Guitar Capacitor Types Matter! Here Is The Proof | Guitar Tweakz

#guitarwirings #guitarplayer
I made a video where I compared a vintage style paper-in-oil capacitor with an orange drop. They sounded different. Many of you complained that I didn't measure the two caps in that video. Well, it's time to do that and also explain why I'm only doing it now.
I also have "one more thing" to show you, so stick around and don't skip the fun part. :)
Enjoy Guitar Tweakz!

Check out the original capacitor comparison video here:

Here are the two capacitors we're talking about (Thomann affiliate links):

Follow me on instagram: @kris_barocsi

** Why the Anzeige (=Ad) message? **
According to german laws everyone has to mark their videos as advertisements as soon as there's a single "subject relevant" product, tag or link in it. Even if you didn't get paid for making that video. Sounds confusing and it really doesn't help the viewer to see which is a paid review and which isn't.
--- The line of truth: Is this actually a paid review? No it isn't but I'm using affilite links which help to fund this channel. (I update this line for every video).

Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:49 Intro Playing | Autowah Hendrix
2:06 Thoughts of an electrical engineer
3:04 Playing | PJD Guitars St John + Kasleder Toxic Twins
3:37 Let's measure the orange drop and paper-in-oil capacitors
4:47 Very interesting results...
6:10 Playing | PJD St John + Walrus Audio D1 + UAFX Golden
6:44 WHY didn't I measure the caps in the comparison video?
8:27 One More Thing: does the orientation of the cap matter?!
9:15 Comparison | Clean Neck P90 | Tone at 10
9:39 Comparison | Clean Neck P90 | Tone at 5
10:02 Comparison | Dirty Humbucker | Tone at 10
10:21 Comparison | Dirty Humbucker | Tone at 5
10:41 Comparison | Dirty P90 | Tone at 10
10:59 Comparison | Dirty P90 | Tone at 5
11:18 Noise floor comparison
11:28 My thoughts | What did we all hear?
12:36 Outro Playing | PJD St John + Kasleder Toxic Twins

Gear used in this video:
(the Bitly links are Thomann affiliate links)

Other gear I use in my videos:

-Fender Telecaster Custom Shop '53 reissue
-Gibson Les Paul CM 2015 - heavily modified (thin nitro refin; Lollar Dog Ear P90; Emerson electronics)
-Barocsi Troublecaster - Custom built T-style guitar with Gretsch Filtertrons
-Barocsi "Frankenstrat" (2000 Fender American Standard body + Warmoth neck)
-Supro Tremolo

The speech mic:
Audio Interface:

Check out the Thomann Music channel for some wicked guitar videos:

Cheers,
Kris

[markty]

Both of those caps are so close in value that you could basically say that they are matched. 21.8 UF and 22.2 UF is as identical as you can hope for. That is only a .38 difference and that is miniscule.

[honigdachs.]

If I printed out two identical images and asked people to make out differences between them as a part of a specific scientific test, everyone would tell me a bunch of different little things they undoubtedly noticed comparing the two. Same goes for taste or smell. There's even the old production music trick: after numerous revisions, send them back the exact same file a few days later and they'll tell you it's much better now.

[bill-gb]

I just found out the orange drops do have a prefered polarity. It has a ground shield on one side. Easy to figure out. Plug it in to the amp and touch the outside. If it hums, it's backwards. Have a day!

[SeaWrrior]

Awesome 2 videos serie Kris and I think a lot of Luthier, Tech and guitar builders would thank you (or hate you xD) for doing these.
When I was trained to become a Guitar Tech, we used a small box with 2 crocodile clips that would allow us to swap the capacitor while playing the guitar. It then became evident that the type of capacitor affected the sound of the guitar (even with the tone knob open !). The PIO cap were the more open and clearest sounding.
An interesting fact too is that the wiring affects that a lot. The 50s wiring highlights this the most while with a modern wiring (with the cap to ground) the cap will make practically no difference.
If you read this and want to chat that would be a pleasure :)
Cheers

[anthonym]

Hello Kris, I am also an electrical engineer and sadly the "tonal" differences of capacitors do not exist on a usable level. There are differences between capacitor types but none of which change the frequency response in a noticeable way. The difference between the frequency response on a bode plot of capacitor types are nearly the same and identical to the human ear. The "tone knob" of an electrical guitar is usually a simple first order low pass filter using a resistor (potentiometer) and a capacitor. The cut off frequency is calculated with the equation 1/2piRC and that is the frequency where the the loudness is at 1/2 or -3dB. The small difference in the capacitors value also wont change the tone noticeably, it only would if its really different, but not like a 2%. Another point about the tone knob at 10 affecting tone. By technical standpoint it does change the tone using the same equation as before but a pot at 10 has a resistance usually between 0 and 2ohms so the frequencies being cut are well in the MHz range which is way beyond the 20KHz of human hearing. I love the video though. I love combining the worlds of physics and sick tones.

