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Topic: Emmons tone control capacitor ? |
Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 23 Aug 2013 6:56 am |
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What is the direct replacement for that green tone control capacitor for an old Emmons ?
thanks, Bob
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Bob |
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Keith Hilton
From:
248 Laurel Road Ozark, Missouri 65721
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Posted 23 Aug 2013 9:07 am
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| Bob most of the values I have heard are .05uf. I think that depends on the type of pickup and the type of control as Emmons used different pickups and different controls. By that I mean some of those old Emmons guitars used what they called a pentad pickup. Some of the old guitars had a 5 way switch. I don't know if Emmons used the same capacitor for everything or not. Seems to me if you change the type of pickup, or the type of switch, it would change everything including capacitance. Bob I can tell you this much-- Just my opinion--the range on these type of capacitors is from .01uf, or .02uf to .05uf. |
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Tim Marcus
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 23 Aug 2013 10:30 am
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pretty sure my Emmons has a .01 on the tone control
its not green either - its black with white lettering.
my guess is that they installed whatever they had in stock and lying around Leo Fender style - I bet an inexpensive Mallory cap will do the job
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Milkmansound.com |
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Keith Hilton
From:
248 Laurel Road Ozark, Missouri 65721
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Posted 23 Aug 2013 11:15 am
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| There are many different colored capacitors on Emmons guitars. One of mine is blue, another one is yellow, another one is brown. Color means nothing on a capacitor, capacitors are valued by the pf or uf rating. Only resistors have color coding. Hope this helps. |
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Andrew Kilinski
From:
Atlanta, GA
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Posted 23 Aug 2013 11:42 am
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| .047 microfarad capacator is what Mike Cass told me to use. I have yet to buy one for my early 70's emmons (it doesn't have one currently), but it's on my list of things to do. |
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Jim Palenscar
From:
Oceanside, Calif, USA
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Posted 23 Aug 2013 5:17 pm
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| .047 is probably the most commonly used cap with pickups and pots in the range that most pedal steels use. |
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Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 23 Aug 2013 10:31 pm
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It looks like it came with "paper in oil" coupling caps. Do I need to get one that looks the same or will something like an orange drop style work the same ?
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Bob |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 24 Aug 2013 5:07 am
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The orange drop (Sprague) caps will do fine! Also, there is really no difference in the sound of a .047 vs. a .05 cap.  |
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John Groover McDuffie
From:
LA California, USA
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Posted 24 Aug 2013 6:15 am
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The greater the capacitance the lower the rolloff corner frequency - so if you only want to get rid of the highest highs without affecting the midrange use a smaller cap (.01 mF for example) and if you want to rolloff not just the high-highs but some of the midrange too, for a bassier sound, use a large cap (ie .05mF).
FWIW it seems that Gibson tended to use .022 tone caps, while Fender tended to use .05 tone caps. I used two .05s in parallel (for a combined value of .1) in a friends P-bass once, as he wanted a lot of rolloff.
| Donny Hinson wrote: |
| ... there is really no difference in the sound of a .047 vs. a .05 cap. |
The laws of physics say otherwise, but there is probably no discernable difference in sound.
Caps are relatively inexpensive, buy a few different ones in the appropriate range and experiment! |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 24 Aug 2013 9:01 am
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i have an old zum and two push-pulls that i have switched pickups around on to experiment . i've always left the capacitors in place on the original steel. what exactly do they do and what would happen if one were just not there?
obviously i'm electronically challenged.
one of my emmons' had a coil tap on the pickups. would the capacitor be different for this steel?
i took the pickups from the best sounding emmons and put them on the zum. they sound wonderful. i didn't change the cap so it's an emmons pickup through a zum cap.
any info? |
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John Groover McDuffie
From:
LA California, USA
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Posted 24 Aug 2013 9:23 am
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My guess would be that they used the same capacitor on the steel with the coil tap. I would also guess that the Zum has a similar value cap as the Emmons, but these are only guesses.
In any case the caps have no effect when the tone control is bypassed with the switch, it's as if it wasn't there at all. If the tone control is engaged but not turned down at all the capacitor will have very little effect also; any difference in cap values won't make much difference in sound unless you are actually turning the tone knob down. |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 24 Aug 2013 11:01 am
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| thanks john. then any concern about caps is moot. i've probably easily spent 95% of my playing career bypassing the tone control. so if any smart know it all tells me 'ya gotta have that green cap'...that's a buncha bull..obviously. |
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Brint Hannay
From:
Maryland, USA
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Posted 24 Aug 2013 11:34 am
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| Different guitar and pickups, of course, but my Super Pro came with a .05 on the tone control, and I felt it rolled off too much and replaced it with a .02. I use the tone control most of the time, sometimes turned all the way "up", which still has a mild effect because the pot resistance doesn't fully block the capacitor's path to ground. Personal preference. |
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Ken Metcalf
From:
San Antonio Texas USA
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Posted 28 Aug 2013 8:37 am
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I am looking for a more gradual taper on the tone
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Little Walter PF-89.
Bunch of stomp boxes |
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