Does different tone cap affect when fully open?

[MidlifeBeginner]

Different cap construction affects the dynamic response of the cap. Most people won't ever hear the difference. It would make a bigger difference in a high pass circuit than the low pass circuits in basses. Even with high pass filters at audio frequencies, the difference would not be noticeable by most.

Most difference people hear swapping caps for the same value(apart from psychological) would be a different value by a percentage(tolerance).

Tone up all the way, cap does make a negligible difference. It still affecting the circuit is a good thing. Any affect it has would be on high frequency noise.

 

[MidlifeBeginner]

I checked the Orange Drop listing on Mouser. They come in 5% or 10% varieties. So not even all orange drops are created equal.

 

[fig]

Just jumping in real fast, there's a way to electrically remove the cap which leaves only the fixed resistance of the pot. An obscure passive tone control wiring I had in my notes. Very simple, too, so score! LOL

Of course, the common wiring (leaving one pot end disconnected) won't totally remove the cap. And a no-load pot removes the tone control entirely. Either way if fine. This obscure circuit is in-between.:

When the wiper arm (2) is run to the Treble end (3) of the pot, the cap is directly shorted, electrically removing it's influence from the circuit. Just leaves the pot's fixed resistance.

Thought I'd throw this out as a matter of interest, 'cause I don't see this one used much. Personally, I don't care about the technical stuff, only care about the final result. Standard, no-load, obscure, are all gonna be fine with me.

 

[markanini]

It's the Lemme school of guitar electronics. Obviously there is more to pickups that the resonance peak, even though the peak is of course very important.

That's a good thing, makes you direct your GAS into stuff that matters. Most people that understand Lemme don't think that resonant peak is all that matters, though. The string needs to be magnetized to for the pickup to work after all.

 

[uOpt]

That's a good thing, makes you direct your GAS into stuff that matters. Most people that understand Lemme don't think that resonant peak is all that matters, though. The string needs to be magnetized to for the pickup to work after all.

Right. Lemme is very short on elaborating about magnets. Sometimes his followers are overly dismissive on the alnico variants and ceramic and how they differ. Playing with degaussing and recharging different alnico variants shows that they keep their character, so magnet strength as such is not what makes them sound different. Personally I think it is mostly in the shape of the field.

Still love my "bible", though.

 

[Martelino]

Well thank you all very much, I not only have an answer but also a lot of interesting - albeit incomprehensable to the alpha-mind - technical info.

 

[byacey]

That's a good thing, makes you direct your GAS into stuff that matters. Most people that understand Lemme don't think that resonant peak is all that matters, though. The string needs to be magnetized to for the pickup to work after all.

The string does not need to be magnetized, nor do you want that. That would create a non-linear bias in how the string moves within the field of the pole piece. The sole purpose of the string is to change the magnetic field of the pole piece as the string passes through it. This changing field is what induces a voltage within the pickup coil.

 

[walterw]

Now I always assumed that this would not make any difference when the tone is fully open, but maybe I'm wrong.

nope

above about “6” on a normal tone pot you could literally replace the cap with a piece of straight wire and it would sound the same

 

[markanini]

byacey,
It's true, it's not required for the pickup to function. However:

That would create a non-linear bias in how the string moves within the field of the pole piece.

That literally happens. The magnetic field can't be homogeneous, else all harmonics would cancel, notes would sound the same plucked near the neck or near the bridge. Non-linearity is inevitable, and desirable.