Deep Dive - Results of using capacitors to clean up muddy pickups

In this video, I show the results of using various capacitors to clean up the muddy neck pickup on one of my PRS SE Custom 24s. It is one of the more involved pickup mods (if you can call it that), but I was curious to see for myself the difference each one made across a broad range of values.
Calculator used for finding frequency: www.learningaboutelectronics.c...
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[@johnhummer1064]

Be sure to check out our growing range of pickups from JF Hummer Pickups at jfhummerpickups.com

[@UtoyOnWheels]

Best video I saw demonstrating this. Easier to comprehend and practical application

[@sanderblom]

Thanks for taking the time to do all these demos! I've been experimenting with capacitors in line on a simple switch, as an effect. Kinda neat.

[@musicsurfandrats]

I'm surprised that this is actually very rarely done if ever. It isnt huge but it certainly helps.

[@SergeiVlassov]

Great video, thanks! Just wanted to note, that 60 Hz and below are not related to muddiness, it makes the sound "too big", "boomy", "overwhelming". Muddy tone, that steals clarity, lives in low mid, in vicinity of 200 Hz. If you normalize "no cap" and 47 cap graphs at 3 kHz you will see that cap cuts around 4 db at 100 Hz, couple of dB at 200 Hz, and then less and less until "no cut" at 3 kHz. This cut above 100 Hz is responsible for less muddy tone, and also explains why it is not super efficient if pickup is too muddy. But if go lower in cup values, we loose too much of the signal lows (around 100 Hz), which leads to a more and more "castrated" tone, that may work very well in the mix though.

[@NickTsatsalmas]

Great analysis. I was looking to do the same and after lots of blogs this was after all the single source of info that helped

[@JohnnyRoxxlv]

I just did the .047 mod to the bridge pickup on my OLP MM1. Huge difference! Took away the mud completely. Thanks for the video! Saved me from buying Duncan JB

[@bradleyclosson5042]

Excellent video!

[@cferrarini]

I changed the 50s wiring of my SG and made a bass cut wiring. The humbuckers are wired to the 3 way button and then the tone pots are wired in series. One pot has 0.022uf for treble cut and the other 0.0015 for bass cut. But the bass cut is only relevant to the neck pickup. Ant the treble to the bridge.

[@philippgrunert8776]

Great idea! The signal was really clean

[@toddmayer6859]

Interesting video! I have an Epi Dot that was mud city. I had SD Antiquity HBs in it. I wound up replacing them with HB size P90s, and the guitar came to to life. The Antiquities were expensive. The HB size P90s cost about $30 .. .

[@daniellaudman8580]

I do 50's wiring with DiMarzio Custom Taper pots 15 cap in neck and adjust pickup height and screw height. I also use an alnico 5 mag. For neck pickup and ny xl strings

[@tomaspuente2457]

Superb video, thank you!

[@TorsteinJN]

Brilliant video. I want to try to reduce the treble for a bridge, I'll try the calculator.

[@marianoarnaiz]

I like this video man!

[@antoniorinaldi784]

Very well done

[@marcelbelanger4424]

Did you try lowering the E (and maybe the A) string polepiece?

[@tuonofly]

Hi John, Super Video...WoW What I didn’t understand how you soldered the condenser to the potentiometer. Could you explain to me? How?....Positive, grounding etc Thanks so much

[@kenvorland]

Cool video rock on

[@RichieSelmo]

@johnhummer1064 I made this modification and cheese very well. but tone pot becomes unusable, it acts as a volume

[@nickbrownUK]

Thanks for this...; I've subscribed to your excellent channel. I'm working on a 'Keith' Tele with PAF in neck and a single coil Tele bridge pickup. Can you clarify that I need to put a 'treble bleed Cap' across the volume pot and the Cap you have decribed aboove across the tone pot? Can you point me to a link with a wiring diagram? Thanks in anticipation and Hi from the UK!

[@ronzinale]

thank you! can you give us the wiring? Thanks!

[@Poparad]

I put a cap on a push-pull pot for one of my guitars with a bassy neck pickup. When I play solo, I like the extra bass, but when I play in a group, it's too much so I kick on the bass cut.

