KILLER BEE OIL PICKUP TUBE PATCH
KILLER BEE OIL PICKUP TUBE PLUS

Changing to the Ampohm oil and foil caps in my Les Paul delivered the same sonic improvement as using a $150 patch cord. While I was doing all this testing I was also trying to find out if high end guitar cables are worth it. With Ampohm there is a little more safety due to the phenolic end caps and a non-conductive plastic wrap around the shell. If you use them in high voltage situations putting them in backwards will put potentially lethal voltage on the shell of the cap and if installed correctly the entire shell could be at ground potential while surrounded by high voltage leads. In my opinion the Vitamin Q, T, or whatever should be treated as polarized for the sake of safety.

KILLER BEE OIL PICKUP TUBE PLUS

One plus with Ampohm over the Vitamin series of caps is that the leads are insulated from the casing at both ends. Perhaps the loading of the entire tone circuit is the deciding factor. The only observation I can make is that generally humbuckers are higher impedance pickups and use 500K tone pots while Fender single coils are lower impedance and usually use 250K tone pots. I donвЂ™t know why the oil caps seem to like Gibson style guitars and the wax works in Fender. ItвЂ™s just a poly cap in a plastic shell that looks old school. I obtained a Gibson вЂњbumblebeeвЂќ cap as used in their historic reproduction series and found them to sound very different. I felt that the Ampohm Paper In Oil / Aluminum Foil cap was the closest sound match for these caps. This of course includes a fancy box and treated cotton insulation on the leads. I compared the oil and foil caps with the repro вЂњbumblebee capsвЂќ being sold by a few companies at about $60 each. If you have a Fender go with wax, if you have a Gibson go with oil. If the guitar and pickups are on the dark side I think the oil and foil are the best way to go. If your pickups are bright the wax paper and foil give the best results. The extended frequency of the Ampohm caps allows you to hear tonal changes that are usually swamped by the tone circuit.ДЄnother general statement IвЂ™m comfortable with is that in wax or oil, the tin and aluminum were very close if not indistinguishable from each other, while the Paper In Oil / Copper Foil caps seem to provide a bit more clarity and high end. It canвЂ™t change the taper but I think what happens is that subtle harmonics get killed by cheap caps. The Ampohm tone caps, both oil and wax, do tend to give the effect of making the tone control taper smoother with a greater degree of subtle variation. While the Paper In Oil caps seemed to work better in guitars that had humbuckers. As a general rule I would say the Paper In Wax / Tin Foil or Paper In Wax / Aluminum Foil were the best for single coil pickups and the sound of Fender. On all guitars I tried each family of cap to get the feel for what sounds great and then fine tuned the metal. There were a couple others as listed below. The tone caps were installed and play tested in:ДЄ Fender Telecaster ( Ampohm Paper In Wax / Tin Foil)ДЄ Fender P-Bass ( Ampohm Paper In Wax / Aluminum Foil)ДЄ custom Yamaha with single coils and humbuckers ( Ampohm Paper In Oil / Tin Foil)ДЄ Gibson Les Paul with P90 pickups ( Ampohm Paper In Oil / Aluminum Foil)ДЄ Les Paul with humbucking pickups ( Ampohm Paper In Oil / Copper Foil). Within each group you can chose Tin, Aluminum, and Copper as your conductor of choice with paper-in-wax or paper-in-oil as the dielectric.

My biggest surprise with Ampohm tone caps is that they actually work with audible differences in sound quality. Clearance - Bargains - Scratch and Dent.

Killer bee oil pickup tube