1) The treble bleed operates the same way as the Bright switch on a Fender amp, which means it does NOTHING at full volume, and only works to retain brightness as you turn down the guitar volume. That's not a flaw, simply the normal functioning of such simple circuits Didn't want anyone to think it was capable of doing anything different. 2) The 150k resistor modifies the Volume pot tape a bit, such that the *perceived* volume adjustment seems smoother. 3) The .001uf value is not a hard and fast rule. If your pickups are a little shrill, you can opt for a smaller value to restrict the treble preservation to the higher highs, and exclude the mids. 4) I've experimented with this for years. If one uses a higher cap value than indicated here, like .0022-.0047uf, the volume pot behaves a little like a bass-cut, going from 10 down to 6 or 7, and a volume pot below that. Such values, used on the bridge pickup's volume, can make it sound a little more single-coil-ey as you reduce volume, without losing the hum-rejection. 5) I strongly recommend using a Tone cap value of about 1/4 to 1/5 the value of the neck Tone control cap for the bridge pickup. So if the neck is .022, try .0047-.0056 for the bridge. The neck sound can benefit by becoming dull and wooly, but no one ever switches to their bridge pickup for that sort of sound. So why use a tone cap that's the same value for neck AND bridge? The smaller cap value on the bridge will let you dial in tones that still bite, but have nice rounded edges. It's like taking #220 grit sandpaper to the edges and smoothing them down.
@@jameskrys5286 Photo-optic volume pedals are not immune to treble loss through loading. They *certainly* provide scratch-free performance for their lifespan, but because there is always power required for the light source in the pedal, optical volume pedals are nearly always accompanied by some type of buffer circuit that gets you safely past any loading issues. That's still a good recommendation on your part, but the buffering does not compensate for a treble-impaired signal feeding it. It only does a good job of preserving whatever bandwidth walks in its door. So, a compensated guitar volume pot, PLUS an optical volume pedal, is a nice pairing.
@KC I certainly can't challenge you when it comes to HF transducers, and I'm not denying anything about the the other portions of the circuit that assist high-end, but I know a bypass cap on a volume pot when I see one. And I know that when a pot is turned up full, such that there is no effective resistance between input and wiper, the bypass cap provides no advantage for higher-frequency content because there is a zero-ohms path sitting there just waiting. That circuit in the guitar functions identically to the same cap/pot combination in the amp. That's pretty much all I was saying at the outset. Perhaps I should have said we were *talking* about two different things, rather than *confusing* them. It happens. No need to get worked up about it.
I depend on the loss of treble when turning down a Les Paul, it allows a fit for the guitar in a band mix. Also, it show up as tonal shift in everyday rhythmic playing. Couldn’t live without it.
Great Vid Shane! New Mod make the Guitar sound Fantastic! I did the same Mod to me Tele. Just installedGibson Mini Humbuckers to my Gibson LP ‘60s Tribute from 2011 and made it sound 10 times better!! Have a Good Day and stay Healthy! Cheers from the US!
I like 50s wiring on an LP. It changes the tone pot taper but it keeps a lot of tops as you roll off volume. But, I do have treble bleeds on a lot of my guitars. You just buy the resistors and caps in bulk and you can do the mod for a few cents. The other passive frontier is the is the LCR Network -- inductance coils such as the Bill Lawrence Q-Filter, and the Kent Armstrong tone choke. When wired with a pot these can be used to get variable midrange dip and offer incredible tonal variety for a humbucker. The Varitone circuit in some old Gibsons offered a choke/coil only setting but it was all on and not variable -- that was B.B. King's sound.
Good quality components unfortunately don't cost a few cents each! Analogue type components vary tremendously! Think valve (tube) vs transistor amplification! The old style Paper in Oil (PIO) capacitors have significant different sonic characteristics to the more modern mica or ceramic types! Can I suggest you explore the '50s wiring technique which is essentially the same as the modern wiring except that you move the tone capacitor connection on the volume pot from the outside position to the middle (wiper) position. That's it! No other changes! It will change the sweep characteristics of your volume and tone pots but you'll find that you don't lose the highs when you turn down the volume! I have a much higher end quality Tokai than Shane has which came with the modern wiring and Cap/Resister bleed circuit. I got rid of the bleed circuit and changed where the tone circuits comes off the master volume as described above and the tonal results are chalk and cheese!
Smart mod for dark Teles. Those are very useful tones - sounded great!. At one time, I tried a treble bleed in my Strat. I didn't like it, and removed it. I didn't like the way the volume knob worked with it. My Strat's got treble to spare. I think your modded Tokai sounded the best of the guitars you compared it to.
A treble bleed mod can do wonders. But an electric guitar is teh sum of all of it's parts. Jack, pots, pickups, caps, soldering all count. Sure glad you are happy with your caps install for the bleed, Shane. Seems to put a grin on ya bud! Here I am working on a flat tire of my rider mower & you are enjoying a new tone on your guitar. Life throws it's smiles in all directions, doesn't it? Keep rocking, Shane!!!
This mod is dirt cheap and it made this guitar come alive! Let me know if you like these mods for your guitar. Time Stamps: 0:00 - Tone Samples with my Blues Deluxe Reissue ►Get one on Sweetwater - imp.i114863.net/VXMqR (affiliate link) 1:16 - Clean Tone Samples with a High Pass Filter / Treble Bleed Mod 5:38 - Distortion Tones Samples with a Treble Bleed / High Pass Filter 7:17 - My Gibson Les Paul Special with P90 pickups (for comparison) 10:19 - My Gibson Flying V Humbucker Guitar (for comparison) 11:59 - What the mod looks like 12:34 - More information 13:55 - Killer rock tones with a High Pass filter installed (full volume)
Sounds phenomenal, I'm glad you put it in. It wouldn't be the same to not see you playing your Love Rock, it's been in so many of your videos. Stay safe and healthy mate, and avoid the GC in Orlando when you do finally get here for your road trip. 👍
Just had this mod installed an my first real guitar that I bought in the 80s . Late 70s American Strat. Also had tone hooked the bridge pickup. But I love this guitar now. Want treble bleeds on all my guitars now.
