Newbie Needs Help Understanding Capacitors

[The Ballzz]

Hi All,
Just some general questions regarding capacitor use in different configurations for tone shaping.

1 - It appears that capacitors can either be used for modifying tone response in two different ways. A)In series, allowing only certain frequencies to easily pass through the circuit and B)In parallel to the signal to ground to bleed those same frequencies to ground. Is this correct?

2 - If my previous assumption is correct, is it correct to assume that changing the value, let's say upwards affects the frequency response in kind of opposite ways in series as opposed to being to ground?
Thanks All,
Gene

[xtian]

Caps do not work by themselves to filter frequencies--it's a combination of capacitance and resistance that creates a tone circuit.

Check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RC_circuit

[The Ballzz]

Thank you sir,
I will consume and digest that info and then be back to poop out more questions!
Gene

[vibratoking]

One way, but not the only way, is to think of a cap as a frequency dependent resistor. At very high frequencies it becomes a short circuit and at DC or 0 frequency it is an open circuit. You can look at any circuit and develop an intuition based on this. In the case you described, ask yourself what is happening at DC and at high frequency. There is more to the story, but this is one approach.

[The Ballzz]

One way, but not the only way, is to think of a cap as a frequency dependent resistor. At very high frequencies it becomes a short circuit and at DC or 0 frequency it is an open circuit. You can look at any circuit and develop an intuition based on this. In the case you described, ask yourself what is happening at DC and at high frequency. There is more to the story, but this is one approach.

You Sir, have hit the nail on the head concerning my intention! I can look at a room or a fence and intuitively visualize it's dimensions within less than a foot, I can look at a whole sound system and "see" in my head almost every connection from each piece of gear to another. This is the kind of "intuitive" sense I am striving to develop. I want to be able to "be" the signal going through an amp and be able to "stop by" each component's work station and check up on how well they are doing their job and have enough knowledge to understand what & why they are doing what they're doing! If one can't truly and fairly accurately "conceptualize" the "whole" of something and it's intended use, there's not really much point in attempting to redesign it, as success is not likely.
Thanks,
Gene

[tele_player]

Intuitive understanding would be greatly assisted by a systematic study of basic electronics. Classes are best, but textbooks are good, too.

Robert

[Structo]

Yes check out the monster thread above, "Reading Material on Steroids".

If you are the type of person that can learn from reading a book with occasional Google searches to verify or understand something better that is great.

Or if you are more of a visual learner, there are websites as well that can
show you in videos what they are talking about.

You have to start with the basics before you can move onto more advanced studies.

We have all been there and I think all of us here still learn something new just about every day.

Great group of guys and gals here that are willing to help you along the way.