After much deliberation, experimentation, determination, and the inevitable procrastination and distraction… I’ve finally completed this comparison of tone capacitor material types and capacitance values.  In part 1, I’ll evaluate a bunch of different dialectric material types to see how they change the character of the sound.  In part 2, I’ll cover how different capacitance values affect the range and usefulness of the tone pot.

First, I built this Tone Thing   It’s a piece of cardboard on which I mounted 7 different capacitor material types, and 7 Orange Drops of different capacitance values, and one Bourns 500k audio taper pot.  This is connected up with alligator clips to my Epiphone Riviera P93, in parallel with the signal at the output jack (the same place as the master tone in a regular guitar circuit).

The caps in this corner are all .022uF of different dialetric material types.    Pictured left to right: Orange Drop 225P 100V (polypropylene), Mallory 150 series (metallized polyester film), Russian K-409 PIO (paper in oil), mystery vintage yellow cylinder (possibly paper in wax), the original Epi tone cap (probably mylar polyester film), mystery vintage gray cylinder (possibly paper in oil), and a vintage tropical fish (polyester film).  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a .022uF tropical fish – this one is a .033uF.  It will have a slightly different cutoff frequency, so it’s not quite all apples and apples, but I wanted to include it here anyway because it does have an interestingly different sound to it.

For each material type, I play at 4 knob positions: 10, 7, 5 and 1 (measured on the multimeter at 499k, 238k, 41k and 3k ohms).   For the examples, I wanted to keep each part short and simple – not too melodic or difficult, both to avoid distraction in comparing, but also to try with my limited playing skills to be as consistent as possible between each take.  By the end of this video, you will be very sick of the three little phrases I play 28 times each in the video!

Stay tuned for part 2, covering all the Orange Drops at different capacitance values, and the exciting conclusion

p.s. Thanks Jack for sending the PIO!

Some day I’d like to build an all-wood enclosure for my amp.  These beautiful cabinets from Matchless, Fuchs, and Mesa/Boogie are really inspiring.  Check out the nicely figured hardwoods and dovetailed joinery.  Those Matchless speaker grills are really cool too.

These amps are not standard production models, but can be built custom at Mesa/Boogie (and possibly at Matchless too?)

The Fuchs Overdrive Supreme is a 10th anniversary limited model, with only 10 being made.

Manufacturers:

http://www.matchlessamplifiers.com/

http://www.fuchsaudiotechnology.com/

http://www.mesaboogie.com/

Marc at The Wood Whisperer has posted the final part in the video series Birth of a Guitar, documenting Rick Urschel’s classical guitar project.   If you’ve been watching, part 2 ended on a cliffhanger, Rick having mistakenly glued on the fretboard before tapering it.  Disaster!  This video starts with Ricks laborious fix with Japanese saw, chisel, scraper and sandpaper.  Then Rick goes on to shaping the neck with a spokeshave, installing fret wire, and positioning the bridge.  The finish starts with pore-filling with pumice, then applying 5 coats of shellac and 5 coats of satin polyurethane.   Finally, Rick installs the nut, tuning machines, and uses a fancy vacuum press to glue down the bridge – how cool is that!?  You can also see Rick’s homemade walnut guitar stand.  

The final result is beautiful, and a testament to Rick’s persistence, patience and determination!  This really makes me appreciate how much effort goes into building a handmade guitar.  Even after all that effort, there’s some kind of “rogue” harmonic thing going on with the open G string that he was unable to figure out.  If you have any ideas, contact him!

Take a look:

In years past, Grizzly had an enormous booth at the NAMM trade show demonstrating all their power tools, table saws, planers, sanders, shapers, etc.   While they were absent this year, there was still plenty to excite and inspire.

For the aspiring luthier or woodworker, there’s nothing more appetizing than stacks of gorgeously figured exotic hardwoods. 