Sounded great! I discovered the world of treble bleeds a month or two ago. I bought a Squier Bullet Tele with ceramic pickups and it was a little too dark. Did a treble bleed in it for free. I have a clock radio that broke, so I took it apart and pulled a capacitor and resistor of the correct values and installed. Instantly it sounded like Alnico pickups, really awesome. I then performed the same treble bleed on my Strat which has Alnico 5 pickups, but I have never been totally satisfied with the sound on the 4th pickup selector when using overdrive, it was too muddy no matter how you adjusted volume or tone. After the treble bleed it sounds amazing in the 4th position with overdrive. Very clear and defined when dirty. Thanks again for the awesome quality videos Shane! I have watched for years and will continue to watch. I frequently go back and watch your old Joyo pedal demos, such fun!
50's wiring doesn't even cost you $ 5. Just wire the tone capacitor after the volume pot. It's a slight effect compared to a treble bleed circuit, but it works in a good way.
I have a Les Paul Standard from 2021 with 50's wiring. It doesnt work at all. If I go down to 8 habe literally 0 high end 😑 Maybe my guitar is faulty but it really makes the volume knobs absolutely unusable. Maybe i should install a high pass filter aswell?🤔
@@toxicavenger9617 With 50's wiring, the capacitor behaves like a high-pass filter when viewed from the volume pot. So you may need to check the wiring and parts. If your wiring and parts are correct, lowering the capacity of the capacitor will increase the effect of the high-pass filter as opposed to the tone pot. I wish you good luck.
I almost bought an Epiphone 59 LP exactly like this a few months ago and I'm still kicking myself for not taking it home. Beautiful dark cherry sunburst and just enough play wear to know someone really liked it but didn't abuse it. At the time I was seeking a new acoustic so I kept looking and unfortunately it sold before I came to my senses. Live and learn though, should have trusted my gut.
Yeah, great vid, Shane, this is really a common problem. I'm gonna do this to my epi sg, it's an easier and cheaper way than 50s wiring. Maybe next time :-)
The 50's wiring is far simpler and requires no extra electrical components! All that you have to do is change where your tone capacitor connects to your volume pot from the outside to the the middle (wiper) tag!!! That is the only difference in wiring but it stops you losing the highs when you wind down the volume! You'll find good information this on the Seymour Duncan site!
Mick Brenton I looked into that some time ago and the rewiring I'd have to do didn't seem so easy to me, and I'd probably have to change the wires themselves as well. But thanks for the feedback, maybe I got that wrong...
I have a treble bleed on my single cut P-90 guitar. Huge difference when rolling off the volume. It seems to give the tone control better range as well.
Welcome to the treble bleed/bypass world. I've been using them for 10 years. I started with the fender tele standard .001 capacitor only but found it too bright below 4. I added a 200k resistor in parallel with the cap' and it worked out. It's now on all my guitars
I like them both ways, but primarily without treble bleeds to get that tiny bit of snarl when you turn the treble down "just so". Sweet spot; just about the same volume.
Henric Oscarsson They own treble and middle. Fender has bought bass before they got to it. They also registered something called “bassle” in case someone discovers a frequency as yet unknown.
Hi Shane I did this mod to my old Ibanez "lp-shaped" guitar. Cheap and amazing! Incidentally I have since gone further and replaced the pots and pickups (Seymour Duncan P-Rails) and have kept the high pass filter, which gives a broad spectrum of sounds. Not for everybody, but it suits me. I have a Tonemaster Twin; I have no shortage of sweet, clear treble when I need it! Thanks for your great videos. Bruce
I fitted a treble bleed circuit to my Squier Jim Root tele, and it made a real difference. I also fitted a tone control (the standard guitar doesn't have one) and now, with both pickups selected, the tone rolled right off and a distorted amp, there's a 'cocked wah' sound, reminiscent of Santana's classic tone. I've also fitted a treble bleed circuit to my CV 50s strat, but the jury's out on this one, as I find it more beneficial with humbuckers, and not so much with single coils.
@intheblues You're showing the same bubbly enthusiasm I had when I installed my first treble bleed, lol. Discovered them when I got a fantastic sounding Strat that just died tonally when touching the volume. Read up about what was causing it, what "treble bleed" mods did, installed one (capacitor and resistor in parallel), and was so impressed I ended up installing bleeds on all my electrics. I tried using just capacitors, but found the effect to be too harsh, basically the other extreme. Using a resistor in parallel helps keep the effect fairly uniform throughout the sweep. As for the values, I've found each guitar really is completely different. I think I might've originally used the Seymour Duncan values as a starting point, but it was ultimately trial and error finding the best values for each gat; easier than it sounds, just soldered a couple of wires/clips at the contact points so I could swap out values on the go without pulling anything apart. I've tried to get them as neutral as possible, erring toward adding a little treble at very low volume. Honestly, treble bleeds really do breathe new life into guitars. They allow for much more dynamic playing. If you're keen on opening up tonal possibilities, another Les Paul (& etc) mod I tried and liked: 1x Master Volume, 1x Master Tone Use the second tone pot as a blender, and swap out the second volume pot for a rotary phase switch. That will give you a HEAP more tonal options.
I put one in my strat and not only do I love it, it’s changed the way I play. Now I set my rig up much louder, brighter, and most distorted and ride the volume and tone knobs constantly. I almost never turn them all the way up to 10 now.
Very interesting and I loved the Tone with the Tokia, surprising. Is it possible to modify only the neck pickup? I have a firebird and the bridge pickup is great, but the neck is very bassy and muddy, lacking in the clarity I want. Good if I could just add the mod to the neck without any impact on the bridge.
Yes - a firebird should have separate volume and tone controls for the neck and bridge pickups, so the addition of a treble bleed circuit to the volume pot of your neck pickup won’t affect the sound of your bridge pickup.
That sounds great Shane. It really sounds very consistent through the sweep. I put a 180pf cap on my strat volume pot and although a conservative cap, it still vastly improved the treble loss.
Sounds great! Now give pull/push pots a go for even more awesomeness. I installed pull/push pots into my EPI LP Custom, along with Barenuckle Mules and 50’s wiring - Sounds mega. It’s like I’ve now got the sounds of three guitars in one.
