CAPACITOR FOUND! input needed.

[bigtimefifty]

I have found a place that sells the elusive 0.33uf 400V metal film capacitors. A company called Mouser Electronics (mouser.com) has the following cap: Mallory DC Film capacitor 400V .33uF 5%. The salesman told me they were of the "metalized polyester" type. In the "Quiet the Beast" article the author mentions a "metal film capacitor" but makes no mention of a "polyester" type. Is a cap with polyester OK to use for the mod? By the way, what does the 5% indicate? John Atchley recommends this type of cap but also says lower voltage can be used, but I wanted to go with what he recommends. Anyways, I hope this is the right cap for use in the quiet the beast article.

[JohnH]

This would be for the bridge to ground connection? If so, it seems fine. The value would not be very critical, but is as he suggests. I think that the 400V rating is important for this component, since its purpose is to partially isolate you from a ground failure, so it needs to be greater than mains voltage. Otherwise if it breaks down, it wont do its job at the critical moment. (thats different fro the other caps in the system, which are part of the signal path, the normal voltages in the guitar are tiny so their voltage rating is not important). The 5% value is the tolerance on the capacitance value ie it is 0.33MFD +/- 5%

John