50s mod w/ treble bleed? Too much?

MoodyBlue

MoodyBlue

New member
I'm working on brightening up my P-90 Godin LG. I like the P-90 tone and love the feel and playability of that guitar. Being all mahogany though it's a bit dark and a tad mushy for my taste. I'm comparing the sound to a '56 RI playing clean blues. I know the maple cap on the RI makes a lot of difference but I'm sure I should be able to brighten and clarify the tone on the Godin more than what it is. (and its not awful) The pots are 250K (1 vol, 1 tone) and the cap is .033uf . I was thinking of changing the pots to 500k, maybe dropping the cap to .022uf, doing the 50s mod and adding a treble bleed cap and resistor. Think its too much to do both the 50s mod and treble bleed? Does anyone have or tried both in their guitar?

Jim:cool2:
 
Re: 50s mod w/ treble bleed? Too much?

MoodyBlue said:
Think its too much to do both the 50s mod and treble bleed? Does anyone have or tried both in their guitar?

Jim:cool2:
Click to expand...

You should be ok. Both of these mods only have an affect as you roll the volume control off of "10". At full volume, both of these mods are effectively removed from the circuit.
 
Re: 50s mod w/ treble bleed? Too much?

A No Load tone would help too. When it's on 10 it's removed from the circuit and your guitar will be brighter. With the 50's mod and with a treble bleed cap, it's the opposite: they have little or no effect when your guitar's pots are on 10, whereas when your tone control is on 10 with a no load tone pot your guitar will sound brighter.

In any case, I think a no load tone pot would help more than the 50's mod or treble bleed cap. I find the treble bleed cap to be a little sizzley sounding myself...it's like the bright switch on a old Fender amp.

lew
 
Re: 50s mod w/ treble bleed? Too much?

Thanks Lew, I'm glad you caught me before I changed anything. Let me ask this then to see if I'm getting this. Would I get the same affect if I used a 1 Meg pot w/no load (assuming there is such a thing) yet with more control. No Load is in effect an open circuit as opposed to a shorted one right?
 
Re: 50s mod w/ treble bleed? Too much?

I found the 50's mod and treble bleed together were way too thin and bright when rolling the vol down. On that particular guitar I ended up going went with just the treble bleed, since I already had the cap/resister assembly in the guitar.

Go with either the treble bleed or 50's mod, but not both, with a no load tone pot.

That way your covered when on ten and when rolling down to zero.
 
Re: 50s mod w/ treble bleed? Too much?

A 1Meg pot (non no-load) is practically the same as going no load. That resistance is so high in the circuit you can hardly tell at all that there is any load down.

I've got the TBX Tone Control is my Strat wired in such a way that with it in the detent position (middle), it's essestially no load. Then when I crank it up to 10, it's something like 1220k (or 1.22Meg). There's practically no difference from the detent position to 10. From zero to just about 5 is like a normal 250k tone pot.

I haven't tried the 50's mod yet but plan on doing so on my Les Paul. I've tried the treble bleed mod before and didn't like it. I'm used to not having it there.
 
Re: 50s mod w/ treble bleed? Too much?

You should experiemnt and find out for yourself what these mods do to the tone.

None will make the guitar "thin"...all they'll do is retain treble. None will throw away bass...that would make a tone "thin". But they don't do that.

I use No Load tone pots on my Teles along with the 50's mod.

But I don't care for the treble bleed cap thing...it makes my guitar sound brighter than I like.

However, if a guitar had really dark sounding pickups I could see how using a treble bleed cap, and the 50's mod and a no load tone pot might be a good idea. I don't own any guitars where that would be called for...but someone might!:laugh2:

Lew
 
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