Sounds Great! sometimes its the small mods that make a big difference. Great Playing too! I really like your Jr les paul! Thanks for the great content!
How your guitar is wired and the value of the wiring components is so fundamentally important. There’s tons of super cheap mods that can totally transform a guitar.
Yep have installed Treble Bleeds in all the guitars here, except the 2019 Strat Pro and the 2019 Afinity Tele, they both came with them pre-installed. I've found there's slightly different values for single coil and humbuckers I also add an inline resister to the single coils. What I use, on single coils, is a 20K resistor from pin 1 on the pot going to a 150K resistor in parallel with a 1200pF cap to pin 2 and on humbuckers a 100K resistor in parallell with a 2000pF cap across pins 1 & 2 of the pot.
I actually prefer 50s wiring. I find the treble bleed also attenuates some bass. But if you go with 50s wiring it works best with linear volume pots and log tone pots.
You are spot on!!! It took me nearly 40 years of using bleed capacitors to find that out! Bumblebee Caps with 50's wiring will give you the best Lester tone at any volume!!! They got it right first time!!!
I bought a couple of $0.07 caps and installed them in my LP years ago. They made a big difference. My LP has a classic 57 neck and burstbucker pro bridge, and it was a pure mud machine. I would tend to run my tone knob full out and always wanted it to go to 15. The treble bleed does nothing at full volume, and as you point out, they make a big difference when you drop the volume. The important thing to realize is this: Without the caps, when you turn down the volume, you disproportionately cut highs. With the cap, you disproportionately cut lows at lower volume. It's just a different way of thinking about it. When my LP feels like it has way too much low end, I dial back the volume about 6 and my PUPs identically match the "Vintage" voiced humbuckers of my PRS 594. Yes the output is lower at that point, but you can adjust your rig to compensate. I suppose the real solution would be to put a multiband EQ right in the guitar, but purists will hate this, so instead we do a 1 band EQ in the form of a high-pass filter.
Just for information...the treble bleed is in fact a low cut. You still loose treble while turn down the volume knob but cut the lows too and have the impression of a brighter sound.
This video should be titled "Shane falls down the rabbit hole" Not to worry. It's a fun place to be. ...Next comes the 50's wiring mod. You'll like it.
I built one for my Strat about a year ago, but haven't installed it yet. I used alligator clips so I could remove it if I want. Just in case... Thanks for your vids.
I have an Epiphone double cut LP Special that had Gib$on P90's in when I got it. It had that problem as well. I replaced the Gib$on P90's with Mojotone Quiet Coil P90's which sound fantastic but they had the same problem. Adding treble bleeds resolved it. I make my own treble bleeds cause I don't the values used in the pre-made ones.
as said in the main comment ...i tried the treble ciurcuit an had a friend show me the 50's wiring scheme in comparison an you can hear a difference ....also you can raise the pot value from 500 to 1 ohm for same results
With everything there is a down side! Sometimes when doing this, when you roll off the volume, yes the treble stays or gets brighter, but often the LOWS also get rolled off in opposition! Good job Shane!
I've once heard somewhere, with such a great deal of controls built right into your guitar, why spending money and crowding your pedalboard with stuff you could do from your instrument, already?
My Gretsch Jet comes stock with treble bleed in the Master Volume. You may want to put a treble bleed in the neck volume of your P90 LP. It may also change the sound more to your liking by experimenting with different capacitor values.
Ahhhh..... what a magnificent rabbit hole to explore! For me they work better on some guitars than others. If you really want some fun do a search for "tapered treble bleed" and have a look at that option. Works great for me. Cheers Neil............................. ps..... love your work Shane!
People hear me out here. If you need to brighten the tone of a humbucker you can simply add a small capacitor (maybe 1nf) at the begining of the first coil and the end of it. It doesnt matter which coil. The problem is that you can do this on a 4 wire pickup, otherwise you have to find the wire that jumps from the first coil to the second and solder there. I ve done this on some pickups with good results. Chears!
I used to want one of those tokai love rocks, a guy in California was selling the Chinese made ones, but I got an Ibanez semi hollow body instead. Good you're keeping that.
Great mod as long as you're not using vintage style fuzz circuits. You won't get the cool cleanup/responsiveness from a Fuzz Face style pedal, which I learned after buying a Fulltone '69 almost 20 years ago. Had to remove the treble bleed circuit from my guitar to get the pedal (or any fuzz pedal that relies on input impedance) to sound and perform the way we normally expect it to.
That 150k/.001uF combo is very common as a treble bleed BUT in my opinion it changes the volume pot taper WAY too much: it makes it behave as a linear pot instead of a log (audio) pot i.e. you get very little difference in volume between 10 and 4, and you get an abrupt rise in volume from 0 to 1... say goodbye to volume swells! In my experience, the best treble bleed solution is a single 330p cap: you keep all the necessary high treble/presence, you don't get any "bass-cut effect", you keep your volume swells 100%. That's the standard value used in medium to high range Ibanez guitars, by the way. PRS uses 180p: that's already something but still not enough, in my opinion.
You will see a range of values suggested for a treble bleed and some recommend just a capacitor from the top of the volume to the wiper, some a resistor in series with that cap and some a resistor in parallel. What's rarely mentioned is that the treble bleed capacitor is balancing against the capacitance of your chosen guitar cable. If you happen to always use a very long, or a high capacitance per metre cable you might consider increasing the value of the treble bleed capacitor. The thing that does not help is that guitarists rarely know very much about their instrument cables and the manufacturers of such cable often do not reveal the capacitance of their cables.
