# Question about Capacitors



## Geeetar (Oct 25, 2015)

I'm trying to increase my knowledge about the internal electronics of an electric guitar and although I have been googling different terms and ideas, I thought id get some help from you lovely people at guitarscanada!

What are the differences in guitar capacitors? I constantly read these debates between orange caps and paper in oil (PIO) caps affecting tone. How do capacitors affect the tone?


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Beware that you are going down a very deep and debated rabbit hole!

The electronic value of the cap (i.e., 0.011 uF vs 0.022 uF vs 0.047 uF) will affect the tone for sure as the purpose is to take frequencies to ground via the tone pot as the combination of the cap and pot (resistor) acts as an electronic filter.

Orange drops vs PIO vs Mylar vs _________________ (inject other options here) is where much debate can start. In addition, how much you want to invest in said caps can become a significant factor

There are many cap comparisons on YouTube which are very interesting and informative. Have you seen any of these videos?


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## ezcomes (Jul 28, 2008)

Tone...like beauty...is in the eye/ear of the beholder...

Some people say orange drops are best...some bumble bee...most are fine with the caps that come stock in their guitar (guilty)...all for you to decide

Some people think cucumbers taste better pickled


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## epis (Feb 25, 2012)

ezcomes said:


> Some people think cucumbers taste better pickled


No doubt, with garlic and dill !


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

ezcomes said:


> Tone...like beauty...is in the eye/ear of the beholder...
> 
> Some people say orange drops are best...some bumble bee...most are fine with the caps that come stock in their guitar (guilty)...all for you to decide
> 
> Some people think cucumbers taste better pickled


This post sums it up very succinctly IMO.

To add to ezcomes comment, *some* can't hear all that much difference between 0.022 and 0.047 uF caps in some circumstances (i.e., given the pickups, amp, etc).

@ezcomes...do you think there is a possible business opportunity here?
Caps pickled ...and then maybe cryo treated

Cheers

Dave


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

A lot of stuff gets attributed to the wrong properties of components. And a lot of "advice" that is born in the audiophile world for wholly different reasons, gets mistakenly generalized to the guitar world.

If I am processing a mix consisting of multiple sources covering the full spectrum, the properties of caps can matter very much; particularly if those caps are in series with the signal path. If I am testing the voltage ratings of the cap, or asking it to hold a voltage for a long time, then cap type can matter. If I am simply bleeding off the treble content of a single low-bandwidth signal to ground, then stuff like group-phase-delay and the alignment of harmonic content, or leakage characteristics, don't really matter that much.

Of course, when it comes to caps, what it says on the cap is rarely what it measures. If one trusts the nominal value on the cap too much, it can become easy to think that cap type matters when really it'sa question of actual cap value. And cap value matters.

But, I'll keep an open mind that there may well be something about some kinds of tone caps that *might* sound a little different ...although such differences may well disappear once the volume knob gets turned up.


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## ezcomes (Jul 28, 2008)

greco said:


> This post sums it up very succinctly IMO.
> 
> To add to ezcomes comment, *some* can't hear all that much difference between 0.022 and 0.047 uF caps in some circumstances (i.e., given the pickups, amp, etc).
> 
> ...


Just dont forget the magic words...NOS and vintage...and we'd be sitting on a gold mine!


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## parkhead (Aug 14, 2009)

I'll jump in here. Caps can make a big difference in your guitar tone!
There will be many who argue about placebo effects, and cap values being different than what the markings are, accounting for the hype, but unfortunately such arguments are wishful ignorance.
I was one of those folks who poo pooed the whole cap thing particularly in passive guitar tone circuits, unfortunately that is one of the spots I have found makes the most difference.


My education was the result of a run in with a old 59 burst and the owners quest to duplicate its tone in a modern issue LP STD. He wanted to stop playing the real guitar in bars !!
It took us 2 years, and eventually we swapped every part of the new guitar except the wood, tuners and truss rod. The solution was a set of 58 PAF's and an original wiring harness as well.
The guitar sounded good, but did not sound RIGHT till we got real bumble bee caps into it.

So what is going on with this stuff ?
#1 REAL.... PAF pickups have greater dynamic range and clarity in all modes of play. Those who have sent PAF parts to labs for analysis claim that the stud, keeper bar and other magnetic metals
are obsolete alloys that you have to have custom made these days. Pickup builders who use these alloys come very close to the real PAF sound. Unfortnately 99% of whats available does not meet these standards.

