Strat TBX circuit.

[Curt]

Has anyone installed a TBX pot in your strat? If so, what did you think?

[John Phillips]

I take them out of any Strat or Tele I find them in.

If it's mine of course - but I'll recommend it for anyone else too. I can't stand them - tone-killing, plastic-sounding piece of marketing BS.

They were billed as giving 'more presence and sparkle' when turned right up, or some such rubbish. In fact they do nothing of the sort - they just make you think you're getting more brightness at the top end by artificially strangling the tone at the detent position.

There's an 82K resistor in parallel with the lower part of the dual pot. Above the detent, the resistor and the tone cap are progressively taken out by a 1Meg pot; below, the resistor works in parallel with a normal 250K pot and a .022uF cap.

IMO there's no position on the whole control that sounds really 'right' - anything below the notch is honky and lacks depth, and up full is thin and harsh - and there doesn't seem to be a happy medium.

I think the best thing to do is remove it and replace with a standard 250K tone control with either a .022 or .047 cap. If you do want an ultra-bright sound, the newer 'Delta Tone' no-load pot (which removes the tone network from the circuit entirely when the knob is at 10) sounds much better IMO.

[/rant]

There... I feel better now.

:)

There are actually a few ways of modding the TBX circuit to make it sound better too - all of which involve removing the 82K resistor - but considering they have an irritating habit of going scratchy at the detent position, I think you're just better off without them...

[Curt]

John,

Let me get this straight.....are you saying that you DON'T like the TBX circuit? Seriously, thanks for your opinion. I think I'll pass on the TBX.

[screamingdaisy]

I have them on mine.

Mine has a 3.7meg resistor in parallel with the .022uF cap on the one pot, and an 82kohm resistor on the bottom.

Below five it works just like a normal pot, above five it adds brightness (I'm told it does this by altering the resonnant peak of the pickup).

Mine's 15 years old and still isn't scratchy.

The only time I ever use it above five is occasionally I'll use it on the bridge humbucker to punch through high gain a little better. I never use it on the neck singles.

[Old Fuzzface]

I'm with John - I thought it was dreadful.

I put the Delta tone on mine. So I can have the tone control on the bridge pickup but still get the "vintage" Strat bridge tone, i.e. with no tone control in circuit, if I want it.

Much better.

[poipounder57]

Try this modification...Doc's Mod. Works for me:D

http://blueguitar.org/tbx_doc.gif

This will take you the forum page...I got it from

http://www.fenderforum.com/forum.html?db=&topic_number=194509

Good-luck!!!

Aloha:cool:

[gregc]

I like em with the new noiseless Strat pickups. I prefer vintage style Strats without them.
gregc