ansil

i bow to the great psw for he is the sustainer god.. seriously having read most of the whole thread i am more than a little impressed. i am only sad i contributed so little but alas my internet and funding wouldnt allow as such.

cool the blue thing is the trim pot i used on the bridge to set the high freq response limit on the bridge pickup. see i change the impedance of my pickup by changing the pot. i take two pickups that are relatively the same output and change the impedance on them. the cap on the neck that i use limits some bass end anyway which is needed on the neck because a hot neck pickup is always going to be woofy unless specially designed not to be. so with this i set the impedance at 500k with the pot but i use a specific cap for each pickup but i try to tune it 1 octave up from low E string give or take. so when you start riffing on the neck it is a preset eq curve that cuts everything a below the tenth fret by db per octave. its a steep roll off but it does the job. i would never do that in the bridge. but look at fundamentals here. http://terrydownsmusic.com/technotes/Frequencies/FREQ.HTM look about half way down at the chart e3 to e7 is the fundamental range so 82.40689 to 1318.51 not a whole hell of a lot here to play with. now figure in the highest note there at double the freq for harmonics because lets face it after 4khz there is not many speakers that are delivering it unless your going hifi or acoustic amp. and then most guitar amps have a corner high freq at 3khz. so just a little over one octave from the 24th fret. so i put my freq range aprox 146.8324 at my neck pickup. this will give you a nice little sound. especially for jazz. check out the live tone on jambalaya on myspace.com/ansilgregory compared to the rhythm track which is the bridge. the breakdown in A about half way through is both pickups on. and of course i tracked with two amps one for the piezo's but thats a different topic sorry got a little off. so anyway using this formula f= 1/(2PiRc) where f is frequency and r is resistance your pot and c is capacitance. or use this page http://www.muzique.com/schem/filter.htm like i did now in the schematic blue trim pots [blue because radioshack stocks these the same color and i have a whole pc board with trimmers on it] you put these on the blend pot so that your larger cap which passes more freq so more sound than your smaller cap doesn't walk all over your sound so you can blend the two tones a little closer together volume output wise. now the second one or the one on the bridge i am using a lpf or low pass filter which says "i will only let frequencies lower than the value you set here pass through unaffected. the ones higher shall be shunted to ground or attenuated at 6db per octave." so lets examine this. if we set up a freq range using a low pass filter at 3kilo hertz or 3000hertz it is saying everything above 3hz will loose 6 decibels per octave now that means 3-6khz will be down like pulling a fader down by 6 decibels it takes 2-3 decibels for the human ear to perceive a double the amount of volume and that takes 10x worth of wattage. so this is a bit steep. and now everything from 6-12khz will be down 12 decibels. so each time it doubles so by the time it gets down to 24khz [not possible on guitar or even to hear anyway] it would be down 18decibels which is quite a bit. so i make an adjustable lpf for the bridge pickup by putting a small like 1k trim pot in there and use a larger cap to ground. so lets say i want to adjust 6khz to 3khz .052uf and 500ohms is roughly 6.1khz high end response as i adjust it fully to 1k ohm resistance i will get a response of 3.06khz high end response. 500 ohm resistance in series is nothing on a decent output signal you will never hear it. so this cap to ground is large but the series resistance is small set this with a 1 meg pot and you have a hot as hell bridge pickup with adjustable high freq response. that's why i used a triple ganged pot later so that my volume was consistent on each pickup so if i rolled down the bridge just a bit when i switched pickups even though each had their own pot the taper was the same so the same approximate volume on each roll of was the same. great to get that real smoky strat sound we crave when i coil cut. now the downside is when you use more than one pickup it will take the impedance of the smallest pot there and reduce it slightly such is the problems with parallel resistance. but that's OK most of us are not looking to bang some shred out on the single coil in the middle or to do some megadeth on the middle single coil. its usually added in with another pickup. for me i like to coil cut the neck and use it with the bridge this makes a more interesting arrangement. if you really want to have some fun do this with a lespaul style guitar and phase the neck and bridge different and use the cap in the neck pickup like i was saying its sick it cancels out some frequencies and adds others total sickness. also depending on your playing style you can really benefit from dropping the neck pickup bass side down quite a bit and raising the treble side as much as possible. and keep the middle pickup flat all the way across completely parallel to strings. and raise the bridge pickup bass side higher than the treble only slightly. this will give you that SRV and Hendrix pronounced hey i am two stepping my way through the mix sound on the neck. and give you a fat rhythm chug and still leave room for lead side squeals. well time for a bath i stink from being at work all day. ed just for shits and giggles since this forum has come so far and i feel the need to educate my fellow players as i have been and continuing to be educated check out the section of amp schematics here www.schematicheaven.com look up your favorite marshall or fender or Mesa Boogie and use the above calculator to determine the freq response and curves of each and understand the limits of the amp and the guitar so you can take it further. something else for all you electronics guys http://www.duncanamps.com/tsc/ duncans tone stack calculator. look at the differences when you move the knobs on your amp. [btw unless you got a serious boutique amp yours will fall into two categories the fender and the marshall as its the classic eq stack and boogie uses them too.] fender marshall boogie all same basic eq. now where and how they implement them is something else all together. but look at your freq min and max and see why you sound the way you do. realize that after 5.5-6.5 on the treble and your just playing through the treble cap and the rest of the eq is pretty much useless. look at the carvin legacy http://www.carvinmuseum.com/pdf/amps/VL100...egacy%20Amp.pdf depending on which one you use its called the baxandall or simply James in the TSC. plug in your favorite values and look at the eq curves. this will help anyone brave enough or foolish enough to start crunching the numbers on it. this is why all my favorite amps have the freq curves at every stage written in sharpie on them. sorry again for ranting ed p.s. i hope you enjoy this crazy long response i have gone off the damn deep end again

