Vol - Treble - Bass controls on guitar

goldtop

I'm doing some more planning for my hard-tail Strat build and now looking at electronics. Anyone got any experience of using a passive bass control on a guitar? Something like this http://www.planetz.com/treble-and-bass/ Seems that it was a uniquely G&L thing:



I'm wondering if it earns its keep? Especially when plugging into amps with excess bottom end emphasis.

Adam_MD

I thought it was excellent when I first got my g&l but after I'd had it a while it became a bit of a faff as I was constantly adjusting them.

I ended up rewiring it with standard strat config vol/tone/tone and was a lot happier. YMMV

Fuzzdog

I wired up a Strat with the G&L style treble and bass controls a few years ago.  Interesting for a while, but never really found much use for cutting the bottom end off single coils.  Always wanted to give that setup a try with humbuckers though, could be rather handy indeed.

ICBM

Reverend put them on a lot of their models too.

goldtop

Thanks chaps. It is for a dual-HB guitar, and for the reason that neck humbuckers into some cranked vintage amps can be a bit too woofly. It'd be good to be able to roll that off a bit. Will see if I can find a schematic that shows what Reverend did.

Chalky

I think the Reverend is the same circuit - have got/had a few and the Contour control is useful but bear in mind it will suit some pickups better than others, and you may find like I did that a switch that sends the whole signal through the low value cap just before the signal gets to the jack is more useful.

Here Josh at CME demonstrates it rather well.

goldtop

Thanks - have now found a few Web references and I think you're right that the Reverend is the same circuit as the G&Ls.

Good point, too, on just using a switched cap instead - maybe two values with a centre-off toggle?

ICBM

Yes, the Reverend circuit is the same - just a cap in series with the pickups and bypassed by a variable resistance.

You can do it with a switch, yes. Bear in mind that the cap values are roughly 1/10th of the ones you need for a standard tone control, so .0022uF or .0047uF are not typos if you see them on a schematic .

Rickenbacker also used a .0047uF on the bridge pickups of their vintage instruments, and have it switchable on the current 4003 bass.

goldtop

Thanks. Will mock it up as an inline stomper between guitar and amp and try it on a couple of guitars with similar pickups.

ICBM

goldtop said:

Thanks. Will mock it up as an inline stomper between guitar and amp and try it on a couple of guitars with similar pickups.

Just make sure you keep the guitar volume up full or it won't give an accurate representation of how it will work between the pickup switch and the volume control.

Chalky

ICBM;984688" said:

goldtop said:

Thanks. Will mock it up as an inline stomper between guitar and amp and try it on a couple of guitars with similar pickups.










Just make sure you keep the guitar volume up full or it won't give an accurate representation of how it will work between the pickup switch and the volume control.

Thanks for correcting me regarding cap location @ICBM @goldtop - your 2 cap idea is good, but be prepared that you may find you only use one setting - I find I use the Reverend Contour either fully on or fully off. You're straying into Gibson Varitone territory

ICBM

Chalky said:

You're straying into Gibson Varitone territory

Half a dozen sounds, but only one of them (with it turned off!) any good?