A lot of people seem to think they're missing some magic component in their signal chain that's holding them back. There isn't. You just aren't practicing enough. Stop obsessing over caps and start obsessing over being the best player you can be. I need this advice too.

I'm about to turn 66 in a few days. I spent my life having a certain mind-set, if I built a guitar or bought one I'd do the same things to it just because I thought that's the way things are done. I'd not even put a tone control on ones I built and cut them out of the ones I'd buy, I never took the time to learn how to use tone controls. About 6-7 years ago I was at Guitar Center trying Les Paul's. None sounded "good" to me, mostly too bright. I had just played one, didn't "like" it, hung it back on the wall. I stepped away, a younger guy picked that same guitar up, played a few notes, then that creamy tone I was looking for came out of that guitar, it didn't sound that way when I played it. I asked the guy what he was doing to get "that" sound. He rolled the tone control back a bit. That's all he did. I had to rethink most everything I'd done due to misinformation or just stubbornness. My tone quest has been fun and informative. That's how I discovered Dylan Talks Tone.

Global Statement: As an older EE and now custom guitar creator, I find your videos to be the most accurate, articulate, logical, myth-busting, BS-mitigating and consistently helpful content on the subjects of guitar electronics and tone. UPSHOT: Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

I've no idea or opinion on the subject, so I'm here to learn. Back to the video...

Great video! I love your vids! I will say though just an interesting fact I learned during my 9 years as an electrician is that the one thing electricity will never run through is completely pure 100% distilled water (basically the chemical of pure H20)! When electricity runs through normal water it runs through the irons and zincs and minerals in the water! Just thought that was an interesting fact I learned in tradeschool!

GREAT explanation. I also play Hammond B3 organ. There are 88 pickups [tonewheels] , each with their own cap. When we used to do a 'cap job', some people didn't like the resulting sound. They had become accustomed to the 'drifted' sound; which, on a B3, is rather muddy. After their ears became tuned in, they found the B3 much more tone responsive; to drawbar changes.

Paper and oil makes me think of fish and chips. That's all I know.

45 years ago, when I was a young boy, I had; a cheap Teisco, a three month 7th grade electronics course, and a Radio Shack a block from home. I spent many months, experimenting with as many different value capacitors, and fixed resistors, as I could find. I made my own Veritone, replete with resistors, before I knew it was actually a thing. I only did it, so I could compare cap values easier. Then, I tried phase shifting, coil tapping, (later splitting, when I added some cheap Framus humbuckers). I used push/pull pots, DPST, DPDT switches. Anything I could find, at Radio Shack. When I brought what I had done to my electronics teacher. He laughed at me, and told me I was wasting my time. My poor Teisco looked like Frankenstein’s monster, all the extra pickups, switches & knobs. It looked just awful, but it could make so many different sounds, through my 15watt converted stereo/turntable, into amplifier. It was crazy. Edit: typo

Arguing the caps in your guitar make it sound better is like arguing the caps in your calculator make it do math better. At a given capacitance, they sound the same. My tone gets better the more I practice.

I love the Jimi illustration of heat effect on the capacitor - brilliant! 🤣

Dylan made an excellent point about old caps starting to go bad and beginning to act like resistors. Check the ESR of those old caps. So yeah, when a crappy paper cap stops being a cap, no doubt it sounds different than modern caps.

I use Orange drops for two simple reasons... they have a tight tolerance, and the last forever.

"But I can hear the difference" is the exact same bs as "but this one goes to eleven". If a customer wants to spend an extra 25 bucks on a fancy cap, so be it. But I'm doing allright with my 5 cents caps. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

I don't know, but I've heard the reason that the vintage bumblebee caps might sound "better" is that they are not very good performing caps compared to modern caps; they are "leaky". And it's this phenomenon that can make them sound different.

Dylan, great discussion and topic! Just bought a Kay K161V reissue and started making a list of everything that I “needed” to change... (having the pickups rebuilt using US materials, replacing the pots/caps..etc). After watching this video the only things I’m changing now are the 3-way switch (to a CRL) as the stock switch is failing already, Tuner machines, output jack (to Switchcraft), and bridge saddle to Tru Arc. Thank you for approaching everything you talk about in a subjective manner. Keep up the great work!

