Treble boost

[moojiefulagin]

Hi! I haven't had a whole lot of experience with electronics, basically I understand basic guitar wirings and that's it. Im wondering what would be required to create a sort of "treble boost" knob that, when completely turned down, would allow the guitar to make its natural sound, and when twisted, to increase the high & high-mid frequencies. To give you an idea of the sound im looking for, i would like to simulate the high range punch of a wah in its full treble position. How would I go about doing this? Would it be easier to install a switch that bypasses this knob to allow for the guitar to sound natural? Thanks a lot!

[lovekraft]

Do you want to use an active circuit? If so, it's easy - find a simple wah pedal circuit and build it into your axe. If you could be a bit more specific about what frequencies you want to boost, a simple twin-tee active filter would be easy enough to knock out.

[moojiefulagin]

Active would be fine, but I have no experience in that field.

Feel free to marvel at my ignorance. If I could narrow it down to one slider on my 7-band eq (150Hz) could you explain how to do it? Whatever frequency is generally boosted in a wah's fully depressed stage is the range im looking for. Maybe you know now better than I do? Do you have a guess as to the general range I want? Im not too picky. Thanks a lot!

[daveq]

You'll need an active circuit to do it right. Do you want to build it yourself or just buy one pre-built? I think there are a couple of products available to do this. The EMG-RPC comes to mind but I don't remember if that one requires active pickups or not.

[moojiefulagin]

How much would it cost to build a simple one myself, and how much would a prebuilt one be? Thanks!

[daveq]

There's an RPC on ebay now for $40. Here's the description:

The EMG-RPC Resonant Peak Control, selectively boosts the high

frequency range up to 6dB at 4000Hz while reducing the mids and

lows. At it's lowest setting, there's no change to the natural tone of

the guitar. As you increase the value of it's single knob, your

sound is accented similarly to a single-coil pickup's response. The

RPC circuit is mounted directly to the back of it's control

potentiometer and attaches easily to your existing setup.

I would think that you could build a treble boost device for much less but I don't know if that's something you'd be intersted in getting into. Do you have the time to put into doing it yourself? I have always enjoyed doing these kind of things myself but sometimes it's just best to buy one. I would expect (guessing) that the parts to do one yourself would be less than $20. Without the schematic, I can't give you an accurate price though. If you have any specs on how you want it to work, I'm sure some of us can help locate a schematic.

[MikeB]

moojiefulagin hey!

i built one for myself into my gibson kit guitar, now officially my tester outer guitar! the circuit is quite simple, you could make it on stripboard in an hour or so. the one i made boosts treble nicely, i made it to simulate a strat-esque sound, and it does sound like a wah in a way, great wee device.

id be glad to e-mail you a circuit diagram, got a great book with these sorts of things in it, they have a PCB layout etc... if your interested in making your own pcb, but its quite inefficient, i made mine very small in comparison.

ud need to use a stereo jack socket for turning power on and off without using an extra switch.

hope this helps..

btw it cost me about the grand total of £3 ish!!

cya man!!

Mike

[Drak]

Resident EMG electronics user here!

You can use the RPC (I actually have one, but haven't put it in anything yet)

But to use EMG tone-shaping pots with -normal- pkps, you:

Use your pkps and the tone and volume pots that go with them (i.e., 250K, 500K, etc.)

Use the EMG Afterburner (or XK2?, they have a different one that's on a toggle, the A-burner is a variable pot)

As long as you use one of their pre-amps at the end of the chain before the output jack, then you can also use any of their tone-shaper pots in the middle of the circuit.

It sounds to me like what you want is a parametric equalizer tho. I remember someone selling something along those lines once, but I can't remember who now...

The RPC (I think) is like the EXG except the EXG boosts lows and highs while cutting mids. It's like a quack enhancer (Fender term)

The RPC (I think) just boosts highs, but that is a different effect altogether than a depressed wah sound. That would be more like a parametric EQ.

Actually, depending on how you look at it, a wah is really a parametric EQ in a pedal form.

The person I remember the most who used something like this was Frank Zappa.

Maybe find out something at the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen?

I would start to track down information on his guitars, you'll find it.

What you are describing is what he had, and if you listen to a lot of FZ material, the later stuff, you'll hear what it sounds like.

And it is definitely active.

In the end, you may not really be looking for a depressed wah sound at all, you might just be looking for enhanced high-end...I dunno, bit I do know that sometimes it's hard to relate in print what you hear in your head as what you want to recreate.

[daveq]

I have used an EXG in one of my guitars but ended up pulling it out. I always found the tone to be very muddy when ever it was off of the zero point. I can't say for the RPC but the description does say that it is more than a treble boost -

selectively boosts the high

frequency range up to 6dB at 4000Hz while reducing the mids and

lows.

I don't know if that's what you are looking for though.

[daveq]

One more thing on the RPC and then I'm done - here's more of the description that seemed to match up with what you were talking about but it may not be as dramatic as the wah:

Its potentiometer controlled circuitry allows you to sweep from natural sound to accentuated highs typical of single-coil pickups.

[moojiefulagin]

Thanks guys! Im hoping to keep it as simple as possible, but I guess the "1 knob and 1 capacitor" sort of thing I envisioned is not possible. The sound im going for is John Frisciante's twang. He usually plays with an Ibanez Wh-10 wah depressed, which gives a sort of punchy jangle (i.e. "If You Have to Ask" , or any song for that matter off Blood Sugar Sex Magik). Is this a parametric EQ sort of sound?

I would have no problem with assembling a complicated project, but my goal is simplicity. Please let me know what you make of this!

(Im aiming for less than $20, since its my first official guitar and it's basically just a pretty experiment)

Hey MikeB, my email is moojiefulagin@yahoo.com - I would love a copy of your design if it's in newbie-friendly format!

[moojiefulagin]

- I would best describe John's sound as a jangly & punchy

[moojiefulagin]

I decided to go with a Rangemaster copy. Ill let you know how it sounds!

[ansil]

Thanks guys! Im hoping to keep it as simple as possible, but I guess the "1 knob and 1 capacitor" sort of thing I envisioned is not possible. The sound im going for is John Frisciante's twang. He usually plays with an Ibanez Wh-10 wah depressed, which gives a sort of punchy jangle (i.e. "If You Have to Ask" , or any song for that matter off Blood Sugar Sex Magik). Is this a parametric EQ sort of sound?

I would have no problem with assembling a complicated project, but my goal is simplicity. Please let me know what you make of this!

(Im aiming for less than $20, since its my first official guitar and it's basically just a pretty experiment)

Hey MikeB, my email is moojiefulagin@yahoo.com - I would love a copy of your design if it's in newbie-friendly format!

well you can do it with just a few parts and keep it passive.. basically you can make a low cut filter.. and set the value to accent the mids and the highs.. do you like the sound of the lead channel on the 1987 marshall plexi..

if so then i can draw you something. you can email me or if brian wants i will make it a tutorial..

austenfantanio@yahoo.com

essentially it is taking a 500k-1M pot and using the first lug as the input..(ie the wire going to the jack.) and tie the middle and last lugs together. and strap a 2200pf cap across the outside lugs.

---------||----------

* *

---*{this is the pot} *------

1 2 3

in-- -tied------------out

see if that helps you. if it doesn't the try a .001 for more highs. or a .004uf for more low mid and bass.

[moojiefulagin]

That makes sense! Thanks

[ansil]

cool glad you like it..