Pots problem...

[jibidy]

I have got an Epi SG with Lt. Emeralds in it and when i first started playing i found the bridge pup was way to dark sounding! so i simlpy took the capaciter out of the circuit replacing it with just a short piece of wire.
This opened up the sound nicely,  I really like their sound now, however now my pot does not work like a tone pot but instead like some wierd volume pot that only does half volume attenuation. I would like to keep my sound how it is but with a tone pot!

So my question is, do i have to have a capaciter there for the pot to be a tone pot or have i just done something stoopid? Can it be done so it doesnt ruin my beautiful highs?

Cheers

[Philly Q]

I'm not sure what your modification has done, but you do need a capacitor for the pot to work as a tone control.

You could put in a lower-value cap so the tone control doesn't roll off the highs so much, but if the basic problem is that the guitar's too dark with the tone on 10, that won't really help.

If you want a tone control, but you also want the pickup to be generally brighter, you could try replacing the 500K volume pot with a 1Meg.

[f.sardis]

are you sure he needs to change the volume pot to 1M? i think it is actually the tone pot that needs to be 1M since that is the one attached to the capacitors which is what changes the tone. larger value volume pot will let more signal through and make it louder through the amp. at least that's what i understand but I have never experimented with different volume pots.

[Twinfan]

Philly is right.  A higher value volume pot isn't louder, it's just brighter  :)

[sgmypod]

maybe a .022 cap..instead of the 047 will be better as well...the bridge shouldn't sound dark

[Philly Q]

maybe a .022 cap..instead of the 047 will be better as well...the bridge shouldn't sound dark

Yeah, but that's only relevant when the tone control is rolled down.  If it's on 10 the effect is negligible (unless you're Eric Johnson).

[FELINEGUITARS]

You've turned the tone pot into a second volume control with that bit of wire
Try a 0.022 UF cap and try a better quality one - an orange drop would be pretty cheap and still do a good job

[f.sardis]

sorry for the mild hijack but it is still on topic.
what is the difference between paper in oil and ceramic capacitors? more importantly which one do I want for a set of PK and a set of MM?
do we know what brands are the caps at the BKP store?

[PhilKing]

Paper in oil are the older traditional capacitors, the ceramics are newer.  In tems of tone, the paper in oil are mellower IMHO.  They always seem a little smother (even when the capacitor is an orange drop).  That said, I would use paper in oil for vintage sounding pickups.  With a PK and MM set, I would use the orange drops.

[f.sardis]

thanks Phil,
What brand are the ceramic caps in the BKP store? It does not specify and it does not specify the vitamin Q brand either.

[jibidy]

cool lots of replies cheers guys!

Im not actually sure what value the cap was. I took that diagram from the seymour duncan website. It was a stock epiphone SG cap, It was orange and cylindrical. Its weird because I thought the BKP's would be brighter.

[sgmypod]

They should be bright...they were in guitar I had them in

[jibidy]

they are bright now but when i had the caps in they were annoyingly dark. I'll try a small value cap!