I definitely would NOT argue with you about anything! I am 66 yrs. old and I am amazed at your knowledge and out&out common sense. I just want to thank you for sharing your knowledge and even your random thoughts. I have gained a lot from your videos and I love how passionate you are about guitars. Please keep up the GREAT work. Mark B., Virginia Beach

Yeah that's a tough talk... not many people are ready to hear it... and It's true, if you want to sound like a vintage guitar, check its cap value, and duplicate it... dont go read the original value of it and try to put a paper in oil cap in your guitar with the original value, it won't sound the same...

I like to think of capacitors as balloons in a circuit, they add voltage back in when the voltage drops like a balloon would in an air system. Pots are like electrical valves and resistors are like a restriction in a piece of pipe slowing down the amount of air passing through. It helps me visualize what is happening. Great video. Thank you.

Not only do none of my guitars have capacitors, I had no idea what they were before this, so thanks for the info

I watched this right before wiring up a Fernandez L-50 strat I own. It has Seymour Duncan Texas specials. This is what I changed . One of the screws was on the verge of stripping out, so I installed brass EZ Locs with 1/4-20 thread inside. I drilled out the screw holes to accept the bolts. I replaced the bridge that was a LR Baggs acoustic with a wide spacing. It was too wide for the width of the neck, and the E sting would slide off the top of the neck down past the 5th fret. I bought a Mex bridge plate with block and used some Tusq saddles I had laying around. I had used them before and liked them. Now I was ready to wire up a all new hand made push back wire harness from scratch, done it before many times. I decided to use J Vaughan-Wacker(don't know who this is) diagram with a .022 cap on first tone, and a .047 on the second tonepot. New jack new strings plugged it in and it was so trebley in all positions I couldn't believe it. I used both orange drop caps, and double checked all wiring connection with a pair of magnifiers before assembling it. In the past I have tried orange drops, and never left them in. This guitar has a small routing and space is tight, so I decided to try them, besides this was different than I had tried in the past. OK, they are coming back out first opportunity I get. Before it sounded very much like my US strat, and I very much liked the sound of it. It sounds totally differnt now. If you want to torture someone with ear splitting treble, then this is for you. The caps I took out were a little tiny treble bleed cap, and a small cap half the size of an M&M, but it sounded really good. Well I guess that's my three cents worth.

I have put PIO capacitors in two of my guitars and I can tell you they changed the tone drastically. Anything that affercts the current form the pickup to the amp WILL have an effect.

If you measure two capacitors of different kind with the same value, you get different readings depending on the frequency your capacitance meter are using (often 100Hz to 1Khz). But since guitars just handle audible frequencies below 20khz I don't think it matters at all. There is a difference on choosing types when you are talking about Mhz/Ghz range. I think you should select one that is easy to solder with a long lifespan. Or just use the one with the coolest colour.

That you for clearing up the myth using logic. I’m getting ready to rewire an Asian LP copy and you just saved me $40 bucks or so.

Excellent, as usual. People miss the fact that the capacitor types they used in vintage guitars were used because they were what was commonly available, not because they had some known musical advantage. Amp capacitors were way overkill for guitars. There are alternatives today. Now, pardon me, I have to go get some of those $75 vintage capacitors to make my tone better!

I just found your site and mostly I agree. I have been involved in the manufacture of circuits from power supplies to RF and capacitor selection is critical. The one factor you missed is price. Fender, Gibson and all the rest did not use silver mica (an extreme example) because paper would do the job for less money. It was a rule of thumb back then to use paper caps in audio circuits. People today who want working examples of old electronics remove the paper caps and replace them with plastic film types because those old caps have failed, as you pointed out. Those old caps are not in general use today because the reliability was bad. also Oil was not used to cool the capacitor, it could not circulate. It was used to "heal" a small punch through of the paper dielectric. I know, I'm picky.

It's funny how when we talk, we almost always try putting it, "into words." haha. As a 60-year-old beginning guitar player, I'm learning a lot here. Thanks my brother.

I really appreciate your input on this subject as I long have suspected this was the case. It is rather amazing how much hype and misinformation can proliferate into an urban legend when it comes to capacitors and electric guitars.

I think doing little tweaks to our instruments is just part of the natural philosophy that infuses us all. If we gradually make it a little better here and there the finished product will be a lot better when we're done. The negligible difference in tone due to our choice of capacitor is just one of those minor tweaks.

