Ground wire

[Jana]

Hi, my name is Jana and I'm building an amp.

I ran out of black wire and started using white wire for some short ground connections. How will this affect my tone? Should I worry about this? Should I jumper a 10pf cap in parallel with the ground wires to compensate for the wire color?

I've been losing a lot of sleep over this and haven't practiced my guitar for a week (too busy swapping the 10pf cap with a 12pf cap to try to hear the difference). What should I do? Would a black sharpie effectively change the white wire to black or does the black color have to go all the way through the insulation?

Does anybody have any 15pf caps I can try?

Thanks

[Jana]

Anybody?

[johnnyreece]

This is simple, really. No caps required. First, you need black dye. It has to be Transtint, not Color Tone (same stuff, but the difference in the labels makes ALL the difference). The bottle must be 58% used. No more, no less. Also, you can't just dump it to reach that point...the dye KNOWS. So, use that first 42%, then you mix 42 drops of dye in .27 gallons of water, and bring it to a boil (preferably in a non-teflon coated pan, but in a pinch...). After 10 minutes boiling, let it cool, then pour it down the drain. Mix another batch with the remaining dye, but THIS time, use .24 gallons of water. Bake in a glass dish until it reaches a boil. At this point, you may add the wire. This will allow the dye to seep in properly. Once you're done, you may be thinking, "Self, this doesn't look very black." At which point, you'll agree with yourself. The next step is critical: After thinking of other ways to color it for PRECISELY 697 seconds, throw it away and order the black wire you should have used in the first place.

You're welcome.

[overtone]

Hi Jana,
my name is tony and i have built two killer amps already.
Sharpie is not good, it is kind of like an air-five, the black must connect all the way through as in a real high-five.
You could connect three of your 10pFs in parallel = 30pF and do that again making another gang of three, then mount those two gangs of three, which each in themselves total 30pF, in series and you will get 15pF in total end-to-end, I think that would fix it. I think. You need a layout for that?
Cheers,
Anybody.

[Reeltarded]

I use high-temp exhaust paint. I spray the wire a day before cutting, and then i touch up the ends after soldering if i haven't burned them black with the iron by then.

[NickC]

This is simple, really. No caps required. First, you need black dye. It has to be Transtint, not Color Tone (same stuff, but the difference in the labels makes ALL the difference). The bottle must be 58% used. No more, no less. Also, you can't just dump it to reach that point...the dye KNOWS. So, use that first 42%, then you mix 42 drops of dye in .27 gallons of water, and bring it to a boil (preferably in a non-teflon coated pan, but in a pinch...). After 10 minutes boiling, let it cool, then pour it down the drain. Mix another batch with the remaining dye, but THIS time, use .24 gallons of water. Bake in a glass dish until it reaches a boil. At this point, you may add the wire. This will allow the dye to seep in properly. Once you're done, you may be thinking, "Self, this doesn't look very black." At which point, you'll agree with yourself. The next step is critical: After thinking of other ways to color it for PRECISELY 697 seconds, throw it away and order the black wire you should have used in the first place.

You're welcome.

That's the easy part! But you forgot to tell him how to remove the copper wire from the jacket (it must be removed first!!!) ...... and then ...... more importantly, how to get the wire back in the jacket after the dying process is complete. I don't think we can jump to the occlusion that everyone knows those steps!

[M Fowler]

Hi Jana,

I see your from Minnesota so I am really surprised you haven't stuck that wire outside for a day or two for a cryo process before using, give it a try.

Mark

[Reeltarded]

It is a brilliant examination of what is wrong with the mongols living on my patio.

[NickC]

It is a brilliant examination of what is wrong with the mongols living on my patio.

That's easy to fix. Invite some Huns over for a bar-b-que.

