So thanks to the knowledge shared by the CBG community I am always trying new things in my builds. This week I jumped the input jack of a piezo pickup guitar with a .01 capacitor to get a darker sound and it worked well.
My question is if I have a bright sounding regular guitar can I jump it's input for the same result? Can I do this same thing with the input of a wah pedal? What experiences have you had doing this?
Thanks, guys for sharing neat stuff.
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The different colored parts at the top center represent the builder's chosen assortment of capacitors based on capacitance (how many uF, for example 0.01uF) and also different brands of capacitors. Yes, different brands and quality will make a difference in overall tone variations. As the drawing shows, there is an "in" and "out" jack. Each jack is mounted and grounded to the chassis (metal box). The + lugs of those jacks are connected to each other...AND to one side of a 180k ohm resistor ( a 1/4 watt value is fine). The other side of the resistor is connected to an alligator clip lead, so it can be connected easily to the "in" lead of any one of the capacitors. The "out" side of each capacitor should already be soldered to the chassis/ground.
Once a capacitor is chosen and connected to the alligator clip, plug the guitar into the "in" jack, and the "out" jack to your amplifier.
In effect, this test rig will save time and frustration when deciding which, if any, tone control & capacitor you may want. Remember one thing...guitars can have many combinations of components, woods, strings, boxes, scale, etc. and each combo can manifest it's character differently through any single or combination of pickups, and even the specific amplifier used.
Add to that the idea that each of us hear/experience the sound of a guitar differently. In other words, what sounds good to me can sound different to another person.
Hope the diagram & info helps.
A piezo is effectively a capacitor in a way,Maduro Bob did a piece on it a couple of years ago,i've tried a piezo in a tone circuit,[in place of a cap], a couple of times with varied response,and messing with how you mount it in the box,it can bleed some treble off,and double as a secondary pick up at the same time which opens a whole other can of worms,so if you are going to try it,make sure you mount your piezo where it doesn't introduce highs that in turn need toning down,discs are notoriously variable in output,so it's hard to measure and duplicate,cheap caps vary a bit too,but better than discs
Thinking more on this, not sure that a balance pot and a blend pot work the same way or not. I think a balance just diverts signal from side to side and both in the middle like a on/on/on toggle switch while the blend pot increases/decreases signal from one side to the other once it moves past the middle position.You could still use the balance pot, but with a different result. Some car stereos had a Fader pot that acted as a blend for the front to rear speaker mix, but you would have to have an old one to have individual pots.
Originally Fender cut the treble of Telecasters by mounting caps on the volume pots input and output. You can fine tune tone many ways when you have volume and tone pot with caps.
You can make a amp out of a LM386 chip with just 2 caps on the speaker output this is where you set the tone for the amp. Some really good responses here.
Good info, thanks for that.
No problem guys.
I would also mention that if you're using a volume and tone pot, adding an extra cap on the input jack could seriously weaken the guitars signal to the amp. So it would be a better idea to change pot and cap values instead.
If you're not using pots and tone caps, then its okay as long as you don't exceed .1uf or you'll have a signal that is too weak.
The reason for that is there's a input cap in the amp that the incoming signal is decreased by, too much decrease of signal will sound weak and lousy. The amp input caps can be .047 - .068 or .1uf.
Probably not a good idea to add one to the pedal/effect you were speaking of since it most likely has a input cap already. Check it's value and put a higher one in it's place would be a better idea. Most people complain about signal loss when adding effects to the input signal chain and want a signal booster instead of making the effect darker. Just keep in mind that if you go too dark, multiple notes will muttle together and produce a muddy sound.
Great info.
The higher the value of capacitor used will darken the tone because more highs are diverted to ground. A typical cap for a Fender Tele/Strat would be the .047. Replace that cap with a .1 for darker tone and a .022 for a brighter tone. The cap for double coil humbuckers is usually a .022 because of the absence of hum/noise. These can be changed a higher value for a darker tone(.033-.047) or a lower value for a brighter tone(.015-.010).
The same is true for pots. Generally a 250k used for Fender single coil pickups can be changed to a 500k or 1meg for a darker tone. Double coil Humbuckers(Gibson style) start off with a 500k since there's 2 coils involved, so you would go with a 1meg for dark and 250k for brighter.
Some guitar makers have used different values of pots for volume and tone, so you can play around with the different pots and caps to find what you like the most. However, what sounds good in one guitar may not be what's best for another guitar. Wood, hardware, pickups, strings and scale can make a difference in how a guitar sounds.
Wiring a cap on the input jack is basically creating a non-adjustable tone circuit by diverting highs to ground.
Great info. Thanks.
A Tone pot is just a variable resistor and a capacitor. Turned fully "ON" the variable resistor is at NO resistance, so basically, a cap is between signal and ground on the output jack.
So.. YES.
The larger the capacitor, the more effect it would have. . . .
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