Treble Bleed with Seth Lovers...is it necessary ?

[BeerBatteredPhish]

Recently put a new set of Seth Lovers into a PRS Zach Myers with new PRS volume and tone pots. Volume pot (500k) was a 180pf cap for treble bleed. Tone pot (500k) has a .033uf capacitor. Wiring is the "modern" layout (as opposed to 50's wiring). Playing through my 65 Deluxe Reverb it's certainly a vintage PAF tone, but seems on the bright side. I'm used to rolling the volume down to 8 or so and having a mellower top end, not so much with this current set up. I'm thinking of clipping the leg of the treble bleed cap where the pickup leads are landed to see if this mellows or adds some richness to the tone. For driven tones I'm using a klone into TS9. Ideally, I was hoping to capture a 335 vibe with the PRS Zach and Seth combo...warmer, woody.

Do you folks use treble bleeds on Seths ?

 

[ErikH]

I personally don't use the treble bleed for anything. I've tried and although I did find a cap/resistor combo that I liked (another type of treble bleed configuration vs. cap only), after a while I had to get away from it. Clip it and see what it does.

 

[Mincer]

Welcome to the forum!

I have never needed a treble bleed with my Seth set. They have an amazing sort of honky tone, and sound great as-is when you turn the volume down.

 

[AlexR]

In the time it took to join and then post the thread, you could have simply done the deed and known already.

 

[jeremy]

i dont usually use treble bleeds on anything, so id take that out.

 

[BeerBatteredPhish]

In the time it took to join and then post the thread, you could have simply done the deed and known already.

Pretty hard when I'm at my desk at work and the guitar is 30 miles away....but, hey...I appreciate your snarky reply. Seems like you're a hoot at parties !

 

[AlexR]

Yep, parties is where I shine......I can do all sorts of bird impressions, not just owls.

But seriously - every time when someone asks these sort of questions and its simple to do I wonder why people need the outside validation. What if you really wanted to try it and everyone else said no because they didn't like it?? Would you bow to peer pressure based on total stranger's choices, or just see if it did for your own likes by doing it

 

[jeremy]

Yep, parties is where I shine......I can do all sorts of bird impressions, not just owls.

But seriously - every time when someone asks these sort of questions and its simple to do I wonder why people need the outside validation. What if you really wanted to try it and everyone else said no because they didn't like it?? Would you bow to peer pressure based on total stranger's choices, or just see if it did for your own likes by doing it

that could be said for most things on any forum. why ask when you can do it yourself and check it out?

 

[BeerBatteredPhish]

Yep, parties is where I shine......I can do all sorts of bird impressions, not just owls.

But seriously - every time when someone asks these sort of questions and its simple to do I wonder why people need the outside validation. What if you really wanted to try it and everyone else said no because they didn't like it?? Would you bow to peer pressure based on total stranger's choices, or just see if it did for your own likes by doing it

Well all knowing bird caller, I clipped the caps, adjusted a little height and raised some pole pieces tonight. Sounds much richer now. Why did I ask? I’m 58, my eyes are horrible at working with tiny wires even with my bifocals. For the past 30 years, I’d wire all my guitars, not now. I had my luthier install these Seth’s and new pots, well worth the $100 for me. I just wanted to get some feed back from other Seth users. End of story.

 

[pskorz]

Ha ha. It’s a valid point, but sometimes it’s good to just run it by some more experienced guys. You might have a mod in mind, and one of the others may save you in time because of something you didn’t think of or consider.

and sometimes it’s fun just to talk about the stuff. I made a post a while back about a fairly common pickup that I’d all but decided to get. It’s fun just to throw it out there… and maybe get some validation or reassurance.

 

[Mincer]

Well all knowing bird caller, I clipped the caps, adjusted a little height and raised some pole pieces tonight. Sounds much richer now. Why did I ask? I’m 58, my eyes are horrible at working with tiny wires even with my bifocals. For the past 30 years, I’d wire all my guitars, not now. I had my luthier install these Seth’s and new pots, well worth the $100 for me. I just wanted to get some feed back from other Seth users. End of story.

Seths are remarkable pickups that don't need any tricks to sound great.

 

[beaubrummels]

I haven't really needed treble bleeds on anything.

 

[skelt101]

My preference is for no treble bleed, with the tone control (if there is one) wired '50s style. The treble bleed that I tried (PRS) seemed un-naturally bright to me. A cap/resistor combo was better, but changed the taper of the pot to act more linear. The "best" solution is sometimes the simplest. :fing2:

 

[Ascension]

I like treble bleeds a lot with the right pickups hate them with others. Examples are here with several of my Carvin Kiesel guitars. They all come wired with treble bleeds unless you specify otherwise. I like them a LOT with the C22's in one of my DC 600's and the set of Berriliums in another. The pickups in both guitars are on the dark side so would get muddy when turning the volume down without the bleed. However with the Perpetual Burn Jazz set in my Purple DC 127 I removed the bleed as wanted those pickups to get darker and woodier as I rolled down.
I haven't worked with Seths enough to really know how they respond with my rigs as you roll the guitar volume back.
My advice is desolder one side of the bleed cap and try it that way if you don't like it you can resolder it back or if you swap pickups to something that is on the warm side you have the cap in place to reattach.

 

[BeerBatteredPhish]

My preference is for no treble bleed, with the tone control (if there is one) wired '50s style. The treble bleed that I tried (PRS) seemed un-naturally bright to me. A cap/resistor combo was better, but changed the taper of the pot to act more linear. The "best" solution is sometimes the simplest. :fing2:

Yep...there was a high end sheen on the notes. The OEM 245 humbuckers were punchy, and had some decent girth (this was prior to having the stock pots removed and there was no treble bleed on this model). After the PRS core vol and tone pots were added and the Seths, it was very bright and had too much piano like chime on the would strings. That PRS treble cap was very noticeable. Now my 09 McCarty with 57/08 pickups has no treble bleed and it sounds amazing...best guitar in my collection.

Thanks to all for your input.