I am happy I revisited this test! One of the hardest things was finding 5 capacitors with all the same value, they can be all over the place due to different tolerance variations...that's why I like Orange Drops + they look cool 😎

I’ve watched a few videos like this and every time I think I hear a difference and pay attention to that capacitor I realize that it is really the player having a slightly heavier or lighter touch on the strings. You certainly had the best setup for the test compared to the other videos I’ve watched.

I LOVE these well executed tests. They confirm so much that so many refuse to believe. I get that guitary things are often very personal but at least start with the fundamental understanding of what's true. Then if you want a $30 cap by all means have at it. It's a great story of magic and wizardry tell your friends, but at least know it's that, a story. Thank you.

So.. its all hype . Caps are caps. Thanks mate

It looks like the only real question we should be asking, as guitarists is, what design is the most reliable and long-lived?

You are doing valuable work that no one else seems to be bothered doing!

The 30 cent poly are my go-to for cost and reliability. The ceramics CAN become more microphonic over many, many years, and the others aren’t worth the money in my opinion. You do bring up a good point on the variance in tolerances though, but it’s not too hard to test the values. What people don’t realize about the old school “bumble bee” or paper-in-oil ones is they do degrade over the years, and that’s the illusion people get when they pick up a Les Paul from the 60s, hear a tonal difference between that and a newer guitar, and say, “it must be this out-dated type of capacitor that makes the tone amazing!” Yes, and no. If you have a 60+ year old capacitor lying around, yeah, it might give you a similar sound. If you use a brand new “new-old stock” capacitor, it won’t sound like that 60s guitar unless you wait another 60 years. Save your money, use a poly.

Paper in oil caps tend to lose their propriety over time, and become a resistor. BTW, you can use Illinois pp capacitors for more than half the prices of the orange drop and sozo blue. The only thing I don't put ceramic caps in the audio path, and as electronic technician with 40 years of experience, I don't argue with people anymore, it doesn't make a difference. Especially in guitar. As long as they're the right value, it's ok. There's so many stories, mumbo jumbo about particular parts, but it's the circuit desing that makes it sounds good, not particular components, I rebuilt and restore audio equipment, very high end stuff, and most of the times, the difference is the circuit itself, and the choice of higher tolerance components. But a particular type of capacitor won't change the sound enough for anyone to notice. I'm happy to see more people are starting to notice it. Sorry for the bad English, I'm not a native english speaker.

Great test! Keep in mind that capacitors have a tolerance, so the value can vary between them. Usually it is about 10-20% max in modern caps; old types can vary up to 50%. So 22nF can vary from 17.6 to 24.2, oldies from 11 to 33. That is something you can hear. I use standard cheap poly caps and check the value beforehand. Constant quality guaranteed for little money!

Great video, thanks! Not a criticism but I would have played into a looper and had the looper feed the bank of caps. This way you could switch during a phrase.

I read that the entire reason Gibson selected the Orange drop caps is because at the time there were complaints that the tone varied so much from one guitar of the same model to the next. The orange caps are high quality and the variance in actual value from cap to cap is very small, i.e. they're more consistent. Along that line, I bought an assortment of Poly Film caps with 5% tolerance. Far, far, far less expensive than orange caps. Just experiment and find a value that you like for that guitar, and if you never use the tone control, don't worry about it.

It's crazy spending the money on caps rated at 400V+ for a guitar that produces millivolts. I use higher quality caps for amps more for stability and reliability than for any tone differences. The reliability thing in amps is very important because a failed component can kill something expensive down the line, a failed cap in a guitar is about 5 minutes to replace and not a chance of damaging anything.

Great simple test, thanks. Your results make perfect sense. Capacitors with the same value should sound the same. Those with little electronics knowledge may ask, so why so many different types. One reason is that over time we have found better ways of making them. The big reason is that they are designed to work in different types of circuits that have different voltage, current and temperature requirement. The voltage and current in a guitar circuit are so low that we can use them all without damaging them, hence the big choice. I pick a reasonably priced capacitor that looks physically robust.

