 with Vintage Vibe Guitars P-90 pickups, through my Vox VT30 on the Boutique Clean model, mic’d with a Rode NT1 large diaphragm microphone. In the part two, I’ll demonstrate how the capacitance value affects the range and usefulness of the tone knob. Like this video? Please consider making a donation (of any amount) at https://www.planetz.com/?page_id=1272 […]

Reply
Caps and Robbers « I have GAS
December 12, 2011 @ 1:40 pm

[…] the MyLesPaul forum for all their help. The guys at PlanetZ built something they call the “Crazy Tone Thing“. Basically it allows you to sample several capacitors without having to rewire your guitar […]

Reply
educassiano
December 26, 2011 @ 4:47 pm

Holy cow, never seen such a deep explanation on tone.

Reply
knoxwood85
December 31, 2011 @ 9:36 pm

hi i see you know alot about this so maybe u can help me im looking for a capacitor to help with that slash tone for my epiphone les paul plus top what do u recomend or sugest

Reply
knoxwood85
December 31, 2011 @ 9:37 pm

hello im looking for a capacitorthat will give me the most slash sound what would u recomend

Reply
- John
  January 1, 2012 @ 9:02 pm
  
  @knoxwood85 – I can’t really recommend a particular cap type. In general, it’s not the tone cap that’s going to make you sound like slash 🙂 He plays a Les Paul, so start with that.
  
  Reply
- DavidRavenMoon
  January 8, 2012 @ 8:16 pm
  
  @knoxwood85 Get some Duncan Alnico II Humbuckers, Slash edition. The tone cap wont change your tone unless the control is on zero. On 10 the cap has no affect on the signal.
  
  Reply
- 6stringzstrummin
  January 12, 2012 @ 9:09 am
  
  @knoxwood85 i wanted this tone also and i got slash alnico pro 2 pickups and that was the biggest difference almost right away i got the tone i was looking for. as for the capacitors he uses orange drop caps…a 15 on the neck pickup and a 22 on the bridge. also a les paul is what u need…i got epiphone and made all the mods to it that the “appetite for destruction” les paul has. also u really want to get a marshall amp. this will get u the tone, but actually sounding like slash, GOOD LUCK!!
  
  Reply
Peteyuse
January 4, 2012 @ 7:18 pm

@nathanihensel He’s right. I build pedals and guitars and did/do extensive testing over years. Now I’m also involved in pro-recording.
Once the capacitance is matched there is no way to tell two caps apart in guitar circuits – except that ceramics are microphonic.
An expensive paper cap that’s under value will be “warm” instead of “dull”, and one that’s over will be “open” instead of “brittle” or “cold”. The language used depends on the mythical value of the cap.

Reply
Peteyuse
January 4, 2012 @ 7:19 pm

@DavidRavenMoon Spot on.

Reply
Peteyuse
January 4, 2012 @ 7:45 pm

@nathanihensel It’s easy to test too. Get two cap types that you think are polar opposites: So, a paper, bumble or fish, and measure a few really sh!tty ceramics ’till you find one the same exact value.
Make a test jig, offer to blind test someone else who believes the cap myths – and see just how uncomfortable they are to be tested.
The other recognized deal is performance variation and bias. Playing can easily be different enough take to take in recording “tests” to bias them.

Reply
Rafterman123
January 5, 2012 @ 4:26 pm

@DavidRavenMoon Well I don’t know what you’ve been stuffing in your ears… But I heard a marked difference with my eyes closed, using high quality headphones. Age, materials, and design of the capacitors all affect the tone. We are talking negligable differences if you are plugged into a 100 Watt Marshall stack, but there is a difference

Reply
- DavidRavenMoon
  January 7, 2012 @ 7:07 am
  
  @Rafterman123 I have perfect hearing. All those things you are saying about caps does not matter when used in a passive tone control circuit. The guitar’s signal is NOT passing through the cap. It’s in parallel to the pickup. The only part of the signal passing through the cap is being shunted to ground. So unless the cap’s rated capacitance value is off, they will all sound the same. So you can have a difference between two of the same type of caps as well.
  
  Reply
- DavidRavenMoon
  January 7, 2012 @ 7:09 am
  
  @Rafterman123 Also, the guy in the test was not strumming exactly the same between tests. This might have been accidental or unconscious based on what he expected to hear. This is called conformation bias. This was not a proper double blind test, and we don’t know how the capacitance of the wired used in the switch box altered the results. And some paper in oil caps are fake anyway, like the Gibson Bumblebee repros. So how do you know what you are getting.
  
  Reply
ASquared007
January 6, 2012 @ 8:04 am

Tropical Fish FTW.. To my ear, it has the warmest tone, fat mids, and crisp highs

Reply
Dateninkontinenz
January 13, 2012 @ 8:58 am

thx for this good comparison…very nice. Even though I think changing your pick (plectrum) will affect your tone much much more.

Reply
HardRockLeadGuitar
January 13, 2012 @ 10:06 am

Bottom line is that after a couple of foot-pedals nobody can tell the difference except maybe the guy who never plays outside his bedroom – nit-picking over this, that or something else doesn’t make a good player. The audience doesn’t know, doesn’t care about these insignificant tone differences…which are a matter of personal taste anyways.

Reply
dpsd
January 16, 2012 @ 3:56 am

@johnplanetz i’m planning to shield my guitar with copper tape so i can eliminate the hum but,they say it will affect the thickness of the tone, based on your experience what do you think is the warmest tone capacitor ( jazz fusion tone ) on a HSS, 1 volume, 1 tone, 5 way configuration? thanks

Reply
- John
  January 17, 2012 @ 6:17 pm
  
  @dpsd – I can’t recommend a specific cap for your configuration. I recommend you try a few with alligator leads and see what you like. You may find that PIO lends a bit of warmth, and you may also want a larger capacitance value (see part 2) to roll off some of the highs, or just roll back on the tone pot a bit.
  
  Reply
- John
  January 17, 2012 @ 6:17 pm
  
  @dpsd – I can’t recommend a specific cap for your configuration. I recommend you try a few with alligator leads and see what you like. You may find that PIO lends a bit of warmth, and you may also want a larger capacitance value (see part 2) to roll off some of the highs, or just roll back on the tone pot a bit.
  
  Reply
RolfGuitar
February 7, 2012 @ 8:04 pm

I like the fat grey one lol

Reply
pwnedforlife
February 8, 2012 @ 7:33 am

@johnplanetz I hope you know how respected these videos are in the community,
-Cheers

Reply
soaring138
February 20, 2012 @ 8:43 am

Hello !
I bought knew Pickups, and with them, there was a capacitor… Could you explain, where I have to weld it in ?
I think bitween ground and Tone-poti … but not sure.
Thanks !
BRUNO

Reply
- John
  February 21, 2012 @ 9:02 pm
  
  @soaring138 – Could be treble bleed, or tone, or perhaps something else. What’s the cap value- maybe that will give a clue. What type of pickups? Did you contact the pickup manufacturer?
  
  Reply
  - soaring138
    February 22, 2012 @ 1:14 pm
    
    @johnplanetz Hello! The value is 0.04µF… for 3 Single PU (Strat) Kloppmann.
    Thanks for your help !
    
    Reply
    - John
      February 22, 2012 @ 1:36 pm
      
      @soaring138 – that’s a tone cap. You can remove your existing tone cap (between tone pot and ground) and replace it with the one you received from Kloppmann. Use some alligator leads and clip them in one at a time and choose the one you like.
      
      Reply
      - soaring138
        February 29, 2012 @ 4:20 am
        
        @johnplanetz Thanks. Done. And by the way, I made the Treble Mod… Very good job John !
        
        Reply
Tim Zeager
March 15, 2012 @ 6:35 am

For all my nerdy gear-head friends, this is really interesting!

Reply
Benjamin smith
March 15, 2012 @ 7:10 am

I found this to be very “Tone Geek” friendly !! Caps and their differences
through a/b comparisons 🙂

Reply
rioolput123
March 15, 2012 @ 7:20 am

Hi, great informative video you made here ! One QUESTION: does the voltage on the tone cap make any difference ? I want to try some orange drops which are all 630V, pretty high for guitar I think or is it ? Thanks !

Reply
- John
  March 23, 2012 @ 10:06 am
  
  @rioolput123 – no, voltage makes little difference. A guitar signal is typically way less than 1 volt, so you don’t need to worry about it. That being said, different construction techniques for higher voltage caps may result in a slightly different sound character.
  
  Reply
odinmp5
March 15, 2012 @ 2:27 pm

vintage fat grey cylinders are the tone i like. thanks for the nice video

Reply
Aleksej79ns
March 16, 2012 @ 4:02 am

Thank a lot for this video! 🙂

Reply
rigidarm1
March 17, 2012 @ 3:48 pm

Before I read that others had posted that they liked the Fat Gray’s I had chosen them as well for best tone. Just a more rounded tone. Thanks for the vid. Effective effort to teach. Now its off to Part 2.

Reply
sirbergersworth
March 21, 2012 @ 10:23 pm

I like the yellow cylinder best eithe Russian paper an oil next. Both had the bit I like.
Thanks for a great video.

Reply
- rabbittraps
  April 15, 2012 @ 3:01 pm
  
  those two were the sweetest, the russians then the yellows for me.
  