yes although depending on which caps you use you will probably want to put in a small resistor there to keep the balance equal. also the use of a center detent pot helps tremendously. something to consider as well is you are still utilizing a standard tone knob in this circuit as well so you will not get the exact same results as mine but it will still work yes. something to consider is to utilize the tone switching of the stratocaster like its originally wired. see you don't need a tone knob to roll of treble on the neck or middle pickup they are pretty dark all ready. wire it so its switchable or wait let me draw it up based on your schematic. ok if you see mine its virtually the same as yours but what i have done is made the blend control the first thing in the line after the volume as this makes a big difference in the response of the circuit it has a chance to blend everything you are giving it. and then at the tail end is the "master tone control" this way the master will also react differently with the volume control. i have had a few emails about this circuit if you notice its a triple pot and the pot i have in series with the cap is adjustable but it only works to the bridge pickup and its freq response is preset for a specific freq range[its adjustable but i have mine set so its not on the fly adjustable] and its before the actual impedance to ground. here i am using a true lpf set up differently than a normal tone control and then each pickup has its own pot and impedance to ground then the tone circuit is after the switch selection. ed

actually emg's even with a 1 meg don't sound anything like an icepick 500k and 1 meg is the only thing i use on them as it sounds like they are alive instead of cold and dead like the 25k pot. but then again thats just my ears and i am still able to hear up to 19k even after playing through poweramps. but as long as the customer likes it then thats the way to go :}

thanks i searched ebay but didn't apply the correct parameters thanks a ton

i have a genuine 1959 telecaster neck from sara evans former guitar player. and i have no use for it was thinking of selling it online or at gruhns but have no idea what to ask. anyone have any clues i need to get a better camera and i will post a picture of it. this isn't NOS by any means it has been played many times but still has much life left. i also have a signed statement from Her guitar player for authenticity ed

welcome but hold on i drew up stuff for you posting now ok in this pic here is basic guitar wiring for three pickup guitar as labeled with no fancy switching for now we will go with the names of the pickups instead of actual graphic representation now here is the same thing with a blend mod added note you don't have to ground tone control if you don't have metal knobs now here is the whole thing with the mystery cap from neck pickup to switch so that its only engaged on neck position and doesn't affect the tone controls at all or the other pickups. the value is up to you i have used a different one for every pickup as they all need some attenuation. this is a stripped down version of what i have in my guitar now. my ibanez has the push pull pots leds and other stuff but it would take me a bit to draw up that one. ed here's another that utilizes a triple ganged pot with three separate wafers. originally it was a 500k but thats ok i changed the wafer in the middle to a 250k and the bottom one to a slightly modified taper 1Meg. the bridge has a variable low pass filter the middle is stock for the most part. and the neck has our high pass filter mod. now all have their own resistance to ground and the outputs are switched before going to the tone blend knob which could also be done with a Triple ganged pot. not shown is the coil cut on the opposite side of the switch as i use a slightly modified six way blade switch. however recently i have decided to go back to a 4 pos tele style switch hope you enjoy this

