All things Caps: Mylar,Ceramic,Tants,Electro's etc etc ...

[HOTTUBES]

I want to know & understand where these types of caps are best used in pedal building etc .

How do the different types of caps affect the tone / sound of a circuit ?

General info on the audio cap ....





A huge thanks to the forum for any help !!


HT

[John Lyons]

It's highly subjective. Take a look in the wiki above and do some searching.
If you use all one type of cap it will be more noticeable
compared to the same circuit with all different type caps.
Changing one cap within a circuit will be likely un noticable.
Do some tests for yourself and see what you come up with.

[HOTTUBES]

Ok ! thanks John !

It seems that alot of pedal builders like using the standard metal films etc , but what if you used all mica caps instead
What would be the expected out come tone wise ?

[amptramp]

Mica caps are generally not available in large sizes (4700 pF is the largest I have seen) so unless you have very high impedances throughout, you will have little bass response.

There is little practical difference between the different types of film capacitors.

Paper capacitors generally show a lot of leakage, so they should not be used where this would be a problem.

Ceramic capacitors tend to be microphonic and cause quite a bit of distortion.

Results can be seen here:

http://diyaudioprojects.com/mirror/members.aol.com/sbench102/caps.html

[HOTTUBES]

Thanks for the link !!

[Gus]

google, bing etc. "Cyril Bateman  capacitors"  Many good PDFs to read.

There are a few different ceramic cap types, they can be non microphonic and the lowest distortion and there are different film types and construction.

Note the Steve Bench link shows a Z5U and does not state the EIA code for the monolithic.

another good link http://sound.westhost.com/articles/capacitors.htm

The good thing with effects is they often use 9VDC.  

Caps are not subjective there is science.

[John Lyons]

Caps are not subjective there is science.
True but whether one hears a difference is subjective. 

[Gus]

double post

[Gus]

At 9VDC it will be harder to hear what a cap can do to the sound.

If one types in what I have in "s into google etc you can find the PDFs.  If you read the PDFs a lot can be understood.

An example of a cap selection.  Years ago a friend wanted TS pickups installed in their 70's strat(the strat sounded OK but had a mix of non stock pickups).  I removed and installed the new pickups.  We tried the big disk ceramic tone cap that was in the guitar and other caps like pan Vs.  When played at volume(When I worked on friend effects guitars etc I asked them to bring there amps)  the stock disk ceramic sounded the best(I checked the values on a meter for the RC time constant aspect) I believe the added signal from the vibration of the body was the cause.  If you tapped the disk you could hear it in the amp.
I am not saying a disk cap is the best in a guitar.  In the case above the pickup tones and the body vibration and the big disk cap did sound good.  I often like to use caps like M150s or pan Vs or box mylar caps in tone controls in guitars

[HOTTUBES]

Thanks GUS for the links , this exactly what i was looking for ....

I don't mind doing some reading , they can be loaded with great info !!!