As I've always understood it, the signal from the pickups itself doesn't actually go through that capacitor - it merely "drains" the higher frequencies to ground. And in that sense, purely from an electronic point of view, it won't make the least bit of difference what type cap you put in. Obviously that approach completely disregards tolerances, but if you measure specific caps against eachother, and put the most and the least expensive with the same value together, you won't be able to audibly notice the difference.... That said, personally I'm usually going with the 'orange drop' ones. But mostly because they're fairly big and therefor less fiddly to solder 🤣🤣

Try 250k / 300k / 1MEG pots also different tapers of different vendors. Possibly Different values of capacitors .01uF / .033uF / .047uF/ .1uF - Love the setup and clear audio quality.

The cheaper ones had the most impact on the sound.

listening through a set of JBL monitors, the only caps that had an impact with the speaker were the Sozo & Jupiter, but only slight when the pot was at 0. Neither made a difference of the treble side but the bass was slightly crisper with the Sozo & the Jupiter was SLIGHT & I mean Slightly brighter/clean than that. Neither are worth the cost when the pot could just be turned up to 5 & make them all sound the same. Yes, it's the tolerances that can make the difference, but for the cast, cheaper is not usually the enemy here. Thank you so much for this video. This just put a stop to an argument that me & a few friends have had for years! Keep up the great work!

Cap type doesn’t matter. It would be interesting to see hear the difference between values. Like compare 22 to 47.

Excellent test! I've been a tech since the 70s. I've always found that poly caps were the most long term stable as long as not overheated. Otherwise my work on hifi circuits over the years told a similar story. I will be sharing this with my tone snob fiends.

Waylon, Thanks for doing this! I found that the bigger difference between caps of the same value, is the artifacts, or absence of during the sustain and release part of the envelope. Very subtle, but you’ll hear it with some caps. I like the silver/ gold film and unicorn tears formulation. They don’t look fancy, but it’s nice to know you have a $500.00 cap in your low pass😉

I am glad that you ran this test with the direct sound. I have to confess that if there were differences they were way too subtle for me to hear clearly. I also strongly suspect that when you add an amp and turn up the gain a bit, it will greatly overshadow any perceived differences.

I believe every part in a guitar build matters, and has some impact on the tone. How much each one of those individual parts matters isn't as important as how the whole package works together. I tryn use the best parts available for all my personal guitars. If other people wanna cheap out, thats up to them. If skimping on something like a tone cap makes them happy? Rock on!

Wow, I didn't even know it was changing during the blind test! But then I could hear very subtle differences when I knew you were switching. I put an orange drop cap in my guitar awhile ago when I switched out the pots for some push-pulls to wire the pickups for series/parallel operation - never really noticed a difference in the tone, but the soldering I did was much better than the toddler who was in there before me. I've found that the best way to change your tone is to change the speaker in your amp.

I suppressed the tone pot from my guitar as Yngwie does, and I liked the results. So I got on bridge humbucker and one 200k volume pot. pretty easy to handle. I let the tone control to the pedals.

Congratulations on your channel, thank you for sharing your knowledge. These latest videos are proving to be very helpful in understanding how electronic components influence our guitars. Best regards.

I came to the same conclusions not too long ago. However, mine was not an actual study or experiment but rather just working on guitars and using just about every brand and type. My results were the same. There was no real discernible difference. They just block a certain area above a certain frequency. I like the little cheap red or green poly caps you see everywhere, mainly because they're so small they make an easier fit with my push pulls and custom wiring, and pickup options. And I make sure the values are correct.

The orange drop sounds the most strat’ey to me and seems to emphasize a different high mid frequency range that would be great for wild blues leads. My second favorite was the Sozo which sounds great for rhythm and to me that sounded almost identical to the Poly, but I liked it slightly better. I felt like the Jupiter was the most transparent and added the least color to the sound. The ceramics literally sounded cheap. 🤯 Thank you for this experiment!

