I just took delivery of a set of Lollar Special/64's and a .047uF orange drop (pre-wired kit). Installed them into my '61 WW-10 CS Strat the other night and im FLOORED. That guitar has never sang like this. So much fun to play. I can't say enough good things about these pickups.
Great video. On one of my Strats, I have a push pull tone knob that lets me switch between a .15 and a. 47 capacitor set up. So I can toggle back-and-forth between allowing higher frequencies through or cutting them. Super useful.
I have been a .015 Polystyrene advocate for many years in Stratocasters. For over 20 years any customer in my shop who I ever made that change for always loved it.
I wanna know too, the writing on the wall says .022uf but if it matters in my 45 years of "Reviving" Gibsons I found nearly half of the 50s and 60s semis/hollow and solids used 300K pots and to be honest all the caps worked okay every-time( mostly wax in paper or ceramic discs( was fixing up a 61 335 and found 2 ceramic disc caps, they sounded very mellow). There is'nt a rule just opinions. Best clean LP tone was a 50s LP special( 300k pots, .022uf caps? Have'nt been able to replicate that tone in 5 years of noodling...maybe those P90s were a bit "magic"?
Great resource! I was a bit surprised that with the controls wide open, all 3 caps sounded slightly different from each other, and from the no cap set up in the beginning. I had always assumed that wide open they would all sound basically the same. Thanks for taking the time to do this!
A lot of rock and metal guys have sworn by no tone control for maximum headroom. Or maximum perceived headroom really, because it's just a touch brighter and more open at the top, which is good for downtuning or a lot of thick distortion.
The effect of the tone control is the combination of a variable resistor and the cap going to ground. So it is always exerting some electronic effect. Whether the effect is noticeable will vary with the particulars of the pickup and the combined value of the max resistance and cap value. (Remember that guitar amp speakers themselves rapidly and substantially roll off output at higher frequencies.) Practically speaking the effect will be more pronounced with a 250k pot as compared to a 500k pot, and darn near unnoticeable with a 1M pot. If you have bat ears there are also specialty pots (no load) that have the resistive element removed from the top of the contact path, effectively removing the tone circuit path to ground at max setting and eliminating any possible frequency loss.
Great video, the .047 makes that Telecaster sound "Fuller". Messing about re-wiring a duff tone pot I ran out of .022uf for a Strat ( bridge+neck) , found an old Jensen yellow .1uf paper in oil which is physically large but once I hooked it up I found a way to make it fit. Sound is far more versatile than with the .022uf, pedals, clean everything but only on the middle and bridge( I put a .047uf on the neck to have 2 different capacitor values) . The treble pickup got wired to the middle pickup on the selector by jumping a short wire from Bridge lug to middle pickup lug to have 1 tone for both, the bridge has it's own tone pot( .047uf) . I may stick with this settup for a bit as I use a lot of clean tones with Reverb and a Dunlop fuzz (without reverb) and it just works!! I have tried treble bleeds and low value capacitors on Strats but I find it a bit limiting although if you find a good Mullard .0022uf it can work well for the bridge and middle but you only get 1 really usefull tone. Perhaps Mr Fender and co really did test out capacitors and on the 50s and 60s models you usually get .1uf on Stratocasters and .050/.047 on Telecaster( maybe doubled up on 50s Esquires and Teles for the "Dark" sound). Anyway the best way is to just solder in a capacitor that fits and try it out , all that soldering in wires to test various caps will drive you nuts( speciall on a Strat) use cloth covered cable that"s pre-tinned cos some wires can add resistance too. When you find something a bit different solder it in and go for it, you can always try another. Whatever you do try to salvage a good quality part, I spent too much time and money on ( magic tone spells) pots and caps so as long as it's a full size pot( easier to solder) and bit of effort in tracking down a varied bunch of good quality caps and you take your time and really listen( or record) to the tone you will smile everytime you pickup that Electric Guitar.
I just had an amazing experience with tone capacitors. The usual values, we know the differences in sound. Most of the time as soon as you set the potentiometer to zero the sound is muffled, unusable. With 0.015uf it is the least worst. I experimented with much lower values, between 0.0047uf and 0.0082uf. It sounds like a wahwah pedal stuck in the middle position, when the tone pot is at zero. With some mid/treble frequencies which are preserved. By choosing the right value I reached an extremely interesting and unique sound, and above all very usable. Not a dull, uninteresting sound. I tested these values with a single p90 junior LP (50's wiring). The sound is amazing. I think that for stratocaster style pickups or humbuckers, other values could be better, but not certain.
This was a clearly and simply explained presentation and the demo was same; thanks for taking the time to produce and publish it. Personally, I still have some confusion of how to select/apply audio vs linear taper pots, not that anyone asked. :-)
We were actually just discussing making that part of an upcoming video about capacitors. Maybe, if there's enough interest, it might just end up as a video unto itself. Thanks for the input!
I tried most standard caps and found I prefer switchable .001/.010/.033 values, the .001/,010 in orange drop ceramics, and the .033 in PIO on everything from HB's to SC's
Thanks!! We really hope folks enjoy the series and can get a little more comfortable with the idea of tinkering with the guts of their beloved instruments to help them capture that sound that's in their heads.
On my #1 I use both a .022 and a .047 both oil and paper on a push/pull tone pot. Also with coil splitting on both Vol pots. And on my Epi with a set of humbuckers ,and no coil splitting I run .033 caps. 🤷♂️ just gotta be different. They all sound good thru my classic 80’s Carvin X100B.
I’m a drummer looking at videos of how to understand pickups and how the functions between wire, magnates, bobbins, polarity and capacitors. The graphic alone showing the frequency cutoff range of .015 to .047 is THE BEST visual explanation of what the numbers mean to someone outside of guitar innards geekdom. Totally opened my mind as to what I would want in a capacitor. I see a lot about the .047 and now, not only do. Know why but I formerly understand why it would be my choice of value for setting up my tone. I think it’s very cool that this is a “this is the way it is” not hot air that’s 0:26 blown all over TH-cam. Great video!
Glad you found it helpful! We figure we can maybe help dispel some of the misunderstood or misinformed things in the realm of guitar with videos like this, and we put a lot of effort into them, so it's really nice to know that they're proving useful for folks.
Great video of comparison. For myself, I use a .010 or .015 orange drop caps in all of my guitars, according to which pickups are in it. I like getting that half kicked back wah sound when the tone control is set at about 20% like the 58 Les Paul use to sound like (with oil filled caps) but works well on P90s, Jazzmaster pups and single coils on Teles and Strats. BTW Lollar pickups are great. Thanks for the video.
Thank you for your kind words and support. I too really like the half-cocked wah sound, it can really push the guitar through the mix nicely and doesn't sound as shrill as a treble boost.
Really enjoyed this video. It answered my question I was going to ask about a wiring harness for my tele. The video makes its easy to understand how it would function on my guitar
I went through a capacitor journey on my Strat about 2 years ago. I settled on .015uF as my all around favorite tone cap for single coils. The fine tune-ability, the smokey jazzy tone all the way down, and the surprisingly decent “woman tone” all the way down with gain… It’s just perfect. Another fun experiment is to use a super small value, like .001uf, .0015uF, .002uF or thereabouts, as a tone cap. Since the resonant peak shifts to just below the cutoff frequency, these values actually provide a perceived midrange boost, which is especially usable on a Strat bridge pickup to achieve chunky rock tones. It’s like a super secret weapon, right there at your fingertips, very fun. I would still pair with .015uF on neck and middle though. 🤘😎🤘
I have recently done this on two of my Strats. The bridge pickup sounds amazing now. I used 0.0068 on one Strat and a 0.0047 on another one. With the tone wide open the pickup is less shrill and rolled back it can get close to a PAF in tone (but not output of course). Both these Strats of mine have alnico 2 pickups in the bridge position.
I bet the Alnico 2 helps smoothe out the naughty top-end, I ended up putting a 60scJensen PIO .1uf in my Strat bridge and middle and after trial and error found the sound that I dig( for now). They were dedigned for amps but you should hear them in a Strat, I think all the spares companies are rebranding these old Jensens , if you have a chance try one, I may try a 5000pf red jensen after reading your post, cheers.
The 2 big truths here: Caps "dump" signal to ground; tone is a matter of taste and is up to your ears. Many guitar players have died on this fake hill of better tone caps. Thank you so much Jason.
The tone control on my Jazzmaster’s lead circuit basically does nothing until rolled down to 5, and below 3 it tapers off pretty drastically. It has a very small usable range imo. I’m not sure if I should try changing cap values, or pot values, to get a wider usable range on the tone knob. Any advice would be welcome.
There's no way to know what the cause is for sure without some troubleshooting. It could, realistically, be the taper of the pot, the value of the cap, or a combination of things. The general rule of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies in reverse as well; if you don't like it, swap something out and see if you like it better or if it gets worse. if it's worse, go back. Repeat until you find the setup that you like best. Typically, though, I would go to the pot as the culprit, rather than the cap, based on what you're describing.
