A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

I completely wore out the volume pots in my GOAT 2006 AMI Les Paul. So I replaced all pots with Emerson CTS long-shaft A500K pots (pic below). Surprisingly, the tolerances were all within 1.2% of 500K - very well matched.

Emerson have been my potentiometer of choice for the past few years, for feel, taper, sound and durability.

In my vintage stash, I found a 1950's Sprague 'Black-Beauty' 0.022uF cap (same as the mylar-film bumble-bees, only no stripes)!

So I included it on the neck tone pot. I have a Mojotone Vitamin T 0.022uF oil-filled cap on the bridge tone. 200pF treble bleeds complete the ensemble.

I still think capacitors are a little bit 'snake oil.' But the guitar does sound clear and musical, still sounding defined when the tone is rolled down.

This is by far my favorite guitar as when considering playability and tone!

Anybody else have 'vintage caps' they like?

I'll use just about anything except a green red or yellow chicklet. Older the better. I have never tried the .022 bridge and .015 neck i have read about.

I used the ceramic disc type I had on hand for the 2 AXL builds I did, .022µf all humbuckers.
I didnt measure them for actual value / tolerance.

There are similar that came in my Gibson studio.
I dont think the type matters much, but have never done any head to head comparisons.
I'm not denying it might though.

I bought some old used spraque color ringed and non ringed caps on reverb. They were all over the place when I measured them with a fluke meter.
I had alligator clips hanging out from under the PG and tested all kinds.
Labelled their readings and use some in strats ( non were much lower than .05) I do like some mexican ceramic dime sized .10uf caps for strats.
I also like an inexpensive poi russian set .015/.022 that Art Of Tone shop sells.