Onya for doing this! Point well made & proven. I must say though, If you can't hear the differences (subtle though they are), you may need better monitors or to get your ears checked. However in a room full of punters who really cares. ☮🕊

I’ve had much the same journey with tone caps- personally i’ve found its where in the guitar circuit the cap is placed - if its before the volume pot the cap gets loaded slightly when you turn the volume down- hence some guitars sound duller when volume is decreased- wired ‘after’ the volume pot output & the tone cap works much better imho- with a subtler taper and midrange lift as the tone is lowered- basically the 50’s wiring in vintage Les Paul guitars a big part of of their mojo…

Excellent experiment. I have also switched out many many capacitors and the only difference I can actually hear is the value if the cap, not the "quality" or cost. Great video!

The only thing that matters is the value. A tight tolerance cap and a tight tolerance pot with a 10% audio taper makes results consistent. That’s what I shoot for in a standard level instrument. When it comes to vintage and custom shop level instruments, looks matter too. Of course, use whatever you want. It’s your money and instrument.

If we want to go very deep in the theme we may take in consideration other characteristics of the capacitors as resistivity and inductance. These all contribute more or less to the shape of the frequency curves. And it's measurable, therefore audible (and not always the other way around😉). Very good test by the way. Your setup is suitable for some sweep signal measurements.

I don't believe in magic capacitor mojo but I do know for sure the ceramic capacitors have a huge tolerance. I buy orange drops because they are the right price point for the consistency I want. But you could buy a pile of ceramic caps and test them one by one to find the actual right value and it might be cheaper and would sound the same for the same values.

Thank you for the video. I always roll my eyes when someone says they hear different tone caps even when their tone pot is on 10. 😅 If you can compare different cap types on treble bleed mods, now that would be interesting.

I put a Varitone on a Strat and after a while I found there was one that I kept gravitating to. Different values have more effect than build type and in particular the way they match/react to the pot. I then did the bread board set up that's pretty much your switcher but with different values and different value pots. it's a good process to include in any guitar build.

Sounded very similar to me and I'm a "tone chaser"! 🤔

Just searched for this. Perfect example. Thanks

The only reason you need anything other than ceramic is if your cavity cover is clear.

Based on my experience, the type of caps only makes a difference for AC coupling caps that have to transfer the whole frequency range of the signal. Indeed different types of caps have different frequency response (capacitance is not always constant with frequency) and thus it can play a role in coupling caps or bright caps. Caps type used in a high pass / tone filters does not make such a difference as they dump all the highs anyway..

I didn’t really hear much of anything different on any of them except the ceramic. Sounded warmer. Even in the blind test. Could hear a change except when the ceramic was engaged.

It's all about the micro-ferrad value, not what it's made of. Although there was a point where I may have tricked myself into thinking the $30 one sounded a bit clearer, or even louder, but that didn't last as it didn't show up again after the others were reintroduced.

This demonstrates that they all sound identical of the values are close to one another No magic capacitors despite what manufacturers imply Kinda like electric guitar tonewood

Another masterpiece of a video with the magic box

"I thought there should be way more difference there..." But WHAT difference are you looking for? "More good"? Really the most we can hope for is "closest to the cap's spec". We're just as well off comparing two "identical" capacitors and trying to hear the tolerance difference. It's math, not magic. This is a worthwhile experiment, though. "Closest to spec" isn't necessarily what's best, either! Our ear is the final arbiter of which one is "best" for a particular guitar, so a switcher rig like yours would definitely be a useful tool to "tune" a tone knob to the customer's taste. 👍

A very good test. Being an electronics audio guy, I have noticed that Orange drop capacitor legs have steel & not copper. Steel is a rotten audio signal conductor but I guess you could argue that it gives the sound a certain characteristic. Not for me though. Steel/audio absolutely no!

I'm not surprised, but it's great that someone shows it so people can hear and "see" it for themselves. How about making a test about "tone pots"? No, not the tone pot, the pots that people claim to improve your tone.

Fantastic demo, thanks for doing it! I think the key was that you tested the caps at the beginning and they were the exact same. My guess is that some of the "mojo" of old caps is that they drift and the new values (sometimes) yield a result that the player likes more (or that we associate with a vintage instrument). That said, they DO look cooler and when I found a couple of healthy Bumblebee caps in an old tube amp that I was converting to a different circuit, you better believe I swapped out what was in my late 70's 335. Did it change the sound any, probably not, but they look killer thought the f hole!