also something else to note all the tone controls except the ones i have mentioned are shunting freq to ground. the way it works is that instead of a cap and a resistor we are using an inductor cap and resistor. so we are still notching freq to ground although its not as broad its a more narrow notch or steep if you will. if you think of your tone control as a water control or if your southern a spicket! lol jab at my southern bro's getter done. a standard tone control is just like a faucet full flow to ground slow flow to ground leaky faucet to ground. and all points in between so we are stealing freq and volume as we turn the tone down where as the varitone is like having an aqueduct and stabbing funnels through your tone and various points. we are still stealing freq to ground but we still have freq above and below this rushing forward to our amplifier. now with a dual ganged pot or two pots we can have a moving funnel throughout the freq range but it will not be quite as sharp as an inductor. Gibson used an inductor to suck out 1khz on the tone knob of their attempt at a strat the m3. interesting enough is that we can flip the ground and input sides of the moving dual filter and have a reverse filter so that we now see a spike although it would appear as a boost in these frequencies its not as boosting requires amplification. you can also capacitive couple your pickups to the switch thereby changing the pickups sound only when it is selected to the pot. so you can say make a hot but dark neck pickup sound like a hot tele pickup. great for sweeping.

i have passive push pull boosts that don't involve cutting the volume back for your normal tone. i utilize a dualganged pot. using a 250k and 1M pot with a toggle or a push pull pot i set it so that i normally play on the lower impedance pot and then when i pull up i get a boost by switching to the higher imp pot. now this will increase your treble ie and noise as well but that is why on the push pull i put a lpf set for around 6khz to 3khz its adjustable and built right onto the push pull pot so you can set it how you like. there is a bit of volume boost doing this. quite a bit really. i started doing stuff like this because no pickups sounded like i wanted them to so i use lpf and hpf to make them do my bidding. oh and a side note you don't have to change your pots out in the above tutorial. i do this for my own purposes. but i also use emg with high imp pots too as it will just rip your face off. also they make adjustable capacitors all the way into the 1000pf range or the .001uf. something to consider and you can make your own caps as well the foil and oil method is quite easy.

well ok so what you are doing is putting two pots in parallel with each other with a cap strung across them. this first changes your impedance even if your tone is always on ten or max position. so we remove the cap to ground. we take the output from the second lug of volume control and we apply it to a junction of a .0068uf cap and a .1uf now since we gained some volume from the removing of the tone control to ground we will need to compensate for the freq change between two caps. i put a 5k trim pot in series with the .1uf and dial it in so the vol levels are consistent. tie the other ends to the outer lugs of the tone pot then take the output from the second lug. pot at max rotation is big fat honking tone min rotation is slightly thinned out bottom end or tightened up if you are using a seven string. really cuts through. or play at min setting and roll to full for leads. i can draw a schematic for you i have been doing this for around ten years give or take on seven strings and Les Paul neck pickups. i have other tricks as well. forgot i did this mod as a tutorial years ago for brian to post http://projectguitar.com/tut/blendmod.htm

dan armstrong did this in the seventies and then emg did something similar with the quick connect mechanism

well sadly i am not quite as talented as all of you fine gents i look at the pictures you post here and drool and then hang my jigsaw in shame. plus internet is becoming spotty so every now and then i just pop around. :}

you know this has been done right? just asking

something to consider for a tone control replacement instead of a standard tone control try replacing it with a High pass filter or a dual blend knob. this works really well for seven string guitars and down tuned instruments.

depending on where its bent you most certainly can fix it. i had a sealed one that was rather pricey but wasn't made very well and i dropped it into a vice to get it straightened out.