#2 The pots used in the old Gibsons were unique compared to modern pots, they have a unique taper chosen by Gibson to have a particular sweep, in addition I believe they have a unique formula of Carbon paste
that changes the EQ of the pickup depending on the pots position on that sweep. Full up the full resistance of that carbon strip is placed between the hot signal and ground, in this position the carbon strip actually contributes to clarity and
sustain by providing different resistances to ground to different frequencies. Hi notes pop out better, almost like you have a treble booster engaged, as some have claimed about famous burst recordings. You hear this effect as a dramatic chirp on the pick attack when the player picks hard.

#3 the capacitor: the old difilm bumble bees changed from PIO in 57 to Difilm kraft paper, mylar and foil in 1958 the external markings did not change. The absence of a oil filler plug is the only clue. Sprague also produced black beauty 160p caps for the repair services retail market with clear imprints of the cap value instead of encoded stripes. These caps were made by rolling up strips of foil with an insulator between the strips WELDING the leads onto the foil, and encapsulating the whole thing in plastic to seal it for eternity. The next late 60's generation of caps were made with no metal foil, mylar was "sprayed directly with metal" then, rolled up tightly, and dipped in epoxy, a special metalized epoxy was used to join the leads to the edge of the mylar avoiding welding the leads.(mullard mustards are this type) The following generation of these caps were "crushed" into flat boxes or "chicklets" before the leads were installed and the epoxy dip.(modern chicklet caps are this type) The cap industry made all of these changes to resolve their dirty little secret ... the older caps had SIGNIFICANT defects including frequency dependent resistance and inductance. google any vintage capacitor promo data sheet and they all claim to have LOW INDUCTANCE ... sort of like how the parents of dead gangsters always claim he was a NICE BOY ...and you would never imagine he would do anything like this .... I digress
All of this Di-Film stuff welded leads, metal foil plates, paper and mylar insulation, an air gap in the center makes for a capacitor that rings and resonates like a church bell at guitar frequencies ! Even full up with the pot set at 500k to ground the audio enters the cap and bounces around like its a reverb chamber and feeds signal back to the pickup & harness adding sustain or RING at certain frequencies. In addition all of this heavy duty construction make the cap less efficient at higher frequencies giving a distinct NASAL quality to the tone sometimes called "woman tone"
I am not sure if Russian PIO caps use actual metal foil and welded leads, I suspect they are a hybrid of modern metalized mylar and oil filled construction but I may be wrong!

In contrast a modern disc cap uses a piezo effect to do its thing ...these act almost like a switch above the activation frequency which is why some people say they sound "grainy" in amps. They also work better at higher frequencies and in a passive guitar circuit bleed lots of treble to ground even when the cap is on 10 !!!! (in other words REMOVE these from your guitar unless you play chug metal !) 

To sum up the 59 burst was a unique combination of seasoned old woods, a great design, incredible (arguably the best guitar pickups ever) and good quality but poor pots, and "horrible" tone capacitors

I have auditioned many many sprague capacitors as well as many similar di film caps from the same era astrons, later mullard mustards ect. while these all have elements of the problems of the bumble bees, they are the kings of the crappy capacitors !

I now use them in all of my guitars including Fenders with excellent results !
these were sold as both Bumble bees, and 160p di-film caps, as yet no one has come close

Some of you may think I am full of Horse poop... however swallow your pride find one of these old sprague caps, and install it in an axe you know well
you will hear what I describe

incidentally Mullard Mustards ring tightly through the midrange but are damped in the extreme upper (fizzy) frequencies making them amazing in Marshall circuits

old Astrons and Blue Molded caps have a dinstinct lower midrange ring that enhances the traditional pillowy thump of a old fender amp

IMHO the behavior of all of these caps is THE reason why re-issue anything sounds shrill harsh and lifeless compared to the woody tone of real deal vintage gear 

P


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Again, IF it was the case that the _entire_ signal had to pass through the cap, and IF that signal occupied a major proportion of the audible spectrum - such as what might occur if it was an audio preamp for your home stereo, or a master channel strip on a mixing board - then I think one would be nuts NOT to be concerned with, or picky about, the composition of the cap.

However, in the case of a passive tone control, all one is doing is bleeding treble off to ground. If there are differences in what gets bled off to ground because of some complexity in the cap (i.e., the bleedoff is not linear), fine, but this is easy to test for and nobody has presented evidence that this happens. If it was in series with the signal, then I could understand if it changed the phase relationship of the fundamentals and harmonics in some quirky way. But all it is doing is dumping high end. If it is leaky in some way, then that is easily solved by using a higher tone pot value.