I saw someone here do the same thing with stratocaster pickups, man I was bummed that I ever bought expensive pickups, there was just no difference. The sound of a guitar comes from the strings and the speaker in the box.

Mostly playing P Basses requires you to be on the tone control the whole evening. They all handle a little differently, also depending on the pot value. 0.022uF seems really low for anything. For me it's 0.47uF on single coils and like 0.082 for humbuckers and basses. The most useful caps tend to be the ones with the most idiosyncratic nonlinear performance, like the p-i-o ones. Weird is good, turns out. There were some polypropylene ones out of an old combo organ that were extremely cool.

Great comparison! No difference. If there is any difference (I don’t hear them) they are negligible.

It would be interesting to do a scenario test on each cap. In the guitar it won't be subjected to massive temp swings but temp swings and tapping could be a cool test.

This is something I do when putting together a guitar to get the sounds I want. And it works... ...but.... I seldom use he 22's. I also prefer NOS or salvaged components. And, because of this, I'm never sure what the actual value is, regardless of what they may have started off as, and allowing for tolerance. So my rule is simply, whatever gets you there, and will it fit.

Thank you! I’m glad someone has common sense.

This demonstration raises so many questions. In my mind different caps. with the same value should sound the same. Quality and longevity are a real thing ask anyone who works on tube amps. As the listening to this video goes the place where I could hear the difference in caps. was when he was switching. I would also be interested in what different values in capacitance would make ?

I heard a difference in every single one of those through my shity half-broken Galaxy tablet speaker, I feel like that first test was definitely affecting the high-end harmonics gain the Jupiter sounded almost over-exaggerated, I like to play capacitors the other way around which one lets out the most miniscule consistent almost non signal I play with fuzzes and double distortions and you can really get some wild tone variations just from looking at the tone, tinkering with the minimalist approach

I love this test, I feel like playing through a loop pedal in future would be a good way of keeping the test conditions more controlled as playing the same thing over and over will still have some variations.

I've had good old ones that have delivered, but I've also had amazing new cheap ones. I just gave up, and let my ears decide now.

I bought 2 $5 caps to qualify for free shipping from my favorite vendor so basically they were free. My usual are $5 a dozen caps.

Orange was brighter Bumblebee seemed sweet but I might be biased.Once you add a drummer and lots of volume -- you wouldn't hear much,, I'd go with the orange drop.

Wow nearly impossible to hear significant differences! Great comparison, thank you.

Love the guitar, especially the headstock! Is that self made?

Great video man

A friend who is into high end audio said only a dog can tell the difference in the sonic output of different caps.

Yeah, as I suspected. I thought it'd make more difference because of the hype, but especially since I don't really even use the tone control, this kills the notion for me on guitar tone controls. It's polypro for the extra reliability for me. Would be interesting to see for pedals, but it's potentially a harder test ... swapping out 15-20 caps is not as easy as swapping out 1. Although with pedals you can pre-record the input for a true A/B or even null test.

The only significant difference in tone controls with the same value caps in our experiments has been the use of no-load tone pots on single coil guitars. There is an audible difference between a disengaged pot (10) versus bringing the tone pot back into the circuit (9)

Yes, actual capacitor values will vary due to the acceptable manufacturing tolerances, but so will the tone pot values! Testing a number of pots which are supposed to have the same maximum resistance, the real-world value can vary plus or minus 10%. Obviously, with the pot at "10" there will still be slight high frequency roll-off (the pot resistance is still 'loading' the pickup output) but the tone difference may become actually noticeable when the pot is turned down to a lower setting. But then, who can set the tone knob EXACTLY to the same position every time? Then factor in the actual amp settings.... If it sounds right, it is right!

My new favorite channel !! This is awesome!! Love all your videos and ideas! You’re very inspiring!! Thanks 😊😎

To be blunt! After decades in the electronic biz you are going to notice more in tolerance differences than diferent types of cap. For my moey pot taper (log, anty-log and normal) will have more of a effect and that is only a preference of the player often ive used unconventional values with the 50c green cap and what ever pot I can get my hands on. a pot is a pot, a cap is a cap. use the right cap for the right job eg audio/radio/hf/uhf ect ect...

