Shouldn't make a difference, but the capacitor is there to shunt the higher frequency to ground. The pot is wired to represent a variable resistor or resistance which forms a RC network therefore making the HF cut somewhat sweepable. With that said the electronics that comes with the IB -4, IB-5 is junk in my opinion. The pup output is weak and the tone control does almost nothing. I am in the process of replacing all that and will update if I create something better than what is offered.