How to mod a bass-cut circuit for 50s wiring?

mistercharlie

As mentioned in a couple of other threads, I'm rewiring my Strat for a master volume/bass cut circuit. I'm basing it on the G&L schematic below (except my treble pot is 250K, not 500K).

I usually run the 50s mod on most guitars, which I prefer to the treble-bleed. But how would I add this to the G&L circuit? Usually it involves hooking the the tone pot up to the output of the volume pot instead of the input, but in this circuit that doesn't seem possible.

ICBM

Undo the blue wire from the treble tone pot and the green wire from the switch.

Connect the blue wire to where the green wire was on the switch.

Connect the green wire to where the white wire is on the volume pot.

NB, this will make the two tone controls drastically interactive.

mistercharlie

Fantastic!

I just wired it according to the diagram and closed it up, right before your reply! But I don’t like the results, so I’ll re-do it again tomorrow.

Right now the bass cut works great, but the regular tone and volume are lifeless compared to the 50s-style, or Fez Parka wiring. What I like about it (the 50s-style) is that the signal is so much more direct. Also, rolling the tone down a little gives a cocked-wah sound, as opposed to just dull mud with regular wiring. 

Thanks a ton, @ICBM. I couldn’t have worked that out myself. 

ICBM

If you want the cocked-wah sound then the 50s-type wiring should do that - with the treble cut after the bass cut the two tone controls will fight each other to an extent, but that's actually what you need to give a narrow band-pass type sound. You may find you need to be careful how you set them or it will cut too much 'body' from the sound.

mistercharlie

Maybe I don’t need the bass cut at all. It’s just that two tone knobs seems like a waste — that said, I was very happy with the sound before I idea to ‘improve it’. 

I re-did that diagram according to your instructions;

ICBM

That's correct.

No reason not to try it if you have the extra tone knob. The worst that can happen is you don't use it. The best is that you can get some funky wah-type tones that can't be done with standard controls.

If it was me I would probably reverse the positions of the two tone controls since it will be easier to wire up, and the one that will be easier to roll quickly for 'hand wah' effects will then be at the bottom which I find better... totally your call though .

mistercharlie

I might switch the positions. One of the 250K pots is also a push-push, to switch in the bridge pickup for Tele-style sounds. It’s a bit in the way in the volume position, so I should re-do it in the second tone spot. 

mistercharlie

ICBM said:

That's correct.

No reason not to try it if you have the extra tone knob. The worst that can happen is you don't use it. The best is that you can get some funky wah-type tones that can't be done with standard controls.

If it was me I would probably reverse the positions of the two tone controls since it will be easier to wire up, and the one that will be easier to roll quickly for 'hand wah' effects will then be at the bottom which I find better... totally your call though .

Done, finally. I had an intermittent short in the volume pot which ended up taking hours to track down.

In the end I had to repurpose the spare middle/bridge tone pot as a volume. 

The mod mod works great. The only oddity is that the volume falls off fast, between 10 and 7 on the knob. Below 7 it’s very quiet. Is that normal? Or is it something to do with using an audio taper pot? I can’t tell what the original volume pot was, because it’s covered in solder. 

I do do know that the whole pickguard came direct from a Classic Player 60s Strat.  

ICBM

Normal for a Log pot with 50s wiring. Bear in mind the treble tone control is now a load on the output of the volume pot...

mistercharlie

Well, it sounds good, that’s what counts. And if it’s too quiet I can always turn the amp up…