Can I put a cap in series with a pickup?

[gulliver]

The short story...
In series, to roll off a little bass. If so, what rating?



The long story...
I installed a Fralin P92 in my PRS CE24, but it doesn't have a coil tap so I completely lost the center position on the 5-way switch. I found two leads on the 5-ways switch's board, where I can solder a jumper and get the neck pickup in the middle position (in addition to the original position). But, I don't need two neck positions on the switch, so I want to replace the jumper with a cap. I'm hoping to get a slightly different tone, maybe roll odd some bass for that center position. The original neck position will not be effected. If so, what cap rating should I use?

[gulliver]

Anyone?

[treeofpain]

In theory yes. You'll want to experiment with different values to get the right sound you are looking for, but it seems like a cool idea.

[Keyser Soze]

Yes. Sort of.

But it will have to be fairly high value to only block the bass.

Think of it this way, capacitors block all DC voltage (below their voltage rating, above that they fail.) They also block AC voltage, but the blockage is frequency dependent. Once the frequency rises above a certain value the signal will pass.

So, if the cap value you select is not large enough you will be blocking highs/mids as well as bass. You will need to experiment yourself in order to achieve your desired sound.

Also, due to the limited selection of actual capacitor values you may even have to mix a few caps in order to achieve the specific value required. Just remember that caps in series reduce the total capacitance while caps in parallel are additive.

Coupling capacitors in amplifiers are typically 0.02 uf and are intended to block DC voltages while allowing the full guitar signal to pass. Start there and play around.

As a more tried and tested alternative you could wire up a Varitone (or similar) type of tone control to that switch option.

[treeofpain]

Or wire in a passive high pass filter.

[gulliver]

Thanks!!! ... I'll start there and mess with it.

[Austinrocks]

might be easier to get an external high pass cap, like this

http://www.audioc.com/accessories1/misc/hipass.htm

I use them on my home theater and they should work with a guitar as well.

[gulliver]

might be easier to get an external high pass cap, like this

http://www.audioc.com/accessories1/misc/hipass.htm

I use them on my home theater and they should work with a guitar as well.

Soldering in a cheap cap is better for me, but it's interesting how these are using 200mf caps. I'm eyeing this cap sub box to help decide the rating...

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/80-1190

[Chris Rice]

Try a .0022 cap. You can wire a variable resistor (preferably 1 meg reverse audio taper) across the cap to control how much bass-suck you want.