So a few months back I bought a cheap Harley Benton tele to rob some bits (bridge / pickups etc) off for a 3d printed telecaster body. Move on a few weeks later and far down a you tube rabbit hole, I decided that the remaining neck and body could be put to use, and I wanted to try some new things.
So a pair of Guild Dynasonic pickups, a cheap bigsby copy, a delux thinline pickguard and some routing later, I had to decide what to do with the 4 holes on the pickguard. I went for. Volume, Tone, Toggle switch and a Varitone control.
After the initial wiring and playing with a capacitance decade box, I selected 5 Cap values that gave a difference in tone. Followed what little wiring suggestions I could find on the internet and after playing with a few pot values (there are mixed views on what value to use, so I went for personal preference 500ks) and the guitar is mostly where I would like it.
The problem I have is the Varitone switch only really seems to make any difference when the tone is rolled back to 2-3 or lower. I am liking the tones I am getting when playing with it, but anything over 3 on the tone knob and there is no difference in sound. Is this normal?
Comments
The action of a Vari-Tone depends in part on whether its preset selections are bleeding treble, cutting bass or some combination of the two to act as a band pass filter.
EDIT: Do you have a treble bypass network across the input and output terminals of the volume pot?
You may also have a linear or 30% taper log pot, whereas you really need a true 10% log for a tone control to give an even change throughout the turn.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
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A Gibson style Varitone uses an inductor and capacitor matrix to cut the signal at various frequencies.
also just for confirmation there’s no cap on the tone pot itself either.
Thanks both, do either of you know any good wiring diagrams, that would help me create a proper varitone?