Guitar Tone Capacitor Values

The tone pot potentiometer controls how much of the guitars signal is sent to the tone cap to have its highs removed.

Guitar tone capacitor values. A larger value that rolls off high frequencies to a greater degree is 0 1uf. Depending on the cap s value or capacitance the effect can go from slightly warmer 2200 6800pf to a woman tone 0 01 0 047uf up to completely dark and clinically dead 0 1uf and higher. The smaller the capacitor like 022 015 or less the less the treble is removed. By far the most popular values are 250k which are typical in fenders and 500k which are typical in gibsons.

Capacitance is defined as the ability of a component to store an electrical charge. The bottom line is that there are too many tonewoods pickup models foot pedals amps etc. Guitar capacitors explained what do capacitors do. A lower value capacitor in the 01uf range could result in a more usable tone with more tone control travel between the brightest and darkest tones.

Capacitor impedance z capacitor 1 2 π f c where f frequency and c capacitance. The tone pots and capacitors combine to create a low pass filter. The 0 022uf value is still the standard today. The value of a capacitor is measured in farads but the capacitances we re dealing with for our humble guitar circuits are small and are most commonly measured in microfarads µf or picofarads pf.

Capacitance is measured using farads from picofarads to kilofarads from very. Let s dig in a little bit and figure out what a tone capacitor is doing to your guitar signal first. A common value for a tone capacitor in guitars is 0 022 microfarads or 0 022uf as an abbreviation. Guitar caps are used to manipulate specific frequencies to shape tone.

The easiest way to think of a tone capacitor is that in the typical tone circuit they are a high frequency removal device. However the capacitor has ac impedance which varies depending on both the signal frequency and the value of capacitance as shown in the equation below. How you integrate it into your wiring plan adds another dimension to the manipulation of your tone. A capacitor is a device that stores electricity.

There are many values used in the wide range of guitars on the market but the tests here focus on these two values. Standard tone pots are between 250k ohms and 1000k ohms 1 meg. If you re trying to go from one to the other one picofarad is 1 millionth of a microfarad ex. The principles learned apply to other values as well.

If you need very dark and bassy tones this value may work for you. The tone pot s resistance is the same for all signal frequencies.