  Reply
ivjdivfjalekvvjp
March 22, 2012 @ 9:13 am

Amazing videos. So helpful

Reply
tehlastninja
March 25, 2012 @ 6:38 am

Thanks heaps for this demonstration side by side. Really shows the subtle differences between them. 🙂

Reply
ipbarrett
March 25, 2012 @ 9:11 pm

O like the tropical fish and the original epiphone

Reply
nvrbeab
March 31, 2012 @ 5:09 pm

V fat grey sounded the fullest mostly to me. Def my fave.

Reply
wipers86
April 1, 2012 @ 9:13 pm

hey again, man, I have just one more question to ask you, does, rewiring the guitar, make the output or volume of the guitar louder ? thanks

Reply
- John
  April 8, 2012 @ 8:46 pm
  
  If you change the circuit during re-wiring, it is possible to make the guitar seem louder. Reducing load on pickups can make the sound brighter, and also a bit louder.
  See my video “Epiphone P-90 Pickup Experiment”. Also my video “Epiphone Electronics Overhaul, Before and After Comparisons”
  
  Reply
DeadOriginal
April 2, 2012 @ 4:31 am

The Russian paper in oil seemed to be missing higher Hz tone .. I’d avoid that one, cos if it came from the Soviet era, you might wake up one day to find you can only play stuff in very depressing minor keys.. 😉

Reply
fer40466
April 3, 2012 @ 7:09 am

gracias mi niño eres una verga

Reply
wipers86
April 8, 2012 @ 10:24 pm

thanks for your feedback, it was very helpful

Reply
lute760
April 18, 2012 @ 6:46 pm

Capacitors really have nothing to do with the tone,it’s the actuall tone pot and pickups that do that, only the different values make a difference in tone roll off, however, some caps roll off the frequencies a little bit smoother than others do. I can actually hear subtle differnces in the roll off some of these caps and if I had to choose which ones work best in my opinion, I would go with 1.-Mallory 2.-Orange Drop 3.- PIO 4.-Fat Grey Cylinder 5.-Tropical Fish .- 6.-Epiphone 7.-Yellow Cylinder

Reply
w0rdisbond
April 21, 2012 @ 5:26 pm

FAT GREY CYLINDER! Old stuff is somehow the best

Reply
SensibleMusician
April 28, 2012 @ 9:15 am

2:50 demo starts

Reply
nessofkeith
April 29, 2012 @ 5:43 am

This guy is awesome… Someone actually did this 😀

Reply
Bemasked
May 5, 2012 @ 8:49 pm

Is it my imagination? Or is that Russian paper in oil capacitor producing a very slight noticable smoother tone (perhaps darker, less bite…something) in position 10 then the others. Also i swear that mallory 150 has a slight edge to it. Some say that a capacitor effects the sound even when the tone is in full treble mode & others say otherwise. I wanted to mod a guitar with a russian .022 & a mallory 150 .047 using a on/on switch for some variation. Now i am not so sure such a mod is worth it

Reply
- John
  May 8, 2012 @ 10:05 pm
  
  I agree there are noticeable but very subtle differences. In general, you’ll get a far bigger tone change by experimenting with capacitance values, rather than capacitance material types. Not to mention tweaking your pickups, pickup height, pedals, amp settings, etc.
  
  Reply
George2ec
May 10, 2012 @ 8:53 pm

Hi, I have a squier strat that comes with cheap alnicos pickups, but for me sounds too bright, do you think that changing the capacitor on tone pot can I get better sound? what size of capacitor can I put ? thanks for any help

Reply
- John
  May 13, 2012 @ 9:19 pm
  
  If it’s too bright, you can change the total volume pot resistance to a smaller value. If you have 500k volume pots, change to 250k. That will roll off some brightness by increasing the load on the pickups.
  Increasing the tone capacitor capacitance (for example.047uF or even .1uF) will also roll of some highs, even if your tone knob is on 10, but you may have to roll the tone knob back a bit further to notice a bigger change.
  
  Reply
  - tyguy335
    May 21, 2012 @ 6:39 pm
    
    That tone cap sets the tone for the whole guitar!I’m talkin’ with the pot all the way up!Try a .0033 and then a .022 HUGE difference,even when tone control on max treble!Yes the .0033 is a smoother tone taper but sucks the life put of the git.No bottom end at all.Most people commenting on the web state that changing the cap has no effect if tone control all way up!BS!”That cap sets the tone for the guitar”.Unblessed ears I suppose.Or,people experimenting with values and making minor change.
    
    Reply
    - John
      May 22, 2012 @ 9:20 am
      
      See part 2 of this video series for audio comparisons or different cap values, at all tone knob positions.
      
      Reply
      - tyguy335
        May 22, 2012 @ 12:30 pm
        
        It’s called a varitone switch.they came in 345’s and 355’s.guess what?affected tone tremendously without touching tone pot.guess what?just a bank of caps on a rotary switch.easy to make a box with different value caps in it with rotary and plug your guitar in.I have a pedal for sale on E-Bay now.it’s called NoFex.$15.00.Consists of 2 switchcraft jacks in a box…In/Out with true-bypass!
        
        Reply
        
        John
        May 22, 2012 @ 12:46 pm
        
        You’re misunderstanding the Varitone. You’re right that you can easily make a rotary selector for different tone caps. But the Varitone switch doesn’t just select a cap- it selects between a number of notch filters of different frequency/resonance values. Each switch position selects a cap/resistor pair in series with an inductor to ground. It’s a notch filter selector, not just a cap selector. So of course it dramatically affects the sound. Look up the schematic for more details.
        
        Reply
        
        tyguy335
        May 22, 2012 @ 1:38 pm
        
        Just make the cap box.Lots of players use ’em.Gotta have a decent guitar and especially amp also to hear bass frequencies!If flat with lots of mids change will be subtle.But with good amp the change is “drastic”!
        
        Reply
        
        John
        May 24, 2012 @ 5:04 pm
        
        We’re talking about two different things. The normal tone control (as described in this video – pot->cap->ground) allows you to have a variable rolloff, whereas the Varitone rotary switch gives you a selection of fixed notch filters. They’re both useful. A typical gibson with Varitone has both a normal tone contol and the rotary selector, often with the tone pot as a push/pull to enable/disable the varitone.
        In this video series, I was obviously focusing on caps for the typical tone control.
        
        Reply
        
        tyguy335
        May 24, 2012 @ 7:05 pm
        
        The LRC setup in the guitar is the same as the varitone.Pups are the coil,pots are resistor and tone cap.LRC!There’s a botique bass maker who puts an on off switch on inductor for cap alone or with inductor!These caps are wired to tone pot also!Same as normal.I noticed a huge difference in tone caps probably ’cause I made drastic change.From .0033 to .047(more than 10X).The subtleties are harder to hear but this isn’t!Sorry sets the tone for the guitar.Even when not rolled back!
        
        Reply
        
        John
        May 24, 2012 @ 8:46 pm
        
        In a regular tone circuit as described in part 2 of this video, the tone cap does have an effect on the tone even with the knob on 10, but it is subtle.
        For anyone still reading this thread, please just view video 2 to see how a tone cap (even as low as 1000pf) will sound in a normal tone configuration, or try it yourself with alligator clips.
        And look up the schematic for the Varitone circuit to see how its fixed notch filters are arranged, and if that interests you, it’s not hard to build DIY.
      - tyguy335
        May 22, 2012 @ 12:53 pm
        
        It’s called a VARITONE!Paul Reed Smith has them also.If you can’t hear the difference in tone(cap switching)using varitone switch.You are a hurting buckaroo!I’m talking with the pot all the way up at all switch positions!!These values are picked to make the guitar sound it’s best(By Fender/Gibson etc.)without touching the tone pot(having it on 10)!A capacitance box is a lot easier to make and is permanent/utile,compared to the mess this guy made.Make yourself a varitone box.
        
        Reply
IronBroadsword
May 12, 2012 @ 5:54 am

Thanks for doing this. Imho the cap really doesn’t matter, cause you can EQ the subtle differences. I’m a tone chaser, but this is not a route to bother with. For me, anyways.

Reply
DrQuackinducks
May 12, 2012 @ 2:16 pm

really digging the tropical fish… anyone else?

Reply
learnguitar4u
May 25, 2012 @ 9:32 pm

super sweet you dig this kind of stuff?

Reply
TheDavidGram
May 30, 2012 @ 3:39 am

great video thank you!

Reply
ziher123
May 31, 2012 @ 2:50 am

…and i thought only audiophiles are obsessed with caps:)

Reply
alvin10388
June 2, 2012 @ 11:59 am

for your experience what caps work best with two humbuckers?

Reply
iusepol
June 12, 2012 @ 4:13 am

i suspect that the fact you played through emulated amp , somehow effected the heard tone .

i havnt found any difference between the caps , also i think that better compare is to add cheap capacitor and than compare to the rest .

Reply
- John
  June 12, 2012 @ 6:58 am
  
  The VT30 certainly is not affecting the tone differently for different caps. The amp settings were invariant from test-to-test. And I get the same result with my AC15HW1.
  That little brown poly-film cap is a “cheap” cap. I should have included a ceramic in the original roundup- see my channel for the followup parts 3&4 for a ceramic cap test.
  
  Reply
ihopetillmyend
June 22, 2012 @ 7:53 pm

i love it how you aer watching in the cam after every play xD

Reply
Chris Utoobe
July 2, 2012 @ 5:04 pm

Which vendor did you get all these caps from?

Reply
- John
  July 5, 2012 @ 9:17 am
  
  I got the orange drops and mallory at mouser. Purchased the PIO on ebay.
  