I'm just not seeing any sort of explanation of why the parameters of these exotic caps _should_ yield a different outcome, according to known principles of physics and electronics. All I end up with is people swearing that their instrument sounds so much better with this or that. And for some reason, it ONLY happens with more expensive Les Pauls (yours is the first instance I've seen of somebody talking about something else), and never happens with any other sort of guitar that also uses a standard treble cut with the same pot and cap values.

As for historic pots, precious few pots even with today's manufacturing standards and tighter tolerances, nail the taper they are spec'd to have. I don't doubt that the taper was more usable on some pots on some guitars. But taper is simply how dial-able the sound is to the user, not the quality of sound. Personally I find the quality of wipers has declined, and is usually poorer on smaller-diameter pots, but the resistive strip composition should not make a damn bit of difference to a low-bandwidth signal. Maybe there IS some particular inductance inherent. But if that produces a series inductance that only affects things above 15khz, then what the hell difference does it make even if it _does_ exist? The pickups don't produce anything that high, and the speakers can't reproduce anything that high.

As for PAFs, pickups are electromagnetic devices. Anything that changes the field around the pickup, or changes the inductance of the coil (which keeper bars do) will change aspects of the pickup's tone. If one follows the pickup-makers forum over at MEF, commercial builders are frequently concerned with the composition of the slugs, keeper bars, pickup covers, and bottom plates, as a way of altering the tonal characteristics. But there is a difference between those aspects of the sensing device, and the adjoining circuitry that simply passes the signal.

I don't think you're full of horse poop, but you may have unwittingly bought some. Maybe your guitar _does_ sound different now - I certainly can't deny that - but it may be for entirely different reasons than you think.


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

To me it's not so much about sound from the cap and pot's. It's about usefullness, cheaper pots have poor linearity and there is a small usefull range. I broke down a few years ago and bought a kit from RS Guitarworks. Their super volume pot and linear tone pots. It also came with their brand of capacitor which I believe had a tighter tolerance. The tone of the guitar did not change much but the usefullness of the quality linear pots did.


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## LydianGuitars (Apr 18, 2013)

mhammer said:


> If I am processing a mix consisting of multiple sources covering the full spectrum ...[snip]... and the alignment of harmonic content, or leakage characteristics.


I'm curious. 

I have a degree in electronics, and studied harmonics in the context of AM/FM and RF Modulation. I've never heard of "Alignment of Harmonic contecnt". What is this? Frequency error for input vs output?

For leakage, you can check the ESR spec of the cap in question.


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## parkhead (Aug 14, 2009)

I think the biggest point that can be made here is that the adjoining circuitry does not merely pass or bypass signal. I hear this from people all the time who have little understanding of passive guitar electronics.

Point #1 I am neither buying nor selling anything, simply sharing hard won data I probably should not

Point #2 when a volume pot is on 10 people think that it is "out of the circuit" when in fact it is very present, while most of the signal passes by, it still represents a 250k or 500k "leak" or LOAD to ground
so a person seeking higher pickup output in a typical strat would be further ahead replacing the 250k pot with 500k for $6.99 vs spending $200 for a set of boutique pickups.
so while most of the signal passes the pot heading for the output jack a percentage of it bleeds to ground, my added twist on this is that the older carbon strip composition bleeds this signal
differently at different frequencies with the older composition pots having a distinct upper mid range boost, by bleeding less treble to ground while on 10
(let that sink in)

For the person buying a $200 set of boutique strat pickups ignoring the role of a $6.99 pot makes even less sense
All-Parts and others make 250k, 300k 500k and 1 meg (1000k) pots that fit right into a strat,

a thicker carbon strip sounds better, some pot makers are now realizing this and offering "vintage pots" as better than the regular offerings, I have buddies who I respect, who swear by these items but I am doubtful
(personally I doubt their effectiveness, as these days marketing not engineering leads the way)
I audition a lot of pots, I am very picky

Point #3 the tone control is a 250k or 500k pot in series with a .02, .047 or .1 capacitor.
On 10 it still presents a filtered load to the pickup.
So in a LES Paul (500k pots) above the activation frequency of the cap, the pickup via ohms law only sees 250k to ground, while below the cutoff frequencies the bass sees 500k to ground.

all of this ROLL OFF is happening on a Guitar with the volume and tone controls on 10!
my point is that the actual control Gibson used in the 59 Les Paul rolled off less treble than any modern versions of those parts or any other available 1959 part.


