I'm rewiring my SG soon (fitting my humbucker-size p90s ) and trying to decide whether fitting expensive paper/oil caps is worth it? I don't really use the tone controls so I'm thinking not, but if they make a difference to the sound with toanez on 10 then I might be interested. It's just they cost like £20 for a couple, when I could get some "normal" caps for probably less than £1.

Do you use your tone control much?

IMO, you *might* notice a difference between a cheap ceramic cap and a regular poly cap like you would use in an amp.

But, between different cap types beyond that, the difference is absolutely not worth fussing about, IMO.

I have tried lots, from cheepy ceramics to classic bumble bee spragues to random paper in oil ones, etc...

You will get better results for yourself if you spend a couple bucks for a few different values (i.e. .022, .047, .033, etc) and some alligator clips to temporarily install them, to find one that best responds to how you use your tone knob. Basically look at what you currently have in there for a value, and get one twice as big(but the same voltage rating!), and one half as big.

You can put regular old Mallory 150s in for a 'nice' option, but in the guitar tone knob position, you are not likely to notice ANY sound difference to a regular old greeny cap like you would find in a Boss FX pedal. And at that, the difference you might notice would be more likely to be due to the fact that the manufacturing processes are somewhat imprecise, and the different caps you get will hardly ever be exactly the same measured values.

OH. What i WOULD recommend for a Gibson rewiring, is that if it is not already, you should wire it up "50's style".

It is just a simple change of which lugs on the pots the connections are made to. I found that compared to the modern Gibson wiring, i really preferred the way the 50's style wiring changed the response of the controls. The big thing for me, is that the guitar retains more brightness and clarity when you turn down the volumes on it. That change was definitely worth it for me.

Yeah the 50s wiring has already been recommended to me. I can't find a good diagram for it though Currently I just put a cap across the pot which helps to retain treble when rolling down the volume control, so I was just gonna do that, but I'm interested by that 50s style as the only way I get cleans is to roll down my guitar volume.

Oh and the majority of the time I never really use my tone pots, I will occasionally use them with p90s to try and take a bit of twang out if I want to get it sounding a bit muddier/more like a humbucker

Pow.



If you don't use your tone knob much, just about any cap will do the trick, IMO.

I like the bright cap (treble bleed) on random guitars, but at this point, i think i have clipped them back out of all of the ones that i had it in. For a gibson, the 50's style wiring ended up doing what i wanted from the treble bleed. Whereas, the treble bleed mod, was a bit too much, too extreme, and even with the supposed taper fixing resistors, screwed up the taper of the pot too much for my tastes. I tried lots of different values and just couldn't find one that i liked.

If brighter sound is what you are after, try the 50's wiring. If that isn't enough, consider putting 1M pots in for the volumes. If THAT doesn't do it, THEN consider the treble bleed caps.

Also, what hum-size P90s are you putting in?

Bareknuckle Pig 90 (bridge) and Mississippi Queen (neck), so I'm taking them out of the Les Paul they're in.. I thought I was satisfied with the Gibson pickups but after extensive playing of my other guitars, the stock gibsons don't "feel" as good and sound more one-dimensional ( )

I don't really want to brighten the guitar as it's an SG so already quite bright I guess If I had it my way I wouldn'thave to rewire it, but it has the shitty gibson circuit board rather than proper pots etc.

That diagram doesn't show how to hook up the switch and jack

Yellow wires to the switch, same positions as they are currently. That doesn't change between modern and vintage.

Jack is wired with the sleeve to ground, and the tip to the switch center/output lug.

Mayhap wif some moar clarity?

Yep that works, thanks

After some not-so-extensive googling it seems that people think that cheaper ceramic disc capacitors don't sound too good, but things like the orange drops sound a bit better and probably no worse than expensive paper/oil caps - those are only £3 a pair so I may as well just get a couple of those.

Aye, that is the general nerd consensus. Take it with a whole fucktonne of salt.

Most people cannot hear the difference between any of them. Particularly if they don't use their tone knobs much. Personally, i just dislike the looks of ceramics, so i usually use poly film of some form. Honestly, i believe this also to be largely the reason that most tonesnobs dislike ceramic as well (in addition to their generally lower prices per unit, for which the natural inclination amongst snobs is to assume inferiority).

I have orange drops in a strat, bumblebees in one tele and my SG, greenies in another tele, etc. They all work. They all make the guitar darker when you turn down the knob. I have swapped in multiples in all of my guitars, and basically have decided that it doesn't matter THAT much, what type you use.

The best results i got, were from spending time swapping out VALUES, not types. Values for the cap, and values for the pots. I like higher value pots, and i like some odd value caps. Common values for gibsons and fenders would be .047 or .022uf, i like .033 in a few of my guitars. In Fenders that normally have 250k pots, i like to put 500k in for the volumes, sometimes even 1M. I am usually happy enough with the 500k in Gibson-style gits though.

Experiment.

Well I trust your opinion more than some random internetters, so I guess I won't bother with anything expensive. What difference does the cap value have then - ie does a higher one give moar/less roll off, does it change the taper, or what?

The larger the value, the more extreme the rolloff will be.

Roughly.

So a small cap like .01uf will still take the edge off, but will be less abrupt at it through the sweep of the knob. Conversely, a 0.1uf will dump tons of high end off very obviously. Depending on the pot value and taper, this can be almost like a bright/dark switch. I like bright pickups, but i also like quickly adjustable tone knobs on my teles and whatnot, so i generally wind up with a middle of the road value like .022uf or .033uf. It is really a matter of personal taste, and how you want the rolloff to feel.

Also, it depends on how much you really intend to roll off. For instance, the way i play, i only use my tone knobs generally just slightly, to take the edge off of really bright bridge pickups. I will only roll the knob all the way off, if i am making some sort of novelty effect or controlling some sort of wacky oscillating fuzz sort of thing. Tone full off is not something that i have a lot of practical use for, personally.

Experiment a little and find out what you like, i say.

Or. Just wire it classic, and do it in the fashion that has worked for thousands of other geetar players.

Or copy someone's fucked up style that got sounds that you like, if the information is available for the details of it.

Many ways to get there. Almost too many.

Well I finally got my arse into gear and ordered some new pots and such. Hopefully by the end of next week my SG will be sporting a pair of P90s in the 50s wiring config

awwwyeah. This sounds fucking awesome, should've done this months ago



Covers don't match exactly, but the bridge one aged to that goldish tint so I'm hoping the neck will do the same. Also I'm very tempted to rewire my other guitars with 50s wiring, seems to work very nicely indeed.

It is, IMO, the only way a Gibson style guitar should be wired, and i do not know why they ever would have changed away from it.

Good news that you are digging it!

It is a much more "natural" sounding sort of rolled-off brightness than a bright cap would give.

Indeed, tis a mystery as to why they bothered fucking around with it. Thanks for your help with the diagrams and such, you are a scholar and a gent

Oh and I went with 22s on the caps, as recommended by the guy I ordered from (Feline Guitars). tbh the tone controls sound roughly the same to me as any others - dulls the sound I guess, and I will probably never use them With this wiring/cap config they're not quite so muddy as a "normal" setup but I'll probably not use them any more than before as I don't like dull tone

That is so very, very hot.

Gibson fucking up their own designs?


Inconceivable!

"Fuck you DAD!"

Precisely.