vol. pot. w/capacitor to keep highs when turned down? Andy T. style

[SJ318]

Andy Timmons said he had a capacitor on his volume knob so when he turned down the bridge pickup he could keep all the highs.
I have not heard of this. He did not say HOW it was wired in, or WHAT value the capacitor was. This sounds like an agent of good.
I don't use a tone pot on the bridge pickup so as to add highs, and use a 500k pot. Do I need a tone pot for this mod?
feel free to add thoughts. thank you,
Steven John B.

 

[CloneRanger]

Re: vol. pot. w/capacitor to keep highs when turned down? Andy T. style

I'm happy with a 820pF cap between in and out of the vol pot. The search phrase is "treble bleed"; there are a few other varieties, you can even add a trim pot to the bleed circuit...

 

[Hank-]

Re: vol. pot. w/capacitor to keep highs when turned down? Andy T. style

Yeah, it a treble bleed mod. I use a 180pF cap on my volume knob, it's the same value PRS uses stock & came stock on my Korean PRS SE. I'm not sure if a tone pot is essential for it, I doubt its needed.

 

[AlexR]

Re: vol. pot. w/capacitor to keep highs when turned down? Andy T. style

50's style LP wiring does the same thing. Just attach the tone 'circuit' to the same lug as is soldered the hot to the output jack. No need to buy extra bits

 

[CloneRanger]

Re: vol. pot. w/capacitor to keep highs when turned down? Andy T. style

50's style LP wiring does the same thing. Just attach the tone 'circuit' to the same lug as is soldered the hot to the output jack. No need to buy extra bits

Sorry Alex, definitely not the same thing. But absolutely always worth trying out.

 

[SJ318]

Re: vol. pot. w/capacitor to keep highs when turned down? Andy T. style

Wow,
Thanks for all that. So, i solder the cap at the usual hot pin and solder the othe side to the pin leading to the hot for the 5 way switch? 820 and 180pf seems like a big diff in value. Is one better than the other for keeping highs. Is one not so good when at full volume?
Either way, CloneRanger, AlexR and Hank-, thank you,
Steve

 

[CloneRanger]

Re: vol. pot. w/capacitor to keep highs when turned down? Andy T. style

Here's the basic deal:


The cap allows the highs that are usually lost when turning down to bypass the pot. When on 10, there's no effect of the cap.

 

[Hank-]

Re: vol. pot. w/capacitor to keep highs when turned down? Andy T. style

SJ I think you should try out both the 50s wiring & treble bleed methods, both are super easy to do. With the 50's mod the volume & tone knobs are more interactive with each other as in turning one affects the other as well.

As for the cap value, there isn't a defined value per say, you can try out various values and see which one you like. I just stuck with the 180pF value cause it was working well for me in factory stock form so I had brought two backup caps in case I had to replace the stock one in the future. So when I got my godin session I put one for it as well.

 

[AlexR]

Re: vol. pot. w/capacitor to keep highs when turned down? Andy T. style

Sorry Alex, definitely not the same thing. But absolutely always worth trying out.

Yeah, sorry, I should have said keeps the highs, retains the bass and is an all-round much better solution.

My bad

 

[uOpt]

Re: vol. pot. w/capacitor to keep highs when turned down? Andy T. style

For simple load capacitors values between 1 and 5 nF should work.

 

[SJ318]

Re: vol. pot. w/capacitor to keep highs when turned down? Andy T. style

Hello to all again,
Thanks for the wirering diagram CloneRanger and uOpt for more info. I should have done this years ago! How does 180 or 820pf translate to 1-5nf? Also, as my bridge has no tone pot this does not matter, but my volume is a standard master vol, so this should do the same for my mid and neck bridge which share a master tone. Yes?
Thank you
Steve Buffington

 

[jtougas]

Re: vol. pot. w/capacitor to keep highs when turned down? Andy T. style

Basically, they're a bunch of different values that people have tried, and been happy with for results.

Go crazy, find a cap value that sounds good to you, and run with it.

FWIW (and to further confuse the issue ), you can also run a resistor in parallel to that capacitor (usually, less than half the value of the pot - so a 250k pot would get a 100k resistor ).

 

[CloneRanger]

Re: vol. pot. w/capacitor to keep highs when turned down? Andy T. style

Hello to all again,
Thanks for the wirering diagram CloneRanger and uOpt for more info. I should have done this years ago! How does 180 or 820pf translate to 1-5nf? Also, as my bridge has no tone pot this does not matter, but my volume is a standard master vol, so this should do the same for my mid and neck bridge which share a master tone. Yes?

In my Strat I use a 180pF and 169K resistor in parallel, which is completely perfect with the 250K pot and garden variety Strat p'ups. The tone cap is 6.8nF.

With Humbuckers and 500K pots the tendency is to use a higher value cap, depending on how much treble you want to bleed when turning down. I've landed on 820pF, but any value between 270pF and 1nF might suit your actual p'ups & pots.

 

[SJ318]

Re: vol. pot. w/capacitor to keep highs when turned down? Andy T. style

Hi,
thanks again to y'all
S. buffington

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: vol. pot. w/capacitor to keep highs when turned down? Andy T. style

SJ I think you should try out both the 50s wiring & treble bleed methods, both are super easy to do. With the 50's mod the volume & tone knobs are more interactive with each other as in turning one affects the other as well.

In the 30+ guitars that I have wired with 50's wiring, I have not found that to be the case...they are totally independent.

 

[OttoMatick]

Re: vol. pot. w/capacitor to keep highs when turned down? Andy T. style

Andy Timmons said he had a capacitor on his volume knob so when he turned down the bridge pickup he could keep all the highs.
I have not heard of this. He did not say HOW it was wired in, or WHAT value the capacitor was. This sounds like an agent of good.
I don't use a tone pot on the bridge pickup so as to add highs, and use a 500k pot. Do I need a tone pot for this mod?
feel free to add thoughts. thank you,
Steven John B.

I use a .001 pF ceramic disk cap as a jumper on the volume pots between the zero side of the lug and the sweep arm(middle lug). That way at low volumes the highs bleed directly to the sweep and output jack. one for each volume pot in the guitar.

 

[OttoMatick]

Re: vol. pot. w/capacitor to keep highs when turned down? Andy T. style

another way to fix this without changing the wiring in your guitar is to leave your guitars volume pot on 10(really > 5) and then adjust the volume of your amp to listenable levels according to environment... lol...

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: vol. pot. w/capacitor to keep highs when turned down? Andy T. style

The treble bleed mod has already been discussed. Many cap values will work depending on personal preference.