How to measure the capacitance from guitar cable - Custom Boards pedalboard builder's guide (2018)
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- Опубліковано 2 лис 2020
- www.customboards.fi offers its services to musicians, who need help with the integration and maintenance of their rig. We import and sell top-grade effects, pedalboards, power supply units, cables and accessories. Our page also contains loads of tutorial content for building your own guitar rig.
Video is shot and edited by Marco Menestrina.
Can you measure the total capacitance of the pedal board? I did this today to figure out where to put my buffer in my board. I placed my buffer at the end of the chain and measured the end of the cable that came out of the buffer which is supposed to have an output of 100ohms. The capacitance was so high I couldn't measure it with my meter. Is it supposed to be a really high capacitance right after the buffer?
For the curious minds - the 4.06 nF his meter reads = 4060 pF or 4044± minus the initial buffer, about 161.7± pF/m. 46% increase over the 1m cable. . . or 3900% total increase. I've only started building gear and from my tests as well it seems interesting to note the exponential differences in capacitance over cable lengths even given the same cable.
Hi Zac! Thank you for your comment. A very much appreciated. I hope you would find our “Pedalboard Building Guide” interesting, which includes loads of tutorials and videos about building your own board.
customboards.fi/pages/the-custom-boards-guide-for-building-your-own-pedalboard
We also have a “Pedalboard Gallery” of all the work we’ve done:
customboards.fi/blogs/custom-boards-gallery
I am happy to hear any comments about our content.
Best regards
Kimmo Aroluoma
-
Custom Boards Finland Oy
Sahaajankatu 14
00880 Helsinki
tel: +358 10 411 0160
www.customboards.fi
soldered with heart and skill?
If you disconnect the shield on only one end of the cable does the capacitance go UP or down? this is called directional guitar cables when you do this
Hi!
Thank you for your comment.
If you like to learn more about electric guitar signal chain or would like to build your own pedalboard, we have a comprehensive “Pedalboard Building Guide”, which has loads of tutorials and videos:
customboards.fi/pages/the-custom-boards-guide-for-building-your-own-pedalboard
For further inspiration, our most popular page is our “Pedalboard Gallery”, which includes all the custom work we’ve done so far.
customboards.fi/blogs/custom-boards-gallery
If you have any questions about our services or our products, I am more than happy to help.
Best regards
Kimmo Aroluoma
Hi Wayne! This is an interesting question. As capacitance is present in cable with or without the plugs, they add only their own amount of capacitance for the total sum. And as the percentage of plug's capacitance in total gets smaller with longer cables, I would not worry about this that much.
For further inspiration, please check out our “Pedalboard Building Guide” for tutorials and videos about building your own board.
customboards.fi/pages/the-custom-boards-guide-for-building-your-own-pedalboard
We also have a “Pedalboard Gallery” of all the work we’ve done:
customboards.fi/blogs/custom-boards-gallery
In the future, if you order directly from our own webstore, you would benefit from our “Premium -membership”, which includes free shipping on any order over 199€ inside the EU. Please read more info from here:
customboards.fi/pages/custom-boards-premium
Best regards
Kimmo Aroluoma
-
Custom Boards Finland Oy
Sahaajankatu 14
00880 Helsinki
tel: +358 10 411 0160
www.customboards.fi
Is a higher or lower nF value better, I find it weird noone ever mentions this.
@Eetu Lehtinen Thanks for the answer :D
Eetu's Answer is really good. As a supplement to it though, there isn't necessarily a "right" way, so much as what you want to achieve. There have been musicians in the past that use extremely long cables to help achieve their desired tone. As Eetu said, it's best to think of cable capacitance, plug capacitance and length as another part of your tone control.
I just use it 'to taste.' Currently I like high cap. on bass and lower cap. on electric guitar to give extra separation in a mix. Your call tho. I'm using differenct lengths of similar Quantum Audio Designs brand cables to achieve this.
Ok, only one thing you don't tell me that I need to know in this fine video: how do I setup my multimeter to do this? Or do I need a special capacitance meter? For people like me, learning electronics decades too late, how to setup for testing? Nobody's telling that part on UA-cam. I guess it's assumed you know basics about elecronics already. And since I can't read... How about a quick video showing us that part?
What about cable wire gauge? Does it affect the capacitance? quad core vs. dual core? IF I know wtf I am doing, I can test this myself.
Honestly, it would likely be best to look up the manual from your specific meter. I too am just learning some of these electronics stuff - never too late until after you're dead.
Most good manufacturers should have online pdf or other documentation - that was how I had to figure mine out.
Great watch to answer some of the other questions you asked - ua-cam.com/video/OkeUKk_gy2Q/v-deo.html
Hi! Thank you for your message. Please see check out our “Pedalboard Building Guide” for tutorials and videos about building your own board.
customboards.fi/pages/the-custom-boards-guide-for-building-your-own-pedalboard
These guides include lots of additional info on cables and their measurement.
Best regards
Kimmo Aroluoma
-
Custom Boards Finland Oy
Sahaajankatu 14
00880 Helsinki
tel: +358 10 411 0160
www.customboards.fi
wrong.
in the short lengths you're testing here, the two plugs can easily have more capacitance than high grade cable. -hence your similar readings from different types of cable ;-) a more realistic procedure: -measure a cable, with and without (identical !) plugs to determine the plugs effect, then subtract that from your cable measurements. b, then use at least 5-6 meters of cable to measure capacitance more accurately ;-)
Sorry, I've never ever heard of "cents" as a unit of of measurement for length. Did you mean centimetres? To the best of my knowledge, cents is a unit of measurement for pitch and intonation of a musical note when using a guitar tuner (and also as a denomination of monetary currency), but not a term for measurement of length in the metric system. This video just doesn't make 'sense'.
It took me a few seconds (but not much more) to realise he meant centimeters.