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Hoffman Amps Forum image Author Topic: variable capacitor tone control  (Read 194 times)

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Offline cmug

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variable capacitor tone control
« on: May 15, 2026, 03:19:27 pm »
This might be a silly question. But go ahead and ask anyway.
If you look at tone control circuits, there’s always a circuit with a variable resistor (the potentiometer) and a fixed capacitor.
I’m currently converting an old tube radio, and it has a variable capacitor ranging from 0 to 500 pF.
Couldn’t I do something interesting with that cap ? I can’t find a sample circuit diagrams.
(capacitor like this)


Offline acheld

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Re: variable capacitor tone control
« Reply #1 on: May 16, 2026, 10:09:29 am »
I love those things!

But they provide capacitance that is too low to use in an audio tone circuit.   They are, after all, designed to work in the RF range. 

Offline pdf64

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Re: variable capacitor tone control
« Reply #2 on: May 16, 2026, 11:49:33 am »
A couple of options jump out -Variable bright cap across a volume control.
Variable tone stable treble cap.

Downside is that its large physical size will tend to promote coupling between it and with the rest of the amp circuit, leading to unexpected / unintended / reduction of the margin of stability.
Worst case being free running oscillation.
A solution to that would be a screening can around it.
« Last Edit: May 16, 2026, 11:52:33 am by pdf64 »
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Offline cmug

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Re: variable capacitor tone control
« Reply #3 on: May 16, 2026, 04:23:12 pm »
Thanks for the tips. The capacitor is inside the housing. Removing it would just create a lot of air for nothing. So I’ll just give it a go. There are three synchronous capacitors, so I can adjust the capacitance from 0 to 1500 pF continuously during the experiment.

 


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