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humbucking pickup dead tones

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12/16/1997 11:45 AM

humbucking pickup dead tones

Been noting this behavior with the humbucking pickups in the Les Paul. When I dial back the volume on the guitar, it doesn't sing anymore. Starts getting dead tones. Another guitarist described it as "abrupt decay slope". That sounds more scientific...

As a comparison, rolling off the volume on the single coil pickup strat behaves differently. It rolls off the high frequencies with the volume. This is different than dead tones. The strings still ring, just not as bright. I suppose if I had a choice I would prefer the strat behavior. Does the 250k volume pot (as opposed to the 500k in the paul) make a difference?

Pickups have specifications like Q, magnet gauss, DC resistance, inductance, and resonance peak. Is there an interaction which leads to dead tones?

Somebody has suggested rewiring the whole guitar with silver wire as a fix. How about using George L's cable to do all the back and forth diagonal wire routing in the paul? Can dead tones be avoided?

Sorry if this is completely in left field. I get that way sometimes :-)

:-)

Thanks in advance for any help.

-ken

12/16/1997 2:35 PM
Cosmik Debris	I notice a similar thing with my LP. I can't bring myself to play it with the volume knob turned down. I think there needs to be some sort of active circuit between the guitar and the amp to buffer it. I get a good result by playing through my FM system and having a volume pedal between the receiver and the amp or by putting the volume pedal in the FX loop.

12/17/1997 8:09 AM

Here's some help from a previous thread (May '97)

Reprinted from a message from Dave Harris:

<
DH>>

Further explaination by "Charles:"

<connections. One is a sort of input, one is a sort
of output, and one is soldered to the case
(ground).

Take a capacitor with the value of .001microfarads
and solder it across the two leads on the volume
control that are being used (have wires, not
soldered to the pot's case).

When you turn down the volume, the highs will
bypass through the cap to the output, so the tone
will be bright. This is exactly how a bright switch works on a Fender amp (different value pot tho). Ever notice that the bright switch
only works when the pot is turned down from full? At full, everything passes through the pot, so
bringing the cap into or out of the circuit
wont matter.

Got it?>>

Im note from myself, since you are talking LP's, you might want to play with the cap vlaues some if you don't like the sound of the .001mf. I don't recommend using a 250K pot with HB, put there are no "wrong" combinations, only ones you don't like.

-Y.
(wyatt poist)

12/17/1997 4:01 PM
Cosmik Debris	>Take a capacitor with the value of >.001microfarads >and solder it across the two leads on the volume >control that are being used (have wires, not >soldered to the pot's case). Yeah, I have tried this but was still a little unsatisfied with the results. I tried quite a few different capacitors and perhaps I just didn't get the right value.

12/18/1997 1:38 PM
Ken Drottar	In addition to the cap some recommend a 150kohm resistor between input and output to simulate the 300kohm taper. Still interested in opinions as to why this phenomena occurs...

12/17/1997 11:00 AM
Ken Drottar	Still gathering data to make a determination. Here is another suggestion that was given to me as a potential fix. I confirmed at Gibson's website: http://www.gibson.com/relations/images/diagrams/lespaul2.gif The schematic says pots went to 300k after 7/1/73. There was no statement as to why this was done.

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