Popped open my Jem earlier....

[Music&Chaos]

Decided to mess around with my 7Dbk.

The sound was just too mid forward - almost like a wah pedal engaged all the time. Thought "Do I need to swap these pickups?" - then something else came to mind - "How is this wired up??"

Looked under the hood and found that they had a treble bleed installed, along with a .0047 cap. No wonder I keep getting that 'wah' sound......

Snipped out the treble bleed immediately. I have tried them in 3 or 4 completely different guitars, and they all add a character to the sound I do not like;

A 7 String Sterling (current profile pic), a strat or two, and a Jem.

Took it out of all of them immediately.

I went ahead and swapped out the cheap chiclet style .047 with a K40Y-9 .022 I had lying around.

Talk about opening up the sound! Way happier with the tones this is producing now, so will leave the rest as is for the time being.

It's funny how many guitars I have tweaked the sound to my liking with just swapping wiring style, pots and/or caps.

I do not get why they stock any humbucker equipped guitar with .047 caps to be honest - but to each his own.

 

[Brain Becker]

I tried a .047 in a guitar years ago and I much preferred the .022 myself.

 

[Music&Chaos]

I tried a .047 in a guitar years ago and I much preferred the .022 myself.

I also dig a .015 in the neck of a LP.

Have a .033 in my S/H tele.

Some guitars have no caps.

Playing with cap values and types can be fun. Pretty easy to do if you have some alligator clips to jump between caps, though I admittedly tend to just pop them in the actual circuit for testing myself.

 

[ChurchHill]

It really is amazing how much difference the tone cap makes, not just the value, but the composition. I've always found ceramic disk caps to be harsh and some of the cheaper polypropylene to sound, well, cheap. I've had better luck with polyester. To me, paper-in-oil sounds better but can be darker for the same value.

I'm with you on the treble bleeds, too. I get why some people like them, but for me, only Strat single coil bridges really benefit, and I still don't like what they do to the sound. For me, '50s wiring solves the issue for the most part and the rest is just the nature of the beast.

 

[Music&Chaos]

It really is amazing how much difference the tone cap makes, not just the value, but the composition. I've always found ceramic disk caps to be harsh and some of the cheaper polypropylene to sound, well, cheap. I've had better luck with polyester. To me, paper-in-oil sounds better but can be darker for the same value.

I'm with you on the treble bleeds, too. I get why some people like them, but for me, only Strat single coil bridges really benefit, and I still don't like what they do to the sound. For me, '50s wiring solves the issue for the most part and the rest is just the nature of the beast.

Agreed! Wild how much 50s wiring opens things up. Much more 'lively' in the mids.