Capacitor Referance Chart

When reading schematics, building or repairing amplifiers and also buying capacitors, you often must convert between uF, nF and pF.

Paper, plastic and electrolytic capacitors are usually expressed in terms of uF (microfarads). Short forms for micro farad include uF, mfd, MFD, MF and UF.

Mica capacitors are usually expressed in terms of pF (micromicrofarads) (picofarads).
Short forms for micromicrofarads include pF, mmfd, MMFD, MMF, uuF and PF. A pF is one-millionth of a uF.

In between a pF and a uF is a nF which is one-one thousands of a uF. Converting back and forth between uF, nF and pF can be confusing with all those darn decimal points to worry about. Below is a uF – nF- pF conversion chart.
Just print a copy and tape it to your workbench….it will come in handy.

Here is a great site with a lot of information about replacing and identifying capacitors. The site is geared toward old radios but it applies directly to tube guitar amps. Phil’s Old Radios.

Capacitor Reference Chart

PicoFarad (pF)	NanoFarad (nF)	MicroFarad (mF, uF or mfd)	Capacitance Code
1000	1 or 1n	0.001	102
1500	1.5 or 1n5	0.0015	152
2200	2.2 or 2n2	0.0022	222
3300	3.3 or 3n3	0.0033	332
4700	4.7 or 4n7	0.0047	472
6800	6.8 or 6n8	0.0068	682
10000	10 or 10n	0.01	103
15000	15 or 15n	0.015	153
22000	22 or 22n	0.022	223
33000	33 or 33n	0.033	333
47000	47 or 47n	0.047	473
68000	68 or 68n	0.068	683
100000	100 or 100n	0.1	104
150000	150 or 150n	0.15	154
220000	220 or 220n	0.22	224
330000	330 or 330n	0.33	334
470000	470 or 470n	0.47	474
560000	560 or 560n	0.56	564
680000	680 or 680n	0.68	684
1000000	1000 1000n	1.00	105

Microfarads (mF)	Nanofarads (nF)	Picofarads (pF)
0.000001	0.001	1
0.00001	0.01	10
0.0001	0.1	100
0.001	1	1000
0.01	10	10000
0.1	100	100000
1	1000	1000000
10	10000	10000000
100	100000	100000000