Try a vintage build neck pickup p-90 from street mackdonald. It does not have to be expensive to fallow vintage spec , that les paul special neck pickup should be the best you have got. I do like your flying V. Great guitar
one thing that plagues us left handed guitarrists and I only noticed after many years is that the potentiometers in left handed guitars just do not work as well as in right handed guitars. I thought A and B type pots were "simmetrical" and one could just invert the terminals and place it in a left handed guitar (to invert the course of the pot) and it would sound the same as a pot wired to a right handed guitar. Every right handed guitar that I played just had better volume and tone rolloff responses. All the left handed guitars I played (mostly budget ones) had a weird volume and tone rolloff. The sound seems to mud a lot more than in right handed guitars. Today I wire my pots without inverting the terminals (thus my pots have inverted course). It is a bummer to get used to, but I swear the response in vol and tone rolloff is much better
Treble bleeds work OK, but they are a bit of trade off on tone too and they don't work well with every pickup (like tele's). I used to install them hard wired, but now if I do I add a push/pull pot and then you can see how much difference it actually makes. These days though, I generally just dial the amp in with the volumes on about 3/4 so it's already a little muddy and use the amp to brighten it up. And of course there's just as many variations on what resistor/capacitor combo value you should use to whether you put the resistor/cap in parallel, series or cap only - 150K/1nF combo being just one of them. But generally the resistor should be about 1/2 of the pot value (500K Pot=250K, 250K pot=125K resistor) and the cap can be between 500pf to 1500pf (depending on how much high you want to allow through). Adding a resistor in there also changes the taper of the original pot (hence why it affects tone). I built up a box years ago just for this purpose. It had two spring leads out of it that you can connect to your volume pot, an engage switch (in/out of circuit), and two sets of banana inputs - one for a resistor wheel and one for a capacitor wheel. The resistor value can be switched in and out also or switched to parallel/series - Then just dial them in to what sounds best. Once you've found your values, just hard wire the values in.
Every guitar I own has a treble bleed - without it the volume poti is useless. You have to try a few values and see what suits best to wich pickups. Once you got it you won't ever look back to the mud side of life. Always look on the bright side of life 😉
treble bleed circuit and a buffer pedal. you will be surprised at how much treble you have (and you will play a whole lot more with your tone controls and the toggle switch). nice tele tone you got out of a lp
Hey Shane I have this guitar and I just installed that treble bleed last week. You have like a three way install. Can you please post what you did? It sounds fantastic. My treble bleed sounds good but the treble pot is kind a neutralized. :)
Treble Bleeds are alright. But I'll stick with my Catalinbread Sabbra Cadabra. It's basically a clone of Iommi's sound (big surprise), i.e. a Dallas Rangemaster into a cranked Vintage Laney. It's a killer, KILLER, treble boost. I guarantee you'd love it, man.
Aesthetic Deluxe I haven’t been able to find a good true treble booster that wasn’t discontinued or sold at ridiculous prices. Need to look into that Catalinbread.
If that switch isn't working well (I had the same problem), I used some spray electronics cleaner/lubricant on mine. 2 years ago and no problems since.
Have you tried 50's style wiring? It stops the tone from dropping when you turn down the volume, but it does the opposite, it drops the volume when you turn down the tone. I prefer it that way because I rarely turn my tone knobs down. I do have a treble bleed circuit on a Les Paul Studio with humbuckers that sounds great. It's a .001 capacitor and a 220k resistor in parallel
Congratulations to Shane for surpassing the 100 thousand subscribers! Great channel! That Tokai sounds phenomenal! Stay safe!
1) The treble bleed operates the same way as the Bright switch on a Fender amp, which means it does NOTHING at full volume, and only works to retain brightness as you turn down the guitar volume. That's not a flaw, simply the normal functioning of such simple circuits Didn't want anyone to think it was capable of doing anything different.
2) The 150k resistor modifies the Volume pot tape a bit, such that the *perceived* volume adjustment seems smoother.
3) The .001uf value is not a hard and fast rule. If your pickups are a little shrill, you can opt for a smaller value to restrict the treble preservation to the higher highs, and exclude the mids.
4) I've experimented with this for years. If one uses a higher cap value than indicated here, like .0022-.0047uf, the volume pot behaves a little like a bass-cut, going from 10 down to 6 or 7, and a volume pot below that. Such values, used on the bridge pickup's volume, can make it sound a little more single-coil-ey as you reduce volume, without losing the hum-rejection.
5) I strongly recommend using a Tone cap value of about 1/4 to 1/5 the value of the neck Tone control cap for the bridge pickup. So if the neck is .022, try .0047-.0056 for the bridge. The neck sound can benefit by becoming dull and wooly, but no one ever switches to their bridge pickup for that sort of sound. So why use a tone cap that's the same value for neck AND bridge? The smaller cap value on the bridge will let you dial in tones that still bite, but have nice rounded edges. It's like taking #220 grit sandpaper to the edges and smoothing them down.
Yep, I said that at the start. It's allowing you to get the top end at lower volumes on the guitar.
Or just use a photo optic volume pedal like Scott Grove.
@@jameskrys5286 Photo-optic volume pedals are not immune to treble loss through loading. They *certainly* provide scratch-free performance for their lifespan, but because there is always power required for the light source in the pedal, optical volume pedals are nearly always accompanied by some type of buffer circuit that gets you safely past any loading issues. That's still a good recommendation on your part, but the buffering does not compensate for a treble-impaired signal feeding it. It only does a good job of preserving whatever bandwidth walks in its door. So, a compensated guitar volume pot, PLUS an optical volume pedal, is a nice pairing.
@KC I certainly can't challenge you when it comes to HF transducers, and I'm not denying anything about the the other portions of the circuit that assist high-end, but I know a bypass cap on a volume pot when I see one. And I know that when a pot is turned up full, such that there is no effective resistance between input and wiper, the bypass cap provides no advantage for higher-frequency content because there is a zero-ohms path sitting there just waiting. That circuit in the guitar functions identically to the same cap/pot combination in the amp. That's pretty much all I was saying at the outset. Perhaps I should have said we were *talking* about two different things, rather than *confusing* them. It happens. No need to get worked up about it.
Tks
I depend on the loss of treble when turning down a Les Paul, it allows a fit for the guitar in a band mix. Also, it show up as tonal shift in everyday rhythmic playing. Couldn’t live without it.
Great Vid Shane! New Mod make the Guitar sound Fantastic! I did the same Mod to me Tele. Just installedGibson Mini Humbuckers to my Gibson LP ‘60s Tribute from 2011 and made it sound 10 times better!! Have a Good Day and stay Healthy! Cheers from the US!
I've read where wiring a Les Paul style guitar in the 50's wiring scheme, will also bring more brightness.
