Nice to hear someone talk from knowledge of electronics instead of people ignorant of electronics trying to explain the same. Thanks so much for these videos and your good explainations... ( you had me when I saw a spectrum analyzer and the ebow.)
Thank you very much for posting this series of videos about volume and tone controls. They are by far the best and most informative videos on the subject I’ve found on the Internet, and I’ve watched a lot of them. Your use of the spectrum analyzer and other test equipment coupled with live demonstrations really put you above the rest. I wish I’d found them back in 2014 when you first posted them. Thanks again!
thanks for these. It's amazing how hard it is to find stuff like this that actually tells you what components will change which frequencies and how much.
I've previously done experiments with a Duncan JB to make it work within the lower tonal range of my Dual Rectifier. I just tore all the old stuff out and set it up with push-pull pots for series/parallel pickups. This guitar has only 1 volume and 1 tone control and I was looking for frequency response graphs when I happened upon your video. Thank you so much for taking the time to show your experiments. Since Duncan uses 47n caps for this wiring, I started there, but I think I may reduce it to 22n or 15n for that cocked-wah sound, as I want more resonance from the tone control. It would have taken me a lot longer to arrive at that decision (if at all) without your help. I'm very grateful.
What an excellent and helpful video David! I really appreciate you doing this! I never thought I could find out why when I turned my tone controls down on my stock Epiphone Emperor Swingster Royale (pair of humbuckers), I don't get any change/effect on high freq roll off, until I get down to 2.5 to 0 and I don't like this at all! Maybe my tone pots are linear taper and I should change them to audio taper, so that I can get a more even or earlier high freq roll off on my tone pots.
So when I was rewiring my squier strat HH I accidentally connected the cap to the opposite lug on the pot, and had a reverse taper. Wow, talk about your tone control packed into an extremely small range!
Definitely a Gibson modern wiring style tone control is just a resonant LC tuned circuit controlled by the tone pot..where the tuned freq is ALWAYS < than the open resonant pickup coil freq...most people think is a lo pass 1st order filter while is totally NOT the case.
Hello David, a question about your lab tools, and specially for both videos, Guitar electronics 1 & 2 in that your are using some measure and test tools to check pots in a way to check them visually or graphically. Are these lab tools available for sale or do you made them by your own?
Could you do a similar test but with a bass roll off instead of a treble roll off? Does that also create a new resonant peak? Is the frequency that the roll off occurs at the same as with a treble roll off? So like if a certain value cuts treble and creates a resonant peak around 1k, would the same value cap also have the same peak but with a bass cut instead? I hope that makes sense.
Sad that this video didn't demonstrate the effects of a high cap value of say 0.1uf combined with a linear taper pot. I suspect it would allow the light effect of the linear taper between 10-2 to act like a normal much lower cap value, perhaps resembling a 0.022uf or 0.046uf, but with 0-2 acting as a deep sweep of the full 0.1uf. Has anybody tried something like this?
I think my guitar has a linear tone control. It only seems to do anything at one extreme. It has a .047u cap, a 500K pot and humbuckers. I think the tone is wired to the input of the volume. Does that mean it is applied before the volume and therefore the tone is not affected by the volume control?
id like to get the mid boost sound on a neck p90, so il tray some values till i find it. rolling of highs on the bridge is fine most of the time and it has enough mids.
We saw what the CAPACITOR VALUE does but i cannot understand what the pot on its right does...there are 5 positions for this...what is the efect on the sound and the frequency responce??
the potentiometer/capacitor/taper box that you use is it homemade or purchased. and where can they be found or are theyre plans out there on the net to make one ? Cheers, Perry.
It's a test box I made with 8 pots for each volume and tone inside being gear driven by the main knobs. It was quite a bi and expensive project to make, and not worth doing unless you need something like this as a regular teaching tool. For more basic tests it is simpler to use stacked / ganged pots, though the number you can sync this way will be more limited.
is there any issues with using 250k linear for 2 volumes and 500k audio taper for 1 master tone whether wired coil or output? is it best to use a 250k audio tone since the linear volumes are 250 so to not conflict?
Can I ask you a question? I would like to turn my gibson guitars tone controls configuration into this: one master low pass knob and the other a master high pass knob. Could you help me out with the wiring and caps values? The two volume controls should remain the same. Thank you very much man.
