Synth versus guitar cap values

[armdnrdy]

I've been weeding through the project files of the Quadra Phaser. (removed and modified as a stand alone phaser from the ARP Quadra synth by Jürgen Haible)

There are five (synth friendly) 10µf non polar caps in the input/compressor/expander sections. Can these caps be switched out to the more than guitar friendly 1µf caps?

The caps are in the first schematic

http://electro-music.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=Schematics.ARPQuadraPhaseShifter

[PRR]

Try it and see.

[WaveshapeIllusions]

Assuming that those are all coupling caps (at least they appear to be), I doubt changing them will be an issue. As the frequency range of a synth goes much lower, they may be necessary. Guitar, not being as deep in , has no need for that kind of frequency response. So it should not cause a problem, you could get away with almost any coupling cap size you have sitting around.

I do, however, question the value of doing so, and whether 1u is more guitar friendly. Looking at one section (guessing the input impedance of the next stage) the -3dB point would be about 14mHz, or 0.014 Hz. Increasing that by a 10 isn't a big difference in sound. An increase of 1000 would still be about 14 Hz; which wouldn't really affect any kind of tonal change.

[armdnrdy]

Thanks for the reply,

What I meant by "guitar friendly" was that the 1uf caps will cover all of the guitar frequencies. I believe that the 10uf caps are more geared toward the Arp Synth that this phaser design came from.

There is a difference.....I already have a good supply of 1uf bipolar caps and zero 10uf bipolar caps..... I would have to order caps that cover a frequency range that is above and beyond what is needed for a guitar effect.