Vintage guitar repair question (kay vanguard in question).

[Not Steve]

I'm replacing a broken capacitor in my Kay Vanguard and I don't know what kind I need. The broken capacitor doesn't seem to be the original capacitor, it has solder on it like someone tried to fix it (and did a horrid job of it). Here are some pics;











I looked at the capacitor listings in a Stewart McDonald catalog and it says that the different ratings are used for different things, and I'm not sure if this capacitor (which is around .1 microfarad) is what they originally used in these guitars. Since I'm replacing the capacitor, does it affect the value (or more of what I'm concerned about, the sound of the guitar) if I don't use a vintage capacitor? Any help would be appreciated, thank you!

[Michael Ambrose]

Thats DEFINITELY an original cap. Almost every Kay I have from that generation has that exact cap in it.

Looks like at some point a pot came loose and, when twisted too hard, pulled the lead out. So yeah, someone definitely tried to fix it. Doesn't look like there's any lead left to solder to.

Vanguards aren't super-valuable, and hardly anyone tire-kicks Kays... I doubt anyone would care much if the cap was replaced with a new one, so long as you used a high-quality one.

Caps wear out. They're meant to be replaced. Swap it for a new one. I, personally, like Sprague.

[Not Steve]

Thanks so much dude! I'm totally down with your advice, and as luck would have it, I have a pair of spragues staring back at me from a ziplock bag sitting on my desk right now. Though the capacitors I have are .022 mf, would you recommend getting capacitor with the same rating as the original cap (which was .1, which you knew)?

[Spud1950]

I agree.Really nothing to worry about.Just replace it with a new cap of the similar value.No need use a vintage one as it will not effect the value on that guitar. It's not on a high enough level as a collectable to be an issue,though you may notice a diffence in tone if you use the .022 caps.

[Not Steve]

Well, I wouldn't really care how it affected the tone anyway, just as long as it sounded good (since I've had it the capacitor has been broken). So if I don't like how it affects the tone, could I put a capacitor with a different rating in, or could that harm the electronics?

[Spud1950]

It won't harm the electronics, but it will sound different when you dial on your tone control because it is a different value then the original.

[Not Steve]

Cool, thanks for all of the advice and help guys! These forums rule!

[Michael Ambrose]

You've got to figure that the tone you're getting now will be exactly the same as the tone you get when you repair the cap and flip it to full-on.

The capacitance value will only affect just how "mellow" you can get your tone, and the degree to which it varies.

What are your pot values?

I typically use 500K's old .1uF caps... and most of my guitars are loaded with DeArmonds. LOVELY effect. When I run my Silvie 1413L through my Blackface Princeton and play "Bang Bang," you'd think I was Billy Strange.

[cheepaxes]

I don't know enough about this stuff off the top of my head to know exactly what the effect of changing the value of that cap would be, but I believe that that cap is there so that the tone stays about the same when you roll down the volume. With a different value you may find that it rolls off more or less of the highs when you turn down the volume pot. If you look around online you can find info on tailoring the effects on frequency by using caps and resistors of different values in parallel or in series. The last time I went through that exercise I used caps from R. Shack and they sounded OK to me.

-Scott

[Michael Ambrose]

You might find these helpful, also...

http://www.mojotone.com/faq-detail.asp?id=632319

http://www.mojotone.com/faq-detail.asp?id=586402

[Not Steve]

Oh I see. I'm going to have to try to find a wiring diagram like my setup and see if I can find out exactly what the cap does, but until then, I'll be putting a .1mf cap in there. I'm not sure what the values of the potentiometers are, but they're probably 500k if that's the way they used to use them. I'll invest some time into figuring that out.

Thanks for those links btw, very informative, I'll be checking out that site!