[johnnyreece]

This is simple, really. No caps required. First, you need black dye. It has to be Transtint, not Color Tone (same stuff, but the difference in the labels makes ALL the difference). The bottle must be 58% used. No more, no less. Also, you can't just dump it to reach that point...the dye KNOWS. So, use that first 42%, then you mix 42 drops of dye in .27 gallons of water, and bring it to a boil (preferably in a non-teflon coated pan, but in a pinch...). After 10 minutes boiling, let it cool, then pour it down the drain. Mix another batch with the remaining dye, but THIS time, use .24 gallons of water. Bake in a glass dish until it reaches a boil. At this point, you may add the wire. This will allow the dye to seep in properly. Once you're done, you may be thinking, "Self, this doesn't look very black." At which point, you'll agree with yourself. The next step is critical: After thinking of other ways to color it for PRECISELY 697 seconds, throw it away and order the black wire you should have used in the first place.

You're welcome.

That's the easy part! But you forgot to tell him how to remove the copper wire from the jacket (it must be removed first!!!) ...... and then ...... more importantly, how to get the wire back in the jacket after the dying process is complete. I don't think we can jump to the occlusion that everyone knows those steps!

I thought it went without saying, but yes, this is very true. For 10 easy installments of $199.99, I'd be willing to share the secret. Patent pending.

[NickC]

This is simple, really. No caps required. First, you need black dye. It has to be Transtint, not Color Tone (same stuff, but the difference in the labels makes ALL the difference). The bottle must be 58% used. No more, no less. Also, you can't just dump it to reach that point...the dye KNOWS. So, use that first 42%, then you mix 42 drops of dye in .27 gallons of water, and bring it to a boil (preferably in a non-teflon coated pan, but in a pinch...). After 10 minutes boiling, let it cool, then pour it down the drain. Mix another batch with the remaining dye, but THIS time, use .24 gallons of water. Bake in a glass dish until it reaches a boil. At this point, you may add the wire. This will allow the dye to seep in properly. Once you're done, you may be thinking, "Self, this doesn't look very black." At which point, you'll agree with yourself. The next step is critical: After thinking of other ways to color it for PRECISELY 697 seconds, throw it away and order the black wire you should have used in the first place.

You're welcome.

That's the easy part! But you forgot to tell him how to remove the copper wire from the jacket (it must be removed first!!!) ...... and then ...... more importantly, how to get the wire back in the jacket after the dying process is complete. I don't think we can jump to the occlusion that everyone knows those steps!

I thought it went without saying, but yes, this is very true. For 10 easy installments of $199.99, I'd be willing to share the secret. Patent pending.

The secret is out. It's all over FaceBuck and YouTomb. It's the raw material ingredient that's expensive and hard-to-come-by ............... Yak spit lubricant. I'm having a gallon flown in on the time-share Gulfstream from the Mongolian lowlands. It's the best! I won't touch that Chinese stuff tainted with fox meat. No way!

[Reeltarded]

I'd buy in if the payments were larger and split into more periods.

[Colossal]

For 10 easy installments of $199.99, I'd be willing to share the secret. Patent pending.

Randall Smith patented Patent Pending. So, no fun is to be had...by anyone.

I've been losing a lot of sleep over this and haven't practiced my guitar for a week (too busy swapping the 10pf cap with a 12pf cap to try to hear the difference). What should I do? Would a black sharpie effectively change the white wire to black or does the black color have to go all the way through the insulation?

Jana, if you apply black Sharpie to white wire, the solvent will diffuse through the insulation transmuting the surface layer of copper to silver. This will cause noticeable skin effect and the electrons will know and the seeds of rebellion planted. Current will back up and refuse to go to ground. Don't do it; you've been warned.

[Synchu]

With all due respect, but given the following:
the tone is 62.5% the player, 33.456% the amp, 3.88699% engineering skill and 2.48827789749% down to whether venus is in capricorn and a dwarven-goblin-fish-monster walks counter clockwise around a mandrake root at midnight...
are you sure that your mandrake roots are intact, hence white wire should be taken out? I don't see it in the formula here?

[Leo_Gnardo]

Dr. King said we should judge the wire by the content of its character not the color of its insulation. I'm with Dr. King. (snow glare glasses)