Help determining capacitor values

[mywhitenoise]

I bought a handpicked wiring kit for a Jaguar, but I think they may have sent me the wrong capacitors. I received two very small ceramic caps (has the marking "103M" on it) that are supposed to be .01uf for the CTS 1 meg potentiometers in the main control section, but they are way smaller than the diameter of the pots and don't look like the ones pictured in Jaguar build images. Then I received one large Orange Drop cap (marking says "SBE716P600V 332J 1240") that's supposed to be for the switch control plate (.003uf), but it looks a little bigger than it should be. Did I get the wrong caps, can someone tell me what the markings mean?

[hpr_hpr]

OK
the 103M & 332J are the capacitance values so they are the IMPORTANT numbers, the 600V on the orange drop is almost certainly the Max rated voltage and the SBE716P the model, 716P being the series, and I think SBE indicates the manufacturer . . .

So on to the important part . . .
The letter indicates the tolerate of the capacitance; M and J stand for 20 & 5% respectively so on a 0.01 uf a 20% tolerance means that it's rated capacitance is between 0.008 & 0.012 uf (0.002 being 20% of 0.01).

The number is in 2 parts, the first two digits are the multiplier and the last is the magnitude and the final value is in pf.

So 103 indicates 10 x 10^3 pf = 10 x 1000 pf = 10,000 pf = 10 nf = 0.01 uf
Similarly 332 indicates 33 x 10^2 pf = 33 x 100 pf = 3300 pf = 3.3 nf = 0.0033 uf

By the markings they sent you the right items, ceramic caps ARE very small (and vary in appearance depending on manufacturer and series), the reason being the very thin gap insulator (the thinner the gap the larger the capacitance for a given surface area of the plates if I remember correctly). The reason the orange drop is so large is because they sent you a 600V rated item . . . not a problem for your application (as long as the voltage applied is under the maximum voltage for a capacitor you are OK) BUT the larger the max voltage, the thicker the insulator between the plates needed AND because of the larger gap, the larger the plates would need to be and thus the larger the final item . . . this is why a 125V rated cap is smaller than the 600V cap for the same capacitance and given that you're never going to be even generating 125V in a guitar, more appropriate because space is frequently at a premium.

[mywhitenoise]

Thanks so much for clearing that up. Would you suggest replacing the .01 ceramic caps with Orange Drops as well, or should the ceramics be comparable?

[timtam]

Thanks so much for clearing that up. Would you suggest replacing the .01 ceramic caps with Orange Drops as well, or should the ceramics be comparable?

Ceramics are fine. Capacitors with cool names are one of the easier ways of separating naive guitarists from their money. Of course they need to be big, and ideally cool looking too - that makes them work better. And if you connect them with cloth-covered vintage-looking wire they work even better again. It's all about tone - that cloth makes a big difference. I think 25 UK pounds is the most expensive capacitor I have seen from a guitar shop. And Fender sells treble bleed circuits with one cap and one resistor for US$40 - the components are worth less than a dollar and take less than a minute to solder together.

[mywhitenoise]

So true how many of us value aesthetics over actual tone and functionality.

[hpr_hpr]

duplicate post deleted

[hpr_hpr]

So True, although there IS at least an electrical difference between thin film and ceramic caps, it has to do with the size of the plates . . . OK forgive the lack of scientific electrical engineering jargon in the following . . . . at least from a physics point of view the larger the plate size the longer a capacitor takes to 'load' with charge (now this difference is probably measured in micro seconds or less) as such the EXACT electrical properties of a ceramic and an thin film capacitor of the same capacitance are different due to the larger plate size of the thin film resistor (the gap between the plates being larger it needs larger plates for the same capacitance). In addition, the exact composition of the plate material differs between thin film and ceramic capacitors which also probably has an effect on the electrical properties (differing resistance and all that) . . . SO . . . yes there ARE differences between different capacitors even at the same capacitance value (which probably matter in finicky applications such as oscillators) . . . the question is if a human ear can actually 'hear' these . . . . never mind if it matters after the signal goes through an noise gate, boost, fuzz, delay and whatever other pedals before it reaches an overdriven amplifier . . .

I'm not sure I can heat the difference between an $25 paper in oil NOS whatever and a $1.5 orange drop thin film capacitor on a nice clean signal . . . . . .

Oh and there is an advantage to the cloth covered push back wire no stripping needed before soldering . . . on the flip side, it's bulkier.

[timtam]

So True, although there IS at least an electrical difference between thin film and ceramic caps, it has to do with the size of the plates . . . OK forgive the lack of scientific electrical engineering jargon in the following . . . . . . . the question is if a human ear can actually 'hear' these . . . . never mind if it matters after the signal goes through an noise gate, boost, fuzz, delay and whatever other pedals before it reaches an overdriven amplifier . . .
I'm not sure I can heat the difference between an $25 paper in oil NOS whatever and a $1.5 orange drop thin film capacitor on a nice clean signal . . . . . .

Agreed. And let me also inject some jargon then. Unless the different types of capacitors affect the pass band performance (eg ripple) or roll-off of the high pass filter (eg treble bleed) or low pass filter (eg tone control) that they are part of, there is no way for them to affect tone. And those things are far and away a function of circuit design (eg which type of treble bleed, capacitor / resistor / pot values, pickups), not capacitor type.

Also totally specious is the notion that capacitor cost / size / cool name / bright casing = "good" tone. If an expensive capacitor were to affect the musical 'signal' differently to a cheap one of the same rated capacitance (as unlikely as that is), it would be just as likely to affect it in a 'bad' way as a 'good' way. While people refer to "vintage tone", the chances that any of that is due to capacitor type is essentially zero. When vintage instruments were built, the capacitors were most likely chosen because they were the easiest to get / cheapest. Other than perhaps pickups (?), guitar electronics are not complex - it doesn't take much to do the best possible job. It's only now that some 'vintage-like' capacitors have become expensive, because they are harder to get, and naive people are willing to pay for them. AFAIK none of the major electronics suppliers stock them, because engineers know that the cheaper ones (that major suppliers do stock) do the job for modern day electronics applications. There is no reason why guitars should be any different.

We are biased to perceive expensive components as 'better', simply because they are expensive. Vendors exploit that, plus naivety, plus a healthy dose of smoke and mirrors. Which is why only blinded tests are valid. For example, recent blind tests have shown that tone judgements change, away from the "conventional wisdom" as to which wood should produce better acoustic "tone" ... when the judges no longer know which guitar wood they are rating ...
https://sites.google.com/site/leonardog ... eport-lgrp