Very valuable informations! Thanks Dylan! 😃👍🏼 I‘ve put 0.015mF orange drops in 2 humb. guitars with diff. scale length and on a Telly style with noiseless SC‘s. I like to have usable tones from 10-0. I intend to do the same in other two strat/superstrat type, wich are already warm sounding. My LP style „black beauty" got 0.022mF, for the growl. I „know“ the difference between the types of caps is negligible to non existent, but I generally don't "trust" things if they are too small… so I chose orange drops…and they look nice too. But for treble bleeds I use the small ceramic caps and resistors.

I love this channel, you're talking about stuff that I've been saying for years to my naive friends who are constantly dropping big money to chase their perfect tone based entirely on BS hype from people who don't know what they're talking about!

Saw some paper & oil caps for $80 each today at a thrift store lol. I hate orange drops cause of how they look but when they're in the guitar I don't have to look at them. I use the same cheap ceramic caps as I do in the pedals I build on guitars I wire. works out great & at 10 cents a pop from tayda.... better to put my money into other things such as vintage wine.

My 63 Strat had a nice ceramic disc cap that sounded great when you rolled off the highs !

Great vid, told in a no nonsense way. Sticking old caps in your guitar wont give it instant vintage mojo. Remember that vintage guitars are a some of their aged parts: Caps, pots, pickups, materials... no one piece makes the “tone”. Some may have more effect that others, especially as they age and their values and tolerances chance, but a simple vintage part transplant into a new guitar is unlikely to yield the results you are hoping for.

I have about 25 Russian PIO caps covering I think three of the common guitar values, sitting in a box for the last 4 years, still haven't bothered to fit one into a harness, but they look so cool and full of vintage mojo. As we say in Australia," it's all about the vibe". One of the big time pick up makers, I'm sure it was Seymour D, confessed he could not tell the difference in a blind test and he's been listening to his pups for near 50 years.

People make such a big deal about caps in their guitars. It's insane. I use Orange Drop .0147 for my tone cap. I feel I get more out of my tone pot than using a .022 or a .05 My volume pot has a 680pf Silver Mica and a 220k resistor. I've been doing this for over 20 years. Because it works for ME. The pots I like to measure them and use three (Strat) that measure as close to the same as possible for the sake of OCD. Usually CTS or Emmerson. But why? I don't know. Just a habit really. Orange Drop caps are available everywhere I guess. I've used ceramic disc caps in the past with the same results. Whatever is available works. I worry more about actually playing than stressing out over what's under the hood.

I love that you said that it sounds better in some people's _eyes_ whether it was intentional or not. Some people really DO listen with their eyes first and foremost.

I've been been building/ repairing my own amps for 8 years. And I agree with you about capacitors. Thank you for the video.

I trust and value your opinion, thats why I am watching YOUR video. some ppl just want to argue because their lives are vapid and they are under stimulated.

After about 30 years, the onboard effects stuff on my Cort flying V started to fail. I'd never really used the stuff, didn't care for how it performed or sounded, so I just ripped everything out and rewired it like a Gibson V, with 3 pots and a 3-way switch. I used 500k pots and a .022 uf orange drop. This gave me a top end so trebly it almost sounds like a single coil, and I can still roll the tone knob back to get those more classic Gibson tones. So more attenuation out of the pot, for greater range out of the pickup. Win/win.

I like the green chicklet looking caps.Cheap and never fail in a guitar!

Make your statement known, That's why we're watching! Thank you!

Thanks ! you're so right! You could explain how to wire caps the best way, this can explain a change in perception. For the rest, it's also all about passion and personal pride to get THE real thing. This can then be a good way to push someone to it's best...it means inspiration. Reason vs passion...

Thankyou for reinforcing what l have been saying for years. I been playin for 50 yrs & a technician for 30....there is no such thing as vintage tone due to a capacitor style ! Unless there has been leakage or deterioration over the years. It does what it does according to the value on the wrapper. OHM's LAW DON'T DO VINTAGE....PERIOD !!! 😢😅 FUNFACT...apparently even a company that starts with G & goes to N was caught painting capacitors to pass for the old black & yellow Bumblebees from a bygone era. They got swatted" down....Save your $$s kids !