lol good to know i forgot to email rick and ask him i got busy playing nazi zombies lol. yeah i was a little cornfused about that one. i have been in heaven since i switched out my emg's pots. i used to have the active ones i dont' rem which ones but one was based around craig andertons one knob eq it was a direct copy of it. but they changed it on the newer version. ed

No crack involved, Ansil. I have, right behind me, an EMG-EQUIPPED bass with regular-value pots. The last owner was too lazy to switch the pots and the current owner (me) never uses the volume controls. The volumes don't go down to zero and the tone control didn't roll off as much as it should (till I dropped in a 25k). ok now you are talking bass which i have no experience with their pickups and pots so i have no comments on that. but the guitar pickups do not do that. mines on the wall behind me and the other in the case. hmm you know thats interesting i will email rick at emg and ask him he is sort of my email buddy

of course you could disassemble the unit put it in a glass case with an ozone unit that you can purchase yourself and do the same thing. but it all depends on how much time and money you wish to put in it. of course it Tesla had succeeded we wouldn't' have to worry about smell because all that would be left is ozone but thats another story for another forum. p.s. i am not knocking your idea if it sounds like it ozone is a wonderful idea.

if you want a unique "kill switch" try using something like a gate with a secondary input on it. say from your drummer or another instrument. or just a random oscillator but then your basically using a source controlled tremolo. personally i would much rather just keep my starburst in my guitar. 555 oscillator running in free oscillation mode push pull pot witih a resistor network on the output and a led on top to see the freq of it and you can use it to disconnect the guitar from the output jack and put in the oscilator if you get your levels right you can use it as a cool effect. and once nice thing for those of us that are sans whammy bars you can set this note up to be the last note in your lick hit your lick and pull this pot up and spin the knob and you have an instant dive bomb push it back in real quick and no one is the wiser. i used to do this live with a bunch of delay like vai has his set up. 1.5 seconds into 3 seconds and we did a real nice sound on sound harmonizing track live. if you build one there is a on line calculator that you can use to set the freq range. i use a 250k-500k pot and set it from around 40hz to 10khz or so. hope ya'll like it.

they make split bass pickups with a rail so you could use two sets of them and make them hum cancelling. they are actually pretty beefy pickups i used one on a metal mandolin once. it was more of a detuned mandolin with an octave box and distortion. anyway fat bucker on neck side fat treble bottom on bass side.

Can't say for certain without looking at the specific circuit. It may work perfectly well. One possibility is that the volume control will work to some extent but not actually give you zero volume when turned all the way down. This happens when you use regular pots instead of 25k on an EMG active pickup. Wire it up outside the guitar to see the effect, without laborious physical installation. with all due respect what monkey crack are you smoking. using any pot in an emg will give you actual zero volume i do this all the time if you get a pot doing that it is because the pot is sheit my friend. btw instead of 25k using a 250k you will get more output thats about it. it changes the output impedance tries to make it look more like a passive system. i add 500k-1M on my bridge emg pickups all the time for my customers and they just slay. found that trick out in my ibanez with a barcuss berry passive neck and an active emg 81 in bridge. set up so that the middle position cut out the emg and added a cap to filter out some of the bass end on the barcuss so it was like having three separate settings.

good idea i will email them i never thought to ask them lol usually most companies lie too much. and no you don't need a buffer if the two pickups never see each other.

something to ponder then what if your using active passive combo where the two are never in conjunction with each other. ie i am using a three way setup right now with my brian moore two humbuckers and piezo and i am replacing the bridge with an 81. the way its setup is pos.1 bridge pos. 2 piezo pos. 3 neck and i am looking at doing the same with my ibanez as i found i no longer use the bridge pickup for anything other than straight rocking out with volume dimed out. any ideas this has been something that has had me thinking for years. i did this with my old ibanez with a barcus berry pickup that was designed to be with an active pickup but was completely passive. around the 11k or so region and i grounded the bridge and it worked fine with out any buzzing. sorry to hijack this thread but it caught my eye

very concise very very well done. +5 kudos. not praises but the little chocolate granola candy things from the 80's i miss those little devils..

if you are competent in soldering and have good equipment then you will be fine. if not then stay away from it.