  Reply
  - skowalski9
    September 9, 2012 @ 12:21 am
    
    you said at the beginning of the video that you changed all the pickups but they still look like P90’s, did you just swap out the epiphone P90’s for gibson ones?
    
    Reply
    - John
      September 9, 2012 @ 3:25 pm
      
      I replaced the stock Epi P-90’s with a set of P-90’s from Vintage Vibe Guitars. See before/after in my video “Epiphone Electronics Overhaul, Before and After Comparisons”. watch?v=fxc6s6tXefE
      
      Reply
KingCrimson82
July 2, 2012 @ 6:08 pm

5:18 5:28

Reply
KingCrimson82
July 5, 2012 @ 6:32 am

good aers ! but mallory comes close to mine

Reply
keysignify
July 8, 2012 @ 9:53 pm

Thanks for being as rigorous as possible! I rarely ever see that. (:

Also, I still can’t hear a difference, but maybe I’d hear a difference in person. ;D

Reply
oklatex1948
July 9, 2012 @ 12:27 am

Hello, John. It’s pretty obvious that, after watching your video, I do not have the ear for playing a guitar. I just couldn’t hear the difference. I do know that I can hear the difference on my Reverend Jetstream 390, which uses a bass bleed off type of system. I can’t find the wiring for this and don’t want to take my guitar apart. Got some suggestions for me on strat with H-S-H from Seymour Ducan? I’m planning on 2 vol. and 1 mst. tone. Would love to do something like the Reverend. HELP

Reply
- skarbu
  August 15, 2012 @ 8:52 am
  
  720p! in the other you can’t hear the differences well
  
  Reply
A Worthy Tribute -
July 11, 2012 @ 5:54 pm

[…] little tricky. The two tone caps are Mallory 150 series .022uF (the same caps I tested in my Crazy Tone Thing series). The 3-way switch and jack are supposed to be Switchcraft, but I didn’t remove them to […]

Reply
TruthAlwaysTold
July 21, 2012 @ 11:00 pm

I only heard the difference in the part of the video where he does the string near the neck pickups. The high end is less defined on some of the caps.

Reply
Rrrrobbo
July 23, 2012 @ 4:11 am

Hmm ive been reading that tropical fish caps being better is bs, but i can clearly hear a difference, especially in the high end, is that more down to the different value?

Reply
- John
  July 24, 2012 @ 12:30 pm
  
  The larger capacitance value on the tropical fish results in a lower cutoff frequency, and more high-frequency reduction. But I can hear other differences in the mids, etc, so it’s not just the cutoff frequency. I wish I could’ve tested with a .022uF tropical fish for the video – I just couldn’t find one at the time!
  
  Reply
TheInboil
July 25, 2012 @ 6:59 pm

awesome vid. thank you so much for taking the time. very, very helpful.

Reply
jacobsapple
July 25, 2012 @ 7:30 pm

Russian paper in oil all the way!
Sounded best on the open octave 12th fret.
Very thorough. Thanx

Reply
skarbu
August 15, 2012 @ 3:33 am

The PIO sounds very nice, but I was suprised by the vintage yellow one (which sounds like the PIO but with a hint more treble through),and the tropical fish. Those 3 would be the best IMO.

Very nice! thank you

Reply
skarbu
August 15, 2012 @ 3:35 am

The tropical fish seems best for what I am looking for, it kind of darkens the tone more than the others, perfect for a neck through steinberger all maple body with an sh6 in the bridge 😀

Reply
OM60SOUTH
August 22, 2012 @ 9:44 pm

I hear differences at tone 10 high cord from 3:34 to 4:16.
Russian sounds most compressed.
Is it because you are not stroking same? Or is it from the CAP?

I had same experience and differences seemed very small at my living room volume level, but when I played it on 50W Marshall Amp with loud volume, I noticed considerable change in sound character.

I think it has something to do with amplification of the sound signal, quality of the recoded sound and playback audio quality and volume.

Reply
- John
  August 26, 2012 @ 9:25 pm
  
  I hear definite differences, both at quiet levels, and loud. The differences are subtle, but certainly audible. Whether these subtle differences are important or significant is a matter of subjective opinion.
  
  Reply
johnnydepietro1968
September 5, 2012 @ 2:17 pm

Truthfully, the orig epi one is best. But the fish and both paper/oil ones were sooo nice too

Reply
bobbyjnotk
September 8, 2012 @ 6:47 pm

I just would like to say that I appreciate your consistency in what you play, and your documentation in instruments/recording gear, and devotion to accuracy; its like a scientific method approach to guitar tones (not so strictly treble volume however). It is very well done, you should keep it up
.

Reply
psychostein
September 12, 2012 @ 12:09 am

It creeps me out when you look at me after you play each riff man! LOL JK great vid thanks for takin the time to do this. It was helpful

Reply
Jared Corgan
September 13, 2012 @ 10:44 am

Any chance you were able to check the actual values of the caps? Many of those are 10% – 30% tolerance, so comparing at an equivalent tone pot setting for all could be a bit ambiguous as to the actual low pass filter pass frequencies. Although, my ear didn’t pickup anything drastic between them, so it likely it a non issue, but something to keep in mind.

Reply
- John Cooper
  September 14, 2012 @ 10:19 am
  
  I measured the cap values on a multimeter in part 3. watch?v=S7Hod21pIUI#t=2m50s
  
  Reply
  - Jared Corgan
    September 14, 2012 @ 10:57 am
    
    Great info, awesome! Thanks
    
    Reply
JCLmin
September 19, 2012 @ 7:33 am

Every Knee Will Bow, Every Eye Will See, Every Tongue Will Confess That Jesus Christ is Lord — – JESUS CHRIST REIGNS —

Reply
- matt g
  January 17, 2013 @ 2:08 pm
  
  liked the paper in oil
  
  Reply
skyskelton97
October 2, 2012 @ 1:55 am

orange drop is the best

Reply
theshyguitarist
October 3, 2012 @ 2:48 am

Loved this video. Was waiting for someone to do a cap review.

Reply
Jolina Anthony
October 8, 2012 @ 1:17 pm

I really like the sound of the .022 Orange Drop. but will a .022 sound as good with humbuckers? or do I need a .047 for humbuckers?

Reply
- John
  October 9, 2012 @ 5:14 pm
  
  .022 will be fine.
  
  Reply
zardjaliprezlamen
October 18, 2012 @ 1:47 am

Russian,my voite
sound is little warmer

Reply
HollerboyHellbilly
October 25, 2012 @ 2:52 am

The vintage fat grey one has my vote; pushes more mids and allows bass to come through.

Reply
MrMrjonesandme
October 26, 2012 @ 5:13 am

I think you did a really good job of minimizing the variables.

Reply
donepearce
October 28, 2012 @ 2:48 am

Thanks for this. They all sound identical. I extracted the audio, and played it to some musician friends blind. It is amazing how fast the differences vanish when you don’t know in advance what you are listening to.

Reply
- John
  October 28, 2012 @ 8:54 pm
  
  I also put the raw files up on my blog at planetz. com/is-tone-love-blind
  
  Reply
atta1798
October 30, 2012 @ 11:12 am

The questions is: what is it that is being kept by a capacitor?……energy…….so how does this relate to sound?……..if I have 5 different cups made out of different material how does this
change its contents?….how important or negligible is…..

Reply
- John
  October 31, 2012 @ 12:41 pm
  
  The water-cup analogy is so oversimplified that it isn’t very useful. To find more a more complete (but still simple) analogy, try “There are no electrons” by Kenn Amdahl. For more specifics with some good animations/graphics, see the wiki on capacitors. In short, in an A/C circuit, the electrical field (across the dialectric insulator) is very dynamic in relation to the frequency. The standard equations represent an ideal capacitor with perfect dialectric – but the real world is non-ideal.
  
  Reply
  - atta1798
    October 31, 2012 @ 7:28 pm
    
    A capacitor (originally known as condenser) is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy in an electric field….depending on how it is used..u use them for filters, etc etc…Frequency dependent on its value…..i.e., same for all types..as long as the same value……by the way a guitar has 9 volts doesn’t SO that is DC right?I am glad you understood me…..In short, no sound difference and it is a good thing being curious as you are….again rad all the data sheet…..
    
    Reply
    - John
      November 2, 2012 @ 8:48 am
      
      The audio signal in a guitar is A/C, generated by the up/down vibration of the string over the magnetic pickups. When you say “a guitar has 9v”, I assume you’re referring to the power source for a preamp in an guitar with active electronics, or in an effects pedal. But having a DC power source doesn’t somehow turn an audio signal signal into DC. A capacitor completely blocks DC. Datasheets are important, but so is basic circuit analysis. See part 2 of this series for more info on the circuit.
      
      Reply
      - atta1798
        November 2, 2012 @ 8:52 am
        
        yes indeed! thank you for answering.
        
        Reply
atta1798
October 30, 2012 @ 11:23 am

I do not hear the difference ……they all sound the same……..to be open-minded ….if any it is probably out of our ear’s range BUT as I stated with the questions I previously stated regarding a glass of water example…..a capacitor stores energy so a benchmark of the data sheets of all those capacitors would be beneficial to see and understand further what is going on…..never take things for granted Good video!!

Reply
chickenbeek
October 30, 2012 @ 1:04 pm

Hmn, they very much Do Not sound the same. I liked the Mallory and the Russian a lot.
The others are similar, but still not the exact same. I typically use orange drop, only because they are common and easy to pick and buy. Might have to try some mallory and some pio.
Nice work, fun test.

