Treble bleed mod?

[johnh]

A lot of people try treble bleed circuits and end up not liking them, because the component values are not right. The best version for keeping a consistent tone as you roll down is a cap and resistor in parallel. If you are using a 500k volume pot, a 1nF and 150 resistor is the best based on analysis, for keeping a consistent tone in the range from about 4 up to max. If you more usually turn down below 4, a slightly smaller cap is a bit better, 0.68nF or 0.82nF. If the resistor is not there, or too large, the sound thins out too much at low volume. Then, by ear, you might find your prefer a step or two change in values.

The parts are so cheap, and easy to try on an LP, that it is worth a shot.

 

[LPofBorg]

All the raw materials arrived while I was at work today. Kudos to Jonesy for great shipping! Too tired tonight to start the project.... but will update by the end of the week... because there's NO WAY I can wait longer than that.

 

[Stinky Kitty]

 

[indeedido]

I'm wiring a guitar with two humbuckers and two volume controls. No tone control. The treble bleed mod on each of the volume pots will still work as intended without a tone control in the circuit correct?

 

[jonesy]

I'm wiring a guitar with two humbuckers and two volume controls. No tone control. The treble bleed mod on each of the volume pots will still work as intended without a tone control in the circuit correct?

Yeah it doesn't matter if you have any tone pots connected or not. The treble bleed mod soldered across the 2 hot lugs of the volume pots works directly on that part of the circuit allowing highs to pass.

 

[indeedido]

Thanks Jonesy!

 

[Mookakian]

the other guitar player in our band uses a treble bleed on the neck pickup. It allows him to get a great clean, almost strat type of sound when he rolls back the volume on the neck. Thats with 50s wiring too, so its not overkill if thats what your looking for.

A bleed lets highs travel through the cap directly to the output wire, with 50's wiring you do not loose high end detail so its really not needed if your aiming to keep the tone of your guitar clear, its going to happen regardless.


If your trying to thin out the sound or change the pot taper thats fine, but this is not questioned in the OP, its really a different kettle of fish.

 

[p90fool]

There are no rules, it's cheap and easy to find out what works for you and your rig, and it's fun fine-tuning it too.

I tend to prefer Les Pauls wired conventionally, but I have one which has modern wiring with a 470pf treble pass cap on the neck pickup, and a 50s wired bridge pickup with no treble pass cap. BUT, I put a partial coil split (via a resistor) on the bridge pickup which also brings in a low value (220pf) treble pass cap at the same time.
This means I can jump from full fat Les Paul to a very Stratty tone using the same amp settings.

But even without the coil split the 50s bridge/treble pass neck makes for a very versatile stage guitar, bearing in mind that your full on neck lead tone is still available too.

 

[jonesy]

Thanks Jonesy!

You're welcome bro

 

[beedoola]

What values would people suggest for the Treble Bleed mod for a LP with 500k pots, Seymour Duncan Custom 5 and Scremon Demon in the Neck.

 

[johnh]

I went right into this with testing and circuit analysis. Opinions will differ, but for the most consistent tone, with a 500k volume pot, my conclusion was to use a 150k resistor and 1nF cap in parallel, between hot outer and centre lugs of the volume pot. That is optimised for the volume range from about 5 up to 10. If your most common reduced volume is more like 3 or 4, then try a smaller cap, say 0.82 or 0.68nF. I worked it out for a range of different pickup inductances and keep getting back to this basic recipe.

Before doing this work, my basic setup was 220k and 1nF, but I found this was getting too thin at low volume. The 150k, predicted by the calcs, fixed this.

When you add this circuit, the taper of the pot will be smoothed out, ie, a standard 10% log taper will behave about halfway to being linear, about 30% at mid-turn, which is actually very nice.

 

[ScottMarlowe]

What values would people suggest for the Treble Bleed mod for a LP with 500k pots, Seymour Duncan Custom 5 and Scremon Demon in the Neck.

Here's a great video on treble bleed circuit:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8-tTDzVQls[/ame]
Note the next video in the series is 50s wiring.

 

[rockinlespaul]

Treble bleed+Les Paul=Blasphemy.

 

[Sixstring63]

I agree. Had one in a Carvin CS-6 I bought. Could not understand why it got so thin when I rolled back the volume. Opened the back plate and presto, a treble bleed. Removed it and the balls grew back and the mids came to life. I would never put one in my guitars again. 50's wiring is the best option for a Paul.

Treble bleed+Les Paul=Blasphemy.

 

[johnh]

What values would people suggest for the Treble Bleed mod for a LP with 500k pots, Seymour Duncan Custom 5 and Scremon Demon in the Neck.

If you mainly work in the volume range 4 to 10, then 150k and 1nF in parallel. If you more often are either at 10, or you turn down to 4 or below, reduce the cap to about 0.82 or 0.68nF. These values are based on the 500k pot. With 250k pot, use a 120k resistor.