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50's wiring treble loss

gtto

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Jan 23, 2020
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I have been going crazy trying to cut some bottom on the neck pickup. Guitar is 50's wired but I think there is still a lot of treble roll off when the volume is lowered. I finally added a treble bleed today which seems to have solved my problem but I am curious as to how much others out there with 50's wiring feel about this and what there experience is. Thanks.
 

El Gringo

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Apr 8, 2015
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I love the 50's wiring on my Les Paul's and love how versatile the tone is now . Tell me more about the treble bleed please ?
 

fakejake

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Sep 3, 2010
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I tried the treble bleed on several guitars and decided that it is not for me. In fact, I love the change in treble along the different volume settings. Automatic treble boost for solos when I roll the volume up, treble cut during acompaniment after rolling it down. Magic (y):cool:
 

gtto

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Jan 23, 2020
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I tried the treble bleed on several guitars and decided that it is not for me. In fact, I love the change in treble along the different volume settings. Automatic treble boost for solos when I roll the volume up, treble cut during acompaniment after rolling it down. Magic (y):cool:
Yeah I get that but i always had too much bottom on the neck pickup. I rarely if ever used the tone control on the neck. In fact I disconnected it. Bridge pickup is another story.
 

gtto

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Jan 23, 2020
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I love the 50's wiring on my Les Paul's and love how versatile the tone is now . Tell me more about the treble bleed please ?
Check this ouy... https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/latest-updates/3-popular-treble-bleed-mods-what-you-need-to-know . I tried both the parallel and the series configuration. The series setup maintained a better taper on the volume pot but I didn't have the right resistor values laying around to cut enough bass. I got better sound with the resistor in parallel but the taper is not as nice. At some point I will get some more components and experiment.
 
Last edited:

El Gringo

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Apr 8, 2015
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Check this ouy... https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/latest-updates/3-popular-treble-bleed-mods-what-you-need-to-know . I tried both the parallel and the series configuration. The series setup maintained a better taper on the volume pot but I didn't have the right resistor values laying around to cut enough bass. I got better sound with the resistor in parallel but the taper is not as nice. At some point I will get some more components and experiment.
Thanks for the link as that was a good read .
 

brandtkronholm

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Dec 3, 2006
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What amp are you using and how do you dial in your tone?
I've found that this has a huge influence over the response of tone controls on the guitar.
Are there pedals in your chain?
 

gtto

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Jan 23, 2020
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What amp are you using and how do you dial in your tone?
I've found that this has a huge influence over the response of tone controls on the guitar.
Are there pedals in your chain?
A couple of different amps. A Louis Electric KR 12 and a Ceriatone HRM. Sometimes I use pedals sometimes not. I don't understand what you mean by "dial in my tone". Dial in when? While I am playing or before? It all changes depending on the room. Typically I don't touch the neck tone control but use the bridge tone a lot.
 

brandtkronholm

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A couple of different amps. A Louis Electric KR 12 and a Ceriatone HRM. Sometimes I use pedals sometimes not. I don't understand what you mean by "dial in my tone". Dial in when? While I am playing or before? It all changes depending on the room. Typically I don't touch the neck tone control but use the bridge tone a lot.
How do you dial in your amp? How do you set Bass, Mid, Treble. Bright/Presence? (As on a Fender)
The room might warrant subtle adjustments to the controls on your amp, but it shouldn't ever stray very far from a "base-line" setting of the dials on your amp.
Your amp settings will have great affect on how the tone/volume controls respond on your guitar. i.e., The way you dial in your amp can affect treble bleed when you roll off the volume on your guitar.
 

Big Al

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Apr 24, 2002
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It all depends on how you set your amp. Neck pups always sound dark or bassy next to the bridge pup. This is made worse hen your amp is dialed in for the bridge pup, a far too common mistake. Most common is the use of too much bass in the amp so the sound is huge and fat, .... in the bedroom by itself. In a mix or band setting it becomes mud city.

Dial the amp for best tone with neck pup engaged. The brightest tone you'll use. Then adjust the tone pots on the guitar for desired tone.
 

Sol

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Oct 26, 2001
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Yeah I get that but i always had too much bottom on the neck pickup. I rarely if ever used the tone control on the neck. In fact I disconnected it. Bridge pickup is another story.
When you disconnected the tone control on your neck pickup you halved the options available on your guitar, I'd re connect your tone pot, and re read Big Als post.
 

Tarcisioo

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Oct 5, 2014
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A key way to use 50's wiring to it's best is rolling down the Tone control together with the volume... Rolling down the tone while the volume is already down makes more treble go through, the opposite of the regular/non-50's wiring
 

GeraintGuitar

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Aug 28, 2017
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So you have 50's wiring and a treble bleed ? Thats a little overkill in my opinion as both options add a little treble to the circuit with everything wide open (on 10) , also 50's wiring can add a little of all frequencies inculding bass as its generally a more open or direct representation of your pickups sound , so i would go with just regular wiring with a treble bleed circuit and go through the steps al's laid out with your amp
 

TM1

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Jun 27, 2003
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8,349
Try rolling your Tone control down to 5-6 when you roll the volume back to say 7 or 8. That should help with the clarity.
 
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