Reply
chickenbeek
October 30, 2012 @ 1:09 pm

Yeah the mallory sounds really sweet at 7 on the 12th fret part. Perfect. I can’t see how anyone cannot hear the difference.

Reply
tsalbwoble
November 7, 2012 @ 10:47 am

Thanks a bunch for doing this. your A-B comparisons with the Bill Nye wire setups have answered a lot of questions that 6 hours of reading articles over the past few days did not. I have a better idea what parts to order now. My wife is grateful that I wont have to spend a week with wires everywhere doing all the comparisons myself.

Reply
Jonathan
November 11, 2012 @ 4:26 pm

John did some awesome work, for those that “can’t hear” the difference I respect your honesty but for those of you claiming there is no difference due to the math on paper need to chill out with your “placebo” accusations. The level of math required for all variables is not accounted for, there are pretty obvious differences with some and some more subtle. As John pointed out the equations are based on “perfect world scenarios”, the diaelectric makes a lot of differences witht he same value in some cases. I leave you with this thought, Sergio, the tone guru at Mercury Magnetics has done blind tests on amps where everything was the same with the only difference being whether the Speakers were wired to a jack then to the jack on the output of the amp and wired directedly to the output taps on the output transformer, most could hear a difference.

Reply
- David
  November 11, 2012 @ 5:24 pm
  
  Jonathan, you are saying a lot of things that don’t relate here, and have some things confused. The “math on paper” part is that a capacitor is rated at a certain capacitance.
  
  That is what it’s function is. A cap doesn’t do anything else. The dielectric is what causes the capacitance in the first place. You can change the dielectric, but the cap is manufactured at a certain capacitance and tolerance. Therefore a .022µF cap is just that, +/- what ever it’s tolerance is. A cap passes AC voltage and blocks DC. In a guitar tone control is shunts higher frequencies to ground, but not the low frequencies. The cross over point is decided by the combination of the cap’s value and the impedance of the pickup. This forms a second order resonant low pass filter. You actually get a slight resonant boost at the cutoff frequency.
  
  So the ONLY thing that matters in a tone cap is the rated capacitance. Nothing else, because nothing else is part of the circuit. If two caps both closely measure .022µF they will sound exactly the same. Period.
  
  There are other parameters on caps, such as series resistance and leakage, and these do matter in something like a tube amp. In that environment you are dealing with high voltages and high impedances. And the signal is often passing through the cap.
  
  In a guitar tone control, you are dealing with minuscule voltages, and fairly low impedances. So the hysteresis curve of the cap is fairly linear.
  
  Usually what people hear as a difference between caps of the same value, but of different types, is the tolerance. One might be higher of lower than the stated spec. So to really do this test properly each cap must be measured, and you would need a bunch of them so you can pick through the bad ones and find close matches. Also the person strumming should not be the person switching. And both should not know which cap is which. Just as A, B, C, etc. Otherwise you have confirmation bias setting in. You can unconsciously change your playing to get the tone you THINK should be hearing. Ideally the guitar should be mechanically plucked so that it’s exactly the same every time. Anther problem is the alligator clips. This should all be soldered together with very short lengths of wire, otherwise you will not get the exact same connection each time.
  
  Regarding your example of the Mercury Magnetics transformer tests, that’s something totally different and has nothing to do with guitar tone control caps.
  
  Reply
  - John
    December 30, 2012 @ 11:27 pm
    
    You make many good points about blind testing, and variability in playing. However, I disagree that the ONLY thing that matters is the measured capacitance. In practice, many people do hear subtle differences with different dialectric materials, that are not accounted for just by the differences at the cutoff frequency.
    I’ve been planning to redo some dielectric comparisons with a constant white-noise generator, to remove the variability of my playing from the equation. I’d run an identical white noise source through a simple tone circuit, with two caps of two different capacitance values, recording the results. Then subtract result 1 from result 2. If the only relevant factor was the measured capacitance as you suggest, then the resulting spectrum analysis would show only differences above the cutoff frequency of the higher capacitance cap – everything below would be identical, regardless of dielectric type, etc.
    
    However, I don’t expect the real world to produce such ideal results. There are other important factors for capacitor dialectrics that are relevant even in a low-voltage circuit like a guitar. There is some frequency-dependent variability in the capacitance, which introduces some distortion and amplitude modulation – more so with some dialectric types than others. Read about dielectric absorption, dissipation factor, power factor, etc here: http://www.reliablecapacitors.com/pickcap.htm
    (and be sure to see table 3).
    
    That article was written in 1980, before modern computer-based spectrum analysis tools, etc. I hope to some day do the white-noise tests I mentioned above. It should be relatively easy now to produce a definitive test to show that there are differences throughout the frequency spectrum, with caps of different dielectric types.
    
    John
    
    Reply
    - matt g
      January 17, 2013 @ 1:51 pm
      
      Yeah, I definitely hear slight differences in the materials used. In this video at least. ( which is excellent btw )
      I closed my eyes and listened, then went back and watched and it seems to me the paper in oil seem to have less sparkly highs. or seem a little warmer. The tropical fish had more lows but that prolly cause the different value I’m guessing.
      
      I’m no expert but I definitely hear the difference.
      
      Reply
BenMcauley
November 19, 2012 @ 4:06 pm

Great video my friend, I found this fascinating & can hear big differences between them… though I am wearing headphones which I think helps.

Reply
iorixs
November 20, 2012 @ 12:04 pm

the lower the capacitance the higher the cut off frequency?

Reply
- John
  November 22, 2012 @ 9:23 pm
  
  Yes, less capacitance raises the cutoff frequency, passing less high frequencies through the cap. So in a tone circuit with the cap wired to ground, lower capacitance value means less treble rolloff.
  
  Reply
TheCasualtyman
November 25, 2012 @ 5:23 pm

Is mayonnaise a tone capacitor material?

Reply
- John
  November 27, 2012 @ 5:41 pm
  
  it should be! 🙂
  
  Reply
RuroiniStenchin
November 26, 2012 @ 12:12 pm

I think i liked the “russian paper in oil” the best.

Reply
awkward14
November 29, 2012 @ 9:49 am

very interesting video …. the Russian paper in oil stood out a lot to me

Reply
Todd Littleton
December 2, 2012 @ 5:08 pm

Funny although the differences seem mild I actually seemed to get a warmer tone feeling out of the russian oil and all the vintages seem warmer as well seeming to indicate a capacitor ‘breaking in’ effect. as most know electricity is corrosive in that it does erode the path over time and that seems to have created the change in tone of the vintages. It would be nice to have a new and vintage same brand cap to test just to see. Anyways nice set up. Should do a blind listening test.

Reply
- John
  December 4, 2012 @ 1:05 pm
  
  If you want to do a blind test- you can download the recordings from my blog (the link is in the notes below the video).
  
  Reply
kiaora12
December 16, 2012 @ 3:35 pm

The original Epiphone was clearly the worst IMO followed by the Tropical fish and Mallory. I like the PIO best but all others sounded good, to my ears anyway.

Thanks for sharing this!

Reply
Mark
December 16, 2012 @ 9:04 am

Hi,
I have done a few capacitor shootouts after after reading article by Dirk Wacker on the Premier Guitar site (June 2010,Tech Tips.A must read for people interested in capacitors for guitars(4 parts).

He went on to say he had problems with an old Strat a customer brought in.It having poor tone.He then photographed the electrics then pulled them down and tested them,finding nothing wrong soldered them back together.And found all was magical.

What was the fix that had occurred.It turned out the orange drop capacitor had been soldered on opposite to what it had been when it had been originally been brought in.

So I thought I will do a blind shootout with some friends who have played guitar for decades.I have 100’s of different caps old and new.Measured up a heap,solder alligator clips to a tone pot and began with a Strat and Les Paul.Well I was blown away by how much a cap changes sounds when the legs are swapped around.Near on all of them and pointed out by all blind testers.And the old 1KV Ceramics came out on top on the Strat and Les Paul.followed by some old Philco Ford type 177 caps.PIO were mid pack(bumble bees, Sprague, ood-All, Gudeman,Black Cats, etc)Russian ones came in below the old U.S.A ones but still good,then Mullard mustard caps,Orange Drops,tropical fish,Mallory 150,etc.

This blow us all away I was a PIO man through and through so were a couple of others,a couple were orange drop and tropical fish lovers. But that all changed on that night.

P.S. Strats really love old NOS high voltage(1KV+)ceramic caps.

Whatever caps you use try them both ways around 9 times out of 10 there will be a difference in sounds.

Cheers hope this helps

Reply
- John
  December 16, 2012 @ 10:36 am
  
  Very interesting! It didn’t occur to me to try reversing these non polarized caps, but I’ll try it next time I’m gutting a guitar!
  Thanks,
  John
  
  Reply
1971SuperLead
December 20, 2012 @ 1:16 am

I like the communist capacitor.

Reply
Josh Mccracken
December 25, 2012 @ 9:01 pm

The Yellow Cylinders are nicknamed “Mustards”. Orange drops and mustards are the most affordable / best sounding. Vintage Gibsons used “Bumblebees”, but beware! Some companies actually make cheap caps and put vintage enclosures on them (refurbished). Vintage Mustards are around but are expensive to score. Just go with Orange drops at whatever rolloff you need. Russian cap cuts too much high end; no “bells” there for strat lovers or soloists.

