Upgrading your caps can be one of the easiest and least expensive ways to improve your guitars tone. For some reason, guitar manufacturers won’t spend more than a few cents on the caps inside of the guitar. The exception is Gibson putting reproduction Bumblebees in its $5000.00 vintage reissues. Even so, these still don’t sound the same as real Paper In Oil caps, which are no longer manufactured due to environmental concerns (be careful to wash your hands well after handling these). The Paper In Oil caps (Russian, Vitamin Q, and Bumblebee) give a creamier harmonic overtone due to the type of capacitive material used. The Orange Drops give a crystal clear harmonic. This is due to the large surface area of the film, and possibly Sprague’s formula for making the film itself. These caps cost 100 times what the caps that the manufacturers are using, so when building hundreds of thousands of guitars each year, it can add up. The PIO caps are no longer available for large scale use, and even if they could get them, they would be far too expensive for mass produced guitars.

Paper In Oil caps are great for for Blues and Classic Rock, and the Orange Drops for Metal and Jazz. As far as cap values go, the higher the value, the darker the tone at any given point in the pot rotation. 0.1uf being darkest, with 0.022uf being brightest (smaller values like 0.015uf or 0.01uf are used to brighten up exceptionally dark sounding guitars, and add extra bite). Humbuckers have less highs because of phase cancellation and use a brighter cap like 0.022uf or 0.033uf. Single coils need more highs removed to sound good, and use anywhere from 0.022uf in Modern SSH Strats, and 0.047uf (0.05uf) to 0.1uf in vintage Strats and Teles. Gibson P90s typically use 0.033uf, and will really scream with 0.015uf or 0.01uf Paper In Oil caps.

About Sprague 225P Orange Drop Polyester Film / Foil type capacitors

Caution: DON’T BE FOOLED BY SELLERS WHO CLAIM THAT 225P CAPACITORS ARE NOT FILM / FOIL!!!!!!! BEWARE OF PHRASES LIKE “The ones that give Orange Drops a bad name” and “cheap sounding”

I could sell 715P or 716P, and my cost would be less, but I don’t because 225P is a far better sounding cap.

All 3 are Film and Foil, but the 225P are made from warmer sounding Mylar film. 715P and 716P caps are made from Polypropylene, which is harsher sounding (I have heard the terms “ice pick in the ear” and “broken glass”).

!!!!!!! DON’T BE FOOLED. CHECK IT OUT FOR YOURSELF !!!!!!!

See Vishay’s website for the data sheets for 225P and 715P (Vishay bought Sprague in 1992, and still produces both types of caps).

www.vishay.com/docs/42016/225p.pdf

www.vishay.com/docs/42018/715p.pdf

Also beware of the dishonest “salesmen” selling these caps for $1.50 each and charging $2.50 for shipping! Do the math. I ship for FREE!!

A note about 400V vs 200V. Just like certain sellers are claiming that 225P caps are not Film / Foil, other sellers are claiming that since you don't have 400V running through your guitar, you don't need 400V caps. While it is true that a guitar's signal is only a small voltage, it is also true that the physical size of the dielectric material has a huge effect on the tone. These are big and beefy in size, but not too big to fit like some 600v caps may be.

There is also talk of Polypropylene caps (like 715P) being "similar" to Mylar caps, but having an extra extended temperature stability up to 105C. I can guarantee that if your guitar ever reaches 105C, you won't be playing it anymore. As far as being "similar", "copy" instruments are similar to the originals, but that doesn't make them sound like the originals. 715P caps are great for high heat applications (like in amplifiers), where the warmer sounding 225P won’t hold up, but using a Polypropylene Cap (715P) in a low heat application like in your guitar is a compromise.

Polypropylene is definitely a more stable capacitor material than Film / Foil Mylar, and both are more stable than paper in oil caps like Bumblebees or Vitamin Qs. Stability doesn't necessarily equal tone. If you are upgrading your caps, I'm pretty sure you are looking to improve your tone