Went with a .015 cap in my Strat, it's the better choice vs the .022 that is the standard value. It has a more usable sound. I still like. 047 in a Telecaster though.
wait a minute here! If you compare the tones at 4:33 and 6:46, i hear FAR more treble suppression at 25% with the .015 cap. Am I misunderstanding something???
so if u have volume on 10 and tone knob on 10 , is the capacitor making a difference? or is it only when u lower ur volume and tone does the capacitor make a difference. thank you
With both controls all the way up, there is still a negligible - almost imperceivable - effect. Unless you have "no load" pots, where there is absolutely infinite resistance to ground, then the components will always have a bit of a fingerprint on your tone.
I just use whatever caps come in the guitar. My fender guitars usually have. 047 and my Gibson come mostly with. 022. I kind of like the old astron oil paper.015 my dad put in my SG but but the orange drops that come in the Gibson guitars do the job but seem to not be as clear as the old ceramic caps that I'm used to in the cheap guitars I've got. It's like the orange drops are too rich for my ears and I want more bright even harmonic content. I've never had any of your pickups be I've played the single coil strat pickups that you made that sounded so good and let the tone of the wood come through real good on a African mahogany body !👍
Yep, and it's kind of like ice cream; everyone has their favorite flavor the one that they think is the best. And they're all right, their favorite is the best... FOR THEM! Variety really is the spice of life.
Thanks again. I have watched you over the years and you always give honest and easy to understand info. Eastman seems to be a brand that uses your imperial hunbucker a lot and it plays the notes with more distinction. Do you produce a special pup for them? We also worked in gas stations about the same time. Me here on the east coast. Live long and prosper!
We do make them a slightly different take on our Imperial humbuckers that are only available to them for use in their guitars. It's not a massive change from our normal design, but just enough to set it apart and make it unique. And thanks for the tidbit of history from a fellow ex-"gas monkey".
It would have been good to have a .1 like in pre 1968 Strats included here. It definitely makes for a more punchy neck pickup when rolled back a little. I’ve also noticed on P-Basses that the capacitor (.1 or .05) tends to roll off differently than on a guitar.🤔
That's a fair point. We could've tested several other values, but it would've made the direct comparison less obvious with each additional variable. And some folks would've likely gotten lost in the weeds on the whole concept. We went with the three most common values that our customers ask about and what's most widely used in the market in general. We felt that the basic differences in other values not shown can be extrapolated from what's in this video.
I've never tried those, but if you're happy with them then there's no problem at all. It's like most things related to playing music; so long as you like it, it's the right choice for you.
I disregarded the one with NO CAPACITORS since he used the BRIDGE PICKUP that might misguide our ears. 4:05 0.015uF (NECK pickup) 5:06 0.022uF (NECK pickup) 6:07 0.047uF (NECK pickup)
@@LollarPickups I didnt want to assume, and there has been scant comparisons. So, I applaud your efforts and skills that accompany your wisdom and delivery. Thank you sir.
At "wide open" there is no difference between cap values on the Tone knob. Would that be a correct assessment? The cap value only comes in to play as you roll "off" the tone knob. Yeah?
Most pots will have some small amount of leak to ground when all the way "open", but it's pretty negligible. So, you will possibly hear some small artifacts of the capacitor, even when the tone knob is turned al the way up. There are "no load" pots, which essentially have a dead spot at fill open, where the contacts are completely disconnected, so there is no connection between the signal and the cap at all. Some folks swear by these as the most "true" representation of the guitar's tone, but it's a fairly small difference and, since we have all been conditioned by decades of traditional guitar wiring to hear regular pots - along with their inherent leak to ground - that no load pots can often sound too bright and unnatural. For a vast majority of players, there is no use in swapping their traditional pots out for no load pots, as the effect isn't worth the trouble and many don't prefer the truly wide open sound after the fact. And, honestly, I'd argue that many who claim to like the results are just trying to justify the time, effort, and expense of the modification after-the-fact.
My ears say the higher the value of capacitor the more capacity for charge held, the real question is how well that charge is held and how well the capacitors behave to effect the range in frequencies at full open as well as the properties to inhibit highs at full potentiometer/variable resistor operational purpose(closed) So more is more, And, its why louder on the amps master volume is better, but I still turn my volume pot down to 7 or 8 to allow the caps to do their job at full frequency capacitance with more room to spare and j ne er max my control knobs i always prefer a shaped tone but that delends on thd amps response of the hardware i have in the signal chain, thats when most of fhis argumenf goes out the window. then I find the tone pots sweet spot for me, it is subjective but the guitar as marvellous and awesome an invention as it is and i absolutely love guitars, it is still mathematics and science at the most basic level in its field., in regards to circuitry and design, guitars should be way cheaper especially the electronic components, You can get parts ten a penney! Buy in bulk get decent parts that way you can match your pots too, they never read at the value stated and always under or over by the tolerance margin stated they pump these tiny insignificant components out thousands a day and theres no time to test them all. they are the simplest of parts that big ass aeronautical space ships snd plane components are made at the same fa tories, so they are very cheap in comparison not woth 30quid fot a fkn potentiometer or some old out of date "vintage " capacitor if you buy those you are being suckered unless you're running a fake vintage guitar racket scam... then youl need em. and I love how simple it us, lol inside your Nokia 8210 whatever in the 90s if you still have one, it's a supercomputer in comparison to a guitar. The frequencies drawn from the amps greater magnetic pull(more power) amp responds to the signal if grounded well enough, higher value capacitors on your pots add more girth to the high frequencies, at the same time more highs rolled off yet still more mids are present, because, the resonant peak is shifted into a range that favours low to high mids on the eq spectrum which has all already been mapped out and time tested to be where guitars are better sounding i mean in the mix of a full band, each instrument, some are close to each other like piano and guitar, but each instrument including drums have a strong optimised area to be in within the whole frequency range that the human ear can hear and the man from del.onte Says YES!! everything else outide the box is cut out to preserve the sound and save on whatever , mostly because it's useless snd thats that. . You get more frequencies with higher value capacitors and still have with logarithmic pots, the option to diall those frequencies back and have a wider range of choice of frequency from full open to full closed. Particularly handy when the guitar has bright pickups and good when you have a less expensive amp than tube amp, like a solid state amp to play on either way- use the guitars and amps eq to control the signal from the guitar thats decidedly how to manipulate the amps responds to the source signal. Electricity in an uncontrolled or controlled environment is always drawn or held but never pushed through the amp its electromagnetism basics 101. Capa itors are what they say they are- used to at various vues, to build up a capacity for an electrical voltage, snd in that value is the information, only judged by response from a receiver designed to connect with another weaker ir stronger electromagnetic cuitcit with magnetism in ghe case of guitars and amps its a variable responsive relationship between the two. the signals are .ensured in wavelengths and currents amplitude etc resistors redirect, but the source of the signal has to be within an acceptable range of tolerances and it boils down to the relationship between the pickups reaction to the strings vibratory disturbance of its electromagnetically induced field not unlike if you visualise a picture of the earths electromagnetic field from the north and south pole, so if everyone all at the same time plugs in and slams a G-Chord we can literally save the planet from an extinction level event like our sun emitting massive coronal ejections tight at us , it's why it's called the "people's chord" This is the way, I have spoken.
What’s your general consensus on LOW value caps? I recently put a .01 in my Strat and absolutely love it. I’m thinking of trying .0047 or .0033 or .001- are they going to be too subtle to notice
It's hard to say whether or not you'll be able to hear an appreciable difference, it's really a matter of subjectivity. I don't think most players would hear a big enough difference to make it worth the effort, but some may and only you can determine if you think it's worth it. Some folks may just convince themselves that they hear a difference when they don't, but as long as they're happy, it really doesn't matter what others can or can't hear. In the end, the only way to know for sure is to give it a shot and see what you think. You can always take it out, if you're unhappy with the results.
This is very helpful (and something I wish I had done to begin with). Do you mind if we just copy this comment and drop it into the video's description?
How does the .015 roll of MORE highs than the other 2 though? Listen to “25%” it’s very plain to hear. I was under the impression that the lower the value the less roll off….
Is the 0.047uf vintage correct? I have replica of the 60 strat with a set of lollar specials, 250k pots and 0.047uf but not a big fan when Im rolling down the tone. In the video the 0.15 sounds the best by far!
.047 is both historically accurate and, by far, the most widely used by Fender. But the fact is, it's not the *correct* cap value for you if you like something else more. It's entirely up to player preference and I wouldn't put more emphasis on the minutiae of what is vintage correct over what I prefer as the one playing the guitar. Go with what you like!
LOLLAR PICKUPS , Can you make another video trying these values 0.0047uf, 0.0022uf, 0.0015uf because it works better on strats and telecasters which Leo Fender messed up using to much capacitance to get those jazz guitar tones which most rock players those cap values 0.022uf doesn't work its better to use 0.0022uf instead, try it out. SRV#1 strat used a RED capacitor but not sure what the red capacitor value is or what type of capacitor material used.
While it's not exactly what you're looking for, as it's not the values that you're inquiring about, we did a cap value video a while back that you might find helpful. You can view it here: th-cam.com/video/0Fzsc7uqc3g/w-d-xo.html The reality is that these videos are extremely time- and labor-intensive so we have to do them according to what a majority of our viewers and customers would find most useful. Since most guitarist rarely ever stray from the "common" component materials, we tend to focus more energy on those things. As we get more and more of this sort of thing done, we will have more time to put our time into things like underrated tone cap values and stuff like that. But this is a very good idea for something like that, thank you for suggesting it.