I just rewired my Strat using two orange capacitors: .047 to the neck PU tone pot shared with the middle pickup and .022 to the middle PU tone pot now occupied by the bridge pickup; my #1 Tele was also rewired w/a .047 orange capacitor while Tele #2 is 'Esquired' w/a .022 orange cap on 3 while retaining the .022 green cap it came with.

I'm a lousy player. I hardly think messing with caps is gonna make me sound like Sayce. OTOH ... ya got me thinkin' ... if I replace that thing with a spark plug ... just maybe I can manage it ...

A while back I went full nerd and started buying and testing all sorts of and tone caps. I tried the orange drop, tropical fish, Russian caps actually shipped from Russia, old PiO, and so on. I ran my American made Strat with Texas S. pups through a 65 Pro Reverb and listened really hard for that one special cap with the smokiest, dopiest and most beer stained tone I could find. The SOB just wasn't there. I tried very hard to like one over the other but couldn't and I would have tried a cap dipped in unicorn blood if I could have found one, but then wondered what would happen if I went n the opposite direction and purchased a pack of 50 green Chiclets from China for $2. Guess which one I left in my American made guitar. Yep. There was no discernible difference in any of them and I was so fed up with the results I stopped testing and left a 4 cent cap in the guitar. I wanted to believe the reaction between the signal and construction of the cap would make a difference but there's an easier way to find the right tone. With so many different capacitor values available just experiment with different cuts until you find a value that will produce what you want.

This is a well explained and understandable video on this subject.

Capacitors are merely frequency filters that bleed high frequencies off to ground, leaving the lower (darker) tones intact in the signal chain. You can however get different tones using the same value of capacitor by changing the cap's position across the tone pot's middle lug to ground, from the tone pot's far left lug to the volume pot's far right lug, or from the tone pot's far left lug to the volume pot's middle lug. Also using a 500k ohm volume pot for humbucker pickups and 250k ohm volume pots for single coil puckups, or vice versa will also vary the tone of your guitar's output signal.

This was the first really insightful video I have been able to find on capacitors and their role in basses and 6 string treble basses. I have searched for weeks, thank you for the content, wish I had found this sooner.

I hate that Ive just found your videos. I love how comprehensive and helpful these videos are especially the explanations being in guitar application as well. I’ve spoken to engineers(asking specifically about this) that haven’t been able to put it as clearly or as quickly as you have. Thank you

Thank you for clearly and plainly explaining something that gets knocked out of reality. Good job.

One of Dylan’s best videos. Love his controversial vids.

Electrical current has no feelings. It doesn't care what your capacitor is made of.

Thank you again Dylan ! You keep cranking out these amazing informative videos. Thank you man !

I’m here to learn, I have to say that listening to a guitar being A/B with paper in oil and Milar I could hear a difference in sound, more smooth with paper in oil caps.

I recently rewired an old lawsuit Les Paul. I grabbed some unbranded disc caps from an assortment bag I bought for $3. You know what? The tone knobs work fine and the guitar sounds nice. On the other hand I regret not paying a little more for the pots I used. 😉

Thanks Dylan, old thread but very useful and totally makes sense. People!... It's an electronic circuit! Vintage choices as you said, they used what components where available in that period of time. Actually newer technologies will probably last longer since they don't use oil which will dry out over time but do exactly the same thing. Thanks fo explaining and exposing the myths but there will always be those who disagree, hell with them! Lol. I learned a ton of info from watching your channel! Keep up the great work.

Excellent job explaining this myths on Caps.

I'm not really too bothered. I saw a test where some old russian ones had slight upper mids and warmth. But to be honest it was nothing you probably couldn't tweak with the EU on your amp, guitar or pedals. And in this case the difference was probably 5-7%. Getting a different value cap would probably make a bigger difference. I remember swapping out the 33 that came with my dual humbucker Ibanez for a 47. I noticed a slight difference but hardly night and day and might as well not have bothered. Changing the pickups for some third party ones made a MUCH bigger difference. Louder, warmer, more articulate and defined picking dynamics. As a then newbie to messing with guitar I kind of decided then that the caps aren't really a big deal and either I was tone deaf, or just not that picky of tiny changes that can be tweaked. I'm sure using the wrong caps between single coils and humbuckers would make a difference, and changing values is a cheap way to slightly tweak a overly bright or dark guitar but caps are probably the last thing I worry about. Setups and nuts, pickup height are another thing entirely. I procrastinate on that all the time lol.

