Treble bleed on HSH strat / volume pot friction - help......

oktorockto

I have a HSH partscaster which also has a Roland GK-3 internel hex pickup fitted. I have Lindry Fralin Un-buckers which have mis-matched windings so that when you coil split they don't lose so much output. The middle pickup is a Fralin too.

I have a few push pull pots on it so that I get the following sounds:

All down - normal HSH strat
Vol up - normal HSH strat but coil splits engaged
Tone 1 up - Middle position gives both bridge and neck pickups - split if volume is up too.
Tone 2 up - puts either bridge or neck out of phase - can't remember which!

The main volume pot is a 500K and I found that the tone got muddy with the volume turned down (especially the humbuckers) so I decided to fit a treble bleed. I have done this but now I have really extreme treble when the vol is below about 6 or 7. I used the Lindy Fralin treble bleed mod from here: 2.5 nF capacitor & 200 kΩ resistor. 

I just wondered if there were any other HSH strat-heads out there who might have come across the same problem. Last night was the first time I used this properly at a rehearsal. I will investigate my pedal order to see if it was anything to do with that.

One other thing - my volume control is really easy to turn and I kept knocking it; any ideas of how to put a bit of friction in the shaft? Thought about a rubber washer but that won't work when the pot is pulled to coil split the pickups.

ICBM

2.5nF is *way* too large a cap value. Fralin must like really shrill sounds...

Try 1nF (1000pF), or 680pF. The best value I’ve found with a 500K pot is 680pF and a 220K resistor, but it will vary a bit depending on pickups and cable length.

The correct term is treble *pass*, by the way - I know the internet says otherwise, but treble *bleed* is what a standard tone control does .

oktorockto

Great advice as usual ICBM - thanks, will try that

Funkfingers

oktorockto said:

Roland GK-3 internal hex pickup fitted. 

Is the GK Kit electronics present and functional? Particularly, the guitar/both/synth switch and the 50k synth volume pot?

oktorockto said:

The main volume pot is a 500K and I found that the tone got muddy with the volume turned down (especially the humbuckers)

What brand is the 500k volume pot with push/pull? Cheaper examples are less durable and the resistance track can be less precise than a regular full-sized CTS (or equivalent).

oktorockto said:

I just wondered if there were any other HSH Strat-heads out there who might have come across the same problem. 

It is possible for the Roland GK electronics to adversely effect the magnetic pickup(s) signal.

oktorockto

Hi @Funkfingers ;
Yes, GK is fine. It has the selection switch and teh 50K pot form the GK3 kit. The really high treble only came after I fitted the treble pass was fitted so I don't think affects it. The push/pull is a high quality CTS with a vintage taper.

Funkfingers

Perhaps, it is just me. I cannot stand push-pull pots as volume controls EXCEPT, possibly, the EMG ones for their -89 and -81TW models.

Georg_Figel

the treble bleed that fender is currently installing is like this:

20k resistor + (1.2nF in parallel with 150k resistor)

oktorockto

ICBM said:

2.5nF is *way* too large a cap value. Fralin must like really shrill sounds...

Try 1nF (1000pF), or 680pF. The best value I’ve found with a 500K pot is 680pF and a 220K resistor, but it will vary a bit depending on pickups and cable length.

The correct term is treble *pass*, by the way - I know the internet says otherwise, but treble *bleed* is what a standard tone control does .

Just to update - the 680/220 option was perfect.!