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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Re: More Volume control Tone

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11/6/1997 10:03 AM
SProuty	Re: More Volume control Tone Hey! Thanks for the info. I'll do some investigating tonight and figure out what's going on under that pick-guard.

11/25/1997 10:56 AM

Steve,
I finally finished (for the moment) rewiring my Rick. I took your advice and just replaced both .047uf caps with smaller value ones. I tried .033, .022, .015 and then at last .010uf. This small a value cap doesn't offer a lot of tonal adjustment but it makes all the right sounds to my ears. One thing I discovered was how important it is to test the different values at different levels of volume. I found that the .015uf caps were fine when I played at lower levels, but at stage volumes they required a lot less bass compensation from the amp. Thanks again for the help. (Now if only I can Figure out how to slip in a P-90 without adding holes??)

Stephen Prouty

11/26/1997 1:19 AM

Stephen:

I think most guitarists never use their tone control at all! Matt Griblin had an interesting article talking about how he'd play an unamplified electric guitar while watching TV. Out of habit, he'd reach over and make sure that the tone controls were set to 10!

I don't know why Fender and Gibson got to using caps as large as 0.1uf- it must have had to do with the times and the musical styles back then. On one earlier incarnation of my Fender Tele, I put a push-pull pot in the volume position- when pushed in, it was a volume control with the tone cap removed from the circuit; when pulled up, the pot became a standard tone control and the volume control was bypassed.

In any case, a guitarist friend who toured a lot told me that he thought pickups sound better if they are loaded down with a cap (even if the tone control is set to 10). So I added a cap in series with a 500K or 1 meg resistor to load down the pickup when the tone control was bypassed. I thought it did smooth out some of the harshness in the pickup.

Glad to hear that your Rickenbacker is working better for you!

Steve Ahola

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