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2 years, 11 months ago about Fender Stratocaster

How does a Capacitor affect a Potentiometer's tone. I plan to do a Greasebucket Tone control using a 500k Pot.

Fender stock capacitor values for the Greasebucket Tone control are:

Capacitor, Ceramic Disk 1uF, 50V
Capacitor, Ceramic Disk .02uf, 50V
Resistor Metal Film 4.7k Ohm, 1/4 watt

Do I need to change the cap values to suit a 500k pot?

My Fender MIJ Fat Strat. In stock form has Master Volume 500k and Master Tone 500k 1H223K green mylar capacitor .022uF, 50V.
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wdawe | 2 years, 11 months ago
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Theoretically yes if you want it to sound like the original Greasebucket tone control but practically it may not matter. Ceramic disk capacitors are notoriously for their poor tolerances so it's probably "good enough for rock and roll" :-)

If you are really interested your best option would be to model the circuit using pSpice which you can get for free here at the linear technology website. They offer SwitcherCAD as a free download which is a front end for pSPICE. Native pSPICE has a steep learning curve.

Check the sources for more info.

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wdawe | 2 years, 10 months ago Report

Sorry, I thought I gave you enough info to do the math yourself. Here it is. The exact values are half of 0.1uf which is 0.05 uf which is usually expressed as 50 nF but caps don't come in exact tens so 0.047uF or 47 nF is probably the closest value. 0.02 uF halved 0.01 uF or 10 nF. Double 4.7K is 9.4K but that's an off value, 9.1K is probably the closest. Capacitor and resistor math isn't that hard, good luck.

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imadrid | 2 years, 10 months ago Report

@wdawe

No need for a drawn schematics. I can figure out where to solder the caps. I guess it would be on the same place as it was intended with new values. If I understood it correctly.

I just need the value of the new cap values for a 500k pot.

Potentiometer 250k -> Potentiometer 500k
Capacitor, Ceramic Disk .1uF, 50V ->
Capacitor, Ceramic Disk .02uf, 50V ->
Resistor Metal Film 4.7k Ohm, 1/4 watt ->

wdawe's Avatar
wdawe | 2 years, 10 months ago Report

Let's see thumb up, based on my idea of what the schematic might look like, halve the values of the caps and double the value of the resistor. Full network analysis and schematic drawing is too taxing for my old brain.

imadrid's Avatar
imadrid | 2 years, 11 months ago Report

pSpice is such an intimidating app to use. I'm an electronics noob. If you (or anyone) could please convert that Capacitor Values. I would greatly appreciate it.

Fender Wiring PDF's

Highway 1 Stratocaster
Wiring: http://www.fender.com/support/diagrams/pdf_temp1/stratocaster/0111120_22A/SD0111120_22APg2.pdf
Parts List: http://www.fender.com/support/diagrams/pdf_temp1/stratocaster/0111120_22A/SD0111120_22APg3.pdf

Highway 1 Telecaster
Wirings: http://www.fender.com/support/diagrams/pdf_temp1/telecaster/0111200_02A/SD0111200_02APg2.pdf
Parts Legend: http://www.fender.com/support/diagrams/pdf_temp1/telecaster/0111200_02A/SD0111200_02APg3.pdf

The Highway 1 Tele has similar Master Volume & Tone. But it came with a 250k pot just like the Strat. So I really can't just copy that.

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