A cap lets the tone control roll off the treble response progressively warming the tone.
Les paul tone caps.
Upgrading your les paul can be as simple as changing out a few tone caps or a full re wire job.
For our purposes those are three common slang terms for types of tone capacitors the tiny but potent sound coloring electronic devices that store energy in the electric field between conductors within the body of your guitar.
No matter how small of a change.
This can be one of the best changes you can make.
Vintage les paul enthusiasts can get pretty obsessive about tone capacitors and serious money changes hands for original and sometimes not so original bumble bees.
Give your les paul the vintage tone of a 59 burst this seems to be the most sought after tone for a les paul and it s not that difficult to make your own les paul sound like that.
These were the sprague manufactured capacitors gibson used during the late 50s.
You can also find these caps inside late fifties les pauls and other guitars from that era and they are definitely the most famous tone caps.
Normally the caps that come in your guitar are not the best.
Premium wiring kit for gibson les paul.
Capacitors are energy storage devices that filter the high frequencies.
You will hear a difference.
The higher the value the more bass output from the tone control at its zero setting.
These wirings are often discussed in the context of a les paul but the schemes apply to any guitar with a volume and tone control whether it s a master volume plus master tone configuration as with a telecaster or a guitar with individual volume and tone controls for each pickup such as a les paul es 335 sg and so on.
But don t forget.
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The bumblebee caps are very similar to the black beauties and the origin of the nickname is pretty easy to see.