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Well, the question in the topic title pretty much sums it up.
I dont use tone much but its always a good option to have.
My build is 2 humbuckers (bare knuckle mules) with a push pull split, 1 vol 2 tone.

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The classic combination would be 500k pots with a .047uF cap. That said, I would suggest experimenting with smaller...much smaller....tone caps. Try .022uf (another popular option) and then go even lower. if you're someone who doesn't use the tone knob a lot, you may enjoy something like a 10,000pf, or even lower....5000pf....2000pf. Take your pick. They're cheap and easy to try. The lower capacitor value will spread out the function of the tone knob and generally keeps things on the brighter sound.

Thanks. I think i'll start by using the standard and see how it sounds

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It's capacitor by the way.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

Hehe, thanks.
English isn't my native tongue.

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Remember, the higher the capacitor value, the more "highs" will be routed to ground. So, a .047uF (microfarad) cap will sound "darker" than a .022uF cap.

I like a higher cap value,
why?
because you don't need to use it,
in other words,
if you don't use it,
the highs are there.
If you do use it,
you can get the most out of it.
Bad wording, sorry!

I'm sorry, Alan, but I have to disagree with this. The whole pickup/volume/tone/capacitor arrangement in a guitar is actually kind of complex. You're dealing with an RLC circuit, and the effect of all these little bits turns the whole mess into something of a resonant filter (with the pickups as the inductive element, and the pots/caps as the R and C elements). Changing any part of the arrangement has the effect of changing the resonant frequency of the circuit, and potentially the Q as well. There's no way to get a small tone cap to sound like a big tone cap, anymore than you can make an AM radio pickup shortwave.

I think you're taking it a little bit to the extreme. You're not going to notice much, if any difference when the tone is all the way up, with different capacitors. How do I know this? I've changed tone caps. Sure it is part of the circuit, sure there might be technically some difference electronically, but sonically? Meh. I think a potentiometer value change would have a much more noticable impact than a tone cap change.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

Meh? Seriously? You can't hear a huge difference between a .047uF cap and a 5000pF cap? Don't know what you're talking about with the tone turned all the way up. The point of having the tone knob is that you can have it not turned all the way up. If you just want it turned up all the time, you can just leave it out completely....which will brighten everything up as well.

I'm not taking anything to any extreme. That's just how the tone knob works.

I don't use tone knobs.
I'm a bit deaf and need all the screaming highs I can get.
I can always just adjust my amp to suit.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Here's an interesting article discussing a novel tone control approach.
It puts the tone control at the humbucker's center tap. See page 13.
http://www.peavey.com/support/technotes ... pter_5.pdf

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

I made a rotary switched little box that contains all the caps
that would be relavent to a guitar,
with alligator clips,
so I could try the different values.
I'm too lazy to use it,
and go with the recommended
cap value for the pickup.