True. Much better way to do it, imo. Way more natural.
Totally agree!
Yep ! 👍
Yeah, but some pickups are just kinda dark and 50s wiring is not enough. So that's when the treble bleed comes in.
@@xxxxneoxxxx That's true too!
I like 50s wiring on an LP. It changes the tone pot taper but it keeps a lot of tops as you roll off volume. But, I do have treble bleeds on a lot of my guitars. You just buy the resistors and caps in bulk and you can do the mod for a few cents. The other passive frontier is the is the LCR Network -- inductance coils such as the Bill Lawrence Q-Filter, and the Kent Armstrong tone choke. When wired with a pot these can be used to get variable midrange dip and offer incredible tonal variety for a humbucker. The Varitone circuit in some old Gibsons offered a choke/coil only setting but it was all on and not variable -- that was B.B. King's sound.
When I rebuild guitars (I have a problem. Hooked on mods..lol) I always put in treble bleeds. Should be standard on all guitars in my opinion.
As the parts cost only a few cents this shouldn't be much of a problem... I also started to add treble bleeds to my guitar builds.
Good quality components unfortunately don't cost a few cents each! Analogue type components vary tremendously! Think valve (tube) vs transistor amplification! The old style Paper in Oil (PIO) capacitors have significant different sonic characteristics to the more modern mica or ceramic types! Can I suggest you explore the '50s wiring technique which is essentially the same as the modern wiring except that you move the tone capacitor connection on the volume pot from the outside position to the middle (wiper) position. That's it! No other changes! It will change the sweep characteristics of your volume and tone pots but you'll find that you don't lose the highs when you turn down the volume! I have a much higher end quality Tokai than Shane has which came with the modern wiring and Cap/Resister bleed circuit. I got rid of the bleed circuit and changed where the tone circuits comes off the master volume as described above and the tonal results are chalk and cheese!
Dealers work with builders to have them exclude it so they can make money on mods repairs ;)
Smart mod for dark Teles. Those are very useful tones - sounded great!. At one time, I tried a treble bleed in my Strat. I didn't like it, and removed it. I didn't like the way the volume knob worked with it. My Strat's got treble to spare. I think your modded Tokai sounded the best of the guitars you compared it to.
A treble bleed mod can do wonders. But an electric guitar is teh sum of all of it's parts. Jack, pots, pickups, caps, soldering all count.
Sure glad you are happy with your caps install for the bleed, Shane. Seems to put a grin on ya bud!
Here I am working on a flat tire of my rider mower & you are enjoying a new tone on your guitar. Life throws it's smiles in all directions, doesn't it? Keep rocking, Shane!!!
This mod is dirt cheap and it made this guitar come alive! Let me know if you like these mods for your guitar.
Time Stamps:
0:00 - Tone Samples with my Blues Deluxe Reissue
►Get one on Sweetwater - imp.i114863.net/VXMqR (affiliate link)
1:16 - Clean Tone Samples with a High Pass Filter / Treble Bleed Mod
5:38 - Distortion Tones Samples with a Treble Bleed / High Pass Filter
7:17 - My Gibson Les Paul Special with P90 pickups (for comparison)
10:19 - My Gibson Flying V Humbucker Guitar (for comparison)
11:59 - What the mod looks like
12:34 - More information
13:55 - Killer rock tones with a High Pass filter installed (full volume)
Sounds phenomenal, I'm glad you put it in. It wouldn't be the same to not see you playing your Love Rock, it's been in so many of your videos. Stay safe and healthy mate, and avoid the GC in Orlando when you do finally get here for your road trip. 👍
Just had this mod installed an my first real guitar that I bought in the 80s . Late 70s American Strat. Also had tone hooked the bridge pickup. But I love this guitar now. Want treble bleeds on all my guitars now.
Sounded great! I discovered the world of treble bleeds a month or two ago. I bought a Squier Bullet Tele with ceramic pickups and it was a little too dark. Did a treble bleed in it for free. I have a clock radio that broke, so I took it apart and pulled a capacitor and resistor of the correct values and installed. Instantly it sounded like Alnico pickups, really awesome. I then performed the same treble bleed on my Strat which has Alnico 5 pickups, but I have never been totally satisfied with the sound on the 4th pickup selector when using overdrive, it was too muddy no matter how you adjusted volume or tone. After the treble bleed it sounds amazing in the 4th position with overdrive. Very clear and defined when dirty. Thanks again for the awesome quality videos Shane! I have watched for years and will continue to watch. I frequently go back and watch your old Joyo pedal demos, such fun!
50's wiring doesn't even cost you $ 5. Just wire the tone capacitor after the volume pot.
It's a slight effect compared to a treble bleed circuit, but it works in a good way.
I have a Les Paul Standard from 2021 with 50's wiring.
It doesnt work at all.
If I go down to 8 habe literally 0 high end 😑
Maybe my guitar is faulty but it really makes the volume knobs absolutely unusable.
Maybe i should install a high pass filter aswell?🤔
@@toxicavenger9617 With 50's wiring, the capacitor behaves like a high-pass filter when viewed from the volume pot.
So you may need to check the wiring and parts.
If your wiring and parts are correct, lowering the capacity of the capacitor will increase the effect of the high-pass filter as opposed to the tone pot.
I wish you good luck.
That was great! More of a showcase the way you set it up and went through the paces then a regular demo I’m use to sitting through. . Well done!
Thanks, Bob! I have been changing things up on the channel recently. Glad you liked it and thanks for the kind words!
I almost bought an Epiphone 59 LP exactly like this a few months ago and I'm still kicking myself for not taking it home. Beautiful dark cherry sunburst and just enough play wear to know someone really liked it but didn't abuse it. At the time I was seeking a new acoustic so I kept looking and unfortunately it sold before I came to my senses. Live and learn though, should have trusted my gut.
Yeah, great vid, Shane, this is really a common problem. I'm gonna do this to my epi sg, it's an easier and cheaper way than 50s wiring. Maybe next time :-)
The 50's wiring is far simpler and requires no extra electrical components! All that you have to do is change where your tone capacitor connects to your volume pot from the outside to the the middle (wiper) tag!!! That is the only difference in wiring but it stops you losing the highs when you wind down the volume! You'll find good information this on the Seymour Duncan site!
