Treble Bleed/Volume Pot Mod?

Braunzo

New member
Someone got some information on this? I want to do this mod to my SG, but I don't know jack about it.

The only thing I don't like about it is the fact that when I turn down my volume for a lighter distortion, it loses it's high end and starts to get muddy.

Help?
 
Re: Treble Bleed/Volume Pot Mod?

warmoth sells a capcitor to do exactly what you want to. i forgot exactly which one it is, but if you go to warmoth.com and got to hardware/electronics/capicitors, youll find it. good luck!
 
Re: Treble Bleed/Volume Pot Mod?

Wow, that helps a lot, thank you very much... The Gibson's going to get the treatment very soon. Where's a good (cheap) place to order these?
 
Re: Treble Bleed/Volume Pot Mod?

I do the treble bleed mod on the SD wiring diagrams and it's amazing. Probably cheaper than the warmoth one too. Just a .002 cap and a 100k resistor in parallel on the two terminals on your volume pot that are hot.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=treble_bleed

well, to the best of my knowledge the cap is like $0.50, and i think thats a bit mroe complicated then the warmoth. once again, im not the best person with this but to my understanding the cap only has to be soldered into the system. :question:
 
Re: Treble Bleed/Volume Pot Mod?

I did that a while back, the cap is needed for the treble bleed part, the resistor is needed for the correct tapper, without it you end up with a volume knob that also acts as a mid-treble BOOST instead of retainer.

The values I used were a .001μF cap and a 150K resistor wired in parallel in the two volume pot lugs, with the 500K CTS Audio pot I used it worked truly wonderfully.

I CANNOT comment enough how much this mod improves on the tone.
Unless you run the volume always at 10 this mod helps immensely in improving the tone while as an extra bonus, it does wonders for cleaning up the gain when you roll the volume down...
 
Re: Treble Bleed/Volume Pot Mod?

How would the .001uf cap and 150k resistor stack up against Seymour's suggested .002uf cap and 100k resistor?
 
Re: Treble Bleed/Volume Pot Mod?

How would the .001uf cap and 150k resistor stack up against Seymour's suggested .002uf cap and 100k resistor?

Honestly, I don't really know.
I can tell you that those values may be different depending on the pot's taper but that's about it.
After that you play it solely by ear;
If there's still treble loss use .002uF, if the treble is good but the taper is too steep (too logarithmic) then use a 200K resistor.

On the other hand if there's a treble boost instead use a smaller cap (eg .560pF or sth) and if the taper is too linear (doesn't fall for a big part and then falls of instantaneously) use an even smaller res (eg 100K).

That's about it I think...
 
Re: Treble Bleed/Volume Pot Mod?

I've been using the .001 uF cap & 150k resister for decades & like it fine. Found the circuit in an old book by Donald Bronsnac long ago.
 
Re: Treble Bleed/Volume Pot Mod?

The values I used were a .001μF cap and a 150K resistor wired in parallel in the two volume pot lugs, with the 500K CTS Audio pot I used it worked truly wonderfully.

I did that on my HWY1 strat, only my volume pot is 250K and the resistor, while sold as a 150K, measured 132K on the multimeter.

Thus far it sounds like a very usable mod, but I'm not quite used to it yet.
 
Re: Treble Bleed/Volume Pot Mod?

is the bleed mod appropriate for a p or j bass with a linear vol. pot.? please give opinion(s) or advice! thanx pp
 
Re: Treble Bleed/Volume Pot Mod?

Welcome to the forum pawleep.

This question is better asked in the Pickup Lounge, which I see you've done there also.

Additionally, I wouldn't expect a lot of answers from participants in these threads you are posting in, since they are around 10 years old and most of the participants haven't logged in since then.
 
Re: Treble Bleed/Volume Pot Mod?

the resistor is needed for the correct tapper, .

How would the .001uf cap and 150k resistor stack up against Seymour's suggested .002uf cap and 100k resistor?

You don't get a correct tapper with a typical treble bleed mod, no matter what. The difference between a 100k resistor, or 150k, or no resistor at all, is to get a better or worse shade of "incorrect tapper", your preference of imperfect, basically. Much like the art of passive electronics in general. Here's a good discussion on the topic: http://guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/5317/treble-bleed-circuit

What I've done before is buy a 200k trim pot, and assortment of caps, and alligator clips and ran leads from the volume pot out of my Strat, under the pickguard, and just tries all sort of values out to see where I could get the most usable tones, whether the knob be at 2, 5, 8, or 10. What I've found is that I could get one half of the pot to put out sweet sounds, but the other half would become too dark or too piercing alternatively. I ended up with a cap and resistor in parallel, then a second resistor in series, and that got me from 50% to 75%, but still not 100%, so I decided to give it a rest and I've since forgot why I wanted a treble bleed mod in the first place, because sometimes when I turn my volume down I actually appreciate that the highs are more muted, like for the verse of a song, or the first lead passage of a ballad, you know... before the shirt gets ripped off.

I think in general it's better to got with a high value pot, like 500k instead of 250k, turn down you tone pot to 7 or 8 and leave it there most of time, and then if you roll back the volume and find it too dark, simply turn the tone up to 10 to score back some treble.
 
Re: Treble Bleed/Volume Pot Mod?

The values I used were not from my own tests but from those of my tech, he tried, I commented and we agreed on them as the best approximation. You have to understand that what you use will vary on a number of factors like the pot's value and taper, the pickup's resonant peak and of course, your personal preference. Nowadays I mainly keep my volume at 10 and use the mod for cleaning up the gain so even if the tone gets a bit mellower than what it would be with the volume at 10 on the clean channel, I can work with that.

So to answer pawleep's question, you might benefit from this mod but you'll have to try for yourself and see, TBH I wouldn't expect the values I mention above to work with a bass, they might be giving too much treble, then again that might be to your liking, try and see
 
Re: Treble Bleed/Volume Pot Mod?



The Kinman mod.
Works perfectly.
 
Re: Treble Bleed/Volume Pot Mod?

mojotone sells the resistor/cap set for $2

http://www.mojotone.com/guitar-parts/Guitar-Capacitors/Volume-Mod-for-Guitars#.VFYtUvnF8wg


Volume-Mod-for-Guitars-image.jpg
 
Re: Treble Bleed/Volume Pot Mod?

I'll resurrect this one: why the hell are these things pictures with the component legs intertwined? is it just for ease of soldering?
Installed the Duncan mod tonight, also. Very cool, but I'm not noticing much of a volume drop anymore. Might have to switch to ddifferent values.
 
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