Finding Which Guitar Tone Capacitors Work for You!

Sprague Orange Drop caps, Vitamin Q's, Cornel-Dubilier's, Paper in oil, Ceramic Disks, etc. Vintage and NOS style caps are available.

I recently ran across a nifty tip in a PG Mag comment thread about tone caps.

The commenter suggested adding a small IC socket in place of the tone cap to easily facilitate switching caps when testing various ones to find the best capacitor for your tone.

For example, with a small 8 pin socket like the one pictured, you could simply trim off the 6 unsoldered legs you won't use and insulate the unused socket & trimmed metal surfaces with nail polish.

Then just "plug in" your test caps to find your favorite one.

This spares your pots from repeated re-solders-- the heat from which can sometimes harm the tone pot. The socket also provides a more accurate impedance characteristic than testing alternate caps with clip leads. Now isn't this a fun & relaxing way to chase tone!

Radio Shack sells IC sockets for cheaper than Skittles-- especially those at the cineplex.

Check the links below for popular caps in guitar applications, i.e. Orange Drops, Vitamin Q's, Cornel-D's, Paper in oil, Ceramic Disks, etc. Vintage and NOS style caps are available. So before committing to yet another set of pickups, why not booty call a sampler assortment of caps and make a party out of it. A tone party! Oh my, we're livin' on the edge now.

Billy Penn at 300Guitars.com wrote a most informative post about tone caps which will help you decide what to include in your sampler assortment. Read it!

Suppliers for GROOVY CAPS:

Redtail Guitar Accessories- spendy Vintage/NOS stuff for serious geeks.

Angela Instruments - Plenty of good standard components.

Axegrinderz-Guitar-Tone-Products - Great selection including tone upgrade and treble bleed kits.

NewOldSounds-Superstore -  Lots of caps as well as NOS Tubes and amp components.

Pimp Your Strat

(more links to more upgrade stuff)



!

Pin It Now!