@@LollarPickups Yes I'm sure making those videos are labor intensive but they look like good quality videos. I replace my strats tone caps 0.015uf or 0.022uf with a 0.0022uf instead because it has less capacitance which is better for rock pop music. Leo Fender used 0.047uf to get those jazz tones because jazz guitar was still in at the time. Its the wrong cap values for rock pop music because 0.015uf, 0.022uf, 0.047 are way to much capacitance which is sinking and bleeding off way to much of the high frequencies leading to the jazz guitar tones. For Pop Rock music 0.0022uf has less capacitance so its just sinks some high frequencies to ground. Its way more useful as a tone pot because before I never really used the tone pot because it was way to dark and jazz tones which is unusable for me until I replaced it with a 0.0022uf.
When it comes to capacitors i have a secret weapon that cuts shrill high frequency but adds mid boost at the same time. I dont use any of the usual values.
You can also use a female pin header, so if you have a backplate guitar you can leave it off while fiddling about with caps, and just slide the legs into the female port holes. There are also dual row pin headers, so you can plug multiple caps in parallel (solder all of pins of a row together, then connect one row to one side of the circuit and the other row to the other side) to get values between standard cap values. Im using .028uF (3 blue HV 10nf caps I had laying around) with a performer buckshot and a '59 on an explorer clone. Nice and warm on the neck, screaming dry on the bridge, and all around chunky and present. Usually keep it around 2/3 up on tone, but I do play with it quite a bit depending on mood. It has certainly tamed down the metal zone pedal Im using at the moment oddly enough....the cut it puts on the signal tempers the 'angry bees in a tin can sound that is a common complaint with that pedal. *Disclaimer: If you have opinions about 'improving' my rig, hey thats great champ, keep 'em to yourself. I dont give a shit about adversarial bullshit posturing, your need to prove youre smart (smart people dont need to prove it, junior), or being 'the best' to whoever as if that holds any meaningful value outside of ego stroking. Honestly, if thats how you live your life your ego can take a long fuck off a short pier. I just fiddle with it till I find something I like, then change it all again a few months later. That being said, Im all for the free flow of knowledge and experience, and dont mind general conversation about my or any setup.
Totally agree. Your rig, your rules. There's no reason folks shouldn't be able to just let others be happy with whatever it is that makes them happy. If someone wants to run their guitar signal through a jar of mayonnaise, so be it. If they like it cool: play on. And if I don't like it, I don't have to listen to it. No one is forcing me to listen to them play their guitar through a jar of mayonnaise, and they shouldn't have to listen to me tell them why I don't like it.
Using short wires soldered to alligator clips lets you pick the capacitor that is best for your guitar... single coil pickups or humbuckers or rails types .... get the capacitor that SOUNDS best to you over the range you like...
That's exactly what we did in this video, to allow us to "hot swap" the caps out without having to stop to remove the control plate, desolder the cap, replace and resolder the next one, and so on. There is no rule, only convention. T=Beyond that, the player's ears are the absolute test of what's best for any particular instrument/player combination.
Good eye! We did inadvertently change from bridge to neck between the bypassed or "no cap" setup and the first cap demonstration. But we kept it on the neck for all of the different cap values, so the main point of the comparison still comes across as intended.
a capacitor is a HIGH pass filter. When combined with a potentiometer in a guitar’s circuit, the entire tone control section acts as a low pass filter.
This is technically correct. Though we tried to make it more clear to our viewers what the *effect* of the capacitor in the tone circuit would have on the resulting sound. The tone circuit itself is a low pass filter, in that the signal that passes through to your speaker is anything that falls BELOW the frequency threshold. Frankly, no one really cares what the signal going to ground would theoretically sound like - they don't hear it, so it doesn't matter - so we didn't bother to explain that in full detail. But, in our attempt to explain, perhaps we over-simplified it for folks such as yourself. But it sounds like you already understand how a capacitor works, so this video is not really intended to clarify anything for you. Thanks for pointing out the flaw in this oversimplification, hopefully others will benefit from either our explanation in the video or this conversation here in the comments.
The .0015 rolls off the most highs though…. I thought the higher the cap value the more roll off… am I crazy here? It’s really obvious when you use the jump links at 25%. It’s considerably more roll off than either the .022 or the .047
Why do bass guitars get active tone controls and electric guitars don't? I mean, it's widely understood that active tone controls are better than passive. This would make all this effort into choosing a precise value of a capacitors and resistors kind of irrelevant.
I think that the main reason is that active electronics are usually less dynamic and touch-sensitive than passive circuits. They tend to compress the feeling out of the players input. And the guitar itself almost becomes little more than the vehicle to host the pickups. You can swap the circuit from one guitar to the next and the tone will change very little. You lose a lot of that organic tonal fingerprint that passive circuits allow, both from the player and the instrument. When you play through active pickups/tone controls, you're often hearing the circuit more than the instrument. Also, I can only assume it's also partially due to the power of convention. Folks don't like change, so they're willing to go along to get along. They heard their favorite guitarists playing through passive systems and so they want to emulate those tones and so they use similar gear to do so. The industry saw a small shift toward active systems after some heavier bands started gaining popularity in the mainstream, but it has never (nor will it likely ever) competed with the popularity of the classic designs.
@@LollarPickupsIt's weird. You have active controls on amps, maybe some pedals. You have active pickups (I think Fluence has and a few others have a single switch), but no active tone controls on a guitar!
I'd say that active tone controls are 'different' to passive, rather than 'better'. Certainly if you want to do big narrow frequency boosts cheaply, then you're going to need active EQ. But for gentler EQ changes, passive can be just as good or even 'better'. The Manley Passive EQ is a highly regarded rack-mount EQ found in many high-end recording studios, and although the circuitry does contain valves, the EQ section is all-passive. That's about $6999 (current Sweetwater price) of coveted passive EQ. I think basses often have active EQ because there's a wider range of sounds required from a bass than a guitar. If you want to get that mid-scooped sound from a bass to emphasise slap and pop sounds for one track, and then push up the bass and mids for the next track, then you can do it on the amp EQ, but if you're playing live, then it's easier to have the controls on the bass guitar. I personally find that in isolation, most passive basses have more interesting tonality than active basses, but I know a lot of that gets lost in a band situation. With guitars, you need this type of extreme EQ far less, and it's generally a case of adding more overdrive or distortion to the sound, often with pedals, than changing the basic tonality of the guitar sound. There have been guitars with very comprehensive active EQ controls, but they've pretty much all been sales failures. The Gibson RD Artist and Les Paul Artist guitars in the late 70s had Moog-designed EQ and were amazingly versatile - but hardly anyone bought one. The active add-on modules for EMG pickups are probably the most popular active EQ options for guitar, but that's partly due to a lot of the EMG pickup sounds being rather flat and boring without them (IMO). I certainly wouldn't be without the EXG control on my SA-equipped Strat.
Great Video! I have an upgrade question for you below, under "smutsharry" (2nd one, down from the top of comments, currently - 11.28.2022). In regards to your comment regarding the "orange" (or whatever color) Caps, and that their "Orientation" 0f which lead is soldered, where, does Not really matter in their installation within guitar circuits.... you may want to take 13 minutes, and watch this video... it does matter, and he explains how & why. He got his knowledge about it from a fellow up in Canada, who has a website (which is linked in his video on correct Cap orientation), and is nothing short of a "genius" (literally) in the field of electronics. I think it would be worth your time (13 minutes), if it would help make your already great products, even better... through just a small detail of attention in assembly.
Thanks for your input. This is not something that we put much emphasis on and not something that we are concerned with here in the shop. The type of caps used in guitars are not polarized and can function well in either orientation. The difference is so small between the two as to not really have enough appreciable benefit from this level of scrutiny. If people want to do so and it makes them happy, more power to them, we support them in following their own joy. But the time spent flipping caps is time that could be spent playing guitar for others and we support them in that as well. I have never personally bothered, as the small amount of benefit is not worth the effort. I've always just soldered my caps in however they may be and I've never been dissatisfied with the results. Other folks may feel otherwise and that's why we say, "Whatever YOU like best, is what's best for YOU."
Actually correct cap orientation of an Orange Drop capacitor can be deduced … turn up volume of amp, plug in guitar, pot wide open, by touching finger to external case of cap… sound change will be heard see this video th-cam.com/video/v7h5kI8glwA/w-d-xo.html
I think this is splitting some pretty small hairs here. His video doesn't really show a practical application for tone capacitors in an electric guitar circuit. For starters, in a full guitar circuit, your signal is passing through the cap in a manner that is much like a high pass filter; only the very top end is passing through the cap and going directly to ground and the rest of your signal is going out through the output jack to the amplifier. The signal of the guitar is so much stronger than any small amount of signal of the noise coming in from the cap alone, so your noise floor is statistically non-existent - in fact, in his video, he had to turn the volume on the amp all the way up for the noise to even be discernable at all. And this is without the guitar signal in there to further obfuscate the noise. In addition, when you play guitar, you are grounded by way of the circuit, whether through a string ground or another method. In his video, he is not grounded, so he introduces far more interference by touching the cap than he would if he were grounded in the circuit. If he were touching the strings or other grounded metal part of the guitar in the same circuit as the cap, he wouldn't introduce nearly as much interference. Plus, you're never really going to reach into your guitar and touch the capacitor while playing, making this all sort of a moot point. So, while what the video shows is technically factual, it's not an apples-to-apples analog for a full guitar circuit and not representative of the reality of any noise introduced by installing the cap in any particular orientation. But, if folks have nothing better to do than worry about this small degree of potential RFI/EMI in their signal, they can do whatever they want to chase their own happiness. If wrapping the whole circuit in molten lead and wearing a tinfoil hat when they play makes them feel better, then we support their right to do so. More power to 'em. But that doesn't mean that anyone else is necessarily wrong for not bothering to put a non-directional capacitor in their guitar in any sort of way.