Thanks for taking the time to demo the various types. I found that the Orange drops work well on a Strat neck(.047uf) and it feels nicer to play? I usually find stuff at the re-cycling centre and snip out TV and Radio bits ,I found a load of "WIMA" caps of various values and put it 2 in the middle setting on the same Strat a .001uf and a .022uf parallel and am getting a "Johnny Gtr Watson" snappy super clean sound by turning the tone down to 6. I will try any-thing . Do you think the "Voltage " rating makes a noticable difference like a 5 Volt vs a 200 Volt?

I could hear a difference in all settings except with the tone rolled of complete!

Great video. I would like to know more about your capacitor switcher.

what's funny is I thought I could hear some very minor differences but so miniscule, if at all, I would not say there's a difference I just thought I could hear very subtle (super subtle) differences but not enough to convince me it wasn't my own imagination. So for me as a bedroom rock star, it's orange drops or pretty blue ones I've got that look like Orange drops but are blue I forget the manufacturer, American or Japanese I can't remember but I trust them and researched the build quality of them they were highly rated I like blue caps just because they're blue, I mean I'm sure you get the exact same function you might as well have the colors you like lol

Thanks for the video. Did you try running the individual signals through a scope? If so, was there noticeable differences in the waveforms?

I couldn't hear any significant differences on "clean" tones. It would be interesting to hear if there are any discernable differences on crunchy or dirty tones. Thanks

I chased the capacitor theory down the rabbit hole a few years ago with my US Strat and a 65 Fender Pro Reverb amp. I tried orange drops, tropical fish, bumblebee, Russian PiO, and those Chicklets from China on eBay. The Chicklets were the last caps tested. I couldn't tell any difference in any of them and left the Chicklets in my guitar. I really wanted to find that MoJo sound but it didn't happen. It's great that some people can tell one from another but I'm not one of them.

You could record the guitar by itself then play it back for each capacitor into a DI and analyse the frequencies on a computer afterwards.

I've lost a lot of my hearing but what I could tell was a difference to when some of the capacitors started to have effect on the tone as it was dialed down. To me the tone from all sounded the same but if a capacitor was slower to effect the tone you might be able to dial in a little bit more nuanced tone. The Sozo seemed to come in the slowest.

The thing is all the capacitors are doing the exact same job. I'd just go for capacitors that are known to last a very long time. You could even fit adjustable capacitors for fine tuning if you wanted, but there probably wouldn't be much point in that.

One thing that can make a difference, noise-wise, is polarity. Electronically, there is no difference with orange drops (in circuits generally), but with such tiny signals being amplified, it can matter. One side connects to the cap's casing and that needs to grounded, ideally, otherwise the casing is the + signal and can be affected by interference. There are no markings because generally it doesn't matter. You have to test them. Connect each side of the cap and touch the casing. If you hear more noise in one orientation, then the casing is +, so swap it around.

I think doing this with active pickups, a set of EMG 81/85 and seymour duncan black out ABH1 set, and using the correct value but diff cap types. orange vs oil n paper etc etc. great video

They all make a difference, but I cannot hear it on clean. Only on high gain, tight riffs/tones. I have a video on comparing Ibanez green standard caps, poly I think vs Vitamin T cap and there is a major major difference. What I prefer depends on the guitar wood: on Mahogany guitars I prefer bumblebees, on alder guitars oil caps. For clean sound I prefer orange drops, but I never play clean....so...

Nice test, caps certainly matters when they are in series with a signal, but in a guitar tone controls they just shunt treble to ground, and nobody will be able to hear a difference. I know: "You shalt not decide what I can hear" (ShakeSpear) , but you can´t 🙂

You should build the box with verifying capacitor values. Then I think there would be a tonal difference. Or try a veritable capacitor

Electrical Engineering here. The only capacitors you should avoid for audio are ceramics. There are some research papers about this. Otherwise polymer orange/green/ whatever are the same and totally fine.

I love when the proof is added into the pudding!

Very interesting! Could you do a similar test using the 5 different capacitors as a low cut instead? See if they sound any different?

The cap holding the tone, so it is fair to say different cap materials will effect tone. My orange drop made the 0 position more clear, less basey.But I had also switched from 47 to 22. Seeing the EQ curve on a pc would end the debate?