Excellent question. The reason for this is that when the resistor (potentiometer) is above 50-100kΩ range (depending on the pickups), the cap is not the limiting factor in what frequencies are effected. Above this threshold, the pot value is the only factor that limits what frequencies are bled off, and this range of high frequencies which are affected by the pot/resistor will be met with no impedance by the capacitor. Different pot values will affect the treble roll off and frequency peak, but in a high frequency range where the cap shows no resistance. It is only when the resistance of the pot being turned down brings the resonant peak down in the frequency range which the capacitor starts to impede (usually somewhere in the 50-100kΩ range) that the value of the cap becomes the limiting factor and begins to make a difference.
GFJDean35 That's an important question! A resistor has the same resistance no matter what kind of signal is applied. Impedance is the resistance of a capacitor or inductor and corresponds directly with the frequency of the signal An inductor wants to pass DC easily and wants to hinder AC, and the resistance gets higher the higher the frequency. Vice versa for caps, they want to block DC and pass AC the impedance getting lower as the frequency rises. For the usual guitar tone control a variable resistor in series with a cap goes between the signal lead and ground. If the cap was there by itself the high frequencies would see an easier and easier path to ground as the frequency increases; this would give a bass-heavy/treble-weak signal. The variable resistor sets the minimum resistance between signal and ground and moderates the effect of the capacitor. Google up "impedance calculation" to see how to calculate the effective resistance of a device given its value and the frequency applied.
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Thank you so much for this!!! Best demonstration on this subject in the whole internet! Should have thousands of views!!!
Nice to hear someone talk from knowledge of electronics instead of people ignorant of electronics trying to explain the same. Thanks so much for these videos and your good explainations... ( you had me when I saw a spectrum analyzer and the ebow.)
Thank you very much for posting this series of videos about volume and tone controls. They are by far the best and most informative videos on the subject I’ve found on the Internet, and I’ve watched a lot of them. Your use of the spectrum analyzer and other test equipment coupled with live demonstrations really put you above the rest. I wish I’d found them back in 2014 when you first posted them. Thanks again!
Such an awesome visual tutorial... you clarified voodoo into science.... you are beyond cool.
thanks for these. It's amazing how hard it is to find stuff like this that actually tells you what components will change which frequencies and how much.
Where did you get that device you're using? I would LOVE to have one of those to show people various differences before doing wiring jobs!
Awesome videos! I don't have access to this testing equipment, so it's great to be able to see the results here.
I've previously done experiments with a Duncan JB to make it work within the lower tonal range of my Dual Rectifier. I just tore all the old stuff out and set it up with push-pull pots for series/parallel pickups. This guitar has only 1 volume and 1 tone control and I was looking for frequency response graphs when I happened upon your video. Thank you so much for taking the time to show your experiments.
Since Duncan uses 47n caps for this wiring, I started there, but I think I may reduce it to 22n or 15n for that cocked-wah sound, as I want more resonance from the tone control. It would have taken me a lot longer to arrive at that decision (if at all) without your help. I'm very grateful.
Brilliant videos David, very impressed.
What an excellent and helpful video David! I really appreciate you doing this! I never thought I could find out why when I turned my tone controls down on my stock Epiphone Emperor Swingster Royale (pair of humbuckers), I don't get any change/effect on high freq roll off, until I get down to 2.5 to 0 and I don't like this at all! Maybe my tone pots are linear taper and I should change them to audio taper, so that I can get a more even or earlier high freq roll off on my tone pots.
Your videos are really great! Simply the best on youtube. Really based on scientific methods, many thanks for making them!
man, from Argentina, thanks a lot for this series of videos, really helpfull, finally no more subjective thoughts about what we want to use! cheers!
Thanks a lot for these videos!
great series of videos, thanks v much
So when I was rewiring my squier strat HH I accidentally connected the cap to the opposite lug on the pot, and had a reverse taper. Wow, talk about your tone control packed into an extremely small range!
Great Stuff. Thank you
Definitely a Gibson modern wiring style tone control is just a resonant LC tuned circuit controlled by the tone pot..where the tuned freq is ALWAYS < than the open resonant pickup coil freq...most people think is a lo pass 1st order filter while is totally NOT the case.