@leftpastsaturn, we prefer to call them "Anti-5G Paper-In-(tin)Foil Thinking Caps" due to the negative connotations of the old name. They improve your tone by 69.420% by shielding your guitar from bad gear forum advice. They also shield your brains from 5G interference while doing your own research about capacitors online. Haha! Also, I perused some of your videos and the ambient music and accompanying visuals are great. Is that all performed by you?
@@LollarPickups Sign me up for any testing program on those caps! :D Thanks for the compliments on the music, I'm glad you enjoyed them, and yes, that's all me. The visuals are easy, I just carry a camera when I go hiking!
So what you are saying. better material, better builds, better tech mean nothing to sound. So why by expensive guitar then. We all just buy Chinese. You're a genius.
Nope, that's not at all what was said in this video. You're creating an entirely different argument about quality of materials, craftsmanship, and technology that is not necessarily relevant to capacitor value. And it's just not a debate in which we bother to engage; we've got no dog in that fight. We encourage everyone to buy what they like, play what they like, and, well... LIKE what they like. Take care.
@@LollarPickups super sorry. Just no that most stuff is made cost to point. I think capacitors upgrades do make a difference so does better quality copper wound pickups. Read a wonderful article on how great players would spend hour changing ingredients out resistors, caps , powersupplies, pickups to get that tone and sound we all fell in love with. From zappa, scholts, slash, and more. Think it is worth the time to explore it. Great show buy the way. Regards Brian.
As a manufacturing company, we fully understand the economics involved in the creation of a product. We also understand that there will always be a balancing act between the best materials and affordable costs. Across all industries, some manufacturers choose to put only the highest quality material into their product, regardless of whether or not the objective quality of the end product will see any appreciable effect as a result; some will cut any and all corners necessary to drive the price as low as possible, even though they know that the quality of their end product will suffer as a result; and others will inevitably fall somewhere in between the two. So long as people are happy with what they have at their disposal, we see no harm in pursuing your own happiness, whatever that may be. Some people just honestly love tinkering -- for them, that's the fun of it all -- and that's perfectly understandable. If it makes you happy and doesn't bring harm to anyone else, there's no fault, as far as we're concerned.
My ears say the higher the value of capacitor the more capacity for charge held, the real question is how well that charge is held and how well the capacitors behave to effect the range in frequencies at full open as well as the properties to inhibit highs at full potentiometer/variable resistor operational purpose(closed) So more is more, And, its why louder on the amps master volume is better, but I still turn my volume pot down to 7 or 8 to allow the caps to do their job at full frequency capacitance with more room to spare and j ne er max my control knobs i always prefer a shaped tone but that delends on thd amps response of the hardware i have in the signal chain, thats when most of fhis argumenf goes out the window. then I find the tone pots sweet spot for me, it is subjective but the guitar as marvellous and awesome an invention as it is and i absolutely love guitars, it is still mathematics and science at the most basic level in its field., in regards to circuitry and design, guitars should be way cheaper especially the electronic components, You can get parts ten a penney! Buy in bulk get decent parts that way you can match your pots too, they never read at the value stated and always under or over by the tolerance margin stated they pump these tiny insignificant components out thousands a day and theres no time to test them all. they are the simplest of parts that big ass aeronautical space ships snd plane components are made at the same fa tories, so they are very cheap in comparison not woth 30quid fot a fkn potentiometer or some old out of date "vintage " capacitor if you buy those you are being suckered unless you're running a fake vintage guitar racket scam... then youl need em. and I love how simple it us, lol inside your Nokia 8210 whatever in the 90s if you still have one, it's a supercomputer in comparison to a guitar. The frequencies drawn from the amps greater magnetic pull(more power) amp responds to the signal if grounded well enough, higher value capacitors on your pots add more girth to the high frequencies, at the same time more highs rolled off yet still more mids are present, because, the resonant peak is shifted into a range that favours low to high mids on the eq spectrum which has all already been mapped out and time tested to be where guitars are better sounding i mean in the mix of a full band, each instrument, some are close to each other like piano and guitar, but each instrument including drums have a strong optimised area to be in within the whole frequency range that the human ear can hear and the man from del.onte Says YES!! everything else outide the box is cut out to preserve the sound and save on whatever , mostly because it's useless snd thats that. . You get more frequencies with higher value capacitors and still have with logarithmic pots, the option to diall those frequencies back and have a wider range of choice of frequency from full open to full closed. Particularly handy when the guitar has bright pickups and good when you have a less expensive amp than tube amp, like a solid state amp to play on either way- use the guitars and amps eq to control the signal from the guitar thats decidedly how to manipulate the amps responds to the source signal. Electricity in an uncontrolled or controlled environment is always drawn or held but never pushed through the amp its electromagnetism basics 101. Capa itors are what they say they are- used to at various vues, to build up a capacity for an electrical voltage, snd in that value is the information, only judged by response from a receiver designed to connect with another weaker ir stronger electromagnetic cuitcit with magnetism in ghe case of guitars and amps its a variable responsive relationship between the two. the signals are .ensured in wavelengths and currents amplitude etc resistors redirect, but the source of the signal has to be within an acceptable range of tolerances and it boils down to the relationship between the pickups reaction to the strings vibratory disturbance of its electromagnetically induced field not unlike if you visualise a picture of the earths electromagnetic field from the north and south pole, so if everyone all at the same time plugs in and slams a G-Chord we can literally save the planet from an extinction level event like our sun emitting massive coronal ejections tight at us , it's why it's called the "people's chord" This is the way, I have spoken.
Yeah, I've found that a startling number of players never even use their volume or tone controls. Though there's definitely still a bit of a tonal fingerprint, even with the knobs at 10. I had a friend who left his knobs at 10 all the time and so he thought he'd just remove the volume and tone circuit to prevent them from unintentionally getting turned down. He removed them and went straight from the pickup to the output jack. When he did this, he actually didn't like the sound he got. It was too harsh and bright for his liking. So, he put them back in, turned them all the way up, and simply tucked the entire pots, shaft and all, into the cavity without passing the shafts through the holes in the body. They were permanently on ten and still offered that bit of tonal coloration that he liked. Different value pots will have different coloration, even on ten, as they don't actually have infinite resistance to ground, so some amount of treble frequencies will still shunt to ground, and the frequencies and amount of single going to ground will depend on the value. And plenty of folks just don't care for the wide-open sound, they prefer to dial in their favorite tones with the volume and tone controls. Variety being the spice of life and whatnot...
Great video with valuable information. Zero fluff and waiting time. Love it. Thank you.
Glad you liked it! Thanks for taking the time to watch.
I just took delivery of a set of Lollar Special/64's and a .047uF orange drop (pre-wired kit). Installed them into my '61 WW-10 CS Strat the other night and im FLOORED. That guitar has never sang like this. So much fun to play. I can't say enough good things about these pickups.
Awesome! This is what we love to hear and why we do what we do. Take care and enjoy those new pickups!
Great video. On one of my Strats, I have a push pull tone knob that lets me switch between a .15 and a. 47 capacitor set up. So I can toggle back-and-forth between allowing higher frequencies through or cutting them. Super useful.
That sounds like a very cool and useful mod! I bet it offers a great deal of tonal variety.
Same here , except it’s on an ESP/LTD LP design ,and I have a .022/.047 o&p ..
I have been a .015 Polystyrene advocate for many years in Stratocasters. For over 20 years any customer in my shop who I ever made that change for always loved it.
What caps do you use with humbuckers?
I wanna know too, the writing on the wall says .022uf but if it matters in my 45 years of "Reviving" Gibsons I found nearly half of the 50s and 60s semis/hollow and solids used 300K pots and to be honest all the caps worked okay every-time( mostly wax in paper or ceramic discs( was fixing up a 61 335 and found 2 ceramic disc caps, they sounded very mellow). There is'nt a rule just opinions. Best clean LP tone was a 50s LP special( 300k pots, .022uf caps? Have'nt been able to replicate that tone in 5 years of noodling...maybe those P90s were a bit "magic"?
Especially with hotter pups that are already a bit dark!
Great resource! I was a bit surprised that with the controls wide open, all 3 caps sounded slightly different from each other, and from the no cap set up in the beginning. I had always assumed that wide open they would all sound basically the same. Thanks for taking the time to do this!
I noticed that too but I think the differences had more to do with where and how he strummed the guitar.
Confess I didn't hear a difference.
A lot of rock and metal guys have sworn by no tone control for maximum headroom. Or maximum perceived headroom really, because it's just a touch brighter and more open at the top, which is good for downtuning or a lot of thick distortion.
