Les Paul Tone Caps

Premium wiring kit for gibson les paul.

Les paul tone caps.

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. The bumblebee caps are very similar to the black beauties and the origin of the nickname is pretty easy to see. Capacitors are energy storage devices that filter the high frequencies. 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.

Unless of course it s about les paul customs but that s literally another story. You will hear a difference. 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. Upgrading your les paul can be as simple as changing out a few tone caps or a full re wire job.

Everything written about black beauties applies equally to bumblebee caps. These were the sprague manufactured capacitors gibson used during the late 50s. The magic tone is a combination of several factors and we will go through all of them step by step to convert your les paul into a roaring monster. The higher the value the more bass output from the tone control at its zero setting.

No matter how small of a change. 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. Normally the caps that come in your guitar are not the best. This can be one of the best changes you can make.

A cap lets the tone control roll off the treble response progressively warming the tone.