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A treble-bleed (high-pass) circuit allows the highs to “bleed” (or pass) through the volume pot even as it is turned down. Easy modification for the DIY'er, hand-soldered by Gabriel's Guitars of Tucson, AZ.
A treble-bleed (high-pass) circuit allows the highs to “bleed” (or pass) through the volume pot even as it is turned down. Easy modification for the DIY'er, hand-soldered by Gabriel's Guitars of Tucson, AZ.
Have you ever noticed that when you turn down the volume on your guitar or bass that your signal loses some treble and starts to sound muddy and lifeless? Many guitarists resort to using the volume knob as a simple way to mute their guitar. Personally, We like to use it to control the gain in our signal. One can go from crystal clear clean tones to full overdrive with the sweep of the volume control.
When the volume pot is lowered from ’10’, resistance is added in series with the signal output of the pickup. This resistance, combined with the cable capacitance, and the pickup itself forms a low pass filter, allowing lower frequencies through but blocking some of the higher frequencies. The resultant tone for most people becomes unusable.
There is a simple and very cheap fix for this problem, and it is well worth doing. The solution is to install a treble bleed circuit to your guitar, which can be either a single capacitor or a combination of a capacitor and a small resistor. A capacitor wired in parallel with the terminals on your volume pot will allow the high frequencies through when the volume is reduced. The capacitance value of the capacitor will determine the cut off point for the frequencies allowed through. Wiring a resistor in series or parallel with the capacitor will help to control the brightness. To install this circuit yourself you will need some basic tools, a soldering iron, solder, the necessary components and the confidence to use them. If you are not confident in performing your own guitar modifications, any guitar tech should be able to do this.
Good question. Probably because it didn’t occur to them to do it back in the day and why bother now when they can sell it for a high price as a separate aftermarket option. There are a few exceptions, but American manufacturers have yet to make it a standard feature whereas some smarter Asian manufacturers now install it as standard in many of their guitars.