The effect of the tone control is the combination of a variable resistor and the cap going to ground. So it is always exerting some electronic effect. Whether the effect is noticeable will vary with the particulars of the pickup and the combined value of the max resistance and cap value. (Remember that guitar amp speakers themselves rapidly and substantially roll off output at higher frequencies.) Practically speaking the effect will be more pronounced with a 250k pot as compared to a 500k pot, and darn near unnoticeable with a 1M pot. If you have bat ears there are also specialty pots (no load) that have the resistive element removed from the top of the contact path, effectively removing the tone circuit path to ground at max setting and eliminating any possible frequency loss.
Great video, the .047 makes that Telecaster sound "Fuller". Messing about re-wiring a duff tone pot I ran out of .022uf for a Strat ( bridge+neck) , found an old Jensen yellow .1uf paper in oil which is physically large but once I hooked it up I found a way to make it fit. Sound is far more versatile than with the .022uf, pedals, clean everything but only on the middle and bridge( I put a .047uf on the neck to have 2 different capacitor values) . The treble pickup got wired to the middle pickup on the selector by jumping a short wire from Bridge lug to middle pickup lug to have 1 tone for both, the bridge has it's own tone pot( .047uf) . I may stick with this settup for a bit as I use a lot of clean tones with Reverb and a Dunlop fuzz (without reverb) and it just works!! I have tried treble bleeds and low value capacitors on Strats but I find it a bit limiting although if you find a good Mullard .0022uf it can work well for the bridge and middle but you only get 1 really usefull tone. Perhaps Mr Fender and co really did test out capacitors and on the 50s and 60s models you usually get .1uf on Stratocasters and .050/.047 on Telecaster( maybe doubled up on 50s Esquires and Teles for the "Dark" sound). Anyway the best way is to just solder in a capacitor that fits and try it out , all that soldering in wires to test various caps will drive you nuts( speciall on a Strat) use cloth covered cable that"s pre-tinned cos some wires can add resistance too. When you find something a bit different solder it in and go for it, you can always try another. Whatever you do try to salvage a good quality part, I spent too much time and money on ( magic tone spells) pots and caps so as long as it's a full size pot( easier to solder) and bit of effort in tracking down a varied bunch of good quality caps and you take your time and really listen( or record) to the tone you will smile everytime you pickup that Electric Guitar.
My favourite in my Strat is a no load 500k master tone and a 0.1 cap. Amazing range!!!
That was the clearest presentation of capacitor values I’ve seen, good work.
So glad that folk, such as yourself, like the content we put out. Thank you for your kind words and support!
Wow, that was so clear. Makes a difference when the paople talking really know what they are talking about and have no incentive to confuse anyone.
I just had an amazing experience with tone capacitors. The usual values, we know the differences in sound. Most of the time as soon as you set the potentiometer to zero the sound is muffled, unusable. With 0.015uf it is the least worst. I experimented with much lower values, between 0.0047uf and 0.0082uf. It sounds like a wahwah pedal stuck in the middle position, when the tone pot is at zero. With some mid/treble frequencies which are preserved. By choosing the right value I reached an extremely interesting and unique sound, and above all very usable. Not a dull, uninteresting sound. I tested these values with a single p90 junior LP (50's wiring). The sound is amazing. I think that for stratocaster style pickups or humbuckers, other values could be better, but not certain.
Great video and demonstration. Thanks!
I've had your Regals in my Tele for a few years now, and I love them!
Excellent representation of electric guitar tone capacitors! I look forward to more vids!
This was a clearly and simply explained presentation and the demo was same; thanks for taking the time to produce and publish it.
Personally, I still have some confusion of how to select/apply audio vs linear taper pots, not that anyone asked. :-)
We were actually just discussing making that part of an upcoming video about capacitors. Maybe, if there's enough interest, it might just end up as a video unto itself. Thanks for the input!
Just when I think I've got my head around it the rabbit hole gets deeper... ;-)
I tried most standard caps and found I prefer switchable .001/.010/.033 values, the .001/,010 in orange drop ceramics, and the .033 in PIO on everything from HB's to SC's
Great video. Well done and informative.
Thank you!
Very useful. Thank you.
Thank-you for a good explanation & presentation.
Great Pickups! Awesome Service! Lollars!!
Thanks!! We really hope folks enjoy the series and can get a little more comfortable with the idea of tinkering with the guts of their beloved instruments to help them capture that sound that's in their heads.
4:05
5:07
6:09
On my #1 I use both a .022 and a .047 both oil and paper on a push/pull tone pot. Also with coil splitting on both Vol pots.
And on my Epi with a set of humbuckers ,and no coil splitting I run .033 caps.
🤷♂️ just gotta be different. They all sound good thru my classic 80’s Carvin X100B.
I’m a drummer looking at videos of how to understand pickups and how the functions between wire, magnates, bobbins, polarity and capacitors.
The graphic alone showing the frequency cutoff range of .015 to .047 is THE BEST visual explanation of what the numbers mean to someone outside of guitar innards geekdom.
Totally opened my mind as to what I would want in a capacitor. I see a lot about the .047 and now, not only do. Know why but I formerly understand why it would be my choice of value for setting up my tone.
I think it’s very cool that this is a “this is the way it is” not hot air that’s 0:26 blown all over TH-cam.
Great video!
Glad you found it helpful! We figure we can maybe help dispel some of the misunderstood or misinformed things in the realm of guitar with videos like this, and we put a lot of effort into them, so it's really nice to know that they're proving useful for folks.
Mike, great job on the presentation! Many thanks!
You’re an excellent teacher, nicely done
Glad it was helpful!
Great video of comparison. For myself, I use a .010 or .015 orange drop caps in all of my guitars, according to which pickups are in it. I like getting that half kicked back wah sound when the tone control is set at about 20% like the 58 Les Paul use to sound like (with oil filled caps) but works well on P90s, Jazzmaster pups and single coils on Teles and Strats. BTW Lollar pickups are great. Thanks for the video.
Thank you for your kind words and support. I too really like the half-cocked wah sound, it can really push the guitar through the mix nicely and doesn't sound as shrill as a treble boost.
Really enjoyed this video. It answered my question I was going to ask about a wiring harness for my tele. The video makes its easy to understand how it would function on my guitar
Glad it helped!
A fascinating explanation and demonstration!
Thank you!
Great video. Really helped me understand capacitor values. Thank you
Glad it helped, and thank you for watching!
I went through a capacitor journey on my Strat about 2 years ago. I settled on .015uF as my all around favorite tone cap for single coils. The fine tune-ability, the smokey jazzy tone all the way down, and the surprisingly decent “woman tone” all the way down with gain… It’s just perfect. Another fun experiment is to use a super small value, like .001uf, .0015uF, .002uF or thereabouts, as a tone cap. Since the resonant peak shifts to just below the cutoff frequency, these values actually provide a perceived midrange boost, which is especially usable on a Strat bridge pickup to achieve chunky rock tones. It’s like a super secret weapon, right there at your fingertips, very fun. I would still pair with .015uF on neck and middle though. 🤘😎🤘
Add 0.001uf cap AND parallel 130 ohm resistor = treble bleed on volume pot
I have recently done this on two of my Strats. The bridge pickup sounds amazing now. I used 0.0068 on one Strat and a 0.0047 on another one. With the tone wide open the pickup is less shrill and rolled back it can get close to a PAF in tone (but not output of course). Both these Strats of mine have alnico 2 pickups in the bridge position.
I bet the Alnico 2 helps smoothe out the naughty top-end, I ended up putting a 60scJensen PIO .1uf in my Strat bridge and middle and after trial and error found the sound that I dig( for now). They were dedigned for amps but you should hear them in a Strat, I think all the spares companies are rebranding these old Jensens , if you have a chance try one, I may try a 5000pf red jensen after reading your post, cheers.
The 2 big truths here: Caps "dump" signal to ground; tone is a matter of taste and is up to your ears. Many guitar players have died on this fake hill of better tone caps. Thank you so much Jason.
The tone control on my Jazzmaster’s lead circuit basically does nothing until rolled down to 5, and below 3 it tapers off pretty drastically. It has a very small usable range imo. I’m not sure if I should try changing cap values, or pot values, to get a wider usable range on the tone knob. Any advice would be welcome.
There's no way to know what the cause is for sure without some troubleshooting. It could, realistically, be the taper of the pot, the value of the cap, or a combination of things. The general rule of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies in reverse as well; if you don't like it, swap something out and see if you like it better or if it gets worse. if it's worse, go back. Repeat until you find the setup that you like best. Typically, though, I would go to the pot as the culprit, rather than the cap, based on what you're describing.
That was very helpful. Thanks.
Glad to hear it!
Went with a .015 cap in my Strat, it's the better choice vs the .022 that is the standard value. It has a more usable sound. I still like. 047 in a Telecaster though.
how would this change with humbuckers?
wait a minute here! If you compare the tones at 4:33 and 6:46, i hear FAR more treble suppression at 25% with the .015 cap. Am I misunderstanding something???
someone tell me i am wrong here pls
@@robertlevasseur8896 No, you're right. Possibly the way he struck the strings.
