Treble Bleed Pros and Cons

[Shantrick]

I was thinking of doing a treble bleed for my humbuckers.
Can any of you guys see a potential down-side to this procedure?

Much appreciated. :dude:

 

[Don]

Do you use your guitar's volume control to adjust the amount of dirt in your sound? For example, do you clean up a germanium Fuzz Face by turning down the guitar? If so, you may find the result to sound unnatural and bright as you turn down the guitar if you have a treble bleed installed.
This has been my experience and is why I don't use treble bleed circuits in my guitars.

 

[Big Al]

Do you use your guitar's volume control to adjust the amount of dirt in your sound? For example, do you clean up a germanium Fuzz Face by turning down the guitar? If so, you may find the result to sound unnatural and bright as you turn down the guitar if you have a treble bleed installed.
This has been my experience and is why I don't use treble bleed circuits in my guitars.

Agreed. I find that the small amount of treble loss when I roll down the volume is desired as I do not like the overly bright clean tones. I like it on full or raised volume lead tone but actually prefer the treble attenuation when I roll down the volume.

Others have different opinions and it is a very useful thing for them to have the treble bleed circuit.

 

[lpnv59]

I agree with the above posts. I've found it shrill and painful sounding. BTW if you run your guitar tone down somewhat and crank the amps treble, it does a similar thing with the guitar volume turned down, but without the shrillness.

 

[Shantrick]

I do use 1950's style wiring. That never dawned on me. :hmm Thanks for the tips guys. I may just pass on this. lol

 

[B Ingram]

I do use 1950's style wiring. ...

If you use 50's wiring, then when you roll back your volume, also roll back your tone control a bit.

It's counterintuitive, but 50's wiring drops the level of the mids when Tone & Vol are rolled down some, compared with only Vol rolled down. The net effect is to bring back highs that were lost when the Vol only was down, at the expense of some overall output.

If you work with it a bit to get used to how the controls interact, you'll probably find you don't need a treble bleed at all. The same issue was covered in this thread, and I linked some videos which demo how/why 50's wiring gives the result it does.

 

[sonar]

Quite happy with 50's wiring with the LP and never really thought about it. It's interesting to read others opinions.

My success rate on Fender guitars is 50-50. It seems to depend on the guitar. My best sounding Strat had one and I rode the volume pot all the time. On another Strat I couldn't wait to get the treble bleed off the guitar. Harsh! Both guitars were running through the same couple amps I've had for years and with your typical Alnico V vintage winding PU's. Other Strats and Teles were less dramatic, but similarly mixed results.

I currently have one on my Gretsch (master volume) and kind of undecided if I like it or not? With that setup I'm running a Princeton Reverb cranked for OD (no pedals) and a Fuzz Rite clone, but only ride the volume pot to bring in the fuzz effect - ie I don't try to clean up like on a Fuzzface. Most days the guitar->amp combo cleans up nicely with the treble bleed, but occasionally I'm less satisfied. I also have a no load tone pot and TV Jones Classic pickups, so my guitar can get bright.