Came across a video regarding a CBG where the builder talked about how it had a treble bleed circuit to maintain the treble whether the volume pot was at 1 or 10. Never knew about this phenomenon so I did a little research. My question is do many builders bother with such and which method (capacitor, capacitor + resistor in parallel or in series) do they use. I understand the capacitor and resitor has to be of a certain value but I don't know if it's standard or dependent. Any more info appreciated. 

Views: 551

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

It keeps your tone from getting muddy & woofy when you’re dialed back past 50% you never loose that all the way up jangle. run a 100k ohm resistor & a .002 microfarad capacitor across both lugs of volume potentiometer. Alot of pros use this mod.


Like this 100k ohm resistor & .0022 microfarad capacitor, that’s it, pro rig mod

Cool thanks! So those are the values of the resistor and capacitor regardless?

Yes

A treble bleed circuit cuts the usefulness of a tone circuit to half. Might as well not even have a tone circuit. If you need/want that much treble, you can just have a volume only setup or simply change the pots to higher value or the tone caps to a lower value.

If you have a muddy or woofy tone from a pickup, then a high pass filter is the way to go. At least your tone circuit would work at 100% that way.

It really surprises me how many players these days don't know how to use volume and tone circuits to their full effect. Everybody puts them both on full and then wonders why they can't get more volume or brightness when needed. Can't get that Eric Clapton Woman Tone with a treble bleed circuit.

Elijah, forgot to mention those values are for a 500k ohm volume pot

Hi Eliah, I just got some parts delivered and amongst them were these Treble Blead circuits, already wired up. I have never noticed any problems when using the system but I will take note in light of Pauls comments.

Taff

Cheers, I dunno but it seems to me that a volume pot shouldn't be affecting tone. Perhaps a little coloration on some vintage gear shure but in my mind a volume knob should do its job and a tone knob it's job. 

Hi again Eliah, well I rewired my guitar yesterday including new pots, capacitor [paper in oil], three way toggle switch [Gibson style] and of course the treble bleed cap.

I find that on my guitar the tone range is still functioning as it did before and still gives me ample highs and bass tones. If there is any loss it must be negligible, to my ears anyway. I can't really say I have a 50% loss in tone function.

I did not do the mod to get more treble, but to maintain as much of what I have in the way of treble, at lower volumes. I'm not saying Paul is wrong in his assessment, but in my guitar with all the new components and the way I wired them in, these are my findings.

Cheers Taff

Taffy, that’s exactly what it was intended to do, it wasn’t to change tone but to further the sweep of the sweet spot, so to speak. Dan Erlwine has a video explaining it on stewmac website, it’s a well known mod.

The absence of the low-mid range is more noticeable than the low range which gives more brightness to the tone. The low range only loses a small bit while the mid loses much more.

I'm not saying people shouldn't do this mod, just that there's a better way of doing it.

Also, you can use a no-load tone pot that cuts the tone circuit when the volume is put on 10. It gives a brighter tone without the tone circuit. Afterall, a tone circuit was added to darken the tone for Jazz cleans or moody expressions. Of course you can always add more treble by turning the treble up on the amp too.

The tone circuit is wired to the volume pot, they are interactive. It is usually best to have both pots at the same value, but mixed pot values have been used by many guitar companies.

Low value pots will pass most highs to ground resulting in a dark/low tone. high value pots do the opposite.

Low value tone caps pass more lows to ground resulting in a high/treble tone. High value tone caps do the opposite.

Fender would use 250k pots with .047 or .051 caps for all their single coil setups. Their 1972 WRHB pickups were double coil pickups that used 1meg pots with .047 caps to have a more balanced tone.

Gibson used a lot of different value pots and caps, but the norm for their humbucker pickups was 500k pots with .022 caps. Some models used different values and some others had a mix of values.

So if you have a single coil pickup with 250k pots and .047 cap and your tone is too dark for your liking, a change of cap value to .022 or change of pot values to 500k will add more treble/brightness to your tone and still give you 100% sweep of tone circuit. A treble bleed circuit will keep the tone brighter throughout the tone pot's sweep, but it will cut the overall tone sweep effect by 50%.

RSS

The Essential Pages

New to Cigar Box Nation? How to Play Cigar Box GuitarsFree Plans & How to Build Cigar Box GuitarsCigar Box Guitar Building Basics

Site Sponsor

Recommended Links & Resources


Forum

crossover guitar.

Started by Timothy Hunter in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Mar 21. 11 Replies

Tune up songs

Started by Ghostbuttons in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Mar 9. 5 Replies

Duel output jacks

Started by Justin Stanchfield in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Taffy Evans Mar 8. 6 Replies

How to Get Your Own Music on Spotify

Started by Cigar Box Nation in Feature Articles. Last reply by Southern Ray Feb 21. 2 Replies

CB Bass Guitar

Started by Mi Rankin in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Justin Stanchfield Jan 27. 5 Replies

Music

© 2024   Created by Ben "C. B. Gitty" Baker.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

\uastyle>\ud/** Scrollup **/\ud.scrollup {\ud background: url("https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/963882636?profile=original") no-repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;\ud bottom: 25px;\ud display: inline !important;\ud height: 40px;\ud opacity: 0.3 !important;\ud position: fixed;\ud right: 30px;\ud text-indent: -9999px;\ud width: 40px;\ud z-index: 999;\ud}\ud.scrollup:hover {\ud opacity:0.99!important;\ud}\ud \uascript type="text/javascript">\ud x$(document).ready(function(){\ud x$(window).scroll(function(){\ud if (x$(this).scrollTop() > 100) {\ud x$('.scrollup').fadeIn();\ud } else {\ud x$('.scrollup').fadeOut();\ud }\ud });\ud x$('.scrollup').click(function(){\ud x$("html, body").animate({ scrollTop: 0 }, 600);\ud return false;\ud });\ud });\ud \ua!-- End Scroll Up -->