@@robertlevasseur8896 You're right. I heard the same thing. For some reason the .022 sounds brighter than the .015.
so if u have volume on 10 and tone knob on 10 , is the capacitor making a difference? or is it only when u lower ur volume and tone does the capacitor make a difference. thank you
With both controls all the way up, there is still a negligible - almost imperceivable - effect. Unless you have "no load" pots, where there is absolutely infinite resistance to ground, then the components will always have a bit of a fingerprint on your tone.
Thank you for that
great vid very helpful
Glad it helped
Excellent demo and explanation!
Thanks! Glad you liked it!
I just use whatever caps come in the guitar.
My fender guitars usually have. 047 and my Gibson come mostly with. 022. I kind of like the old astron oil paper.015 my dad put in my SG but but the orange drops that come in the Gibson guitars do the job but seem to not be as clear as the old ceramic caps that I'm used to in the cheap guitars I've got. It's like the orange drops are too rich for my ears and I want more bright even harmonic content.
I've never had any of your pickups be I've played the single coil strat pickups that you made that sounded so good and let the tone of the wood come through real good on a African mahogany body !👍
Yep, and it's kind of like ice cream; everyone has their favorite flavor the one that they think is the best. And they're all right, their favorite is the best... FOR THEM! Variety really is the spice of life.
Thanks again. I have watched you over the years and you always give honest and easy to understand info. Eastman seems to be a brand that uses your imperial hunbucker a lot and it plays the notes with more distinction. Do you produce a special pup for them? We also worked in gas stations about the same time. Me here on the east coast. Live long and prosper!
We do make them a slightly different take on our Imperial humbuckers that are only available to them for use in their guitars. It's not a massive change from our normal design, but just enough to set it apart and make it unique.
And thanks for the tidbit of history from a fellow ex-"gas monkey".
@@LollarPickups Thank you for the answer. The non Eastman pups are very good just different from Eastman.
u
It would have been good to have a .1 like in pre 1968 Strats included here. It definitely makes for a more punchy neck pickup when rolled back a little. I’ve also noticed on P-Basses that the capacitor (.1 or .05) tends to roll off differently than on a guitar.🤔
That's a fair point. We could've tested several other values, but it would've made the direct comparison less obvious with each additional variable. And some folks would've likely gotten lost in the weeds on the whole concept. We went with the three most common values that our customers ask about and what's most widely used in the market in general. We felt that the basic differences in other values not shown can be extrapolated from what's in this video.
Great series guys😎👍
😎👍❤🖖
Thank you! We're glad folks seem to enjoy it and we're excited to make more!
I've used 2200uF and a 6800uF Caps in my basses before. Any problems with using them.
I've never tried those, but if you're happy with them then there's no problem at all. It's like most things related to playing music; so long as you like it, it's the right choice for you.
I disregarded the one with NO CAPACITORS since he used the BRIDGE PICKUP that might misguide our ears.
4:05 0.015uF (NECK pickup)
5:06 0.022uF (NECK pickup)
6:07 0.047uF (NECK pickup)
Now this! But is there an equivalent for Bass?
It's the same for bass, as the values/affected frequencies are the same.
@@LollarPickups I didnt want to assume, and there has been scant comparisons. So, I applaud your efforts and skills that accompany your wisdom and delivery. Thank you sir.
You're welcome and thank you as well!
At "wide open" there is no difference between cap values on the Tone knob. Would that be a correct assessment? The cap value only comes in to play as you roll "off" the tone knob. Yeah?
Most pots will have some small amount of leak to ground when all the way "open", but it's pretty negligible. So, you will possibly hear some small artifacts of the capacitor, even when the tone knob is turned al the way up.
There are "no load" pots, which essentially have a dead spot at fill open, where the contacts are completely disconnected, so there is no connection between the signal and the cap at all. Some folks swear by these as the most "true" representation of the guitar's tone, but it's a fairly small difference and, since we have all been conditioned by decades of traditional guitar wiring to hear regular pots - along with their inherent leak to ground - that no load pots can often sound too bright and unnatural.
For a vast majority of players, there is no use in swapping their traditional pots out for no load pots, as the effect isn't worth the trouble and many don't prefer the truly wide open sound after the fact. And, honestly, I'd argue that many who claim to like the results are just trying to justify the time, effort, and expense of the modification after-the-fact.
@@LollarPickups Good info, thanks!
My ears say the higher the value of capacitor the more capacity for charge held, the real question is how well that charge is held and how well the capacitors behave to effect the range in frequencies at full open as well as the properties to inhibit highs at full potentiometer/variable resistor operational purpose(closed)
So more is more,
And,
its why louder on the amps master volume is better,
but I still turn my volume pot down to 7 or 8 to allow the caps to do their job at full frequency capacitance with more room to spare and j ne er max my control knobs i always prefer a shaped tone but that delends on thd amps response of the hardware i have in the signal chain, thats when most of fhis argumenf goes out the window. then I find the tone pots sweet spot for me, it is subjective but the guitar as marvellous and awesome an invention as it is and i absolutely love guitars, it is still mathematics and science at the most basic level in its field., in regards to circuitry and design, guitars should be way cheaper especially the electronic components,
You can get parts ten a penney! Buy in bulk get decent parts that way you can match your pots too, they never read at the value stated and always under or over by the tolerance margin stated they pump these tiny insignificant components out thousands a day and theres no time to test them all. they are the simplest of parts that big ass aeronautical space ships snd plane components are made at the same fa tories, so they are very cheap in comparison not woth 30quid fot a fkn potentiometer or some old out of date "vintage " capacitor if you buy those you are being suckered unless you're running a fake vintage guitar racket scam... then youl need em. and I love how simple it us, lol inside your Nokia 8210 whatever in the 90s if you still have one, it's a supercomputer in comparison to a guitar.
The frequencies drawn from the amps greater magnetic pull(more power) amp responds to the signal if grounded well enough, higher value capacitors on your pots add more girth to the high frequencies, at the same time more highs rolled off yet still more mids are present, because, the resonant peak is shifted into a range that favours low to high mids on the eq spectrum which has all already been mapped out and time tested to be where guitars are better sounding i mean in the mix of a full band, each instrument, some are close to each other like piano and guitar, but each instrument including drums have a strong optimised area to be in within the whole frequency range that the human ear can hear and the man from del.onte Says YES!!
everything else outide the box is cut out to preserve the sound and save on whatever , mostly because it's useless snd thats that.
. You get more frequencies with higher value capacitors and still have with logarithmic pots, the option to diall those frequencies back and have a wider range of choice of frequency from full open to full closed.
Particularly handy when the guitar has bright pickups and good when you have a less expensive amp than tube amp, like a solid state amp to play on either way- use the guitars and amps eq to control the signal from the guitar thats decidedly how to manipulate the amps responds to the source signal.
Electricity in an uncontrolled or controlled environment is always drawn or held but never pushed through the amp its electromagnetism basics 101.
Capa itors are what they say they are- used to at various vues, to build up a capacity for an electrical voltage, snd in that value is the information, only judged by response from a receiver designed to connect with another weaker ir stronger electromagnetic cuitcit with magnetism in ghe case of guitars and amps its a variable responsive relationship between the two.
the signals are .ensured in wavelengths and currents amplitude etc
resistors redirect, but the source of the signal has to be within an acceptable range of tolerances and it boils down to the relationship between the pickups reaction to the strings vibratory disturbance of its electromagnetically induced field
not unlike if you visualise a picture of the earths electromagnetic field from the north and south pole,
so if everyone all at the same time plugs in and slams a G-Chord we can literally save the planet from an extinction level event like our sun emitting massive coronal ejections tight at us
, it's why it's called the "people's chord"
This is the way, I have spoken.
What’s your general consensus on LOW value caps? I recently put a .01 in my Strat and absolutely love it. I’m thinking of trying .0047 or .0033 or .001- are they going to be too subtle to notice
It's hard to say whether or not you'll be able to hear an appreciable difference, it's really a matter of subjectivity. I don't think most players would hear a big enough difference to make it worth the effort, but some may and only you can determine if you think it's worth it. Some folks may just convince themselves that they hear a difference when they don't, but as long as they're happy, it really doesn't matter what others can or can't hear.
In the end, the only way to know for sure is to give it a shot and see what you think. You can always take it out, if you're unhappy with the results.
@@LollarPickups ended up going with a .0047 which I like on the bridge but was too subtle on the neck. Next stop is .0068 I think that will be perfect
A bit difficult to compare, so:
100%
0.015uF - 4:05
0.022uF - 5:07
0.047uf - 6:08
75%
0.015uF - 4:16
0.022uF - 5:19
0.047uF - 6:23
50%
0.015uF - 4:25
0.022uF - 5:28
0.047uF - 6:36
25%
0.015uF - 4:35
0.022uF - 5:39
0.047uF - 6:47
0%
0.022uF - 5:53
0.047uF - 6:56
This is very helpful (and something I wish I had done to begin with). Do you mind if we just copy this comment and drop it into the video's description?
How does the .015 roll of MORE highs than the other 2 though? Listen to “25%” it’s very plain to hear. I was under the impression that the lower the value the less roll off….
Not even close the .015 rolls off more by a considerable margin….
I love Lollar pickups. I would love to have a set of P90s with a quick connect for my ES-295 copy.
Is the 0.047uf vintage correct? I have replica of the 60 strat with a set of lollar specials, 250k pots and 0.047uf but not a big fan when Im rolling down the tone. In the video the 0.15 sounds the best by far!