You may not accept this idea in your understanding of Guitar electronics, but go back and listen to the definitive 59 burst recordings you will hear that the treble and midrange are more lively than later guitars... you can as most people do, believe this is aging of the wood or other Mojo but ultimately those guitars did that because of the physical attributes and the sum of their parts

as noted I have had the firsthand experience and privilege of working to duplicate a Burst with a friend most of you have not

Digression Point #2 section A (A for applications)
you have a 1982 Les Paul or es335, or you have owned several and sold them all, you know these are OK and not great sounding guitars. 30 years of aging not having benefited them at all!
(remember the Beano Les Paul was 6 years old when Clapton, sounded like God !)
10 years ago I bought a nice 1982 es335 with two sheared off pots, I got it at a killer price because NO ONE wanted to pull the harness and fix the pot.
I pulled the harness and being somewhat scientific minded put the pots on my Multi Meter, the volumes were 250k and the tones 100k !
a quick call to Gibson revealed that 100k tones were standard issue since 1971 ! (Gibson went back to 500k tone in 1990 or 92)
Gibson still uses 300k volume pots in all USA guitars (custom shop Les Pauls used 4x 500k)

ok ... so what ?
so I swapped out the pots for 4x 500k and that 335 went from being average to killer
later I went back in and swapped the volumes to 1 meg and the caps to russian PIO .01 mfd
the point is people play the guitar and say "nice guitar" its got some nice pickups! 
They have no idea it has the same pickups as their guitar and I have no inkling of the real changes within the guitar ! Or how CRAZY I AM 


I recently built a strat pick guard for a project strat I used a 500k volume and allparts 300k tone pots
and a old .047 foil and paper cap it sounds like a strat, it sounds like a very good OLD strat

those who have read the specs of the Eric Johnson strat might have noticed that they use Custom made pots of 275k or so
I am not Eric Johnson but All-parts makes widely available 300k pots for our joy and pleasure

Final Point

some of you are very uncomfortable, argumentative or down right doubtful of all of this RIGHT NOW
but remember these points as you do your projects and you will be well served and amply rewarded

those who can solder and do projects like wiring in a new set of pickups or building a kit amp
should clearly see that testing some of these ideas is easy enough on the next project

Owners of Gibson USA guitars should have their Meters out and the backs off their control cavities about 4 minutes from now
(unfortunately if you meter your volume pots you will just get your pickups specs ... since the pickup and volume are in parallel)
you would have to unhook the pickup to meter the pot !

bottom line if you build or repair any guitar gear test every thing and trust your ears!
nothing intentionally Magic happened at Gibson in 1959 they just used their good ears to build great stuff with what they had on hand!

my KEY point is we no longer have the same stuff to work with ...so just copying what they did in 1959 only works if you get that same stuff they used in 59,
that was what we learned copying the 59 lp
we got it right because we used 58/59 parts

that was 4 years ago and this information allowed me to hand select certain parts
and tweak my guitars so that as my buddy says they are 95% close to his #1

so trust your ears and never assume a volume pot does nothing because you turned it to 10

I won't debate this ... I won't give away all of the answers
you can either run with this ball or live with shitty tone


p


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

LydianGuitars said:


> I'm curious.
> 
> I have a degree in electronics, and studied harmonics in the context of AM/FM and RF Modulation. I've never heard of "Alignment of Harmonic contecnt". What is this? Frequency error for input vs output?


Sadly, we have only two ears. When we listen to recorded or performed music, or simply stuff happening around us, that is coming from many different sources, we normally try and group harmonics to their respective fundamentals to help identify identify sounds, and assign them to identifiable and locatable sound sources. Certainly other cues like sound shadows and inter-aural differences, and even visual cue, allow us to know that this is coming from over there which must mean it is being produced by that. And distinctive envelope characteristics allow us to identify likely sources . But when things start to get busy, as they do in popular music, or simply walking down the street, at least part of what enables us to do that with less effort and greater accuracy is the proper time alignment of harmonics and their fundamentals. Introduce any sort of group delay that slightly staggers the harmonic content, such that it becomes harder to sort all that high end into this source, that source, and that other one, and listening becomes substantially more effortful, and fatiguing. That is also, of course, why the physical spacing of tweeters relative to the other drivers is important in achieving a coherent and pleasing soundstage in higher-end speakers.

