We first purchased a load of capacitors of various types, all new. Using that tool, we can measure the responses, plot them, and even create sound clips so that we can actually hear the effects of various tone capacitors. For a guitarist that’s a difficult task as the only measurement tool he has is his ear, and that tool is biased by all the other stuff running around in his brain, good and bad.įortunately, we have a tool that we created specifically for measuring the frequency responses of guitar pickups, and it has no such biases. Then how do we bust this hypefest? We do that by attaching tone capacitors of the same measured value to the same instrument, in turn, and measuring the frequency response of the pickups. The principles learned apply to other values as well. There are many values used in the wide range of guitars on the market, but the tests here focus on these two values. A larger value that rolls off high frequencies to a greater degree is 0.1uF. Engineers typically measure capacitance in units a million times smaller, called microfarads.Ī common value for a tone capacitor in guitars is 0.022 microfarads, or 0.022uF as an abbreviation. Now you won’t be able to fit your handmade capacitor inside your guitar, but there are mass produced capacitors that fit nicely, and change the tone of your instrument by rolling off the high frequencies, in conjunction with the guitar’s tone pot.Ī capacitor has a value called the capacitance, measured in Farads (after a long dead European scientist), but the Farad turns out to be a HUGE unit of measure. One of those properties is that a capacitor increases or reduces high frequency audio energy, depending on how it is connected inside a guitar or amplifier. If you connected a wire to each roll of foil, you would find that the two insulated conductors have some interesting properties. To make it more space efficient, you would roll the whole thing up again. For example, if you took two rolls of aluminum foil and unrolled them, sandwiching a layer of paper between, that would make a capacitor. (Also see the video summary below.)īriefly, a capacitor (in the context of musical electronics) consists of two plates of conducting metal separated by an insulating layer (called a dielectric). That’s what we love: Busting hypefests! So let’s get to it. Another hypefest just begging to be busted! This one is more Fender-ish, and that one more boutique. This cap is better for rock and that one better for country. This dielectric is brittle, and that one sounds smooth. This type of capacitor is better than that one. Do an Internet search for “Tone Capacitor” and you will find the most amazing mish-mash of fact, half-fact, lies and opinions.
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