P90 not cutting overdrive by rolling volume knob

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CondeZL

New member
I've got a pair of SP90-2 installed with Orange Drop caps (aka treble bleed). The overdrive doesn't seem to be reduced when I roll off the volume knob.
Quite the opposite from what I expected when I saw this video below (3:25). My bridge pickup is really high set-up while my neck pickup isn't. Any thoughts?
 
Re: P90 not cutting overdrive by rolling volume knob

CondeZL said:
I've got a pair of SP90-2 installed with Orange Drop caps (aka treble bleed). The overdrive doesn't seem to be reduced when I roll off the volume knob.
Quite the opposite from what I expected when I saw this video below (3:25). My bridge pickup is really high set-up while my neck pickup isn't. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

The only thing that could do that barring a bad pot or wiring is the wrong value cap. If they are far too big u r breeding the full range of frequencies past the volume control's resistance, in other words not just some of the top end but EVERYTHING. In this case what would happen is the volume will have almost no effect till it;s almost all the way down at which point you are dropping the load till the entire signal is shorted to ground. Remove the bleed cap and if it now works normally you used the wrong value or unlikely but possible, a mislabeled cap. If you wanted to use say a .001uf (1000pf) but accidentally used a .01 or .1, theres your problem. And i never saw orange drops in the .001 range or lower. Not saying there aren't any but thats not a value i usually see. They are typically used as coupling caps in amps where they are usually a far higher value.
 
Re: P90 not cutting overdrive by rolling volume knob

If the guitar in the Vid is using different taper pots, then indeed you could find that your rolloff is not as quick.
 
Re: P90 not cutting overdrive by rolling volume knob

If your guitar doesn"t feature "50's wiring", try it, then roll off the volume AND tone pot. It might help.
 
Re: P90 not cutting overdrive by rolling volume knob

well... I'm using everything brand new. The pots are CTS 500K log + Orange Drop 715p 0.047uf caps +treble bleed. I'm using modern wiring. After I wrote this post I read that digital pedals will prevent the signal from cleaning up. Maybe I should try an analog distortion before start unsoldering parts.
 
Re: P90 not cutting overdrive by rolling volume knob

What amp are you playing through?

Provided your amp has some kind of drive or distortion I'd try plugging straight into it & removing the drive pedal completely. If you still have issues afterwards check your tone capacitor & your treble bleed. I've seen this happen in a guitar where the cap got burned out due to the fella useing a cheap Radio Shack soldering iron & compensating for it's lack of heat with too much time...
 
Re: P90 not cutting overdrive by rolling volume knob

Nostalgic Distortion said:
What amp are you playing through?

Provided your amp has some kind of drive or distortion I'd try plugging straight into it & removing the drive pedal completely. If you still have issues afterwards check your tone capacitor & your treble bleed. I've seen this happen in a guitar where the cap got burned out due to the fella useing a cheap Radio Shack soldering iron & compensating for it's lack of heat with too much time...
Click to expand...

It's a 2x10 solid state. I hate its dirty channel. It pushes volume without saturating. I can borrow an amp, actually
 
Re: P90 not cutting overdrive by rolling volume knob

What value is your treble bleed cap? What is the code printed on it? Or is it printed with the actual value ?

To clarify what i said earlier, if the bleed cap is the wrong value and very large it will be the same as soldering the input and output lugs of the volume control together turning it into a variable load instead of a voltage divider, which is what a volume control is. Then little to nothing will happen till you get it almost to zero.
 
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Re: P90 not cutting overdrive by rolling volume knob

To follow on from above:
-Confirm the treble bleed cap value
-What signal chain are you using when you aren't experiencing it cleaning up?

You've got the Hot P90s which will drive more signal than vintage P90s. If you are using solid state or digital distortion with the gain set high, no matter how low you turn the volume you'll be past clipping on the distortion.

The two situations that clean up great for me are either a boost/Overdrive into tube amp or a Fuzz Face/overdrive with low input impedance with a transistor as the first stage. Also, some of the high end modeling is finally getting there.
 
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