Anyone Try the treble bleed mod on a PRS?

[big mike]

Duncan shows the Treble Bleed mod, basically a .o2mf cap and 100k resistor in parellel. Supposed to maintain your highs when you turn down the guitar volume.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/websit..._bleed_mod.html

I used to do this on strats with a .01mf cap, I wonder if this would be better for the buckers. My SCT and CU22 (both with the 3 way toggle) mud our a bit turned down, but not my Std24 with 5 way (well, not as much) I have to look, but I assume there's a cap there as well.

So anyone try this? How bout the guru's Jim C and John P?

Thanks guys,
Mike

[John Phillips]

PRSs with the 5-way rotary have a 180pF cap on the pot; most with McCarty switching don't.

I'm not sure why they're different... maybe Paul thinks toggle-switch guys want 'vintage-style treble loss' ;).

You can use a variety of cap values; the useful range is roughly from 100pF to .001uF. You can put a resistor in parallel or series to modify the effect of the cap too - the useful range is about 50K to 250K in series, or 100K to 1M in parallel.

There is no 'right' value though - it depends on your pickups, and especially on the capacitance of your guitar cable. A longer, more capacitive cable will need a larger cap value to balance it. And it depends on taste too of course - some people actually like the sound to get brighter as you turn down, to give a clearer clean tone; a .001uF cap with no resistor will do this very well.

I don't know why this cap has become known as a 'treble bleed' BTW - that's the last thing it is. It's the exact opposite. 'Treble pass' would be more accurate...

[big mike]

Thanks John! Exactly what I was looking for. I appreciate the generosity with your knowledge!

Perhaps I'll buy a few and see. The Standard seems to work well, so I'll start with the 180pF.

I mostly run a 10 ft planet waves to the pedal board, and a 10 or 15 away from it to the amp. On the occasions I go pedal free (prefered!) It's and 18' straight to the amp.

Many thanks!

Mike

[Old Tele man]

not a PRS, but I've got one on my '68 Fender Telecaster with '71 Fender/Seth Lover neck humbucker...really helps to "recover" the sparkle and sibilance that humbuckers often loose...without it, the lower the VOL, the "muddier" the tone became...unless I (obviously) cranked the TONE pot all the way up.

With the RC-circuit across the VOL pot, the tone "stays" pretty much where set on the TONE pot...

Some people LIKE it's effect, others don't -- I did, and I play everything from BACH to ROCK and back.

[G'OlPeachPhan]

Big Mike,

Only thing I don't like about high pass circuits is that you also lose some bass and lower mids as you turn down the volume. So there is a trade-off... just the nature of the beast. With some guitars/pickups I like it, with others I don't. Not a bad idea to experiment though, as the mod is really simple.

With most of the pickups I really like (Wagners for example), they tend to retain enough clarity for me without the high pass circuit, and just sweeten up a tad when you roll down the volume.

The other option if you want to be able to clean up your amp without losing any sparkle is to check out a TopHat Xpressor pedal (you'd have to find it used as they don't make 'em any more)... If you want a cleaner tone with all the sparkle retained and no loss of bass or lower mids, you simply step on the "clean" side of the pedal. It also features a great FET boost in the same pedal, which works great to give a tougher, edgier sound to a Dr. Z amp.

If you want to try the Xpressor some time, I'd be happy to send you mine to give it a whirl... always happy to help out a fellow Z-addict. Just another option for you to check out if you want!