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Anyone ever put Orangedrops on a bass?

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 10:13 pm
by Viljami
Anyone done that? Also what type if pots do you have in there?

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 10:18 pm
by mordechaister
Yeah I have. I have a .047 microfarad in my jazz bass project. I think the pots are 250k CTS that I had.

This is kind of a rabbit hole, but I just ordered 6 different .047 caps that I'm going to install into a box with a 6 way switch, two level controls (one linear, one log) and a switch to select between the two. So you'll be able to plug any instrument in and hear the difference between a 75 cent ceramic cap and 16 dollar auricap. We'll see what happens...

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 12:34 am
by Haze
Please post your results and any possible samples in the projects/effects subforum! I constantly use my tone knob on my teles and basses and would love to see some results :)

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 5:00 am
by mordechaister
Yeah I plan to post it online where it can stay for a while. It'll take a little while, but I'll be sure to make a new thread for it. I'm actually going to have my friend wire it up, so I can be the first person to do a blind test on it.

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:12 pm
by littlericky
There are 3 or 4 videos in this series. There are actually more differences than I would have thought, though so subtle it really doesn't seem to matter.

[youtube][/youtube]

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 3:20 pm
by Doog
They're all differences you could make by slightly tweaking your amp's EQ.

Playing guitar > worrying about minutia and the snake oil involved

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 4:28 pm
by iCEByTes
just quality , whit brand stuff like cts pots and spague orange drops you know it´s wont left you on corner.

Difference 1 buck i says worthy goes Spague orange drop , stuffs like CTS Pots , Good Capacitors and Switchcraft 1/4 and switchs are quallity stuff , you know its durable
not snake oil, but stuffs that are premium made.

you see fenders dated 1959 that still using same CTS pots. they are good :wink:

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 4:40 pm
by Doog
True, good pots make a difference between of moving parts and all that, but how many times has a cheap tone cap failed on you?

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:45 pm
by iCEByTes
Doog wrote:True, good pots make a difference between of moving parts and all that, but how many times has a cheap tone cap failed on you?
i´d not try use cheap tone caps yet because
difference is 1 or 2 bucks , for me not worthy try cheap tone cap for save 1 buck :lol:

something close guitar nuts , people goes plastic and difference is 2 bucks between you get graphite or bone

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 1:46 am
by h8mtv
I can tell you that caps do make a difference. The sound of a ceramic vs box caps, silver mica, electrolytic, etc are def different. I'd go as far as to say they make more tonal difference than type of wood IMO.

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 2:29 am
by honeyiscool
h8mtv wrote:I can tell you that caps do make a difference. The sound of a ceramic vs box caps, silver mica, electrolytic, etc are def different. I'd go as far as to say they make more tonal difference than type of wood IMO.
Sure they're different. Now get a multimeter and measure capacitance and you'll probably find that all these caps have different value, and that's why they sound different in a friggin' passive bleed circuit. The main thing is that more expensive caps generally have better tolerances, so they'll have tighter range of capacitance, meaning a .047 uF PIO cap will probably be closer to .047 uF than a .047 poly cap. But considering you can get a box of 50 poly caps for the price of one PIO cap, a good multimeter (which you should have anyway) can find you the .047 uF cap you need.

Think about it, everyone. What does a cap do in a guitar? It lets the treble pass through it to ground, means whatever's going through the cap is being subtracted. So how does a PIO cap sound "warmer" in a bleed circuit when the same adjective is used by the same people to describe how a PIO cap sounds when the signal is actively going through it in amp circuits? If you subtract warm, shouldn't you be left with bright? Somebody's doing some wishful thinking.

Besides, want a warmer sound? Instead of switching to a PIO cap, why not just change to .047 from .022? It's gonna have more of an effect, that's for sure.




(And who decided you need exactly .022 uF cap in your guitar to sound good anyway?)

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 3:59 am
by h8mtv
I meter every component I use in my effects. I do not dispute that variances in tolerance makes the most difference. That said, I stand by my previous statement.

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 4:45 am
by honeyiscool
I would never dispute that caps matter in an active circuit like an effects pedal.

In a guitar, though?

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 5:30 am
by h8mtv
I never would have thought but I put a sprague and a paper in oil, same value, both metered for accuracy on a switch on a tele. The PIO cap sounded much better to most everyone who tried it.

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 11:55 pm
by Doog
iCEByTes wrote:something close guitar nuts , people goes plastic and difference is 2 bucks between you get graphite or bone
There's a FAR bigger difference with metal nuts: open notes sounding like fretted notes? YES PLZ.

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 11:59 pm
by iCEByTes
Doog wrote:
iCEByTes wrote:something close guitar nuts , people goes plastic and difference is 2 bucks between you get graphite or bone
There's a FAR bigger difference with metal nuts: open notes sounding like fretted notes? YES PLZ.
difference plastic and graphite that strings dance on graphite. never stopped notice on eletric guitar how its influence on tone

on acoustical guitar difference is sky to earth , its a huge difference in tone very very noticeable

i don´t tried metal nuts yet like brass or aluminum

but i can say my 6 guitars graphite on tremolo applications and bone on fixed bridges being very worthy

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 5:51 pm
by Doog
As soon as you plop distortion or overdrive on it, all bets are off.