Reply
- John
  December 30, 2012 @ 9:44 pm
  
  Yeah- even the boutique Luxe Grey Tiger and Gibson Bumblebees are actually just cheap caps wrapped in in pretty housing (perhaps they do some careful part selection for tolerance, etc- but they’re nothing particularly magical). See my blog post from 10/28/10: planetz .com/the-caps-new-clothes
  
  Reply
TheBriarBoy
December 31, 2012 @ 1:26 pm

Thanks for the great videos, subscribed.

Reply
theultimaterockr
December 31, 2012 @ 5:02 pm

Stewmac sell some Emerson caps. Do you know which of the ones you demoed the Emerson’s would sound most like? I’m thinking of putting them in a Strat with Dimarzio Injector pickups (noise cancelling & hot). I’m trying to put together a list of components to put in that will give it a hifi sound with lots of clarity and maybe a little spank

Reply
- John
  January 2, 2013 @ 11:30 am
  
  The Stewmac Emersons are Russian paper-in-oil, so they’d be most comparable with the big K-409 PIO shown in this video.
  
  Reply
theultimaterockr
December 31, 2012 @ 5:17 pm

Oh and I forgot to say that I’m also wanting to install some Led’s. Do you have any advice on that? It’s an Acrylic guitar and I’m debating on whether to have the led’s battery powered and run off of some sort of push pull pot or have them run straight off of the power from the jack. I’m wanting to put a chrome pickguard on it so I don’t want to drill any holes in it. I know that’s a lot of questions lol but I’m trying to get as many answered as I can. Thanks

Reply
- John
  January 2, 2013 @ 11:46 am
  
  There is no power “straight off the jack”, so if you want LEDs you’ll need to provide your own battery power source. The chrome pickguard should be pre-drilled to fit your guitar (assuming you have a standard guitar body-style).
  
  Reply
  - theultimaterockr
    January 2, 2013 @ 12:42 pm
    
    Thanks a lot. As far as the Leds are concerned, I was just going off of what I saw from a video called “KAMY051 acrylic plexiglas guitar” by user “artemis92400”. I didn’t see any visible switches or batteries. I didn’t know if there was someway he wired it to a pushpull pot to turn the lights on and off or if the power came directly from the jack. I’m more or less building his guitar with some more upgrades
    
    Reply
    - John
      January 2, 2013 @ 12:47 pm
      
      Nice project! He says in the comments of his video “there is blue standard LED with a 9v battery pack. the lights turn on when the jack is plugged.” Good luck with the project!
      
      Reply
D3maine
January 1, 2013 @ 3:12 pm

First thing I do after buying a guitar is bypass the tone altogether. Pick up configuration provides pretty good tone variation. I’m not interested in losing all those beautiful high frequencies. I’ve never found a valid reason to use tone control.

Reply
- John
  January 2, 2013 @ 11:25 am
  
  I only very rarely want to cut out some highs- but I do it sometimes. I like to bypass the tone when I’m not using it, to get that extra bit of sparkle. I either use a push/pull on the tone, or modify the tone pot to be no-load (see my video on how to do that in my channel).
  
  Reply
William Keehn
January 15, 2013 @ 9:29 am

Great job, really appreciate it!

That said, I honestly couldn’t perceive a difference in tone. However, I did notice the differences in how you played. Unfortunately you are a part of the experiment and it’s hard to eliminate your personal biases and human variations in playing style. To me you seemed to “like” the Russian paper in oil the most followed by the vintage yellow.

A black box with a rotary switch wired randomly by a friend would fix that.

Reply
- John
  January 15, 2013 @ 5:09 pm
  
  Indeed, good points about the human element. Best would be to have no human at all. I’ve been considering a white-noise based test… someday maybe.
  
  Reply
  - William Keehn
    January 21, 2013 @ 10:07 am
    
    I’ve been thinking about setting up a similar experiment, using a wheatstone bridge setup to measure actual signal differences between caps receiving the same signal simultaneously. My buddy says he likes the orange drop best – I still don’t hear it.
    
    Reply
    - John
      January 24, 2013 @ 9:57 am
      
      My plan is to use a digital recorder to pump an identical white-noise signal into each cap, recording the output. Then in Sound Forge or Wavelab, invert the original white noise signal, and add it to the recorded signal, and show the spectrum analysis of the results for each cap. I’d expect some nice surprises in there.
      
      Reply
      - Master0Chi
        February 13, 2013 @ 7:52 am
        
        That would be cool. Test your white noise first, I found some version were not actually flat. Also white noise only gives you an RMS, when a frequency is traveling slightly ahead or behind another it will look identical and yet sound very different.
        
        Reply
staalhaar
January 19, 2013 @ 1:18 am

Thanx a lot …Very good and usefull videos …Keep on Rocking… Greetings from Copenhagen Denmark

Reply
staalhaar
January 19, 2013 @ 1:18 am

Thanx a lot …Very good and usefull videos …Keep on Rocking… Greetings from Copenhagen Denmark

Reply
TheZenylor
January 22, 2013 @ 9:45 pm

It really useful!! Thank you

Reply
Jeff N
January 29, 2013 @ 4:48 am

where are you ordering these caps from?

Reply
alfredomunozavila
January 29, 2013 @ 1:00 pm

It can be posible if I want to put 2 caps on my strat, and a two way mini toggle switch to choose between them for example a .22and a .47 tone cap can this be possible?

Reply
- John
  January 29, 2013 @ 4:16 pm
  
  Yes you can do that, no problem. Some people install a rotary switch with a bunch of different caps (like a vari-tone).
  
  Reply
videoviewer1953
January 30, 2013 @ 2:01 pm

thank you, you saved me a bunch of money and aggravation.

Reply
azaan1632
February 6, 2013 @ 1:19 pm

I like the vintage yellow

Reply
marcoamf1977
February 6, 2013 @ 3:51 pm

Thanks a lot! There’s virtually no difference for me, except for slight changes. But when one seems brighter goovin’, may be darker when playing chords. Made up my mind about not investing high money on a too different cap.

Reply
hendrixgod1ify
February 9, 2013 @ 11:45 am

I have custom shop texas specials. Do I need caps or no. Any problems that can happen without them

Reply
- John
  February 12, 2013 @ 3:51 pm
  
  Are you asking if you need tone caps? You can always leave out or bypass the tone caps for a brighter sound, no problem. You may find your sound is too bright, and if so, you can use lower-resistance volume pots to darken the sound a bit, or add the tone circuit back in.
  
  Reply
Ben Tyreman
February 10, 2013 @ 8:59 pm

I like the russian PIO the most, listening to this on very high quality headphones blind, the russians always sounded better to me.

Reply
Master0Chi
February 13, 2013 @ 7:46 am

John it is apparent that you are mad scientist. I have something that you would love, and it will audio-able help your demonstrations. The Audio Envy NV-10s cable offers the true-est transfer of guitar tone that I have ever heard. I think you will appreciate removing that giant capacitor of a guitar cable so you can hear your capacitor tests. Hear it on you tube: Boutique Amp Vs Peavey.

Reply
- John
  February 13, 2013 @ 12:30 pm
  
  Yep, cable capacitance is an important consideration.
  I make my own low-capacitance cables – 22pf/foot.
  
  Reply
SweetSpotGuitar
February 13, 2013 @ 12:16 pm

Too lazy to read through all comments, but was wondering: did you test the actual cap values? If they’re +/-5% (or worse), some of the differences could be due to values. ESR ratings would also be of interest. Great vid showing some great work. Thanks for this!

Reply
- John
  February 13, 2013 @ 12:21 pm
  
  I measured the cap values in the part 3 followup video:
  watch?v=S7Hod21pIUI
  
  Reply
  - SweetSpotGuitar
    February 13, 2013 @ 12:26 pm
    
    Awesome!! Thanks.
    
    Reply
john walkerdine
February 18, 2013 @ 5:37 pm

hi john. i think its like a lot of things a matter of taste. i have done a passive treble and bass control on my strat.came out well, with the treble bleed on the vol pot.the caps i used were old mustard one they had most responce. but thanks its good to see others take pride in sound. and love these types of videos. thankyou

Reply
chuffa mocco
February 19, 2013 @ 9:02 am

Did a “blind” test the first time. I was reading the comments while listening. Can’t help but notice the distinct sound that the second to the last produced. On second viewing, I found out it was the vintage Mullard. It was a FAST capacitor, It responded to the attack better than the PIO in the first two settings. To me, that spelled the difference. Watch it again and tell me I’m wrong.

Reply
littlejon64
February 21, 2013 @ 7:38 pm

do you or word you put a Varitone switch in that guitar and what are the benefits of a Varitone switch and how does it work?
Thanks
John

Reply
- John
  February 22, 2013 @ 1:57 pm
  
  A varitone switch is a rotary switch with different filtering circuits at at each switch position. The simplest would be to replace the standard tone capacitor with a rotary switch containing a bunch of different tone caps. (Different capacitance values or different material types, etc). Then you can switch between them. Or you could add some inductors/resistors/etc for more complex filtering- band-pass, notch, high-pass, etc.
  
  Reply
jonwc3
February 23, 2013 @ 10:09 am

This was so awesome… thank you

Reply
ktuluworld
March 3, 2013 @ 5:53 am

Thanks for this video, I play stoner rock and my favourite is orange drop!

Reply
ElPayasete
March 4, 2013 @ 4:31 pm

Thank you!