Mick Brenton I looked into that some time ago and the rewiring I'd have to do didn't seem so easy to me, and I'd probably have to change the wires themselves as well. But thanks for the feedback, maybe I got that wrong...
I installed a complete brand new wiring in my Washburn Idol spalted mapple. In 50' style wiring there is no need a treble bleed circuit.
I have a treble bleed on my single cut P-90 guitar. Huge difference when rolling off the volume. It seems to give the tone control better range as well.
Welcome to the treble bleed/bypass world. I've been using them for 10 years. I started with the fender tele standard .001 capacitor only but found it too bright below 4. I added a 200k resistor in parallel with the cap' and it worked out. It's now on all my guitars
I like them both ways, but primarily without treble bleeds to get that tiny bit of snarl when you turn the treble down "just so". Sweet spot; just about the same volume.
The problem isn’t the treble bleed... the problem is you’re not playing “authentic”!
So Gibson owns treble now aswell? Real authentic!
Henric Oscarsson lol seems like Gibson believes they own all things music these days
Henric Oscarsson They own treble and middle. Fender has bought bass before they got to it. They also registered something called “bassle” in case someone discovers a frequency as yet unknown.
David Reynolds F
@@H_Oscarsson Harley Davidson tried to patent their sound, lol!
Hi Shane I did this mod to my old Ibanez "lp-shaped" guitar. Cheap and amazing! Incidentally I have since gone further and replaced the pots and pickups (Seymour Duncan P-Rails) and have kept the high pass filter, which gives a broad spectrum of sounds. Not for everybody, but it suits me. I have a Tonemaster Twin; I have no shortage of sweet, clear treble when I need it! Thanks for your great videos. Bruce
Great video and thank you for playing the same pieces so we can properly hear the comparisons.
Such a small modification but a big difference!!! Totally improved the tone of that Tokai!!!🎸🎸🎸🎸🤙🏾🤙🏾🤙🏾
Treble bleeds are a really popular mod In my shop, (Auburn Guitar, Newbury Ohio). I use them in all my Fenders but just wire my Gibsons 50's style.
Do you make sure the pots are correct ? A- Vol B Tone
I fitted a treble bleed circuit to my Squier Jim Root tele, and it made a real difference. I also fitted a tone control (the standard guitar doesn't have one) and now, with both pickups selected, the tone rolled right off and a distorted amp, there's a 'cocked wah' sound, reminiscent of Santana's classic tone.
I've also fitted a treble bleed circuit to my CV 50s strat, but the jury's out on this one, as I find it more beneficial with humbuckers, and not so much with single coils.
I rewired my 2000 Gibson LP Std to vintage spec. No need for treble bleed circuit or any other components.
@intheblues
You're showing the same bubbly enthusiasm I had when I installed my first treble bleed, lol.
Discovered them when I got a fantastic sounding Strat that just died tonally when touching the volume. Read up about what was causing it, what "treble bleed" mods did, installed one (capacitor and resistor in parallel), and was so impressed I ended up installing bleeds on all my electrics.
I tried using just capacitors, but found the effect to be too harsh, basically the other extreme. Using a resistor in parallel helps keep the effect fairly uniform throughout the sweep.
As for the values, I've found each guitar really is completely different. I think I might've originally used the Seymour Duncan values as a starting point, but it was ultimately trial and error finding the best values for each gat; easier than it sounds, just soldered a couple of wires/clips at the contact points so I could swap out values on the go without pulling anything apart. I've tried to get them as neutral as possible, erring toward adding a little treble at very low volume.
Honestly, treble bleeds really do breathe new life into guitars. They allow for much more dynamic playing.
If you're keen on opening up tonal possibilities, another Les Paul (& etc) mod I tried and liked:
1x Master Volume, 1x Master Tone
Use the second tone pot as a blender, and swap out the second volume pot for a rotary phase switch.
That will give you a HEAP more tonal options.
I put one in my strat and not only do I love it, it’s changed the way I play. Now I set my rig up much louder, brighter, and most distorted and ride the volume and tone knobs constantly. I almost never turn them all the way up to 10 now.
Same! 🙂
Very interesting and I loved the Tone with the Tokia, surprising. Is it possible to modify only the neck pickup? I have a firebird and the bridge pickup is great, but the neck is very bassy and muddy, lacking in the clarity I want. Good if I could just add the mod to the neck without any impact on the bridge.
Yes - a firebird should have separate volume and tone controls for the neck and bridge pickups, so the addition of a treble bleed circuit to the volume pot of your neck pickup won’t affect the sound of your bridge pickup.
As long as it has it's own volume control then yes, you can have it on one pickup but not on the other
That sounds great Shane. It really sounds very consistent through the sweep. I put a 180pf cap on my strat volume pot and although a conservative cap, it still vastly improved the treble loss.
Sounds great! Now give pull/push pots a go for even more awesomeness. I installed pull/push pots into my EPI LP Custom, along with Barenuckle Mules and 50’s wiring - Sounds mega. It’s like I’ve now got the sounds of three guitars in one.
Sounds Great! sometimes its the small mods that make a big difference. Great Playing too! I really like your Jr les paul! Thanks for the great content!
First thing I do to ANY guitar I buy or work on - brilliant.
And Shane your flying V is just one of the best sounding electric guitars anywhere, amazing tone at all settings.
Well done Shane! Cheap and Easy Too! Thanks for sharing brother, Be Well!
150k resistor and .001 ceramic capacitor is a great addition.
How your guitar is wired and the value of the wiring components is so fundamentally important. There’s tons of super cheap mods that can totally transform a guitar.
Yep have installed Treble Bleeds in all the guitars here, except the 2019 Strat Pro and the 2019 Afinity Tele, they both came with them pre-installed. I've found there's slightly different values for single coil and humbuckers I also add an inline resister to the single coils. What I use, on single coils, is a 20K resistor from pin 1 on the pot going to a 150K resistor in parallel with a 1200pF cap to pin 2 and on humbuckers a 100K resistor in parallell with a 2000pF cap across pins 1 & 2 of the pot.