Think of it this way. Let us say I take a high res facial photograph of someone you know very well, and I stagger the features just a tiny bit, moving the nose juuuuussst a hair that way and the right eye juuuust a bit in that direction and the lower lip in the other direction. It doesn't have to be much for the face to look completely unfamiliar. Same features, but their specific alignment is what enables you to instantly recognize it. Same thing with sound sources. The specific harmonic pattern (timbre) and the temporal properties of how the timbre changes, contribute to identification. But when the soundstage gets busy, and all that auditory content comes flying at your two poor little ears, grouping all that content into discrete chunks for identification and localization relies partly on the alignment of the harmonic content with the fundamentals it rode in on.

All part of audio scene analysis. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_scene_analysis ) I was fortunate enough to have the godfather of all that stuff as one of my profs in undergrad.

make sense?


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

parkhead said:


> I think the biggest point that can be made here is that the adjoining circuitry does not merely pass or bypass signal. I hear this from people all the time who have little understanding of passive guitar electronics.
> ...........
> so trust your ears and never assume a volume pot does nothing because you turned it to 10
> 
> ...


I completely understand the role of pot value, and the notion of the pickups and their interaction with pot value, cap value, etc., to form a sort of highly interactive network. I have posted countless times about the topic here and elsewhere. I actively use this to customize my own guitar electronics and those of other people in predictable and pleasing ways, as I have been doing for 40 years now. 

The interaction between pickups and the different passive components (including cable) has a sound theoretical and measurable basis to it. The same may not be said to apply to tone cap composition in guitars. I accept that a simple ceramic cap may succumb to heat damage when installed by non-professionals, and be off-spec, in a way that other caps might not. I accept that there are lots of things that have measurable characteristics, but all too often they simply have no relevance to the guitar context. Actually, in pretty much the same way volume pot value matters when volume is up full, but much less when volume is turned down below 8 or so.

Case in point. I'll hear all sorts of attributions to diode properties in pedals. And yes, different diodes have different "knees", and speed-related differences. But those differences only exist at ultra-sonic frequencies for high-speed switching. Why on earth would they matter to the sub-8khz world?


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## GTmaker (Apr 24, 2006)

As Greco already pointed out...
this guy in the video has all the answers I'll need for my instruments and what I play...
WHy do I know that ?... cause instead of just talking the talk he actualy walks the walk and lets me hear the difference.
What difference or lack of I do hear is whats important to me. My tone is based of what I hear not what someone else tells me I should hear.

G.


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## parkhead (Aug 14, 2009)

"Case in point. I'll hear all sorts of attributions to diode properties in pedals. And yes, different diodes have different "knees", and speed-related differences. But those differences only exist at ultra-sonic frequencies for high-speed switching. Why on earth would they matter to the sub-8khz world?"

some people hear it
most people don't

curiously the people who don't hear it
like it when those who do, resolve things that sound terrible

my visual acuity might never be as well developed as Da Vinci
but anyone can see the Mona Lisa is a pretty good painting


with all due respect this statement is incorrect
"The same may not be said to apply to tone cap composition in guitars."

it may be difficult to hear, but the bumble bee is as good an example as one can find of a
type and brand of cap sounding noticeably different than others of the same era and composition

unfortunately there are now counterfeit bumble bees on the market which may indeed sound just like any other dull cap

this is a simple challenge
find a bumble bee or sprague, 160p its not hard to find ONE in an amp
or the right junk shop

get the same value as your guitar should have .02 for gibson
.047 for a fender

replace the disc or other existing cap in your instrument
go and play, then play at volume in rehearsal or at a gig
unless you are in love with the tight dark tone or you existing cap
you will notice more shimmer, jangle and sustain in you rig

do this test and then let us know

p


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

GTmaker said:


> As Greco already pointed out...


GTmaker ...thanks for referring back to me, but I'm not really trying to point out anything. I just offered the embeded videos as "samples" that the OP might enjoy watching and find informative.

