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Electronic component values

I am new to CBG but am fascinated by the possibilities. This website and the CBGitty website are fantastic resources. I will be using pickups of some type and configuration on every CBG I build. The circuit diagrams by Ted Crocker are extremely helpful and understandable. The problem is: I do not know what values to use for the volume pot, the tone pot, and the capacitor,i.e. 500K or 1M ohm for volume control, 10K for tone? what for capacitor? Do these values depend on whether I am using a disc piezo or rod piezo or mag pup? Do the values change if I use two piezos (i.e. 2 discs in either parallel or series or a rod and disc in either parallel or series? While the standard answer might be to choose from CBGitty using their general guidelines and then experiment to see what sounds best, it would be very helpful to get some guidance from experienced builders to shorten my learning curve. Thanks for your help.

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Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on February 9, 2013 at 10:08am

yes 250k single coils and 500k humbuckers, cap values I use old russian paper in oil caps that are amde as they were in the 50's so oil soaked paper and foil in a wrap.

values

250k tone pots - 0.1 (strat)or 0.047 (tele)

500k tone pots - 0.022 os your vintage gibson les paul tone cap, but a 0.033 can be used or a 0.015 for warmer tone

Generally the higher the value ie 0.1 is higher than 0.022 the more high frequency goes through. For warm smooth tone

a humbucker with a 0.022 or 0.015 works a treat.

However i have had people use my 0.047 pio cap with a les paul to good effect.

My choice is a neck pickup 0.015 and bridge pickup a 0.033 or 0.047 value

The cap allows the signal to go to ground and sends the relevant frequency to ground the more you turn the tone pot

Logarithm tone post are best for tone and linear for volume, CTS tone pots work very well the big ones soudn best.

You can also get no load volume pots that allow the pickups direct to jack when on full volume.

These can be good too but cost a bit more.

I have played with most caps as was curious and sell them on ebay. I find the vintage russian ones are the best but some people also like orange drops.

Note they only do something when you turn the tone nob to warm up the sound or filter off the high frequencies.

This is only what I have learnt from books and experimenting lots, so it may not be gospel but I have had great feedback from people on the web. For example a modern gibson les paul has 300k tone pots change these for CTS 500k one and a 0.022 and you will have a guitar that sounds like the more expesnive limited reissue one.. and that is essentialy the difference

Regarding Pickups, this is a mindfield there is a dark art here from windings to magnetic forces

and resistance values. But for a cbg I would say a firebird pickup for distortion, or a 4 string bass and piezo for clean, or just buy a flat pup as they sound great neat to the jack so you can foget all about this whole conversation.

Hope this helps

Also google cocked wah tone cap or split capactitors on one tone pot., I aslo like the original idea behind a broadcaster set up that the tone pot mixxed between the front and back pickup... a great idea but we dont seem to do this anymore..

Good luck

Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on February 10, 2013 at 7:31am

Hey Gene, If yer overwhelmed by all this info & are confused wich way to go,as most people are in the beginning,just go over to Ted Crocker's Site & buy one of his pickups, complete with Pots/Jacks ready

to mount in a CBG.And then you can study how they're put together?

Happy Strummin'

Permalink Reply by Jonesy on February 23, 2013 at 11:55pm

Could I ask, is the point of having two piezos that they are spaced out on different parts of the guitar in order to give variable tone? Or are they supposed to be attached close to each other?

Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on February 24, 2013 at 6:12pm

Yes U can get variable tone by spacing them out, but most people glue them together w/ a glue gun & place them near the bass side of da bridge(dat's da sweet spot) 2 piezos will give U louder output though.