Les Paul capacitors

daniel · Post by **daniel** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 5:33 pm

Need some input on this, until I can get my hands on some bumblebee capacitors for my les paul classic I was think about putting some sprague .47uf x 16v capacitors in there. I don't have a ton of knowledge about this stuff as of yet, I would just like some input as to whether anyone has done this and how it might sound.

Country Boy Shane · Post by **Country Boy Shane** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 6:32 pm

I've heard about those little LP kits that change the values of the pots and components around it back to original historic specs. How exactly do these components affect the tone of the guitar? I know George did something like that in his main LP, but what does it do to the guitar's tone? I know the original LP's had all 500K pots, but mine has 2 300K volume, and 2 500K tone. What does having all 500K sound like?

Zoso · Post by **Zoso** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 7:42 pm

Putting a 500k volume pot gives you a little more high mid punch. Basically, the higher value volume pot you use, the brighter the sound will be, because a higher value pot doesn't put as much load on the pickups and lets more of the signal through, which in turn allows more of the peak resonance frequency of the pickup through. Maybe the new Gibson pickups are made to be used with 300k pots, because I put 500k's in my Flying V with stock pickups and it was a little too harsh. But I have Duncan 59's in my LP and I had to put 500k's in it to even use the neck pickup without it being muddy. It is definitely worth switching out the pots to see if you like it, cause it does make a big difference. As far as a 500k on the tone control, it just gives a little more range to the tone control. Also worth checking out, but not as big a difference as the volume pot, IMO.

There is a lot of good info about this at http://www.seymourduncan.com

daniel · Post by **daniel** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 1:51 am

So I put those sprague capacitors, which I found out are nos from the sometime in the 60's, in at band practice and they actually made a huge difference. You can definitely tell the difference between these and the stock ceramic caps. It especially helped out the neck pickup, it is a lot more chimy now. Overall the guitar is just a lot more tonefull. Now all I need is some sd antiquity paf's and some 500k pots and I'm ready to go. Highly recommend that les paul owners look into this.

dosmun · Post by **dosmun** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 9:02 pm

Has anyone tried the Hovland's? THey are very expensive. I can't imagine that they would make that much of a difference for the price.

dosmun · Post by **dosmun** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 9:03 pm

What values are you guys using for your caps?

daniel · Post by **daniel** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 11:36 pm

The caps in my les paul classic are .47uf x 16v orange sprague's. They're the caps that were used after they stopped using bumblebees. I got 2 pairs of them off e-bay for ten bucks and it was definitely money well spent.

dosmun · Post by **dosmun** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 9:25 am

This seems to be a good place to go for caps and pots.

http://www.blackrosecustom.emerchantpro.com/

Country Boy Shane · Post by **Country Boy Shane** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 1:04 pm

daniel wrote:The caps in my les paul classic are .47uf x 16v orange sprague's. They're the caps that were used after they stopped using bumblebees. I got 2 pairs of them off e-bay for ten bucks and it was definitely money well spent.

Are you running all 500K pots? What noticeable change did the capacitors add to your LP tone?

daniel · Post by **daniel** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 4:52 pm

I'm not sure if the pots are 500k or 320k. I couldn't tell by looking at them so I have to try and find out. The biggest difference I noticed after putting the caps in lp was in the neck pickup. The tone is a bit more sparkly and chimy. Overall I would just say that guitar has a slightly bigger sound and a richer harmonic content. The tone is sweeter if that makes sense.

Country Boy Shane · Post by **Country Boy Shane** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 5:21 pm

daniel wrote:I'm not sure if the pots are 500k or 320k. I couldn't tell by looking at them so I have to try and find out. The biggest difference I noticed after putting the caps in lp was in the neck pickup. The tone is a bit more sparkly and chimy. Overall I would just say that guitar has a slightly bigger sound and a richer harmonic content. The tone is sweeter if that makes sense.

Yes you make perfect sense. I can relate saying that my neck pickup often sounds muddy expecially since i'm using 12's for strings. Maybe i'll try that cap. thing in the future. Right now i'm ordering Seymour Duncan "Seth Lover" pickups with a 4-conductor configuration to do coil tapping for some unique single-coil sounds. I'm just gonna have push/pull pots to control it. I'm pretty excited about this mod i'm doing. Anyone else ever try this on a LP?

Flames1950 · Post by **Flames1950** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 11:21 pm

I'm assuming we're really talking a .047uF cap, right? Even original vintage Fenders only came with a .1uF, not as big as a .47uF.
Original Les Pauls came with .047's instead of .022's?? Might have to give that a try as I was about to change the caps, etc. on my Gibbies anyway.

daniel · Post by **daniel** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 8:06 pm

the caps say .47 on them so don't know if thats right or not. I don't quite understand everything about caps, what does the uf rating refer to and how does it affect the caps performance

daniel · Post by **daniel** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 8:13 pm

here's a link so you can see the caps I got http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 12468&rd=1

dosmun · Post by **dosmun** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 9:19 am

Next question.

How many of you actually use the Tone controls on your guitar. On my Les Paul I never do. Sometimes when I use my Strat I may back of the Tone just a bit. The Players that are spending HUGE $$$ on the Bumble Bee caps are just plain Gullible IMHO.