However, I would like to now point out (again) what I mentioned in my initial post to the OP:

*"Beware that you are going down a very deep and debated rabbit hole!"*


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## LydianGuitars (Apr 18, 2013)

mhammer said:


> Sadly, we have only two ears. When we listen to recorded or performed music, or simply stuff happening around us, that is coming from many different sources, we normally try and group harmonics to their respective fundamentals to help identify identify sounds, and assign them to identifiable and locatable sound sources. Certainly other cues like sound shadows and inter-aural differences, and even visual cue, allow us to know that this is coming from over there which must mean it is being produced by that. And distinctive envelope characteristics allow us to identify likely sources . But when things start to get busy, as they do in popular music, or simply walking down the street, at least part of what enables us to do that with less effort and greater accuracy is the proper time alignment of harmonics and their fundamentals. Introduce any sort of group delay that slightly staggers the harmonic content, such that it becomes harder to sort all that high end into this source, that source, and that other one, and listening becomes substantially more effortful, and fatiguing. That is also, of course, why the physical spacing of tweeters relative to the other drivers is important in achieving a coherent and pleasing soundstage in higher-end speakers.
> 
> Think of it this way. Let us say I take a high res facial photograph of someone you know very well, and I stagger the features just a tiny bit, moving the nose juuuuussst a hair that way and the right eye juuuust a bit in that direction and the lower lip in the other direction. It doesn't have to be much for the face to look completely unfamiliar. Same features, but their specific alignment is what enables you to instantly recognize it. Same thing with sound sources. The specific harmonic pattern (timbre) and the temporal properties of how the timbre changes, contribute to identification. But when the soundstage gets busy, and all that auditory content comes flying at your two poor little ears, grouping all that content into discrete chunks for identification and localization relies partly on the alignment of the harmonic content with the fundamentals it rode in on.
> 
> ...


Sorry - I didn't understand your description in the context of a capacitor. 

I was wondering whether this "Alignment of Harmonic content" has anything to do with frequency errors. Harmonics are defined by a frequency and amplitude vs a fundamental, not delays or phase. Your description of the picture is akin to a phase/flange/chorus effect in terms of sound. The components are all still there, which is what harmonics and the fundamental are. That's the content in electrical signals.

I don't understand the link with walking down the street and I didn't understand the link with the article you linked. It sounded like you could measure differences in the alignment (?) with different capacitors?


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## GTmaker (Apr 24, 2006)

greco said:


> GTmaker ...thanks for referring back to me, but I'm not really trying to point out anything. I just offered the embeded videos as "samples" that the OP might enjoy watching and find informative.
> However, I would like to now point out (again) what I mentioned in my initial post to the OP:
> *"Beware that you are going down a very deep and debated rabbit hole!"*


I clearly mention the video as the source of my interest...
As for the "rabbit hole" ... when I see an amazing player with great tone, 
I dont think the capacitor makes my top 100 list on why the whole thing sounds so good.
G.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

GTmaker said:


> I clearly mention the video as the source of my interest....


Sorry, I misinterpreted.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

LydianGuitars said:


> Sorry - I didn't understand your description in the context of a capacitor.
> 
> I was wondering whether this "Alignment of Harmonic content" has anything to do with frequency errors. Harmonics are defined by a frequency and amplitude vs a fundamental, not delays or phase. Your description of the picture is akin to a phase/flange/chorus effect in terms of sound. The components are all still there, which is what harmonics and the fundamental are. That's the content in electrical signals.
> 
> I don't understand the link with walking down the street and I didn't understand the link with the article you linked. It sounded like you could measure differences in the alignment (?) with different capacitors?


What I meant was that if a capacitor was in a position to modify the phase relationship between different portions of the spectrum, because of all those little implicit things about caps that folks who think of them merely in terms of microfarads and voltage-ratings never think of but EEs know is going on underneath, then I can understand how it can tangibly (though perhaps subtly) alter the quality of what we get to hear. That becomes more important as more signal sources get combined. It is much less likely to play a role where dumping frequency content of s single source with limited bandwidth is the focus.

The "walking down the street" alludes to any generic scenario where one is integrating many concurrent sound sources and perceptually organizing all that stuff that would show up on a scope into mentally identifiable sound sources. Like a video image that is all "just pixels" until we perceptually organize all that visual noise into distinct objects, all the auditory noise has to be perceptually organized as well. Even though we're all musicians here, we tend to forget just how much computation is involved in "hearing" instruments.


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## Nest519 (Jan 29, 2015)

parkhead said:


> I'll jump in here. Caps can make a big difference in your guitar tone!
> There will be many who argue about placebo effects, and cap values being different than what the markings are, accounting for the hype, but unfortunately such arguments are wishful ignorance.
> I was one of those folks who poo pooed the whole cap thing particularly in passive guitar tone circuits, unfortunately that is one of the spots I have found makes the most difference.
> 
> ...



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