After I took the time to learn about what I was putting together and how these components are all working with each other (or against in most cases), I had a flood of new questions and theories to find answers for and felt like I was ready to start taking on some more ambitious modifications. That’s most definitely a question for a potentiometer article though, because it’s going to require a complete breakdown of the pot mechanism as well.Įlectricity is confusing sometimes, and it took me some time to go out of the way to research all of this stuff – before that, I would just work off of diagrams knowing A + B = C without any deeper understanding. Why does putting a potentiometer right in front of the capacitor only affect the tone instead of the volume? Good question, me.
A higher capacitance value gives a darker tone because a wider range of high frequencies is allowed to escape. The highs and the lows enter the resistor attempting to pass through to the ground circuit – the lows get stopped in the cap and turned away while the highs just skim right past to ground. If not, then maybe it’d be helpful to think of it as a resistor that only resists lower frequency ranges. That’s the gist of it! And if we return to the definition about electricity being stored and released, we can picture this happening in the correct sequence with perfect clarity (I hope). Stick a potentiometer just in front of the capacitor in the circuit and turn it up – you are increasing the range of higher frequencies allowed to escape through to the ground.
This is where things get slightly complicated: capacitors are actually meant to divert lower frequencies, which is the opposite of what we actually see happening in the diagram – and of what we know happens when you roll your tone knob around.Īll of the frequencies are originally attracted to the path of least resistance, but since the capacitor is holding on to the bass frequencies, they actually pass back into the hot circuit (through the same leg they came in) while the high frequencies are allowed to escape out the ground. Note that the bass frequencies are ignoring the law of electricity taking the path of least resistance (to the ground).
The capacitor is selectively drawing out the higher frequencies and leaving the lower frequencies untouched to carry along down the line. The capacitor provides a route to the ground, but only higher frequencies will be able to pass through – the rest will continue to the output.
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