Reply
LowRider1712
March 13, 2013 @ 7:58 am

Excellent demonstration, excatly was i was looking for a long time 🙂

Reply
CWZvideo
March 14, 2013 @ 10:00 pm

Howdy! I’ve recently built a TV/Guitar invention I call the “Guitelevision” and would like some other guitarist’s feedback. My demo video is called “Guitelevision” (should be first up if you search it) and I’d love to hear some thoughts. Many thanks! – cwzvideo

Reply
StopyerBitchin
March 18, 2013 @ 8:20 pm

You one patient Dude. Thanks for taking the time and sharing.

Reply
intrsoul
March 22, 2013 @ 1:38 pm

Russian PIO and the Fat Gray +1 with Mallory close behind. Thank you so much for doing this… I didn’t realize the cap made so much difference with tone pot wide open. I always thought it affected the tone as you introduced the pot resistance.

Reply
Clive Davies
March 25, 2013 @ 3:20 pm

I think the Mallory was defiantly the best all rounder.

Reply
m1garandisthebest
April 1, 2013 @ 6:17 pm

Hey, you have a ton of knowledge on this subject, something I’ve been trying to get into, so lemme ask you, do you do electrical engineering or something or is this just a hobby? Thanks! Keep up the great vids!

Reply
- John
  April 7, 2013 @ 9:14 pm
  
  Electronics are just a hobby, and I’m by no means an expert. See the FAQ at my blog at planetz for more resources on learning.
  
  Reply
  - David Pierson
    May 4, 2013 @ 3:31 am
    
    Hello, I am trying to make my own eq for vocals, what’s a good capacitor that rolls off bass, or is there a frequency chart that goes with each capacitor?
    
    Reply
    - John
      May 7, 2013 @ 11:10 am
      
      In part 2 of this video, I explain how capacitors work (understanding how the capacitance value relates to the cutoff frequency, etc) and how to use them in a tone circuit.
      
      Reply
MrGiantSilva
April 3, 2013 @ 10:57 am

The original Epiphone clearly sucks ass!

Reply
Johnix
April 8, 2013 @ 3:06 am

hi, wanted to ask if you could show where do you connect the alligator clips inside the guitar the guitar? or just upload a picture?
Thanx ahead

Reply
- John
  April 8, 2013 @ 12:27 pm
  
  For evaluating tone caps, you’ll be replacing the original tone cap with a couple alligator leads. In other words, unsolder the original tone cap which is usually from one lug of the tone potentiometer, to ground. Then connect your alligator clip lead to that same potentiometer lug, and the other alligator clip lead to ground. Then you can try out different caps with the two alligator clips connected to the two cap leads.
  John
  
  Reply
GabrielTheGuitarist
April 8, 2013 @ 11:00 pm

For some reason I’m digging the Russian and Tropical fish caps.

Reply
01MrGibson
April 18, 2013 @ 10:19 am

I would definitely go for the Russian PIO .022uF
Regards

Reply
- Thomas Guidobono
  May 24, 2013 @ 1:23 pm
  
  same here.. i liked the Russian PIO
  
  Reply
  - MrJohnny56789
    May 25, 2013 @ 11:22 pm
    
    it’s because it sounds grittier and also causes low freq to dance around more with tone knob change.
    
    Reply
frethand101
April 22, 2013 @ 9:44 am

Hmm,there’s abunch of those tropical fish caps in my MXR phase 100 Script..

Reply
JohnnyJohnnyJohnny
May 12, 2013 @ 1:09 am

Well, my vested interest in tone chasing via capacitor types has been greatly depreciated thanks to this. That certainly saves some time.

Reply
Siggi Hauswirth
May 13, 2013 @ 2:51 am

I don`t hear significant differences.

Reply
iDealMedley
May 18, 2013 @ 6:43 am

I have a question . Whats is capacitor actually for?

Reply
- John
  May 21, 2013 @ 9:55 am
  
  See part two of this video for an explanation of what a capacitor does, and how it works in the tone circuit.
  
  Reply
- MrJohnny56789
  May 25, 2013 @ 11:21 pm
  
  caps pass AC voltage and current, they are reactive objects which gives them impedance to AC voltage. the faster the signal, the less the cap blocks that voltage. 10 hz will get more blocked or slowed down than 1000 hz. 1000 hz sees a cap like a solid wire in comparison.
  
  Reply
AdamTheGuitarHero
May 25, 2013 @ 5:41 pm

There is almost no difference at all between the caps honestly.

Reply
- MrJohnny56789
  May 25, 2013 @ 11:21 pm
  
  noob.
  
  Reply
  - AdamTheGuitarHero
    May 28, 2013 @ 5:57 pm
    
    You’re kidding right?
    The only Cap that sounds different is the tropical fish and the only reason for that is because it has a different capacitance than all the others.
    
    Reply
    - MrJohnny56789
      May 29, 2013 @ 12:56 am
      
      go ahead and close your eyes and loop the test, and listen with your ears. after about 10 tries you should be able to hear the differences.
      
      Reply
    - TheAgentAssassin
      June 2, 2013 @ 11:45 pm
      
      I hear the differences in all of them. I guess maybe you’re not a musician? I paid attention to his strum style to make sure the variances were accounted for . I could clearly hear tonal differences.
      
      Some had more tin , some had more warmth ,some had more mid etc. so on and so forth
      
      Reply
      - AdamTheGuitarHero
        June 3, 2013 @ 7:40 am
        
        I am indeed a musician.
        However I think that the variations you’re hearing are because of expected différences between the caps. Even if it is marked .22uf or some value of the like, 2 caps will never have the same capacitance value. After all, each one does the same job; roll off the higher frequencies in the signal.
        
        Reply
        
        John
        June 4, 2013 @ 9:53 am
        
        I showed the measured cap values in part 3 of the video: watch?v=92G-jw4TqS4
        
        Reply
- jd1655
  July 14, 2013 @ 7:50 am
  
  I’m with you Adam. There is some difference, but I certainly wouldn’t go to any trouble to go out and find the say the Russian one and actually replace the part. I think for some gear heads it is important (and entertaining) to get the ‘best’ of everything. For me, I tend to just work with what I have and make it work rather than going crazy to find ‘the perfect tone’
  
  Reply
Cos Chapman
May 28, 2013 @ 2:01 pm

I found this so useful. Though I do think how old your strings are and playing technique have more effect on tone than the material of the caps, I could hear some difference – had to close my eyes and listen several times though. Many thanks for going to the trouble of doing this – a real public service. Just checked your blog now and dusting off the soldering iron.

Reply
TheAgentAssassin
June 2, 2013 @ 11:43 pm

If you put all those on a rotary foot pedal? I think you just invented a new pedal type?

Reply
CRMcAuliffe
June 22, 2013 @ 6:08 am

I like the 0.022 Russian paper in oil and the 0.022 Orange Drop, Why do they make such a big deal about Tropical Fish one’s? He sounds good but not great.

Reply
Johnny Rushmore
June 24, 2013 @ 10:11 am

Paper & oil sounded warmer to me then all the rest and the tropical fish sounded the best overall with obvious definition in the top and mids –

Reply
Iago B
June 30, 2013 @ 9:22 pm

Great video. The differences are all negligible IMO, given they exist probably due to tolerances.

Reply
Faris Ansor
July 7, 2013 @ 3:02 pm

John, thank you for being so precise and scientific with all of your comparison videos, you make it easy to compare different elements of the guitar and to decide with confidence. …..and I’m a bass player!

Reply
dasrednecks4guns
July 10, 2013 @ 5:25 pm

dude. dude. dude……. nice vid. keep the Russian. go easy on the proverbs, too.

Reply
pvsage
July 11, 2013 @ 1:24 am

Changes in playing between each take made a much more significant difference than cap selection. This shootout would have been more interesting if you had included ceramic capacitors, as I’ve heard there are significant tonal differences between disc and MLCC caps. Any reason you chose to ignore ceramics and focus on so many polyester caps?

By the way, most amp builders would have identified those “unknown” types at as polyester at a glance, had you asked around first.

Reply
- John
  July 11, 2013 @ 8:32 am
  
  See followup parts 3&4 for recordings with ceramics, measurements, etc.
  
  Reply
fiftypeehead
July 18, 2013 @ 1:50 pm

Great video, very helpful to me as I’ve recently changed the pickups and control plate, wiring etc on my Tele. Didn’t quite get the tone I was looking for. I can rule out the caps as the differences are negligible. Thanks very much

Reply
weewilly2007
August 1, 2013 @ 8:36 pm

Such detail! I appreciate the call towards mastery, but in hindsight were the costs in proportion to value gained in the long run. How would humanity stack up in a costs to benefits analysis in the long run? Cognitive function, mental capacity and motor skills would be improved, but this is merely an increase in means (capacity/capability), what is the ultimate destination

Reply
- John
  August 8, 2013 @ 12:38 pm
  
  Yes, working to improve your playing skill will indeed have a more dramatic benefit on your guitar sound than changing your tone capacitor. 🙂
  
  Reply
  - weewilly2007
    August 8, 2013 @ 5:56 pm
    
    Still pretty impressive, cheers
    
    Reply
- vetmusician
  September 9, 2013 @ 11:31 am
  
  there is no destination,……only the one we cant perceive yet,…..transformation into pure energy,…the rest is a momentary reality, a proverbial dream from which we will eventually awake for eternity
  
  Reply
- gingersteve
  September 10, 2013 @ 6:36 am
  
  Not sure I follow.
  
  Reply
- john tracolta
  October 7, 2013 @ 11:14 pm
  
  What’s happening?
  
  Reply
- Charlee Murphee
  October 23, 2013 @ 8:15 am
  
  Tone is everything. You can sweep the neck with metal runs or jazz arpeggios, but if the tone is not there, it’s useless and lifeless. Tone will make you a better player.
  