Interesting video, my man. Mainly the part of tone due to capacitor aging. Kudos !

Thank you for this!! This helped me a lot! I understood most of this already but there was always the "mystery" behind it. Doing HVAC I've studied some electrical stuff and I was going to try to read about all this but getting the knowledge this way and from the Guitar standpoint made it so much better and easier to understand and I didn't have to learn a bunch of stuff that I won't use right now to get these answers. Thank you!! I do use 1959 Paper In Oil Bumblebee caps that have drifted into spec. So I have the look haha but not the "magic" of a cap that drifted out of spec.

Well said, that vintage sound is not what it sounded like new. It’s simply just got old, resistors and capacitors drift and the tone changes.

I've installed orange. Way more pick attack, brighter tone and smoother feel. New discovery!.

I’m subscribing. After 4 of your videos, I genuinely enjoy the needing out over science of music. You’re a fascinating guy, can’t wait to see more from you

I learn something new every time I watch your videos. Im seriously considering a new path in EE. Thank you and keep pressing on.

This reminds me of how I learned (I'm not that old!) about how the Fuzz pedal came into existence... it was a failure A transformer in some dudes amp had blown, leading his guitar to sound distorted, it sounded good to someone and they explored the possibilities, which I think is one failure of most including myself that I can admit without shame due to innocent ignorance, failure to explore by only relying on the mainstream, for lack of a better description. I do not do that anymore. It's very consuming in cost and the results become trivial at best, you feel great buying a brand new pair of pumps or etnies... New trainers new life! Let's rock! Right? But it wears off, like any other fad, so etnies I used to skateboard, I thought they were the best for grip etc for doing oldies and kick flips etc, but they lasted like a month and were at the time very expensive! I wasn't rich, my family all of whom worked excessive hours multiple jobs to keep roof over 4 kids heads and food on the table, I was 16 at this point, so I had left school and was working with a low pay, weekly, and I admit I had the luxury of living at home so I bought them myself, my dad went crazy, I learned all about money management and from there on till I moved out I paid lodging for the luxury that I had taken for granted, some good can come from mistakes for sure that was a life lesson. Back to guitar parts and components- don't get caught up in advertising schemes that are designed to make money that is thee bottom line. Dylan is right it is the values that are the only thing that matter especially in modern day technology, where there is more choice of efficient and many more properties to be considered in components, but the values are most important but don't take that out of context- as most will know it is purely subjective, personal choice, and that will take time to gather the knowledge and parts and experiment. You can't electrocute or blow up your amp if you know the range of the values of each part in your guitar that have been already figured out and it is limited to a point where if you go over or under the range of values your guitar will simply either not work or sound like shit, this is my opinion. And i also agree with Dylan on this he knows more than I do way more, he has the knowledge, experience, I don't know him personally but it is apparent to those with have a brain cell when someone is telling you the truth or not, and actually want to help out which is mutually beneficial for everyone. ❤

Somewhere in my junk box, I have a box with a rotary switch and a bunch of capacitors in it. It has alligator clips, so it can be quickly connected for blind testing. When customers ask about cap types and values during a pot swap, I hook it up, and let them decide for themselves. Everyone can consistently hear large differences in capacitance, some notice smaller changes, but no-one has ever correctly identified PIO vs Mylar vs polyester- or even ceramic.

this is why i like this channel. because science . . .

My own experiment, which was trial and trial, some caps did sound better. I think the whole of the guitar kinda dictated what sounded best for what I was looking for. I mean once you commit to a pricey set of pickups, you want to get the sound that sounds the best to you. In general, I found Orange drop type caps to be more brittle sounding and not have the "musical note" quality that I found PIO caps to have, or even some high dollar poly caps to have. I am wiring up a strat right after this video, with two caps, so "lets go". I have a variety of Orange ones, and same with Russian PIO.

I’m wiring up a new Strat build right now. I have orange drop and PIO caps on hand. Gonna put one set in and play for awhile, then when I change the strings I’ll swap them out for the others and see what they sound like.

