Strat capacitor question

[miguel]

You use a .047 cap in combination with a resistor? In other words, you actually "copied" a 250k tone pot with a .047 cap, in the off position.

Exactly!

I think PRS may use the same concept on their Hollowbody series of guitars. I've seen a cap and resistor across the pos & neg jack terminals, but I dont know the value that they use.

I think the PRS thing is a treble bleed (misnomer) circuit. I have one of those as well - keeps the tone from getting muddy l when the volume is rolled down... seems like I used a 1000pF cap in series with a 220k resistor.

[wdelaney72]

What you CAN do is replace the pot with a switch (or use a push-pull switch on the volume pot) and wire the cap de jour to it, thereby giving you a tone circuit that doesnt affect the tone at all when its not used.

My current geetar just had a 250k volume pot, since I hardly ever used the tone control. Sounded good, but after a while I decided it it was just a little on the bright side. Instead of adding a tone pot, I wired a .047 cap and 260k resistor in series to emulate a tone control on "10" (off). That little bit of bleed off the high end sweetened it up just enough.

So what you are saying is a pickup into a volume pot only is brighter than one with a traditional tone pot?

[basile865]

I read on a seperate website - http://www.areyouexperienced.net" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - that vintage strats all had .1uF caps with the exception of 1968, which had .047uF caps.

[fillmore nyc]

What you CAN do is replace the pot with a switch (or use a push-pull switch on the volume pot) and wire the cap de jour to it, thereby giving you a tone circuit that doesnt affect the tone at all when its not used.

My current geetar just had a 250k volume pot, since I hardly ever used the tone control. Sounded good, but after a while I decided it it was just a little on the bright side. Instead of adding a tone pot, I wired a .047 cap and 260k resistor in series to emulate a tone control on "10" (off). That little bit of bleed off the high end sweetened it up just enough.

So what you are saying is a pickup into a volume pot only is brighter than one with a traditional tone pot?

Yeah, cause a small amount of signal (highs) will leaks thru the resistance path (and capacitor) to ground of a tone control. Thats why some guys will use a 1 meg ohm pot on the tone control as opposed to something less like a 250 ohm pot... its harder for any signal to get thru a 1 meg pot than a 250 ohm pot, and therefore it acts a little more like having NO tone control at all when its off.
Using something like a 100k tone pot on a Tele (which has a 250k tone pot) can take a little of that brittleness away.
A Les Paul uses a 500k tone pot... using a 1 meg tone pot on a LP will brighten it a little, and using a 250k for the tone will darken it a little. (Its not super-dramatic, but you can hear the diff)

[wdelaney72]

Right now I've got 500ik volume and 500ki / .047uF tone and it's REALLY bright. I'll try replacing them both with 250k pots and .022uF and see if I like it. If it's too dark, I'm sure the answer will be somewhere in between.

Mahogony G&L strat ebony fingerboard A5 humbucker ~11k.

[electricskychurch]

50's and 60's strats used 0,1 uf caps and the customs shop time machine ones as well.
the mark knopfler uses 0,1 and i think the american vintage as well.
anything under 0,1 uf in a vintage style strat might sound harsh most of the time.
i tried to replace the stock 0,1uf cap (polypropylene or polyesther , i don't know !?) in a custom shop 60 strat , with a 0,1 uf mullard mustard cap but it didn't change the tone (so i don't think putting a bumble bee in your gibson will change much unless the value is different than the stock one) .
the american standard strats use 0,022 if i remember well but the bridge doesn't give as much brightness as the original vintage style ones.

[basile865]

I've recently put in custom shop 69 pickups in my american standard which I also believe has a .022 cap in it and I'm in love with the way it sounds. Its not bright at all, I might roll the tone back a hair here and there but no problems with it. Sounds great.