changing input capacitors for HB pickups

[phector2004]

Hi everyone,

I just had a scary re-enactment of my high-school electronics breadboard curse (a.k.a. when nothing you build on it ever works!) After going through RG's debug steps a billion times, i realized i had connected my battery's negative to the jack tip

Anyways, I finally got my muff fuzz working and it's pretty neat, but before I set it in solder I was wondering about input/output capacitors and different pickups. What exactly do they affect, and is it really worth setting up a little SPDT so i can toggle between a 0.1uF input for SC's and a smaller value for HB's?

Phil

[petemoore]

 
and is it really worth setting up a little SPDT so i can toggle between a 0.1uF input for SC's and a smaller value for HB's?
   Not once you know which value is preferred or know it does or doesn't make much difference, how much that difference matters overall.
   Deal with HB's and distorters and speakers mainly, maybe amp, is that the boosted lows [what the input cap value sets the amount cut] can sound loose
breakup may be less than desirable, OTOH, sometimes that's just the thing if it turns out to be  that way.
   There are factors such as volume level, speaker type, cabinet type, settings...etc., whether these things respond well or can be adjusted...
  There I go rambling again, suffice it to say yes, especially if you've never sampled various values and HB / SC usages, having that switch on the box with the amp, guitars etc. over a period of time this will provide a lot of information. Whether you decide it's needed will then be an informed decision.
  Preferrred method, a second cap, between the board and switch [most effects have an offboard input wire connecting to the input capacitor], carefully chosen for value to decrease bass [adding a series capacitor = lower value], that way when the switch which goes across the cap breaks, the signal path hasn't been completely interuppted.
  there are other ways to make a faulty switch not completely disable an effect input.

[phector2004]

thanks for the input!

I'll try the switch and maybe i'll socket the cap to keep thing's from getting too messy should I choose to change it later on (don't have an SC guitar yet, but maybe within the next year)

as for bass, lower capacitance on the input = less bass passing through? (I'm clueless about the mechanics of this... do the lower frequencies require "more charge" on the cap?)

Thanks again