Treble bleed cap questions...

OK... I'm probably gonna catch it for this, since I've always maintained that I like the bleed cap, but here goes...

Since I switched to my ash body, I find that the .001mf bleed cap is a bit harsh -- to trebly for what I want. At first, I removed the cap, but then found that my sound was too dead -- I like to roll the volume back to clean up the sound, but I was losing too much without the cap.

I tried to go cap shopping at Radio Shack, but the next cap down that they had was a 100pf cap, which is ten times less than what I had. The "helpful" clerk said that I could wire caps in parallel to get my desired level, but I don't wanna wire 6 or 7 of 'em together!

I can get some caps from Antique Electric, but I'm not sure what I want....

Duncan's site recommends a .002 cap with a 100K resistor, and someone on their board said that the resistor will allow the bass to remain in the circuit....

I'm not sure if I want to increase or decrease the cap to tame the brittleness -- I was thinking I wanted something in the range of 600 to 700pf. I also thought the resistor just smoothed the taper of the pot, so I'm confused.

Any advice from you electronics wizards? I don't really understand caps and resistors well enough to know what to do....

I suppose I could leave it alone and just constantly fiddle with the tone control, but that's no fun....

Hi

I used what Chris Kinman recomends on his site. It is a
.0012uf cap in series with a 130k resistor. I like it much better than the cap alone method.

http://www.kinman.com/multimedia/Tele_Wirogram.pdf

Hope this helps

Ben

I have always thought the .001uF cap was way too large for this use. Personally, I usually prefer the guitar without this cap, but I have used them on several guitars. The value I use depends upon the pickups. Humbucker pickups seem to prefer 180pF. For P90s, 180pF is too large. Same for Teles. For Teles, I prefer a bypass cap in the area of 100pF to 150pF, with my best results coming from a 120pF cap.

After trying many different values including combinations with resistors, I've switched all my guitars to 470pf capacitors. To my ears it sounds more natural when rolling off the volume. You can get these from any local electronics parts house.


Andy

Thanks, guys....

I also posted this over at the Seymour Duncan forum and got some interesting advice... I would love to find some caps in the 470 - 680 pf range, but can't find them locally...

I suppose I'll have to order them.

In the meantime, I may try some different value resistors with my .001 cap. BTW, I tried the 100pf cap, and it didn't seem to do much in the way of letting the treble pass through... So, I need something between that and the .001mf cap....

I tried various resistors tonight with the caps that I had, and have -- temporarily, at least -- settled on a .001 cap in series with an 82K resistor... I lose a bit of the ability to "clean up" the sound -- it still has an edge, but I don't get the brittleness I had before.... In fact, this almost sounds like nothing is happening, at all -- no high end loss, but no boost, either....

I think I'm gonna try the Kinman values the next time I have to order some parts, but I'm not gonna build an order just for a capacitor and a resistor!

So far, I've gotten best results with just a 680pF cap in all my teles. To my ears, this is perfectly neutral in the treble as you turn down. 1nF gives too much of a treble boost.

What I want, I think, is a very slight boost to the treble as I turn down the volume, since our ears are less sensitive to treble at lower volumes.

Anyway, something new to try...

Kris

Ditto on the 680pf. This is what John Suhr recommended to me when I installed his Tele set. Just right and natural sounding. Great pickups, by the way!

I was having trouble finding the caps and resistors to match Kinman's specs...

I emailed Chris Kinman to ask where to get them and he's sending me a bypass kit, free of charge.

Nice guy!

I do want to find a 680pf cap, though, as I've often heard that this is the best value.... Anyone got one that they wouldn't mind sharing?

To my way of thinking and as referenced on the Dimarzio site and others, the cap lets the highs through and a resistor (in parallel) lets some of the mids through as well so you avoid the ice-pick syndrome.

I know Kinman recommends the cap and resistor in series. I don't know of any comprehensive analysis to debate the series vs. parallel application of the resistor.

After some diddling about with different values, I settled on a .001uF cap in parallel with a 150K 1/4 watt resistor. Works well on several guitars I've modded. Note that the wattage is immaterial but you'll invariably get asked for a value when shopping at an electronics store.

Experimentation will enable you to find the right combination for your requirements.

Why is it I don't really feel like I'm playing an electric guitar unless I'm playing a Tele? No apologies, no explanations. :)