I don't have a view - I just want to understand what the deal is because my pick up maker asked me whether I want orange drop or paper in oil and i have no idea Now having watched the video - i get it - it makes no difference and i will probably go with the orange drop Thanks Dylan

A luthier told me, just make sure it's mylar with a low capacitance tolerance. I got an entire set of 100, 10 each of 10 capacitance levels on Amazon for six bucks and they work wonderfully. Unless I start my own shop, I won't have to buy any, maybe ever again.

Right, capacitor type doesn't matter, only the capacitance value, and you're also right in that it's a system, an RLC circuit.

Just replaced orange drop for Erickson red and yellow 047 on my tele. To me it sounds more detailed and less harsh . Expensive but I find worth it

In 2011 I put a MusiCap Coupling Capacitor, Film & Foil Polypropylene, 0.022uF - 600VDC into my strat build. It reminded me of a firecracker shape, which I like.

I don’t think nerding out over minutia is a waste of time. Do you know how many people sit in front of their tv and stare at other humans struggle with each other over a small, inflated piece of rubber? If it’s your passion, it’s never a waste of time. Although if you let it ruin good relations with other people you’re a fool.

So in other words, if I play an old guitar with original electronics compared to a new guitar - my playing will sound better and I will be able to reach those hard to get to chords I want to play? Cool... I did not really get into the guitar world until a couple of years ago and man is it opinionated!! So much is made out of "vintage" guitars and amps and pots and capacitors and..... Honestly, just play what you like and like what you play! All of these guys getting into relicing a guitar or only using vintage style stuff kind of crack me up. You hit the nail right on the head, it's not because they used fill in the blank, it's because of AGING. A 59 Les Paul wood does make a difference, but only because it has aged not because it was some better quality wood. I have both old and new guitars and frankly I love playing them all and the only thing that makes this guitar sound better is two things 1) What type of sound I am going for, rock, blues ect.. and 2) The pickups and pickup styles I am using. I have a 1987 Gibson SG that a few months ago I loved to play, and I am not an SG guy. Now however when I play it I don't enjoy it as much. What changed? The color! When I first got it the original color was white and some MORON decided to take black and silver spray paint and only paint the face of the guitar with a very thick layer of paint but the back and the neck were still white. I restored the guitar to the typical heritage dark cherry per a customers request. The customer backed out of the deal so I am keeping the guitar but I don't seem to enjoy playing it and yes it's about the color because that's the only thing that has changed! I know it's only for cosmetics so I still play the guitar and who knows, maybe one day I will restore it back to the original white? Great video and great use of common sense Dylan!

Taking a look at the video gibson/epiphone made talking about the new inspired by gibson range and mentioning the mallory caps brought me here. I knew it was probably a part that doesn't play any part of the tonality of the instrument but having a quick browse through some forums quickly realized people just fall for this type of misleading propaganda and advertisement. Thanks for clearing and confirming that so plain and simple!

I own a startup guitar company, Sustain Guitars, and just built a guitar for a famous, guitar geek on the electronic side, or he'd like to believe. Insisted on some ancient paper wrap in oil, honestly the brand he required escapes me. My background is I've spent my day job career working for Altium, Cadence and OrCAD.

Only thing that really matters is one of the two values, I forget the name of the value but I know it isn't voltage. After that, I think you might want to shoot for a type of construction that affords the most longevity.

Soviet Pio caps are great in vintage tube gear!

Thank you for this complete explanation of this matter. You have an amazing way of communicating your point, you earned a subscriber.