No one else heard the orange drop as more crisp in every scenario?

Capacitor types matter more in tube amp design for reasons that have little to do with tone and more to do with temperature stability, lifespan, tolerance, etc.. The whole point of having a well designed circuit it that it won't be drastically affected by tiny changes in individual components

I think the Jupiter's and Orange drop's roll off curve was a tiny bit different from the ceramic and poly. But yeah looks areimportant :D I'd go for Orange Drops just because of that :P

Same values, i hear no difference. Awesome test.

in a guitar tone control the capacitor sends the frequencies dictated by the capacitors value to ground. what you hear is the signal with the higher frequencies rolled off, you're not hearing any of the signal that goes through the capacitor. where differences may be heard is because of the tolerance of the capacitor. if you have 5 different caps that all have the same value you'll not be able to hear any difference between them.

any differences that you do hear are due to variation in values between the caps, not the type. Most caps tend to have a fairly wide tolerance, and PIO, everybody's honey, is the worst because of how they're made and the fact that as the oil dries out, their values change. The value is 100% the reason for any measurable or audible differences.

Capacitance is capacitance!

Capacitive Reactance differential, especially with such great distance in your 'test box' cable, at its C per foot. it doesn't get but thicker. ;-)

I did notice the biggest difference w the Ceramic vs all others. Often tho you need distortion to really bring out differences. I was having a hard time convincing people on a chat site that for a Tele in series, a grounded Neck p up thru the Bridge p up sounds different than a grounded Bridge p up thru the Neck p up. Then I played them clean instead of w my usual fairly heavy distortion. There was still a difference, but it didn't stand out anywhere near as much. So I do think a usual playing thru an amp w a distortion box test might actually be more on point.

I must admit, in this demo hardly any differences are audible. But in reality I noticed audible differences, if using different capacitor types, but these can have a lot of reasons: Different tolerance levels, signal loss level of different types,... Also here the fact, that this circuit is not installed within the guitar but works outside as a pedal could have an effect maybe. (Made the same experience with a built-in and pedal-installed passive bass-cut, although both circuits used exactly the same components, both behaved completely different, even with exactly the same settings.) What I miss here are the typical polyester Greenies as reference, as they and their awful and noticeable sound killing usually are the main reason, why players start looking for different capacitors. I personally had been using Russian PIO's for a while, as long as they had been available comparably cheap, worked well, as long as they had not been dried out or ran out, which can happen due to the construction, but they are pretty large and have horribly thick wires, so it is not very comfortable to work with them. But even while using them the silver, green and red ones sounded differently to me, if turned down, even with same values. Bumblebees or reissues I never used, as they simply were to expensive for me. Nevertheless usually any polyproylene cap will do a good job in my opinion, ceramic some players like, others not, I personally think, that they at least work better than Greenies, but meanwhile I mostly use polystyrene (Styroflex) caps instead (only produced in the 1960's for audio high-end gear), they do a good job for me, I have a source, to get them, they are not as expensive as PIO's, although a little more expensive than standard caps, so as long as I have access to them, I am not looking for other solutions anymore. In my experience most guitars use capacitors with too high values, so maybe it is more effective to try lower values to get the desired sounds. For me 33nF work well in a Strat or Tele and 15nF (neck) and 22nF (bridge) in a Les Paul. Even better, if you add a small resistor (3k -6k) between capacitor and ground, which prevents the pot from completely closing, if fully turned down. Perfect for a nice "woman tone" with still some more bite and less dullness. Apart from this a nice comparison.

Fascinating stuff, thank you. Did you check each capacitor to ascertain its true value? As I understand it, there can be up to 20% difference between capacitors of the same nominal value, surely this may have an effect on the tone?

Now do a video where you have one guitar, but several different players playing the same song. Will you hear a tonal difference between styles and how people play or will it sound the same.

If someone has decided that something is better than the other, it's hard to change their minds as you can read in some of these comments. In blind test they cannot spot what is what but they hear with their eyes. The reason why old capacitors are expensive is the old fashioned technique and small quantities they make not because they are somehow better.