I must confess: I finally cut the cap

[badeggs]

Not that anyone would know or even care but I'm one of the few on here who votes pro-cap every thread, every time it comes up. I'm a stock type of guy and don't like to mod things, and always found that working the EQ on my amp would suffice for any perceived bass deficiency...plus one time I bought a 4001 off of eBay, it sounded a little boomy, so I opened it up and saw no cap and immediately slapped one in. Didn't even try it without, even when I had the chance...

But my band's currently doing a little EP at my home 'studio' and my bass amp is not in a good way, and recording direct + the cap was just making everything too thin. So out of desperation for more bass I cut (well, bridged) the cap in my '71 Burgundy and I'm glad I did. I was always afraid I would lose the crunch but that was obviously foolish on my part. It sounds meaner than it ever did. It's Captain Crunch now...

I've seen the light...many thanks to those who've suggested this (you know who you are)!

[paologregorio]

Congratulations!

[Grey]

I cut the one in my guitar but I should have just bridged it. I wanted to make sure that the cap was not influencing the sound in any way.

[Seans]

I cut the cap on an RM , it just made a very very fine sounding piece of wood sound even better, eq the treble with hardly any bass in the bridge pup and it still has some soul in there very happy.

[chefothefuture]

All of my 71's have had a cap-ectomy! Nasty little buggers! (The caps, not the basses!!!)

[sloop_john_b]

'bout time!

[teeder]

I will probably by-pass the cap on my RM too.

[cassius987]

Ah, but who here has tried a bigger cap value instead of bridging the cap? Same effect of getting more bass, but the phase change remains so you don't get "the Jazz Bass effect" of comb filtering frequencies at equal volumes. I still need to get around to trying it myself honestly. Maybe the 4003/5.

[Seans]

Ah, but who here has tried a bigger cap value instead of bridging the cap? Same effect of getting more bass, but the phase change remains so you don't get "the Jazz Bass effect" of comb filtering frequencies at equal volumes. I still need to get around to trying it myself honestly. Maybe the 4003/5.

Interesting, what value has been tried?. Although would the JB effect not happen with Ric o sound, which for me is the only way I plug in anyway.

[admin]

Jeff I quite agree that sometimes life works better when we cut the cap.

[cassius987]

Ah, but who here has tried a bigger cap value instead of bridging the cap? Same effect of getting more bass, but the phase change remains so you don't get "the Jazz Bass effect" of comb filtering frequencies at equal volumes. I still need to get around to trying it myself honestly. Maybe the 4003/5.

Interesting, what value has been tried?. Although would the JB effect not happen with Ric o sound, which for me is the only way I plug in anyway.

Yeah, ROS gets rid of the JB effect as well by keeping the pickups from "chatting". The cap value would need to be 0.047-0.1 µF or so to preserve the majority of the signal.

[cjj]

Ah, but who here has tried a bigger cap value instead of bridging the cap? Same effect of getting more bass, but the phase change remains so you don't get "the Jazz Bass effect" of comb filtering frequencies at equal volumes. I still need to get around to trying it myself honestly. Maybe the 4003/5.

Interesting, what value has been tried?. Although would the JB effect not happen with Ric o sound, which for me is the only way I plug in anyway.

No, in general, comb filtering will not happen with Rick-O-Sound. It can still happen to some extent even if the pickups go to separate amps and even separate speakers - it happens in the air as the sound waves propagate. But, in general, there are so many differences with separate amps that you don't get the heavy filtering effect of combining pickups directly.

Comb filtering is simply the adding or cancelling of like signals when they combine. For example, if one pickup puts out +1 volt at the same time the other puts out -1 volt, they cancel and you get 0 volts. If the pickups were putting out the exact same signal, but opposite polarity (phase), you would get no sound at all. Now, in reality, it's WAY more complicated since it depends on the actual frequency, harmonics, levels, and phase of the signals.

Placing a cap in series with one pickup will shift its signal's phase by approximately 90 degrees (this varies a bit with frequency too). This changes the way the signals will combine so that you will not get the same sort of filtering. Note that it does not eliminate it. If the two pickups put out the same +1 & -1 as before, shifting one by 90 degrees will change it to being half way between +1 & -1 and so, 0 volts. Adding +1 to 0 gives +1 instead of 0. If they were both +1, instead of adding to 2, one would again be 0 so you only get 1. Filtering still happens, but differently.

The other thing the in-line cap does is block low frequencies. The frequency where this happens depends on the cap value. A small cap will start blocking at higher frequencies than a big cap. So changing to a larger value will change the amount of low frequencies get to the amp, even in Rick-O-Sound setups...

[wim]

Very courageous to come out like that.
Now, place that cap in line with the neck pu, and a whole new world will open up to you.

[badeggs]

Aw come on, guys! All I hear is "cut it" for years and I finally do it, and now you tell me about comb-filtering and moving the cap to the other pickup...what the hell!? I'm lost all over again...

No more soldering, I'm not opening it up again anytime soon!

[ilan]

'bout time!

+1