  Reply
J Elcheson
August 9, 2013 @ 3:31 pm

Great comparison vid.

The PIO and Orange Drop are the most musical for sure. The Epiphone and Tropical Fish are most harsh(in a subtle way) and have no life to them.

Reply
Elliot Rodgers
August 16, 2013 @ 10:40 pm

I’m new on this. I’ll watch the other videos but need help. What kind of capacitor do i need if i want an alnico pro pickups to sound kinda Guild Strafire pickups?Maybe it’s a dumb question, i know, but for the sound i’m looking for it’s worthy to change the cap or the pickups?

Reply
Jeff Barrett
August 17, 2013 @ 7:14 pm

Great vid! I heard more of a difference with the pot on 10 to 5. No difference when turned to zero. Def proves I’m not insane noticing a difference in tone with having caps in even with it full up.

Reply
Paul Hopkins
August 22, 2013 @ 11:39 pm

When it comes to caps in a guitars tone circuit the only thing that matters is the value. Material of construction doesn’t mean anything. This video does a good job of proving what I already knew.

Reply
Paul Hopkins
August 22, 2013 @ 11:42 pm

Any difference between the sound between each cap in the video was caused by slight differences in pick attack. The value of a tone cap is all that matters, that being said, some .022uf caps can vary in value quite a bit.

Reply
3amsleep
September 6, 2013 @ 1:54 am

The Russian PIO was AMAZING!

Reply
JusAequum
September 28, 2013 @ 2:16 pm

I can’t hear any significant change between cap that have the same value. But it seem to get darker when use lager value cap.

Reply
ElPayasete
September 28, 2013 @ 7:22 pm

Good job! Thanks for this!

Reply
john tracolta
October 7, 2013 @ 11:16 pm

wow huge difference in sound

Reply
john tracolta
October 7, 2013 @ 11:21 pm

Mallory for the win. God the epi stock 1 is thin an ugly

Reply
Charlee Murphee
October 23, 2013 @ 8:12 am

Mallory or Orange drop…it’s a toss up, but I’d probably go with the Mallory. It’s amazing how much the tone is changed by each cap.

Reply
Tandy Gossett
October 26, 2013 @ 11:32 pm

Russian sounds best to me, but it’s just barely creamier than the rest. Without hearing them back to back I couldn’t tell the difference. Jimi just played the guitar, he didn’t care what pickups, caps, or anything else it had, he just made the best of it. Thank you for posting this. Maybe people will realize how little difference cap material makes. It’s about the size more than anything.

Reply
aaronkon
November 2, 2013 @ 6:51 am

I liked the Mullard Mustard, so I bought one (.022, 400v). When people talk about amp caps, they talk about “burn in.” Will the Mullard need to be burned in when used in a guitar? Will the guitar pass enough voltage through to do it properly? Thanks for all your help — you are helping a lot of people!

Reply
John Cooper
November 15, 2013 @ 9:47 am

@aaronkon- no the mullard doesn’t need to “burned in”, and yes it will work
fine even though a guitar signal is < 1V,

Reply
ARTEAMP a
November 26, 2013 @ 8:37 am

It depends what sound you like, all capacitors sounds good

Reply
Seb Lee
December 5, 2013 @ 3:47 am

Very useful video, thanks a lot Mister Cooper!

Reply
vitovitale
December 16, 2013 @ 4:21 pm

Listening to this I would say there is no real difference… but that does
not match some of what I have experienced. In effect the difference I
perceive is when playing melody lines and comparing the melody line played
finding different sweet spots with the pot. What I have found is different
caps can cut frequencies differently and for playing a melody line with
expression the difference can be huge. Most standard caps in production
guitars really just cut out the highs taking with them a lot of the tonal
character of the open sound.. you end up using them rarely perhaps only to
cut some highs if you are twanging beyond the bareable.. or if you want to
try to get as sort of Jazzy tone.. but also on the jazzy tone I find the
stock Caps kill you highs and your tone.. I think the real test is playing
melody lines with expression with the different caps. When I find a cap
that really works for me it provides character to the sound and I find
myself using it quite frequently. Maybe its placebo.. or what some are
calling mojo..who knows .. but thats the way I perceive this.

Reply
Bill Ayers
December 18, 2013 @ 5:55 pm

If if floats you boat then cork sniffing is fine. I find it not worth the
time.
Read this http://www.seymourduncan.com/tonefiend/guitar/customize-your-caps/ …It might help you….

Reply
Ed Wackrow
December 28, 2013 @ 2:10 pm

i like the russian and the vintage vint tropical fish and the epiphone the
least. the fat grey was also thick.

Reply
BlackLocustMusic
December 29, 2013 @ 9:16 pm

Nice video and sound. I also don’t think it makes any since to have a tone
pot and cap on a guitar. You’ll get a lot more sound from a full on pickup
and be able to adjust the tone at the amplifier where the tone actually is
produced. Thanks. John – professional tube amplifier builder / luthier.
Happy music.

Reply
BlackLocustMusic
December 29, 2013 @ 9:24 pm

There is NO ”burn in” with anything in an amplifier. That’s a load of
shit. Sorry for the language. Mullard is nothing special. Stick with the
poly caps they last much longer and stay within their intended value. With
capacitors the physical size of the cap is important. Cheap china caps
are made with etched surfaces so they can be of a large value for more
surface area. Big capacitors actually have large enough plates to the job
without the need of etching. Price is quite a bit more but its the better
way to go when used for amplifiers. Just forget the ”vintage” crap and
use the good stuff made today its far superior , just do a little studying.

Reply
jAMIemADR0x1
January 3, 2014 @ 8:42 pm

i’ll go for the mallory

Reply
r4ar Product
January 7, 2014 @ 3:34 pm

Mallory stands out from the others, to me.

Reply
Jaymn2589
January 8, 2014 @ 11:42 am

Interesting, I went into this video really only knowing paper in oil caps
where “better for tone” during the test its what I thought sounded best.
The power of suggestion is strong….

Reply
ChampAmp69
January 10, 2014 @ 8:18 am

The tropical fish stood out to me because it sounded like a tropical fish
-_-

Reply
Dreadfire Groove
January 17, 2014 @ 1:39 pm

There is one question that i really would love to be answered…where in
hell do i get a bunch of aligator clips like yours!?

Reply
Van Avakian
January 29, 2014 @ 4:34 pm

The tropical fish is doing what you most wanted out of those pick ups which
was brightening them.

Reply
thenewebroy619
February 3, 2014 @ 10:47 am

this is my favorite voice!!!!!!!!!!

Reply
Jeff Robinson
February 4, 2014 @ 6:30 pm

The graphic equalizer is nearly identical for all the caps. Anyone claiming
they can hear a significant difference is a tard monkey.

Reply
Mesa3077Boogie
February 4, 2014 @ 7:37 pm

with my eyes closed, i swear the clearest , punchiest, and also brightest
was the original epiphone cap.. bummer. I was hoping I would choose
somehthing that was more vintage. Good job epiphone!

Reply
A2Guitars
February 5, 2014 @ 8:11 pm

I do honestly appreciate your efforts here, as they are obviously honest
and well intended to educate and freely share what information you gather.

Might I kindly suggest however, that the results and observations from this
comparison are left completely susceptible to unintentional corruption by
not being conducted in a double-blind manner. If you were able to find the
time to repeat these comparisons, but this time maintaining a constant
tested value while ensuring that both the player and the listener had no
knowledge of what cap was engaged at what time, I believe you would come
away with entirely different conclusions in the end.

Reply
Joe Ralph Henandez Aviles
February 9, 2014 @ 8:33 am

Amazing job, thanks very much for give me a clear perspective of how the
type of material from the cap affect the tone
thanks

Reply
mokv
February 22, 2014 @ 7:20 am

FCKING AWESOME

Reply
Lord Jock
March 9, 2014 @ 5:10 pm

Hi Is there a difference in wiring the cap from the Vol pot to the tone
pot as in Les Paul wiring or just the tone pot ?

Reply
Heath Daniels
March 30, 2014 @ 10:46 am

Great video! Honestly I couldn’t tell any difference but on two. The
factory cap seemed slightly brighter, and the tropical fish seemed slightly
fuller. I’m a bass builder / player, not a guitar player however. I’d like
to do the same test with a jazz bass.
I think the results are subjective, each person will hear little
differences to each cap and can perhaps like one over the other.

Reply
flip3213
April 7, 2014 @ 8:50 am

is this 50s style wiring?

Reply
flip3213
April 7, 2014 @ 8:53 am

they all sound different a little bit sweet vid man

Reply
jonzy72
April 11, 2014 @ 2:36 pm

Original sounds the best

Reply
Catalin Chivu
April 21, 2014 @ 2:54 am

I love the sound of the Mallory, I think it sounds great, especially for
lead. I’d choose the vintage gray for rhythm, though.

Reply
spartanworria
April 24, 2014 @ 9:10 am

OK I thought they all sounded very similar. on chords the paper ones were
a little bit dull, I thought the orange drop was clearer on chords. I
would go for the orange drop but over all its horses for courses. EG they
are all close and it depends on what style you play and what you like.

Reply
David White
May 7, 2014 @ 5:44 pm

she’s a beaut

Reply
Michal Foster
May 8, 2014 @ 7:25 pm

Thank you for this ordering my orange drops for sure.