Older video, but thanks for putting it out there. I have a 2005 Schecter C-1 Classic that comes standard with Duncan Jazz/JB pickup combo that I expected to just sing. For whatever reason they decided to use a .047uf cap on the tone control which made the pickups very muddy IMO. I played the guitar for 16 years like that, a bit disappointed with the pickups. Decided to completely change the electronics in the control cavity. Pulled out the Chinese 5 way switch and install a 3 way switch craft blade switch, swapped the pots for CTS push-pull 500k audio taper pots, did a partial coil split to mitigate the volume loss using 1K and 2K resistors to ground from the split, and put in an orange drop .022uf cap. Sure it was a lot of changes, but in reality the stock switch and pots were getting scratchy and it needed a refresh. After the mods the guitar now sounds amazing. Much more articulate, much better tonal variations from the tone control, all the richness and harmonic undertones I expected from the pickups is now there. Curious what really made the difference, I started playing with caps. The old pots measured out at 500k so I was pretty confident that wasn’t what made it sound so dark. The old ceramic cap was .047 as advertised. In researching many of your videos I learned that .047 is more to take the high end of single coils and .022 was a winner for hum buckers. I decided for kicks I would put that .047 back in just to see what happened and surprisingly it sounded excellent, but much darker when the tone was rolled completely down, dumping everything to the cap. Kind of expected. But with the tone at “10” it retained all the brightness and articulation I was getting from the .022uf orange drop. Anyway, there was certainly some part of that old circuit that was robbing the signal and making the poor thing sound like crap. I could go on experimenting, but I just rest comfortably knowing it now sounds great. I suspect maybe the old No name pots had something to do with it? Sorry for the long post. LoL. Any insight you can offer as to why it used to sound dark and muddy, and it now sounds brilliant would be appreciated. It’s seriously like I used to have a blanket over the amp cabinet, and after the electronics swap it’s now free and beautifully articulate. Strange to me. Glad for the cheap fix, but my curiosity is still there!

i bought 10 different types of caps, orange, russian paper / oil etc,,, various values too... i found some i like and haven't been able to get to the others yet. i like the Sprague orange alot. .047 for epi LP Custom

Thanks for all of the thought and effort you put into these vids. I find them very worthwhile.

Another good video Dylan. Ill make this short, I only use Orange Drop capacitors 0.010 or 0.015. Roll them back to 0 and there is no mud.

Thanks Dylan for making my life easier with your knowledge, i was so obsessed about replacing my guitars capacitors to orange drop to bumble bee capacitor! Thank you!

I totally agree with you, I use Orange Sprague all the time and never sound bad

Learning ball about caps lately. I appreciate the "no BS" approach about circuit components and not Magic haha

What you just said made more sense to me than any of the discussions I've read over the past 20 years. I don't know anything about capacitors. I never heard a difference during different tests. The only difference I've heard is on a Lolar video where they change between a 0.015,0.022, and 0.047. All that did was change the travel and depth of the tone knob. So, a person might choose a different value. But, it's good to know that the different types have more to do with the use environment which, on a guitar is a sealed cavity with some vibration and a benign temperature environment. Thanks so much for another great video!

Wow! Finally, someone who tells it the way it is. I'm so happy to have found your KZfaq channel. I'm a total newbie, and I was seeing this "thing" about "paper in oil" capacitor and could simply not find any explanation. Now, as we say in "Canadian French", I will go to bed less stupid. 😉

That famous guitarist would sound better if he used a paper and oil capacitor “Said nobody ever”😎 Geez just been binge watching your videos just had to go back and like the last three videos great content 👍

dielectric makes a real audible difference, like ESR into a circuit, passive values R/C aren't the only factor how a cap work.

You asked to write a comment before watching the entire video, so what I think about tone capacitors: their value affects the frequency response as a part of a filter with pickup inductance, resistance and internal capacity. The dielectric material means less, but because of the differencies in dielectric loss tangent it affects the phase shifts and you can slightly hear that in attacks. So nothing wrong with experimenting here

I still have the original ceramic caps in my 1974 Gibson SG. They work just fine.

Gosh it makes me laugh that people can get that geeky/obsessive about something so small. Meanwhile the people who harp on bout this stuff probably have 20 pedals on the floor. Great video to!

I use NOS Aluminum Can PIO Vitamin Qs. Why? 1. Because a bought a ton of them cheap a few years ago. 2. I test them individually. 3. They look cool!

what is so very funny about the old capacitor argument is that from my experience so few people actually even use the tone circuit on their guitar in the first place or the ones that argue about them don't use the tone circuit. The taper of the pot used in the tone circuit is something that can get over looked. Using a different taper changes how the circuit reacts as in how far you have to turn the knob to get a particular amount of the low pass filter its all in that ratio. So many variables there

Great info... busting the myths. Very helpful. Seems like it’s all about color choice for keeping the wiring looking cool. And that matters?? Lol.

Now I feel like I got took on my honey bee cap's in my 2021 50's Goldtop! I looked everywhere for this kind of info and now I find it when I am almost done! I am finishing another build with five Russian cap's on a Varitone in a lp with three pickups.