Hi all,
Picked up a nice S type guitar recently and been spending some time getting to know it. One thing I noticed off the bat was the treble bleed. Rolling off the volume resulted in a very thin/wiry tone with no bottom end and I really didn't like it after a while.
Having taken a look inside I could see a cap in the volume pot so I've removed this to have a listen. The thin/wiry tone has now been replaced with wooliness as I roll off which is sort of inevitable I suppose
Is there any way to get in between the two extremes above.
Si
Comments
I normally experiment with different values as it depends on the impedance of the pickups and the value of the pot.
The usefulness of a treble bypass network on the volume pot depends on the nominal resistance value of the pots and the pickups fitted in the guitar.
If, for example, the control components are inexpensive or damaged by repeated heating, they may no longer be passing the signal efficiently.
The thin/wiry effect could be because of the capacitor and/or resistor value.
Try it using the shortest possible cable directly from the guitar to the amp and then you'll know which is the main cause.
If you have a lot of true-bypass pedals which are all turned off, the effective capacitance of the cable is huge, since all the cable length to the amp is added together, plus that of the plugs (which can be surprisingly large).
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Treble *bleed* is what the capacitance of the guitar cable does. (Which does indeed cause the problem grappagreen has found, when the treble pass network is removed.)
I know this is something of an uphill battle... but it does actually make it easier to understand what's going on if you use the right terms.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I prefer the Kinman style. Takes a bit of experimenting to keep the right amount of top & bass - try clean and with dirt, and fuzz if you use it. Fuzzes can really show up differences in cap/resistor combos when you roll off the vol pot.
Bitsbox is good for getting small numbers of caps & resistors and post is quick & cheap.
edited: I prefer series/Kinman style. Brain fail after doing parallel combos for bass cut yesterday.
I'm going to have a play with the Kinman treble pass (see what I did there ) circuit and see if I can find something that works. Can anyone advise what caps/resistors I should buy to experiment with (the guitar has relatively low output single coils)
It's interesting that Fuzz has been mentioned; the current issue really jumped out at me when rolling off the volume into a Blackstone MOSFET OD pedal which can be very fuzz like and cleans up in the same way..
I'll update as things progress.
Si
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
130k, 150k, 200k, 220k resistors.
Get some heatshrink as well esp if you're going to do the fly lead / tucking in thing. It's all pennies anyway.
Parts ordered!
Thanks so much for the Bitsbox link - I've started on my journey of understanding electronics and was finding it a nightmare to find a parts site that I could bloody understand. Looks like I can now easily grab what I need to get into some of the projects!
Si
Cheers
Bill