.047 is both historically accurate and, by far, the most widely used by Fender. But the fact is, it's not the *correct* cap value for you if you like something else more.
It's entirely up to player preference and I wouldn't put more emphasis on the minutiae of what is vintage correct over what I prefer as the one playing the guitar. Go with what you like!
LOLLAR PICKUPS , Can you make another video trying these values 0.0047uf, 0.0022uf, 0.0015uf because it works better on strats and telecasters which Leo Fender messed up using to much capacitance to get those jazz guitar tones which most rock players those cap values 0.022uf doesn't work its better to use 0.0022uf instead, try it out. SRV#1 strat used a RED capacitor but not sure what the red capacitor value is or what type of capacitor material used.
While it's not exactly what you're looking for, as it's not the values that you're inquiring about, we did a cap value video a while back that you might find helpful. You can view it here: th-cam.com/video/0Fzsc7uqc3g/w-d-xo.html
The reality is that these videos are extremely time- and labor-intensive so we have to do them according to what a majority of our viewers and customers would find most useful. Since most guitarist rarely ever stray from the "common" component materials, we tend to focus more energy on those things. As we get more and more of this sort of thing done, we will have more time to put our time into things like underrated tone cap values and stuff like that. But this is a very good idea for something like that, thank you for suggesting it.
@@LollarPickups Yes I'm sure making those videos are labor intensive but they look like good quality videos. I replace my strats tone caps 0.015uf or 0.022uf with a 0.0022uf instead because it has less capacitance which is better for rock pop music. Leo Fender used 0.047uf to get those jazz tones because jazz guitar was still in at the time. Its the wrong cap values for rock pop music because 0.015uf, 0.022uf, 0.047 are way to much capacitance which is sinking and bleeding off way to much of the high frequencies leading to the jazz guitar tones. For Pop Rock music 0.0022uf has less capacitance so its just sinks some high frequencies to ground. Its way more useful as a tone pot because before I never really used the tone pot because it was way to dark and jazz tones which is unusable for me until I replaced it with a 0.0022uf.
Funny, but the smaller cap make the biggest change.
When it comes to capacitors i have a secret weapon that cuts shrill high frequency but adds mid boost at the same time. I dont use any of the usual values.
You can also use a female pin header, so if you have a backplate guitar you can leave it off while fiddling about with caps, and just slide the legs into the female port holes. There are also dual row pin headers, so you can plug multiple caps in parallel (solder all of pins of a row together, then connect one row to one side of the circuit and the other row to the other side) to get values between standard cap values. Im using .028uF (3 blue HV 10nf caps I had laying around) with a performer buckshot and a '59 on an explorer clone. Nice and warm on the neck, screaming dry on the bridge, and all around chunky and present. Usually keep it around 2/3 up on tone, but I do play with it quite a bit depending on mood. It has certainly tamed down the metal zone pedal Im using at the moment oddly enough....the cut it puts on the signal tempers the 'angry bees in a tin can sound that is a common complaint with that pedal.
*Disclaimer: If you have opinions about 'improving' my rig, hey thats great champ, keep 'em to yourself. I dont give a shit about adversarial bullshit posturing, your need to prove youre smart (smart people dont need to prove it, junior), or being 'the best' to whoever as if that holds any meaningful value outside of ego stroking. Honestly, if thats how you live your life your ego can take a long fuck off a short pier. I just fiddle with it till I find something I like, then change it all again a few months later. That being said, Im all for the free flow of knowledge and experience, and dont mind general conversation about my or any setup.
Totally agree. Your rig, your rules.
There's no reason folks shouldn't be able to just let others be happy with whatever it is that makes them happy. If someone wants to run their guitar signal through a jar of mayonnaise, so be it. If they like it cool: play on. And if I don't like it, I don't have to listen to it. No one is forcing me to listen to them play their guitar through a jar of mayonnaise, and they shouldn't have to listen to me tell them why I don't like it.
Using short wires soldered to alligator clips lets you pick the capacitor that is best for your guitar... single coil pickups or humbuckers or rails types .... get the capacitor that SOUNDS best to you over the range you like...
That's exactly what we did in this video, to allow us to "hot swap" the caps out without having to stop to remove the control plate, desolder the cap, replace and resolder the next one, and so on.
There is no rule, only convention. T=Beyond that, the player's ears are the absolute test of what's best for any particular instrument/player combination.
❤️
I was surprised you changed pickups during the demo... ?
Good eye! We did inadvertently change from bridge to neck between the bypassed or "no cap" setup and the first cap demonstration. But we kept it on the neck for all of the different cap values, so the main point of the comparison still comes across as intended.
I dont wanna touch my tone knob, I just want to lose some treble. However, I've confused myself once again.
NOW I know why there was a hair in my pickup box!
a capacitor is a HIGH pass filter. When combined with a potentiometer in a guitar’s circuit, the entire tone control section acts as a low pass filter.
This is technically correct. Though we tried to make it more clear to our viewers what the *effect* of the capacitor in the tone circuit would have on the resulting sound.
The tone circuit itself is a low pass filter, in that the signal that passes through to your speaker is anything that falls BELOW the frequency threshold. Frankly, no one really cares what the signal going to ground would theoretically sound like - they don't hear it, so it doesn't matter - so we didn't bother to explain that in full detail. But, in our attempt to explain, perhaps we over-simplified it for folks such as yourself. But it sounds like you already understand how a capacitor works, so this video is not really intended to clarify anything for you. Thanks for pointing out the flaw in this oversimplification, hopefully others will benefit from either our explanation in the video or this conversation here in the comments.
The .0015 rolls off the most highs though…. I thought the higher the cap value the more roll off… am I crazy here? It’s really obvious when you use the jump links at 25%. It’s considerably more roll off than either the .022 or the .047
Why do bass guitars get active tone controls and electric guitars don't? I mean, it's widely understood that active tone controls are better than passive.
This would make all this effort into choosing a precise value of a capacitors and resistors kind of irrelevant.
I think that the main reason is that active electronics are usually less dynamic and touch-sensitive than passive circuits. They tend to compress the feeling out of the players input. And the guitar itself almost becomes little more than the vehicle to host the pickups. You can swap the circuit from one guitar to the next and the tone will change very little. You lose a lot of that organic tonal fingerprint that passive circuits allow, both from the player and the instrument. When you play through active pickups/tone controls, you're often hearing the circuit more than the instrument. Also, I can only assume it's also partially due to the power of convention. Folks don't like change, so they're willing to go along to get along. They heard their favorite guitarists playing through passive systems and so they want to emulate those tones and so they use similar gear to do so. The industry saw a small shift toward active systems after some heavier bands started gaining popularity in the mainstream, but it has never (nor will it likely ever) competed with the popularity of the classic designs.
@@LollarPickupsIt's weird. You have active controls on amps, maybe some pedals. You have active pickups (I think Fluence has and a few others have a single switch), but no active tone controls on a guitar!
I'd say that active tone controls are 'different' to passive, rather than 'better'. Certainly if you want to do big narrow frequency boosts cheaply, then you're going to need active EQ. But for gentler EQ changes, passive can be just as good or even 'better'. The Manley Passive EQ is a highly regarded rack-mount EQ found in many high-end recording studios, and although the circuitry does contain valves, the EQ section is all-passive. That's about $6999 (current Sweetwater price) of coveted passive EQ.
I think basses often have active EQ because there's a wider range of sounds required from a bass than a guitar. If you want to get that mid-scooped sound from a bass to emphasise slap and pop sounds for one track, and then push up the bass and mids for the next track, then you can do it on the amp EQ, but if you're playing live, then it's easier to have the controls on the bass guitar. I personally find that in isolation, most passive basses have more interesting tonality than active basses, but I know a lot of that gets lost in a band situation.
With guitars, you need this type of extreme EQ far less, and it's generally a case of adding more overdrive or distortion to the sound, often with pedals, than changing the basic tonality of the guitar sound.
There have been guitars with very comprehensive active EQ controls, but they've pretty much all been sales failures. The Gibson RD Artist and Les Paul Artist guitars in the late 70s had Moog-designed EQ and were amazingly versatile - but hardly anyone bought one.
The active add-on modules for EMG pickups are probably the most popular active EQ options for guitar, but that's partly due to a lot of the EMG pickup sounds being rather flat and boring without them (IMO). I certainly wouldn't be without the EXG control on my SA-equipped Strat.
Try string Joy strings yet? The play ver well with your imperial humbuckers and lots of other pups.
I've not tried them, personally. But I know a lot of folks - whom I respect a great deal - swear by them. So, there's obviously something to it.
@@LollarPickups Good for you. They are a bunch of young people trying to make strings better. Sounds like you!
Only like the .015 µF value tone capacitors; all the others sound like shit. I want these installed in all my electric guitars.
Jason Lollar prefers the same.
Great Video! I have an upgrade question for you below, under "smutsharry" (2nd one, down from the top of comments, currently - 11.28.2022). In regards to your comment regarding the "orange" (or whatever color) Caps, and that their "Orientation" 0f which lead is soldered, where, does Not really matter in their installation within guitar circuits.... you may want to take 13 minutes, and watch this video... it does matter, and he explains how & why. He got his knowledge about it from a fellow up in Canada, who has a website (which is linked in his video on correct Cap orientation), and is nothing short of a "genius" (literally) in the field of electronics. I think it would be worth your time (13 minutes), if it would help make your already great products, even better... through just a small detail of attention in assembly.