Here’s a few products from this year’s NAMM trade show that were surprising, unique, or just downright silly:

Manufacturers:

http://visionaryinstruments.com/

http://bulletproofguitars.com/

http://www.voyageairguitar.com/

http://www.lagguitars.com/

http://www.strumstick.com/

http://www.coffincase.com/

http://guitargrip.com/

http://dbzguitars.com/

http://www.rockettdrumworks.com/

http://www.hapitones.com/

At this year’s NAMM, Vox announced a series of new guitars.  These things look beautiful.  They’ll be available in April 2010, pricing TBA.

VOX Series 55 Specifications

• Scale Length: 638mm (25.125″)
• No. Of Frets: 22
• Nut Width: 43mm (1.7″)
• Bridge Pickup: Coaxe
• Neck Pickup: Coaxe
• Body: Mahogany
• Top: Ash or Maple (depending on finish)

I recorded a short demo of Freddy DeMarco playing the vintage cream SSC-55 single cutaway through a Vox AC-30 amp.  The pickups sound really versatile, the build quality feels superb, and the styling is understated and excellent.  Take a look:

When I met with the friendly CTS guys at the NAMM trade show, they talked up their new 450G series of guitar pots.    Compared with the EP086 pots I’m used to, these 450G pots have slightly lower torque when turning.  The CTS rep said this is due to less contact surface area on the underside of the pot, as you can see in this photo (EP086 on left, 450G on right).

Another of the primary goals of the new 450G pots is to address part numbering confusion.  The rep told me that EP086 is an AllParts number that CTS stamps onto the pot.  It’s really a series 450 pot made specially for AllParts, but there’s no cross reference back from EP086 to a CTS part number.   The rep told me that CTS builds guitar pots a bit differently than they do commercial/industrial pots, so they internally assign a different 450 part number, built special/custom for the ordering customer.  The customer (like AllParts, Mojo, DiMarzio, etc) can have their own part number (like EP086) stamped on the pots.   The new 450G series will hopefully help to standardize this part numbering, making it less confusing to the average guitar-geek like you and me

The datasheet doesn’t appear to be up on the CTS website yet, so I had the rep send it to me.  Here it is.

Aside from getting to see a bunch of cool instruments and musicians at the NAMM trade show, I also got to geek out at the electronic components booths!

My buddy was laughing at me while I grilled the CTS guys for details on their pot manufacturing, some of their new guitar pots (the 450G series, and the new enclosed precision pots), why they don’t make standard DPDT push/pull pots, and why all the different CTS distributers put their own part numbers on the components (no good answer – it’s like buying mattresses!)

Fun times visiting CTS, Bourns, AllParts , Gotoh, Alpha, and Electroswitch:

Manufacturers:

http://www.ctscorp.com/

http://www.bourns.com/

http://www.allparts.com/

http://www.sounds-planet.com/ww_gotoh.html

http://www.taiwanalpha.com/

http://www.electroswitch.com/

Some of the guitars I saw at this year’s NAMM trade show are true works of art.  Masterpieces of woodworking, incredibly fine detail, yes.  But, I must ask – have these instruments lost sight of their own musicality?  Do they sound any good?

I was afraid to (or not allowed to) play many of these, so I have to wonder.  I imagine that some of these do indeed triumph both as musical instruments and as works of art, but perhaps others will be better as pieces of furniture or wall art, rather than playing instruments…

Manufacturers:

http://www.minarikguitars.com/

http://www.lagguitars.com/

http://www.epiloglaser.com/

http://teye-guitars.com/

http://www.wynguitars.com/

http://fibenare.webzeppelin.hu/

http://dbzguitars.com/

I’ve seen and heard a number of demos of the beautiful lunchbox-style Vox Night Train amp head.  But none of them played through the new matching V112NT cabinet.   I finally got to hear it through the matching cab at the Vox booth at this year’s NAMM trade show.  I recorded a demo of Freddy DeMarco playing the Night Train with its matched cabinet.  Its an awesome combination.

It’s a single channel amp, but you can get a big range of sounds out of it.  I only wish there was some footswitching for the head to let you switch between clean and distorted.