Capacitors – Page 2

April 30, 2010

Another interesting tone cap article

Electronics, Geek, Guitar Capacitors, Electronics 0

Steven at S. K. Guitar Specialties has an interesting article comparing tone caps of different material types (PIO, Ceramic and polyester), with overlaid frequency plots. Check it here.

April 15, 2010

Blind Tone Tests

Electronics, Geek, Guitar Capacitors, Electronics, Epiphone Riviera P93 3

Here are the recordings lifted from my most recent Tone Cap Comparison Video, split into individual files. The files are named using generic numbers, rather than labeling them by cap type – so you can listen to these without being influenced by preconceived ideas of what a particular material type should sound like.

Download them all as a single 2Mb zip if you’d like to use a double-blind tool (like WinABX or foobar with ABX).

Or try this. Before checking the legend (linked below), listen to the examples and choose the one you like best. After you’ve decided what you like, only then check the legend which says what cap type is used for each recording.

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).