Hello David, a question about your lab tools, and specially for both videos, Guitar electronics 1 & 2 in that your are using some measure and test tools to check pots in a way to check them visually or graphically. Are these lab tools available for sale or do you made them by your own?
Could you do a similar test but with a bass roll off instead of a treble roll off? Does that also create a new resonant peak? Is the frequency that the roll off occurs at the same as with a treble roll off? So like if a certain value cuts treble and creates a resonant peak around 1k, would the same value cap also have the same peak but with a bass cut instead? I hope that makes sense.
Sad that this video didn't demonstrate the effects of a high cap value of say 0.1uf combined with a linear taper pot. I suspect it would allow the light effect of the linear taper between 10-2 to act like a normal much lower cap value, perhaps resembling a 0.022uf or 0.046uf, but with 0-2 acting as a deep sweep of the full 0.1uf. Has anybody tried something like this?
Awesome series! But what model epiphone is that? All the les paul double cutaways I can find have offset horns...
I think my guitar has a linear tone control. It only seems to do anything at one extreme. It has a .047u cap, a 500K pot and humbuckers. I think the tone is wired to the input of the volume. Does that mean it is applied before the volume and therefore the tone is not affected by the volume control?
id like to get the mid boost sound on a neck p90, so il tray some values till i find it. rolling of highs on the bridge is fine most of the time and it has enough mids.
We saw what the CAPACITOR VALUE does but i cannot understand what the pot on its right does...there are 5 positions for this...what is the efect on the sound and the frequency responce??
that spectrum analizer seems to be customized to be used for a guitar's custom shop. is it right?
what is the name of the device you are using ?
the potentiometer/capacitor/taper box that you use is it homemade or purchased. and where can they be found or are theyre plans out there on the net to make one ? Cheers, Perry.
It's a test box I made with 8 pots for each volume and tone inside being gear driven by the main knobs. It was quite a bi and expensive project to make, and not worth doing unless you need something like this as a regular teaching tool. For more basic tests it is simpler to use stacked / ganged pots, though the number you can sync this way will be more limited.
is there any issues with using 250k linear for 2 volumes and 500k audio taper for 1 master tone whether wired coil or output? is it best to use a 250k audio tone since the linear volumes are 250 so to not conflict?
Can I ask you a question? I would like to turn my gibson guitars tone controls configuration into this: one master low pass knob and the other a master high pass knob. Could you help me out with the wiring and caps values? The two volume controls should remain the same. Thank you very much man.
google Joe Gore PTB dual passive tone controls
How can I get one of those testing boxes?
What I don’t understand is if the capacitor has no effect when tone is on 10, why do some guitars use 500k tone pots vs 250k tone pots?
Excellent question. The reason for this is that when the resistor (potentiometer) is above 50-100kΩ range (depending on the pickups), the cap is not the limiting factor in what frequencies are effected. Above this threshold, the pot value is the only factor that limits what frequencies are bled off, and this range of high frequencies which are affected by the pot/resistor will be met with no impedance by the capacitor. Different pot values will affect the treble roll off and frequency peak, but in a high frequency range where the cap shows no resistance. It is only when the resistance of the pot being turned down brings the resonant peak down in the frequency range which the capacitor starts to impede (usually somewhere in the 50-100kΩ range) that the value of the cap becomes the limiting factor and begins to make a difference.
What exactly is difference/relation between Impedance and DC Resistance?
GFJDean35 That's an important question! A resistor has the same resistance no matter what kind of signal is applied. Impedance is the resistance of a capacitor or inductor and corresponds directly with the frequency of the signal
An inductor wants to pass DC easily and wants to hinder AC, and the resistance gets higher the higher the frequency. Vice versa for caps, they want to block DC and pass AC the impedance getting lower as the frequency rises.
For the usual guitar tone control a variable resistor in series with a cap goes between the signal lead and ground. If the cap was there by itself the high frequencies would see an easier and easier path to ground as the frequency increases; this would give a bass-heavy/treble-weak signal. The variable resistor sets the minimum resistance between signal and ground and moderates the effect of the capacitor.
Google up "impedance calculation" to see how to calculate the effective resistance of a device given its value and the frequency applied.
Audio (A) seems to be more useful to tone pot.
yeah. i had always assumed it would be the opposite, so i learnt something new,
That machine , I don't remember the name of it but it is the cat's ass.