I actually prefer 50s wiring. I find the treble bleed also attenuates some bass.
But if you go with 50s wiring it works best with linear volume pots and log tone pots.
You are spot on!!! It took me nearly 40 years of using bleed capacitors to find that out! Bumblebee Caps with 50's wiring will give you the best Lester tone at any volume!!! They got it right first time!!!
@@mickbrenton thanks for this - priceless
First mod I do to every guitar I buy
I bought a couple of $0.07 caps and installed them in my LP years ago. They made a big difference. My LP has a classic 57 neck and burstbucker pro bridge, and it was a pure mud machine. I would tend to run my tone knob full out and always wanted it to go to 15. The treble bleed does nothing at full volume, and as you point out, they make a big difference when you drop the volume. The important thing to realize is this: Without the caps, when you turn down the volume, you disproportionately cut highs. With the cap, you disproportionately cut lows at lower volume. It's just a different way of thinking about it. When my LP feels like it has way too much low end, I dial back the volume about 6 and my PUPs identically match the "Vintage" voiced humbuckers of my PRS 594. Yes the output is lower at that point, but you can adjust your rig to compensate. I suppose the real solution would be to put a multiband EQ right in the guitar, but purists will hate this, so instead we do a 1 band EQ in the form of a high-pass filter.
Good on you for keeping the Tokai! Probably further gems to be found in that guitar.....
Just for information...the treble bleed is in fact a low cut. You still loose treble while turn down the volume knob but cut the lows too and have the impression of a brighter sound.
Those are rare and sound really good. Greco, tokai or burny lp's are so good man. Keep that tokai!
Epic channel! Subbed and many thanks from Canada mate!
Really nice Shane, thanks for doing it and giving us something fun and interesting to do!
This video should be titled "Shane falls down the rabbit hole"
Not to worry. It's a fun place to be.
...Next comes the 50's wiring mod.
You'll like it.
I built one for my Strat about a year ago, but haven't installed it yet. I used alligator clips so I could remove it if I want. Just in case... Thanks for your vids.
I think it sounds much better with the mod. BTW I really enjoy the videos way more when you play into an amp and not the Torpedo. Keep rocking 🎸
Thanks mate! Great to see you here. I have been doing this for about 7 months unless I am filming at night or if my ears are not happy. :-)
I have an Epiphone double cut LP Special that had Gib$on P90's in when I got it. It had that problem as well. I replaced the Gib$on P90's with Mojotone Quiet Coil P90's which sound fantastic but they had the same problem. Adding treble bleeds resolved it. I make my own treble bleeds cause I don't the values used in the pre-made ones.
Been thinking about this mod, thanks for the video!
glad you didnt sell this,its amazing,sounds killer and looks the bomb
as said in the main comment ...i tried the treble ciurcuit an had a friend show me the 50's wiring scheme in comparison an you can hear a difference ....also you can raise the pot value from 500 to 1 ohm for same results
With everything there is a down side! Sometimes when doing this, when you roll off the volume, yes the treble stays or gets brighter, but often the LOWS also get rolled off in opposition!
Good job Shane!
Turn knobs all the way up, add volume pedal
haha! That sort of works I guess :)
That’s what I do 😆🎸
I've once heard somewhere, with such a great deal of controls built right into your guitar, why spending money and crowding your pedalboard with stuff you could do from your instrument, already?
@@acoffeewithsatan sadly, the guitar controls do not add delay,reverb,modulation,tremolo,wah.phaser,leslie,fuzz etc
@@trillrifaxegrindor4411 smart arse
My Gretsch Jet comes stock with treble bleed in the Master Volume. You may want to put a treble bleed in the neck volume of your P90 LP. It may also change the sound more to your liking by experimenting with different capacitor values.
wonder to what extend a simple coil split would have given you the tonal options you were looking for,
still a nice mod from what i can tell!
Andy Timmons was who got me into treble bleeds. His tone isn’t shrill or harsh in anyway...
Ahhhh..... what a magnificent rabbit hole to explore! For me they work better on some guitars than others. If you really want some fun do a search for "tapered treble bleed" and have a look at that option. Works great for me.
Cheers
Neil............................. ps..... love your work Shane!
Have you tried the 50's LP wiring mod? Would love to hear the 50's mod on a guitar with treble bleed.
People hear me out here. If you need to brighten the tone of a humbucker you can simply add a small capacitor (maybe 1nf) at the begining of the first coil and the end of it. It doesnt matter which coil. The problem is that you can do this on a 4 wire pickup, otherwise you have to find the wire that jumps from the first coil to the second and solder there.
I ve done this on some pickups with good results.
Chears!
I used to want one of those tokai love rocks, a guy in California was selling the Chinese made ones, but I got an Ibanez semi hollow body instead. Good you're keeping that.
Have the mod chips sitting in a toolbox for few years now so time to put them into the Epiphone Les Paul Pro...cool thanks
Great mod as long as you're not using vintage style fuzz circuits. You won't get the cool cleanup/responsiveness from a Fuzz Face style pedal, which I learned after buying a Fulltone '69 almost 20 years ago. Had to remove the treble bleed circuit from my guitar to get the pedal (or any fuzz pedal that relies on input impedance) to sound and perform the way we normally expect it to.
This looks like something worth trying, I also have a muddy tokai LP
That 150k/.001uF combo is very common as a treble bleed BUT in my opinion it changes the volume pot taper WAY too much: it makes it behave as a linear pot instead of a log (audio) pot i.e. you get very little difference in volume between 10 and 4, and you get an abrupt rise in volume from 0 to 1... say goodbye to volume swells!
In my experience, the best treble bleed solution is a single 330p cap: you keep all the necessary high treble/presence, you don't get any "bass-cut effect", you keep your volume swells 100%. That's the standard value used in medium to high range Ibanez guitars, by the way.
PRS uses 180p: that's already something but still not enough, in my opinion.
Tks. So no tone cap with 300k?
@@macshock632 tone cap is another thing. We’re talking about treble bleed circuits at the volume pot: I suggest a single 330 picofarad (not k...) cap.
Error at 12:04. It’s a capacitor and a resistor and not two capacitors.