Reply
Les Paul - Kondensatoren Upgrade
May 12, 2014 @ 1:43 am

[…] […]

Reply
Lee Hazlett
June 3, 2014 @ 8:54 am

excellent! thanks for experimenting for us broke folk

Reply
Rick R
June 7, 2014 @ 9:14 pm

IMHO: The Epiphone original and the tropical fish sounded best overall but
both sounded worst at 5K than the rest, in 2nd the orange drop 3rd Mallory
except wide-opened it was as muddy as the paper. The papers were especially
bad playing chords, they were very muddy.

Reply
filthy pit
June 8, 2014 @ 7:56 pm

Thanks for taking the time to demo/disect these caps… to me they really
do sound very similar. liked the orig Epi & Trop Fish the best. But I also
like the commie PIO caps for a ‘vintage’ sound too.
Oh, and GREAT guitar!

Reply
Stewie Griffin
June 9, 2014 @ 8:11 pm

Chi chi can fly

Reply
first
June 9, 2014 @ 9:28 pm

well now i know i dont have to waste my time worrying about what capacitor
I’ve got

Reply
Nuno
June 19, 2014 @ 6:50 am

It’s proved that the brain tricks listening perception due to several factors but denying that people can not hear differences between tone capacitors (in a guitar tone circuit) types with the same exact capacitance reading is like stating that people cannot tune to pitch by ear.

Beyond the obvious electric functionality of sending high frequencies to ground. It is important to admit and understand how the Hi frequencies are removed, there is a pattern specific to each cap that affect the signal texture. Most likely this can be measured, people are not approaching it correctly with the proper tools.

Reply
0ZK0R0
June 21, 2014 @ 11:47 pm

I think this is a great vid, and I disagree, they sound similar, except at
the lowest output. I really liked the Russian K-409 for most settings. I
thought the Epi stock caps sounded like shite. Thanks for uploading.

Reply
lucio vazquez
July 9, 2014 @ 9:43 pm

buen video,gracias

Reply
matt preus
July 11, 2014 @ 10:21 am

Good effort but you should have used an all-tube amp to hear more detail.
Solid state amps like yours have a way of making everything sound the
same.

Reply
Cristian nolasco mompeán
July 31, 2014 @ 12:20 am

Yes Sir. Good demonstration. All these capacitors are quite similar but
there are little details in the sound. I´ve never thought the capacitor
could modify in this way the sound. Thanks for your effort.

Reply
jzoha64038
September 17, 2014 @ 10:55 am

russan pio are truely the best

Reply
shanesmrf
September 18, 2014 @ 7:37 am

what is that program you are using to show the frequencies? in the top
right of the video

Reply
한결 임
October 1, 2014 @ 12:23 pm

good video

Reply
Bad Mouth Men
October 6, 2014 @ 3:50 pm

can you hear a difference more in the room, than on video? i know a lot of
people upgrade epi caps but tbh i can barely hear any difference between
them. the russian one is a slightly fatter sound, and the one after that
brittle. the rest sound much the same to me.

Reply
Felipe F
October 7, 2014 @ 2:56 pm

Reply
cableaddict
October 25, 2014 @ 1:05 am

Bravo, John !

this certainly debunks at least one this Seymour Duncan claimed- that the
cap has no effect when your pot is on ten.

– But as for the comparison, the only thing for sure is that the Mallory
sounds grainy. In order to trust the rest, you probably should have
checked the caps first on a meter, to make sure they were truly at .022.

– Or did you?

It would also be massively interesting to see a read-out of white noise,
sent through the circuit, with no pickup involved. This would show both the
Q and also if there are any significant resonant peaks, as some people
claim.

Reply
matt preus
October 25, 2014 @ 6:39 pm

Anyway, I’m hearing small differences between caps. Another good
demonstration is when you have a switch that cuts off the tone pot and tone
cap completely. It makes it so obvious that the tone pot and cap are
totally loading down the signal.

Reply
J Duque
November 14, 2014 @ 4:25 pm

I love this man, thank you very much!!!

Reply
John Harjung
November 30, 2014 @ 8:05 pm

I have often wondered about this kind of thing and to my ears the
differences are not enough for me to worry about, if there are any
differences at all. It’s not enough for me to rush out and get a expensive
paper in oil or whatever because so and so uses one and swears by it. Tone
is so subjective and if guitars players obsessed over playing as much as
they do over silly things like this there would probably be a lot better
players out there ! lol having said that I am just as guilty as everyone
else about this kind of thing. Sometimes you just have to step back and
take a breath. Thank you John for taking the time to do this, nice job !

Reply
hiddlebatch96
December 6, 2014 @ 8:57 pm

Okay yeah I’m dead. That was awesome!

Reply
patfurlan
December 7, 2014 @ 6:32 pm

one problem with this test happens at 4:10 onwards.. with the chord played
at the 12th fret… the chord is lifted before the note is done ringing out
… since a lot of the differences in these caps are in the trailing
harmonics and the sustain you will not get to hear the difference …
there are major differences in 2 to 3% of the capacitors you can use but
you will not hear them with this test otherwise this is a great test

Reply
napalmhardcore
December 12, 2014 @ 1:24 pm

I’m just learning about capacitors. Your videos have been helpful for
demonstrating the difference they make. Thanks.

Reply
Jshortca
February 2, 2015 @ 3:37 pm

orange drop and the mallory both sounded the same, and the best to my ears.
Very good video, I enjoyed it.

Reply
Aidanandabetting
February 12, 2015 @ 5:35 pm

Great vid!. To me the orange drop sounded the best in all settings. The
others seemed to add a slight something to the sound either a mellowing or
slight crunch or both which is good or bad depending on your ears, the
worst was the original epiphone which to me sounded fine but had a ever so
slight volume drop in my opinion.

Reply
elwrongo
March 4, 2015 @ 8:50 pm

What great idea for comparison, thanks! Notice the tone difference on the
single notes but hardly as all on the chords.

Reply
usfenderfsdlx
March 12, 2015 @ 10:23 am

I can hear a remarkable difference. I was surprised how much the low end
shifted between some of the material types (paper in oil was especially
different), as well as the difference in mids and highs between all the
caps, even with the volume on 10. Certain caps had a totally different mid
character. This video is fascinating, thanks for doing it!

Reply
usfenderfsdlx
March 12, 2015 @ 2:12 pm

I find myself most enjoying the mallory and fat gray cylinder, I also liked
the yellow cylinder and paper-in-oil for most examples, and they really
shone on a few. Honorable mention: tropical fish, which was really cool
especially on the high leads. Didn’t care for the orange drop or the
original much at all.

Reply
wheatonna
March 22, 2015 @ 5:53 pm

Thanks for this: super helpful.

Reply
Jerry D
April 3, 2015 @ 6:25 pm

Love the tropical fish,

Reply
p.e. i
April 5, 2015 @ 7:24 pm

nice an scientific… personally i like the fat grey one..
but i’d be hesitant and would probably want to test further with different
effects ..and maybe go as far as switching amps ..just to see how the react
to being driven..etc

Reply
momomo393
April 8, 2015 @ 12:51 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92G-jw4TqS4

Reply
Dirtyharry70585
April 25, 2015 @ 6:49 am

thanks for the video.

so I’m using my new sony mdr-10rst head phones wired, I favor the old
yeller, next as a ‘general’ frequency spread, the original cap from epie.
Next to that the fish cap.

I’m sure if I’d amp this through the home 4way set, and carver amps it
would be different still.

I’ve built many home speakers and everything has something different! Man
its just cool how sound can change to every ones ears!

Reply
Adam Barker
July 2, 2015 @ 7:09 am

Well, listing on studio monitors, here’s what I think. Of course you have
to turn speaker volume up a bit. The ones I think mentioning:
***Mallory: most evenly EQ’d, great clarity with tightest bass. No wonder
tube amp builders use these.
****Russian PIO: best mids, warm clarity and punch. Retained tone better
when turning pots down (fits guitar freq’s best).
**Vintage Yellow Film/Foil: Less bass and mids, highs little harsh, but
actually close to the PIO but less natural.
*Mullard Mustard-Fat Grey: Awkward sound, too much flabby bass and pretty
muddy to my ears. Maybe best for thin sounding guitar.
**Tropical Fish: Decent clarity, plenty of highs, but mids were lacking.
Not a bad cap.

.

Reply
Andrew Cross
July 16, 2015 @ 7:37 am

I personally can’t hear too much difference, I’m willing to bet that a lot
of it is due to the tolerances of the cap materials, but either way, that’s
a really nice sounding guitar!

Reply
everhard1000
July 17, 2015 @ 9:07 pm

TNX for sharing !!!

Reply
mrcrappyguitarist
July 19, 2015 @ 4:39 pm

i quite like the pio caps. if you had a strat with 3 tone controls ( mid
and neck are a dual concentric pot), for which positions would a pio be
best suited, also..what would be best type of cappy for the other
position(s)? ie …pio for mid, what is good for bridge and neck…
polypropylene, mylar, ceramic ?

Reply
Condensadores y potenciómetros en guitarras y bajos eléctricos | La guitarra y los instrumentos de cuerda pulsada
June 10, 2016 @ 2:06 am

[…] Pueden encontrar una comparativa de condensadores (con muestras de audio) AQUÍ. […]

Reply
Condensadores y Potenciometros | PARREÑO LUTHIER - Reparación de Guitarras y Bajos
April 30, 2020 @ 2:14 pm

[…] Pueden encontrar una comparativa de condensadores (con muestras de audio) AQUÍ. […]

Reply

Crazy Tone Thing

328 Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply