Wanting a different kind of tone knob

[alathIN]

I have been experimenting with different wiring options on my latest build and generally happy with what the volume knobs and the push-pull for phase and series-parallel are doing.



But the tone knobs are just about useless at the moment.
Based on my shaky knowledge of electric circuits and my imperfect ear, I think of normal tone knobs as "treble roll off." Very handy when your rig has a tendency to get ice picky at times.

What this guitar wants is "bass roll off." In certain positions/combinations or gain levels, it gets too thick and wooly. If i had a knob to dial back the lower end of yhe spectrum it would be more useful than rolling off the highs.

Is anyone aware of how to wire this kind of "inverted" tone control?
If so please share any diagrams, component values, or personal experiences you have.

 

[alathIN]

Apparently i am not the first person to look for this
https://www.tdpri.com/threads/reverse-tone-control-to-cut-bass.690334/

And i had no idea that some G&L's have this standard

 

[alathIN]

Apparently i am not the first person to look for this
https://www.tdpri.com/threads/reverse-tone-control-to-cut-bass.690334/

And i had no idea that some G&L's have this standard

I am kind of curious why - apparently - this needs a reverse log pot.

 

[Asmith]

Normal tone controls are at max treble when resistance is at max. Bass is at max on a bass cut when resistance is zero, increasing the resistance cuts bass.

So the pot kind of works in reverse when cutting the bass frequencies. You can wire a regular pot to do bass cut with a decent taper if you wire it backwards but the knob will turn backwards too. So full bass would be with the knob turned back.

 

[gregulator450]

This should hold the answer to your questions. I built one for one of my guitars, and it works quite effectively.

https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/24592-the-recording-guitarist-the-fabulous-focus-knob

 

[alathIN]

Someone suggested I graft the G&L master treble / master bass tone stack onto my existing volume, phase, and series/parallel controls.
I am liking this idea because I have never gotten much use out of regular tone controls - particularly not separate tone controls for the bridge and neck pickups.

 

[trev333]

a TBX tone pot will cut the bass... and cut the treble the other way.....

 

[jvin248]

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Two options, one is to hard wire an Arlo Cocked Wah to the tone pot where turning the tone pot down returns it to 'normal' tone. I did that on the bridge pickup of a guitar I only play on distortion (neck I used a push/pull so down was single screw coil side and up is both coils in parallel). The other option is this Tone Fiend circuit. Diagram can be found in the video description (right-click on the video to open in another tab then scroll down for the link).



.

 

[SixStringSlinger]

The reverse pot lets you have the effect that control offers while turning the knob in the direction you're used to. With the reverse pot, you roll off the bass by turning the knob in the same direction you would when rolling off treble with a "normal" tone control.

I am a recent convert to the bass roll-off and loving it. I installed one in my Strat so that I know have a master bass cut and a master treble cut. The bass cut is more useful to me than you might expect on a Strat, and even more so when using distortion or when the S1 switch is engaged.

My Strat uses a 1meg reverse audio pot for the bass cut, with a .002 cap. A larger value cap will cut less bass, a smaller one will cut more bass. For the treble cut I use your typical 250k pot with a .022 cap. The treble cut is a no-load, so I have the option of cutting that out entirely (the bass cut pot's 1meg value makes it sound to our ears as though it's cut out when on 10, like a no-load, even though it's not technically removed from the signal path).

The bass cut is useful, but it's especially fun when you use both controls. On my Strat, both controls on 10 has a sort of full-spectrum, hi-fi sound. If I roll them both back to about 7, that space is a little more restricted. To my knowledge, you can't do that with a TBX pot as you're always choosing either bass cut or treble cut. Playing with that balance has helped me fit my sound into its own space and made an already versatile guitar even more so.

 

[tubejockey]

Here's the way I did it. A standard linear taper 500k pot and a tapering resistor. It does significantly limit the amount of bass cut available, but I have never needed very much anyway. 1M cuts things way too much for my taste. This version remains useful throughout the entire range.

 

[Jupiter]

Reverends come with a knob that rolls off the bass.

 

[Ripthorn]

I like the G&L passive treble and bass control. I put it on a concentric pot so it only uses one pot hole. Works great.

 

[telemnemonics]

I’ve bee vaguely interested in a bass cut guitar circuit but have not yet tried one of the production guitars that have them and over the years found my excess bass solution via a single bridge pickup and amp settings that don’t have to work with two different pickup sounds.

Need to try one I guess!

 

[Zepfan]

So what value pots and tone caps are you presently using? Have you tried using higher value pots or lower value tone caps? What about the pickup heights?

 

[tubejockey]

I've tried several ideas, including a passive t&b, a sweepable mid notch, spin-a- split, active mid boost and cut, etc. My epi lp currently has a tuned tap on each pickup with a variable depth control. I used a push- push pot to engage the circuit and pan between the caps attached to each pickup. It works well and puts a specific mid notch in the response. Nice way to use a tone pot.