Anyone using Tonestylers?

[Falloffthebonetone]

You know, those tone knobs that crank through different notches?

I think I might get one but I wanna know what people think of them first.
Any downsides to having one? The bass I might throw it in doesn't have a tone knob, just 2 volumes, but I'm thinking of making one knob a stacked 250k volume and then have a Tonestyler.

Since the thing is bypassed when all the way up, I figure it won't compromise the tone if I add it and I can still blend the volumes to get the tones I've always had without compromise because nothing else buffering the signal like a normal tone knob can. However, I've heard the thing only works well with the volumes of the pickups all the way up, and I flex my volume controls around a lot.

Is any difference between the kinds other than the number of notches (6, 11, duo 6)?

 

[DreX]

Re: Anyone using Tonestylers?

I haven't used a Tone Styler, but I have made my own multi cap dials, and I have them in a lot of guitars. They cost anywhere from $80 to $180, you can but the parts for make a dozen of them for a fraction of the cost of a single Tone Styler. I can link to ebay resources if you're interested in making your own.

They're very useful, you can set it to a low cap value, like .0015uF, and trim out some high end without sacrificing the richness of the guitar's tone. Stock caps tend to be "all or nothing", even at .022uF. Set the dial to .006 uF to get some good "half cocked" wah tones, or make a Strat have a more humbucker like character. There's an interesting thing that happens with a .001 - .005 uF cap with single coils in particular, where when you dial it down to zero, the top end it gone, but the guitar seems to sound noticeably louder for some reason. I usually have the dial parked on a .003 uF cap, it seems to be the more useful to me. On some guitars where I can't install a dial, I'll do a push pull pot tone knob where pulling the knob switches to the lower value cap.

IMO, 6 notches is enough for settings and forgetting, if you get cap values that are too close, you start not not hear as dramatic a difference, but 12 might be cool if you want to turn the dial while the guitar is making sound in order to get a "wah" like thing to happen, without using a wah pedal.

The values I usually load up are roughly, .0015, .003, .006, .01, .022, .047 . I tried the bypass thing, to my ears, it was a waste of a dial spot, minimal tonal difference, especially if your tone cap is 500k or greater.

 

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: Anyone using Tonestylers?

I haven't used a Tone Styler, but I have made my own multi cap dials, and I have them in a lot of guitars. They cost anywhere from $80 to $180, you can but the parts for make a dozen of them for a fraction of the cost of a single Tone Styler. I can link to ebay resources if you're interested in making your own.

They're very useful, you can set it to a low cap value, like .0015uF, and trim out some high end without sacrificing the richness of the guitar's tone. Stock caps tend to be "all or nothing", even at .022uF. Set the dial to .006 uF to get some good "half cocked" wah tones, or make a Strat have a more humbucker like character. There's an interesting thing that happens with a .001 - .005 uF cap with single coils in particular, where when you dial it down to zero, the top end it gone, but the guitar seems to sound noticeably louder for some reason. I usually have the dial parked on a .003 uF cap, it seems to be the more useful to me. On some guitars where I can't install a dial, I'll do a push pull pot tone knob where pulling the knob switches to the lower value cap.

IMO, 6 notches is enough for settings and forgetting, if you get cap values that are too close, you start not not hear as dramatic a difference, but 12 might be cool if you want to turn the dial while the guitar is making sound in order to get a "wah" like thing to happen, without using a wah pedal.

The values I usually load up are roughly, .0015, .003, .006, .01, .022, .047 . I tried the bypass thing, to my ears, it was a waste of a dial spot, minimal tonal difference, especially if your tone cap is 500k or greater.

The bass doesn't have a tone knob now, which is why I'm even wondering how it will change the sound just from being there. I have a no load tone pot on my strat for the bridge pickup and going from the indented part to just slightly off is a pretty noticable difference, especially at higher volumes, but that is a 250k pot on a strat bridge single, and good luck telling the difference in a band setting.

 

[Chocklit_Thunda]

Re: Anyone using Tonestylers?

I've never heard of these... But when you say cranks through different notches, do you mean a 5 or 6 way rotary switch? Or is this some kind of joint potentiometer and rotary contraption?

 

[DreX]

Re: Anyone using Tonestylers?

The bass doesn't have a tone knob now, which is why I'm even wondering how it will change the sound just from being there. I have a no load tone pot on my strat for the bridge pickup and going from the indented part to just slightly off is a pretty noticable difference, especially at higher volumes, but that is a 250k pot on a strat bridge single, and good luck telling the difference in a band setting.

I suspect that "bypass" on the ToneStyler is the same as no-load, so the bass should sound the same with or without. The concentric pot would give you extra ton control, but if you're like me, you only ever have the bass tone knob at 0 or 10, so you could just wire the other side of the ToneStyler to ground, and have it be full-on whenever you dial it to a non-bypass position. Maybe just try that first, and if you don't like it, put in a concentric pot to control the tone and volume. Another option is to put a push pull pot in the volume spot, and have a trim pot between the ToneStyler and ground when lifted up, adjust the trim pot so that you get a 50% tone control type of sound. That way you have more tone choices and still keep a stock appearance.

 

[Stratman]

Re: Anyone using Tonestylers?

I installed one a few years ago to see if there were any tone benefits...

While there are slight tone variations, it is not worth the money I spend to purchase it.

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Anyone using Tonestylers?

it is not worth the money I spend to purchase it.

:headbang:

 

[DreX]

Re: Anyone using Tonestylers?

Also I assume they use surface mount caps, I don't think it matters, but if you're one of those PIO or orange drop snobs, a surface mount cap is about as far as you can get from that.

 

[DaveThePius]

Re: Anyone using Tonestylers?

I did a rotary switch for a Gretsch 5120 mod. Took out the horrible tone knob, and wired the rotary with the caps that are in 6120's with Filter'Trons. Way more useful than the standard ol' tone knob. Also, worked great with the HS Filter'trons that I installed in the guitar.

 

[DreX]

Re: Anyone using Tonestylers?

IMO It's definitely more useful with bright pickups like Filter'trons or Strat single coils because there's more high end to subtract, but it's still effective with darker pickups as well. If a pickup is really dark, I'll opt for a bass cut control instead of a cap selector, though.

 

[Artie]

Re: Anyone using Tonestylers?

Here's my take on this: I do kinda what DreX does, but instead of installing it into the guitar, I have it in a little external box that I connect with two clip leads. This way, I can find the best cap for a particular guitar/pickup combination. Once I find the cap value I like best, I just install that specific value. Works for me, and I only need one cap selector, rather than one for each guitar.

 

[Oinkus]

Re: Anyone using Tonestylers?

The duo works on 2 pickups I do believe and the number of cap selections are 6 and 11 with one being off. Neat stuff , whether or not it is worth the cost is dependent on you and how much you like/use it.

 

[Securb]

Re: Anyone using Tonestylers?

Since the thing is bypassed when all the way up, I figure it won't compromise the tone if I add it and I can still blend the volumes to get the tones I've always had without compromise because nothing else buffering the signal like a normal tone knob can.

I own one, use one and love it. If you want the opinion of someone who has used the product and is not making wild assumptions I can tell they are pretty cool. All the way up would be similar to your tone all the way up, the second notch is true bypass. I find myself bouncing between those two settings a lot. I also get a couple of other cool settings. I don't know of anyone that uses every setting. If you can find two or three tones that work for you I would say you are doing well. As far as the costs goes that is relative. There are people that think picks are expensive so they use coins.