Four Ways to Wire a Tone Pot

ICBM

jaymenon said:

i.e. the treble pass capacitor/resistor should work with diagram 1 as well right?

No, because there would be no way for the treble to pass through the small cap to the volume control middle terminal - it would all go to ground through the main tone cap.

Only 2 works - the treble-pass cap goes between the unused terminal on the tone and the middle one on the volume.

Dave_Mc

Oh yes sorry for the confusion, this is just if you want to use a very specific type of treble bleed circuit.

"Standard" treble bleed has the capacitor (or capacitor and resistor) across the first/input and middle lugs of the volume control.

The treble bleed I'm talking about connects to the middle lug of the volume and the unused lug of the tone pot.

EDIT: Like this:

The advantage of this circuit is that (I think!) the treble bleed cap is progressively eliminated from the circuit as you turn the tone down if the volume is also below maximum. This stops you from getting the "thin" sound you can get if you use a standard treble bleed circuit and want to turn the tone down when the volume is below maximum. With the standard circuit it can kind of sound like you're "sucking tone from both ends" of the frequency spectrum- I'm not sure if that's actually what's happening (hopefully @ICBM can confirm or contradict that!), but that's what it sounds like.

It's not a massive difference, but it is a pretty noticeable improvement if you want to be able to use the tone knob alongside reducing the volume control- which you often might since using a treble bleed can sometimes sound a bit bright and tinny unless you get the value(s) exactly right (and even then, sometimes).

About the only slight drawback I've noticed is that, because you're both turning down the tone knob but also gradually disconnecting the treble bleed cap, the tone reduces a bit more abruptly than usual, so if you're very used to a standard tone pot taper, it won't react exactly the same, and might be harder to get to the exact setting you want. (Or if you're very unlucky, and only want to roll the tone off very slightly indeed, the setting you want might not actually be achievable.)

jaymenon

ICBM said:

jaymenon said:

i.e. the treble pass capacitor/resistor should work with diagram 1 as well right?

No, because there would be no way for the treble to pass through the small cap to the volume control middle terminal - it would all go to ground through the main tone cap.

Only 2 works - the treble-pass cap goes between the unused terminal on the tone and the middle one on the volume.

Aaah - so will the treble pass one that goes between input and output of the volume pot will work whichever way the tone pot is wired?
(as long as the tone pot gets its signal from the input of the vol pot)

ICBM

jaymenon said:

Aaah - so will the treble pass one that goes between input and output of the volume pot will work whichever way the tone pot is wired?

(as long as the tone pot gets its signal from the input of the vol pot)

Yes.

Funkfingers

In other news, navel fluff is usually grey.

Dave_Mc

jaymenon said:

ICBM said:

jaymenon said:

i.e. the treble pass capacitor/resistor should work with diagram 1 as well right?

No, because there would be no way for the treble to pass through the small cap to the volume control middle terminal - it would all go to ground through the main tone cap.

Only 2 works - the treble-pass cap goes between the unused terminal on the tone and the middle one on the volume.

Aaah - so will the treble pass one that goes between input and output of the volume pot will work whichever way the tone pot is wired?
(as long as the tone pot gets its signal from the input of the vol pot)

As @ICBM rightly said, yes. Again- sorry for the derail and the confusion!