[@robertlevasseur8896]

no cap sounds best, which is exactly what I noticed on my lp

[@daveylee4677]

The .0047 cap sounds like a good fix for my custom HSH project. The neck H pup is muddy and tends to overpower the middle single coil pup. All 3 pups are independent wired with treble bleeds on the vol pots for neck and middle. The cap should not only remove the low freqs but also come closer to the single coil’s output to make for better blending. I will edit this comment in the near future to share the result. Edit : 3/6/24 - tried it and the result was not what I had hoped. Every time you add a Component to your circuit you put another filter in the line. Best tone would be from pickup direct to output. Boring! But keep trying! Daveylee out

[@Αδιάφθορος]

😢?

[@jasujokelainen5073]

What If I just snap the capacitor out? Can I play guitar without? And is there some pros on that? Thank you!

[@rebeccaabraham8652]

Fascinating… it’s something I might have experimented with many decades ago, with my first guitar. The only thing I’ll suggest here though is that - to my ears - it’s making the sound thin and ‘brittle’… and is defeating the purpose of the neck pickup. I wouldn’t play those ‘cleaned-up’ tones for blues or jazz… just my taste.

[@ronengel4586]

Looks like the same idea as a bass cut switch in a Jaguar

[@Johnmannish]

Where can i put a capacitor if i only have a volume and a switch (no tone control)? and what type of capacitor to tame a little bit of high end harsh? thanks

[@Bhlokvva]

Right after the pickup, in series.

[@WoodyofTulsa]

Would using and EQ be easier?

[@Bhlokvva]

No. It's better to have this right in the guitar.

[@streamofconsciousness5826]

I think the first one was enough, it starts getting too quiet. I would hook it up to a switch and have it selectable, even a Rotary with three or four of them. .003426uf sounds the best, it retains the body while losing the low.

[@mctwistx1248]

ive used a 2.2nf and the tone pot became a volume pot is this normal

[@GCKelloch]

Not if it's wired correctly. The cap, tone pot and pickup should all be in series. BTW, engineers use this type of notation for values like that to eliminate misreading values: 2n2F.

[@gitarbangsatchanel8036]

Try this mod on neck PU.. but not good at both position neck&bridge

[@lucienlai7822]

cool

[@nicolasaraistrujak208]

it sounds more and more like Im increasing the tone knob in my overdrive pedal

[@monstrord]

John, the information of the resistance entered in the calculator is right? I know that is the pot value, but 500k is at minimum volume, when you playing the pot resistence is almost zero and we have check the circuit resistance to get the number. I think the grounded pot lug doesnt matter for this case, or maybe I could be wrong.

[@Ottophil]

You’re backwards. Full resistance when playing. Hot gets ground when volume knob is rolled off, resistsance drops

[@GCKelloch]

It does matter. The value to use in the calc would be 250k if the outer lug of two 500k pots are grounded.

[@bbender1975]

I don’t get it. In line from the hot lead to the tone control? The hot lead goes to the switch. I like the idea and bought a .0047 cap, but I have hit a pain point here. Do I solder the cap in between the lead and the switch?

[@JamesJensen01]

Yes, his instruction is not the easiest or best fix. To clean up a muddy pickup it's easiest to solder the capacitor in line from the hot of the pickup to wherever it would normally go (usually a switch).

[@dangitdan9938]

The hot lead goes to the volume pot. You can wire a resistor to the end of the hot lead the solder the resistor to the volume pot where the lead should go. The resistor reduces the frequency before it gets to the potentiometer. There’s videos on KZbin. Search muddy pickup and look around. It’s a way nicer fix tone wise.

[@monstrord]

@@dangitdan9938 Hey man, did you say to use the resistor in series like the capacitor? Also, with a resistor in series wouldn't you decrease a lot the output gain of this pickup?

[@dangitdan9938]

@@monstrord not as far as I can tell. There’s videos that explain it better than I can. I had a muddy neck pickup and I used a resistor instead of a capacitor and solved the problem with no loss of volume and if there was I didn’t notice.

[@dangitdan9938]

@@monstrord I think what it does is a partial split of the humbucker like PRas does. Probably lose a little volume but it clears it up well. I think I just compensated by raising my pickup height. Probably better off using a capacitor, less f’ing around. Lol.

[@seerattan]

I think the correct cap is .047, not .0047. Or just try 50s wiring.

[@mctwistx1248]

.0047 uf equals 4.7pf

[@zbyszekolko3998]

No. 4.7nF