Vitamin Q (Oil in paper) Capacitor

[dudeonthebass]

Whats the differences between oil in paper capacitors and normal capacitors (such as sprague orange drops)

Was thinking of dropping a 0.1uf in my p-bass.


Dave (;

[dmusic148]

For your application, none. Remember, the part of the signal that you will actually hear never goes through the capacitor, in a conventional passive tone circuit such as on your P bass.

[line6man]

Absolutely nothing.

Usually the people that claim to hear the tonal differences with expensive paper-in-oil capacitors were starting off with cheap ceramic capacitors, which have wildly varying tolerances.

Get something decent like a metalized film capacitor and it will sound just as good.

[dudeonthebass]

And what is a metalized film capacitor :P ?

[UncleFluffy]

Originally Posted by dudeonthebass

And what is a metalized film capacitor :P ?

about 20 cents if you shop around.

edit: I did some shopping around. $0.05 is more realistic.

[Handyman]

Compared to a metalized film capacitor, an oiled paper cap will be much larger, more expensive, and have a shorter life. It won't sound any different, though. The Vitamin Q labeled caps in particular are absurdly expensive.

Save yourself some cash, and just use a normal metalized film cap.

[dmusic148]

They often look like this, in various colors:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...LAID=107591297

[dudeonthebass]

So a Spruage orange drop ?

[dmusic148]

Sure, those are fine. 5% tolerance.

[UncleFluffy]

Originally Posted by dudeonthebass

So a Spruage orange drop ?

I tend to think that even that is a marketing difference rather than a technical one, but others may disagree...

[Bongolation]

Originally Posted by UncleFluffy

I tend to think that even that is a marketing difference rather than a technical one, but others may disagree...

Agreed.

Capacitor composition DOES produce an audible (if slight) difference in some high-voltage circuits, like in some parts of your amplifier.

There is no difference in them when used as passive bleeder capacitors in this application, however.

This does not stop people from telling you there is in order to sell you something you don't need...and this does not stop people from believing there is once they have paid $11 for a magic capacitor.

[PrivateHigh]

Sounds even better with a shot of snake oil

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Glad to see I wasn't having a stroke in the "Another P-bass pickup upgrade thread".

As has been said, snake oil!

[rochishin]

Originally Posted by Bongolation

Agreed.

Capacitor composition DOES produce an audible difference in some high-voltage circuits, like in some parts of your amplifier.

There is no difference in them when used as passive bleeder capacitors in this application, however.

This does not stop people from telling you there is in order to sell you something you don't need...and this does not stop people from believing there is once they have paid $11 for a magic capacitor.

Agree 100%!

[Dark Horse]

Originally Posted by dudeonthebass

Whats the differences between oil in paper capacitors and normal capacitors (such as sprague orange drops)




Was thinking of dropping a 0.1uf in my p-bass.


Dave (;

Changing the VALUE from a .047uF to a 0.1uF will have FAR more affect on the sound than changing the cap "type".

Personally, I like 0.1uFs in P Basses as well.

[FunkMetalBass]

Get a push-pull pot, Wire one side up with the one capacitor and the other with another.

You get the best of both worlds, and a perfect A/B comparison.

[xaxxat]

A Xicon poly or equivalent will do nicely.

http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/electrical_caps.htm

[Koeda]

Changing the VALUE from a .047uF to a 0.1uF will have FAR more affect on the sound than changing the cap "type".
Personally, I like 0.1uFs in P Basses as well.

Agreed on both points!

[bassbenj]

Originally Posted by line6man

Absolutely nothing.

Usually the people that claim to hear the tonal differences with expensive paper-in-oil capacitors were starting off with cheap ceramic capacitors, which have wildly varying tolerances.

Get something decent like a metalized film capacitor and it will sound just as good.

This is right. Ceramic capacitors (especially in larger values) are the ones that sound bad. Any low leakage capacitor will do the job much better. Nasty caps are ceramic and the old fashioned paper and wax (which you usually only find in vintage gear).

I'm surprised that one can still find Vitamin Q caps. They are excellent because the insulator is oil and not paper. (paper is just a separator for the oil). They used to be available military surplus for a song. And as military caps they are almost indestructible. The best ones are the metal cased ones with the glass-metal hermetic seals the way the military ones were (are) made. An advantage of the metal case is that if you wire it right it acts as a shield for hum.

The modern molded plastic ones are OK too but if it were me I might lean toward a metalized mylar or even a polystyrene (styrene is super low leakage) rather than a molded vitamin Q. I have a few instruments with vitamin Q tone caps simply because I had them laying around. They are excellent just as you'd expect. But no better than an orange drop.

All these quality caps work about the same and will last forever. As mentioned by others experimenting with values will give you much more difference in tone than between any decent style cap.

[willsellout]

I bought a ton of caps of different values. Some of them were paper in oil, some were not. I found differences in values as well as how they were built. Of course I did not pay 11 dollars for the caps I bought. They were all in the < 3 dollar range. I still have a bunch to try out on my Ric to see which one sounds the best. It was an interesting experiment which cost me all of 20 bucks to do. Worth it IMO to hear and see the differences between caps.

Right now I have an oil in paper and a wax cap in my Ibanez and it sounds fantastic. It's mostly the pickups, but the caps did make a difference in my opinion.