You will see a range of values suggested for a treble bleed and some recommend just a capacitor from the top of the volume to the wiper, some a resistor in series with that cap and some a resistor in parallel. What's rarely mentioned is that the treble bleed capacitor is balancing against the capacitance of your chosen guitar cable. If you happen to always use a very long, or a high capacitance per metre cable you might consider increasing the value of the treble bleed capacitor. The thing that does not help is that guitarists rarely know very much about their instrument cables and the manufacturers of such cable often do not reveal the capacitance of their cables.
Try a vintage build neck pickup p-90 from street mackdonald. It does not have to be expensive to fallow vintage spec , that les paul special neck pickup should be the best you have got. I do like your flying V. Great guitar
Why wouldn't you just wire it 50s style ??
I’ve known about treble bleeds for a while but never used them. I have a PRS S2 that I love but it needs one of these badly. Your video convinced me!
I was wondering the same thing about my s2, now I'm convinced this mod over a pick up swap is the way to go. Good luck!
Hey Shane! Appreciate your videos man!!!! Thank you!
one thing that plagues us left handed guitarrists and I only noticed after many years is that the potentiometers in left handed guitars just do not work as well as in right handed guitars. I thought A and B type pots were "simmetrical" and one could just invert the terminals and place it in a left handed guitar (to invert the course of the pot) and it would sound the same as a pot wired to a right handed guitar. Every right handed guitar that I played just had better volume and tone rolloff responses. All the left handed guitars I played (mostly budget ones) had a weird volume and tone rolloff. The sound seems to mud a lot more than in right handed guitars. Today I wire my pots without inverting the terminals (thus my pots have inverted course). It is a bummer to get used to, but I swear the response in vol and tone rolloff is much better
Treble bleeds work OK, but they are a bit of trade off on tone too and they don't work well with every pickup (like tele's). I used to install them hard wired, but now if I do I add a push/pull pot and then you can see how much difference it actually makes. These days though, I generally just dial the amp in with the volumes on about 3/4 so it's already a little muddy and use the amp to brighten it up.
And of course there's just as many variations on what resistor/capacitor combo value you should use to whether you put the resistor/cap in parallel, series or cap only - 150K/1nF combo being just one of them. But generally the resistor should be about 1/2 of the pot value (500K Pot=250K, 250K pot=125K resistor) and the cap can be between 500pf to 1500pf (depending on how much high you want to allow through). Adding a resistor in there also changes the taper of the original pot (hence why it affects tone).
I built up a box years ago just for this purpose. It had two spring leads out of it that you can connect to your volume pot, an engage switch (in/out of circuit), and two sets of banana inputs - one for a resistor wheel and one for a capacitor wheel. The resistor value can be switched in and out also or switched to parallel/series - Then just dial them in to what sounds best. Once you've found your values, just hard wire the values in.
Every guitar with single coils I have gets a treble bleed cap in it. Really helps fix a lot of problems.
Your V probably has 50s wiring , I believe you just move the wire on the volume pot to the center lug!
Mandatory mod for any lower end Epiphone models. Special I and II.. Alternately parallel coils in the neck works too.
Oh yeah, all the Ame. Pro Fenders come with the treble bleed installed...very useful.
Yep I am sold on treble bleeds now. I would throw one in for the neck pickup on the LP Special.
Every guitar I own has a treble bleed - without it the volume poti is useless.
You have to try a few values and see what suits best to wich pickups.
Once you got it you won't ever look back to the mud side of life.
Always look on the bright side of life 😉
It would of been of nice if you would of shown us how to do this mod. Showed it’s installation
I'm glad you kept this guitar. At least until I can get to Australia and buy it from you. 😉
I love treble bleeds! My Carvin’s had them and they worked just like yours here.
I have treble bleeds on all my electric guitars. So used to using them that I have to have them.
treble bleed circuit and a buffer pedal. you will be surprised at how much treble you have (and you will play a whole lot more with your tone controls and the toggle switch). nice tele tone you got out of a lp
I'm waiting your opinion on the new Fender Mustang GTX
I mentioned in the podcast I posted on UA-cam yesterday I will be testing them out as soon as they are locally available. :)
My fav Tele has a vintage Gibson T-Top in the neck and a treble bleed circuit. OMG! You gotta hear it to believe how great it sounds.
Hey Shane I have this guitar and I just installed that treble bleed last week. You have like a three way install. Can you please post what you did? It sounds fantastic. My treble bleed sounds good but the treble pot is kind a neutralized. :)
Sounding awesome Shane 👍
Treble Bleeds are alright.
But I'll stick with my Catalinbread Sabbra Cadabra. It's basically a clone of Iommi's sound (big surprise), i.e. a Dallas Rangemaster into a cranked Vintage Laney. It's a killer, KILLER, treble boost. I guarantee you'd love it, man.
Aesthetic Deluxe I haven’t been able to find a good true treble booster that wasn’t discontinued or sold at ridiculous prices. Need to look into that Catalinbread.
@@AndrewCCM It's fantastic for blues stuff, in addition to Black Sabbath tones, obviously. It's pretty pricey though, around 200 USD.
Could such a mod be wired into a push pull knob so you can choose between the two?
Stephen Hookings that’s something I’d like to know as well. I guess one could always just roll the tone down.
Of course, just cut one leg of the treble bleed with the push pull switch
You know I never had a chance to tell you my epiphone lefty les paul standard came with the Gibson vintage tuners I was amazed shane
Im no expert but to my old ears your Tokai just spanked both the Gibsons. Great vid as always.
I know I've said it before but damn, that V sounds good. I have a treble bleed circuit in my Tele and love it
If that switch isn't working well (I had the same problem), I used some spray electronics cleaner/lubricant on mine. 2 years ago and no problems since.
That "intro" was nasty!
Might try this on my Aria Pro II! It's a bit too dark, so that might help.
Have you tried 50's style wiring? It stops the tone from dropping when you turn down the volume, but it does the opposite, it drops the volume when you turn down the tone. I prefer it that way because I rarely turn my tone knobs down. I do have a treble bleed circuit on a Les Paul Studio with humbuckers that sounds great. It's a .001 capacitor and a 220k resistor in parallel