Dude, that’s one of the reasons why your channel is so cool! Keep up the awesome work!! Cheers! 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻

[treishtrei]

Thank you for this video. I was going crazy with all the engineers that calculate before they use their senses....like hearing. PS: I'm an electrical engineer too, but I tend to open my ears first.

[gjm]

Found this article about capacitors. "The ceramic capacitor is a non-polarity device, which means they do no have polarities. So we can connect it in any direction on a circuit board. For this reason, they are generally much safer than electrolytic capacitors."

[jamesmarchetti]

Great video and great comments below. Spent all my schooling and career in electronics. So I really enjoyed this! I am so glad I am a subscriber.

[bradt.]

So u had an electrical engineer say "the freq that pass thru it" ? That's kinda weird as NOTHING ever passes thru a cap. Again it charges and dis charges allowing current to flow in the circuit. Measure the resistance of a cap, see what u get. That's why it blocks DC but it also blocks AC. Why do you think it affects diff freq. according to value? It's value tells u how long it holds a charge, also how long to charge. That is only affected by value, not what it's made out of.

[bradt.]

I will say it could be possible for a cap to pick up hum depending on orientation, but to tell if it's more than what is normally picked up by the pickups and wiring, probably not even measurable. If it is measured too little human ears can't hear it, even if you have superhuman audiophile ears. Since we are dealing with alternating current, polarity mis-match is not possible.

[AndrewLewisHowe]

Based on the linked video re: cap polarity, the noise floor that comes from the cap being "backwards" is really small. In that vid he literally bridges the hot and ground at the amp's input with a cap, then CRANKS it to hear the noise.

It was neat that you found the oil and paper smoother. The difference in the measured cap values was pretty minimal, and the slight difference in 'drained high frequencies' would be hard to hear, but people do say the oil and paper caps are 'smoother'. So it's nice to see a side-by-side confirm that!

I had to laugh when the vid started. Before I noticed you had an autowah on, I thought that tone was coming from a tantalum cap and I thought "Man, that is super noticeable in a guitar"!

Hugs, brother!

[chrisgibbons]

I think you need to consider how a tone control on a guitar works. The capacitor in this circuit is not actually on the signal path. Ok, let me explain, the tone control circuit works by "bleeding off" the higher frequencies to ground, how much is bled off to ground depends on the value of the potentiometer and what frequencies are bled off depends on the value of the capacitor. The crucial point here is that these frequencies go to ground they do not appear at the output. What you hear after the tone circuit, has not been "through" the capacitor, the capacitor has no effect on this signal other than bleeding off the higher frequencies as previously stated. Different types of capacitor do not "sound" different if the values are exactly the same (they actually don't have a sound at all), what does make a difference to the audio signal is the tolerance rating and this is only because the value of the capacitance may not be what you think it is.

[Masterfighterx]

Caps aside, I just really love your guitar..

[andrewwong]

wow. hear a big difference in orientation with distortion. not as much when clean. useful! i prefer the first orientation. its brighter and more attack

[bradt.]

Nothing passes thru a cap. for current to flow thru there has to be some resistance. Measure a caps resistance. The two leads NEVER touch each other, they are insulated from each other with a dielectric material. They charge and discharge with alternating current. Every time they do this current flows in a circuit, NOT thru the cap. The value determines how long they take to charge and discharge. Musical tones are sounds that alternate at different speeds (freq.). Anybody seeing the correlation between value and freq. So someone explain how different materials can affect tone. Guy's, expectation bias. I hesitate saying this with some of the stuff I read but your, our, brains have an amazing ability to make us hear what we want to hear, you are not immune, nor am I it happens to all of us, it's very real and seems we are really hearing a diff. when there can be none. Once I really studied and understood this many things I thought I heard in the past seemed to not really exsist.

[josequiles]

These types of videos are great. Putting hypothesis and myths to the test. Absolutely love it!

[hallanvaara]

Cool! There's so many comments that it's impossible to tell if this has been discussed already:

With the tone knob on 0% the tone cap has a slight resonant peak before the treble cut starts to happen. The phenomenon is perceptible. I've used this effect to my advantage to get a slight mid boost to my vintage style basses. Picking the right one between different value caps is great fun.

[RGalindoM]

It is necessary to consider caps tolerances.
If tolerance is ±10%, then a nominal 22.2 µF may vary from 19.98 to 24.42 µF
If tolerance is ±5%, then a nominal 22.2 µF may vary from 21.09 to 23.31 µF.
If it is case of the second option (both caps measured on this video have 5%) then both capacitors are within range.

[alanst.]

Always a pleasure to watch your tech vids, Kris! I like when you dig deep 😉 Nice that you made this follow-up to make things clearer. On the other hand I'm not sure if the subtle tonal difference is enough to start tinkering with the caps for me... But I really enjoyed your melodic playing very much! Cheers.