My friend said to put a new capacitor in my basses for more midrange and sustain. Does he mean on actives or is he just blowing words out his a**? (He's known for this kinda stuff, he's an avid squier basher to boot. Too bad me + my squier VM jazz sounds 10x better than him with a ric. All in the hands, baby!) Anyway, where would I put it on a passive if this is true?
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Capacitor...?
- Thread starter J03YW
- Start date
The tone pot already has a capacitor. You don't add midrange nor increase sustain - changing a capacitor value changes where the treble rolloff occurs when you dial down the tone knob.
Well, changing where the treble roll off cuts in could be said to increase the midrange with the treble rolled off, I suppose. If you wanted to try that all you have to do is to put a smaller value capacitor in for the tone cap. It is probably 0.047uF right now. Popular smaller values are 0.022uF and 0.01uF, a fair number of people prefer those values over the standard 0.047uF. As far as sustain goes, he doesn't know what he is talking about. I guess the most basic question the OP should be asking himself is why would you ever take tonal advice from a bass player who sounds 10x worse than you??
Ok, so our posts crossed in the mail so to speak. If you always run with the tone wide open that might be a sign that you don't like your present tone cap. Replacing it with a smaller one might give you a tone control you would make more use of. Or not. These things don't really lend themselves to a scientific analysis.
Ken
Ok, so our posts crossed in the mail so to speak. If you always run with the tone wide open that might be a sign that you don't like your present tone cap. Replacing it with a smaller one might give you a tone control you would make more use of. Or not. These things don't really lend themselves to a scientific analysis.
Ken
What khutch said - if you wanna go through the process of learning how to solder (which is a very, very, very useful skill) you might want to try a lower value in order to find something you like.
I don't think he's talking treble bleed because that isn't mid or sustain but just keeps the bright highs from disappearing when you roll back the volume.
I'm guessing he's rehashing the old "orange drop" Urban legend. As we all know in this forum any quality capacitor (even from Radio Shack) will be indistinquishable from the classic Orange drop.
Now the VALUE of the cap used is a different thing. Personally I like to add a switch for tone caps that does .047, .015 and off. Off gives you bright as the bass goes (which is where I often leave it) But sometimes I like the tone of the .015 as well. And of course the .047 is the original value which lets you return the bass to its roots!
I said bleed because It has a CAP and it dose effect it and make it a big brighter, but when it comes to tone controls you are just shopping off the ends.
never seen 15nF come up.. people always seem to go 47, 22 and 10nF
I say 100nF some times because i found that in my First bass (Bit shocked by it)
I did buy a Paper in Oil Cap from a Russian Arms Dealer 47nF big Fat Green things.
But i couldnt hear any thing between my Poly Vs PiO very upset about it
after listening to so a YouTube showing different caps of same value and hearing different sounds (but that might be just the sounds in my head.. IF ONLY THE VOICES WILL SHUT UP)
never seen 15nF come up.. people always seem to go 47, 22 and 10nF
I say 100nF some times because i found that in my First bass (Bit shocked by it)
I did buy a Paper in Oil Cap from a Russian Arms Dealer 47nF big Fat Green things.
But i couldnt hear any thing between my Poly Vs PiO very upset about it
after listening to so a YouTube showing different caps of same value and hearing different sounds (but that might be just the sounds in my head.. IF ONLY THE VOICES WILL SHUT UP)
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,002
- 1
- 31,693
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
I too leave the tone all the way up about 90% of the time. Most of the time I feel the standard .47 cap on most basses is a bit to drastic. I replaced the .47 On one of my Ibanez's with a .22 and have found i actually use the tone knob a lot more often know. Its more subtle in the treble cut so it still stays a little bright while giving you that simulated mid and bass boost.
Also, his comment about sustain actually made me LOL here at work. Quite loudly too.
Also, his comment about sustain actually made me LOL here at work. Quite loudly too.
I picked 47 because it's the standard value. I tried bigger but tone was WAY too "foofy" for me! And then tried 22. Was OK. Tried 10 not enough for me. But for that bass and my ears and all, just after playing it with 22 for a while I started to feel that it needed to be just a tiny bit brighter than 22. So I went with 15. Love it. Like I said. Just try caps and see what your ears like. There is nothing sacred about the numbers. In the end I went with 47 15 and zero.
As for the PIO, no surprise. As I said before, all quality caps of the same values sound alike. PIO and Poly are both quality caps so....
Tell him to be careful around smoke detectors.
If you want to experiment that's fine but the biggest change will be to take the tone control out of the circuit.
If you want to experiment that's fine but the biggest change will be to take the tone control out of the circuit.
In order to retain more mids (passive only cuts - no boost) as I roll off the tone knob, I use a .033 instead of the common .047 as a tone capacitor. This is probably the simplest mod, but the OP has said he does runs tone full on.
In that case, and if the OP still wants more mids, then either crank them on the amp or add a preamp with mid frequency and +/- controls, like the EMG variable mid circuit.
In that case, and if the OP still wants more mids, then either crank them on the amp or add a preamp with mid frequency and +/- controls, like the EMG variable mid circuit.