Thanks for your input. This is not something that we put much emphasis on and not something that we are concerned with here in the shop. The type of caps used in guitars are not polarized and can function well in either orientation. The difference is so small between the two as to not really have enough appreciable benefit from this level of scrutiny. If people want to do so and it makes them happy, more power to them, we support them in following their own joy. But the time spent flipping caps is time that could be spent playing guitar for others and we support them in that as well. I have never personally bothered, as the small amount of benefit is not worth the effort. I've always just soldered my caps in however they may be and I've never been dissatisfied with the results. Other folks may feel otherwise and that's why we say, "Whatever YOU like best, is what's best for YOU."
Actually correct cap orientation of an Orange Drop capacitor can be deduced … turn up volume of amp, plug in guitar, pot wide open, by touching finger to external case of cap… sound change will be heard see this video
th-cam.com/video/v7h5kI8glwA/w-d-xo.html
I think this is splitting some pretty small hairs here. His video doesn't really show a practical application for tone capacitors in an electric guitar circuit.
For starters, in a full guitar circuit, your signal is passing through the cap in a manner that is much like a high pass filter; only the very top end is passing through the cap and going directly to ground and the rest of your signal is going out through the output jack to the amplifier. The signal of the guitar is so much stronger than any small amount of signal of the noise coming in from the cap alone, so your noise floor is statistically non-existent - in fact, in his video, he had to turn the volume on the amp all the way up for the noise to even be discernable at all. And this is without the guitar signal in there to further obfuscate the noise.
In addition, when you play guitar, you are grounded by way of the circuit, whether through a string ground or another method. In his video, he is not grounded, so he introduces far more interference by touching the cap than he would if he were grounded in the circuit. If he were touching the strings or other grounded metal part of the guitar in the same circuit as the cap, he wouldn't introduce nearly as much interference. Plus, you're never really going to reach into your guitar and touch the capacitor while playing, making this all sort of a moot point. So, while what the video shows is technically factual, it's not an apples-to-apples analog for a full guitar circuit and not representative of the reality of any noise introduced by installing the cap in any particular orientation.
But, if folks have nothing better to do than worry about this small degree of potential RFI/EMI in their signal, they can do whatever they want to chase their own happiness. If wrapping the whole circuit in molten lead and wearing a tinfoil hat when they play makes them feel better, then we support their right to do so. More power to 'em. But that doesn't mean that anyone else is necessarily wrong for not bothering to put a non-directional capacitor in their guitar in any sort of way.
@@LollarPickups When can we look forward to the new Lollar branded tin-foil hat? ;-)
@leftpastsaturn, we prefer to call them "Anti-5G Paper-In-(tin)Foil Thinking Caps" due to the negative connotations of the old name. They improve your tone by 69.420% by shielding your guitar from bad gear forum advice. They also shield your brains from 5G interference while doing your own research about capacitors online. Haha!
Also, I perused some of your videos and the ambient music and accompanying visuals are great. Is that all performed by you?
@@LollarPickups Sign me up for any testing program on those caps! :D
Thanks for the compliments on the music, I'm glad you enjoyed them, and yes, that's all me. The visuals are easy, I just carry a camera when I go hiking!
So what you are saying. better material, better builds, better tech mean nothing to sound. So why by expensive guitar then. We all just buy Chinese. You're a genius.
Nope, that's not at all what was said in this video. You're creating an entirely different argument about quality of materials, craftsmanship, and technology that is not necessarily relevant to capacitor value. And it's just not a debate in which we bother to engage; we've got no dog in that fight. We encourage everyone to buy what they like, play what they like, and, well... LIKE what they like. Take care.
@@LollarPickups super sorry. Just no that most stuff is made cost to point. I think capacitors upgrades do make a difference so does better quality copper wound pickups. Read a wonderful article on how great players would spend hour changing ingredients out resistors, caps , powersupplies, pickups to get that tone and sound we all fell in love with. From zappa, scholts, slash, and more. Think it is worth the time to explore it. Great show buy the way. Regards Brian.
As a manufacturing company, we fully understand the economics involved in the creation of a product. We also understand that there will always be a balancing act between the best materials and affordable costs. Across all industries, some manufacturers choose to put only the highest quality material into their product, regardless of whether or not the objective quality of the end product will see any appreciable effect as a result; some will cut any and all corners necessary to drive the price as low as possible, even though they know that the quality of their end product will suffer as a result; and others will inevitably fall somewhere in between the two.
So long as people are happy with what they have at their disposal, we see no harm in pursuing your own happiness, whatever that may be. Some people just honestly love tinkering -- for them, that's the fun of it all -- and that's perfectly understandable. If it makes you happy and doesn't bring harm to anyone else, there's no fault, as far as we're concerned.
My ears say the higher the value of capacitor the more capacity for charge held, the real question is how well that charge is held and how well the capacitors behave to effect the range in frequencies at full open as well as the properties to inhibit highs at full potentiometer/variable resistor operational purpose(closed)
So more is more,
And,
its why louder on the amps master volume is better,
but I still turn my volume pot down to 7 or 8 to allow the caps to do their job at full frequency capacitance with more room to spare and j ne er max my control knobs i always prefer a shaped tone but that delends on thd amps response of the hardware i have in the signal chain, thats when most of fhis argumenf goes out the window. then I find the tone pots sweet spot for me, it is subjective but the guitar as marvellous and awesome an invention as it is and i absolutely love guitars, it is still mathematics and science at the most basic level in its field., in regards to circuitry and design, guitars should be way cheaper especially the electronic components,
You can get parts ten a penney! Buy in bulk get decent parts that way you can match your pots too, they never read at the value stated and always under or over by the tolerance margin stated they pump these tiny insignificant components out thousands a day and theres no time to test them all. they are the simplest of parts that big ass aeronautical space ships snd plane components are made at the same fa tories, so they are very cheap in comparison not woth 30quid fot a fkn potentiometer or some old out of date "vintage " capacitor if you buy those you are being suckered unless you're running a fake vintage guitar racket scam... then youl need em. and I love how simple it us, lol inside your Nokia 8210 whatever in the 90s if you still have one, it's a supercomputer in comparison to a guitar.
The frequencies drawn from the amps greater magnetic pull(more power) amp responds to the signal if grounded well enough, higher value capacitors on your pots add more girth to the high frequencies, at the same time more highs rolled off yet still more mids are present, because, the resonant peak is shifted into a range that favours low to high mids on the eq spectrum which has all already been mapped out and time tested to be where guitars are better sounding i mean in the mix of a full band, each instrument, some are close to each other like piano and guitar, but each instrument including drums have a strong optimised area to be in within the whole frequency range that the human ear can hear and the man from del.onte Says YES!!
everything else outide the box is cut out to preserve the sound and save on whatever , mostly because it's useless snd thats that.
. You get more frequencies with higher value capacitors and still have with logarithmic pots, the option to diall those frequencies back and have a wider range of choice of frequency from full open to full closed.
Particularly handy when the guitar has bright pickups and good when you have a less expensive amp than tube amp, like a solid state amp to play on either way- use the guitars and amps eq to control the signal from the guitar thats decidedly how to manipulate the amps responds to the source signal.
Electricity in an uncontrolled or controlled environment is always drawn or held but never pushed through the amp its electromagnetism basics 101.
Capa itors are what they say they are- used to at various vues, to build up a capacity for an electrical voltage, snd in that value is the information, only judged by response from a receiver designed to connect with another weaker ir stronger electromagnetic cuitcit with magnetism in ghe case of guitars and amps its a variable responsive relationship between the two.
the signals are .ensured in wavelengths and currents amplitude etc
resistors redirect, but the source of the signal has to be within an acceptable range of tolerances and it boils down to the relationship between the pickups reaction to the strings vibratory disturbance of its electromagnetically induced field
not unlike if you visualise a picture of the earths electromagnetic field from the north and south pole,
so if everyone all at the same time plugs in and slams a G-Chord we can literally save the planet from an extinction level event like our sun emitting massive coronal ejections tight at us
, it's why it's called the "people's chord"
This is the way, I have spoken.
All the same, is it?
Just turn all controls to 10 and forget about pots and caps values...
Yeah, I've found that a startling number of players never even use their volume or tone controls. Though there's definitely still a bit of a tonal fingerprint, even with the knobs at 10. I had a friend who left his knobs at 10 all the time and so he thought he'd just remove the volume and tone circuit to prevent them from unintentionally getting turned down. He removed them and went straight from the pickup to the output jack. When he did this, he actually didn't like the sound he got. It was too harsh and bright for his liking. So, he put them back in, turned them all the way up, and simply tucked the entire pots, shaft and all, into the cavity without passing the shafts through the holes in the body. They were permanently on ten and still offered that bit of tonal coloration that he liked. Different value pots will have different coloration, even on ten, as they don't actually have infinite resistance to ground, so some amount of treble frequencies will still shunt to ground, and the frequencies and amount of single going to ground will depend on the value. And plenty of folks just don't care for the wide-open sound, they prefer to dial in their favorite tones with the volume and tone controls. Variety being the spice of life and whatnot...