well, then the pot is your resister. Try it with a 25k resister, or a little less than 25kmetalchurch wrote:No, that was short for a 25k volume and a 25k tone pot. Two seperate units.
Capasitor and resistor values...
- metalchurch
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Joe, I guess the main question is what exactly do you want to do?
Do you want to completely knock the highs down?
Usually when a cap is added to a volume control only setup, it's used as a "bleed" capacitor to keep the highs in the output as you roll the volume down. In that case the cap goes between the legs of the volume pot which connect to the pickup and output jack. That's what EVH always did so he could just back off of the volume and get a clean sound that had decent highs.
If you want to just knock the highs down completely, try different capacitor values between the output jack leg of the volume pot and ground.
What capacitors do is create a low impedance path for high frequencies and a high impedance path for low frequencies. Putting the cap between the output jack and ground essentially grounds the high frequencies above the roll-off point of the cap. The highs take the path of least resistance to ground, which is through the cap. The value of the cap controls the roll-off point, the larger the cap value, the lower the roll off point (and the lower the frequency where the highs start to get "grounded"). A resistor in series with the cap can be used to increase the amount of high end by creating a higher impedance path to ground for the highs, so less get "grounded".
Other things which affect the roll-off point are the output impedance of the active circuitry in the EMG, the input impedance of the preamp (or the first device you are plugged in to), and the value of the volume pot (except when the volume is wide open, at that point the value of the pot is meaningless, it's a dead short from pickup to output jack).
Since all of these combinations vary greatly from setup to setup, experimentation is the key. I would start off without any resistors and try different values of caps. If you find that they all knock off too much high end, then you could try different values of resistors in series with the cap; the higher the resistor value, the more highs you will get.
Whew.
Do you want to completely knock the highs down?
Usually when a cap is added to a volume control only setup, it's used as a "bleed" capacitor to keep the highs in the output as you roll the volume down. In that case the cap goes between the legs of the volume pot which connect to the pickup and output jack. That's what EVH always did so he could just back off of the volume and get a clean sound that had decent highs.
If you want to just knock the highs down completely, try different capacitor values between the output jack leg of the volume pot and ground.
What capacitors do is create a low impedance path for high frequencies and a high impedance path for low frequencies. Putting the cap between the output jack and ground essentially grounds the high frequencies above the roll-off point of the cap. The highs take the path of least resistance to ground, which is through the cap. The value of the cap controls the roll-off point, the larger the cap value, the lower the roll off point (and the lower the frequency where the highs start to get "grounded"). A resistor in series with the cap can be used to increase the amount of high end by creating a higher impedance path to ground for the highs, so less get "grounded".
Other things which affect the roll-off point are the output impedance of the active circuitry in the EMG, the input impedance of the preamp (or the first device you are plugged in to), and the value of the volume pot (except when the volume is wide open, at that point the value of the pot is meaningless, it's a dead short from pickup to output jack).
Since all of these combinations vary greatly from setup to setup, experimentation is the key. I would start off without any resistors and try different values of caps. If you find that they all knock off too much high end, then you could try different values of resistors in series with the cap; the higher the resistor value, the more highs you will get.
Whew.
Last edited by Ron on Monday Dec 08, 2008, edited 1 time in total.
... and then the wheel fell off.
- metalchurch
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No I dont want to take the high end out completely.Ron wrote:Joe, I guess the main question is what exactly do you want to do?
Do you want to completely knock the highs down?
Usually when a cap is added to a volume control only setup, it's used as a "bleed" capacitor to keep the highs in the output as you roll the volume down. In that case the cap goes between the legs of the volume pot which connect to the pickup and output jack. That's what EVH always did so he could just back off of the volume and get a clean sound that had decent highs.
I dont want a Treble Bleed either.
I want to bleed of only some of the high end.
So, I connect to the middle (output) lug and the ground, or back of the pot? That's all I needed to know
Thanks man!
that was a long post there bro
Just connect the cap from the center leg of the pot to the ground on the body of the pot, the smaller the value of the cap, the higher the frequencies which are bled to ground.
If you find that no matter what you do, you are losing too much of the high end, then start adding resistors in series with the cap to control the bleed.
If you find that no matter what you do, you are losing too much of the high end, then start adding resistors in series with the cap to control the bleed.
Last edited by Ron on Monday Dec 08, 2008, edited 1 time in total.
... and then the wheel fell off.
- metalchurch
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- Joined: Friday Feb 09, 2007
- Location: Somerset
- metalchurch
- Diamond Member
- Posts: 3719
- Joined: Friday Feb 09, 2007
- Location: Somerset
- metalchurch
- Diamond Member
- Posts: 3719
- Joined: Friday Feb 09, 2007
- Location: Somerset
I just can't pass up a great deal, and I always wanted a semi-hollow. I try and play all kinds of styles and once I'm done remodeling I'm setting up a mini-studio in the spare bedroom. I like to have a lot of different tonal flavors to play with when I'm recording.metalchurch wrote:Yeah, I imagined that you were still hurting a little too much to be playing 100% already. Time and beans...![]()
Why did you grab that semi-hollow anyway? Did you get it for a particular style? what kind of music do you play? I dont think I ever heard you talk about it before.
... and then the wheel fell off.
I suppose the center tap will work the same but it isn't where the tone control is commonly hooked ( at least not on a strat ). This sounds Ok but it sounds like more experimentation than my approach. Just a capacitor without the resistor will be like the tone control all the way down wouldn't it ? Wich will probably cut too many highs and make it sound muddy.Ron wrote:Just connect the cap from the center leg of the pot to the ground on the body of the pot, the smaller the value of the cap, the higher the frequencies which are bled to ground.
If you find that no matter what you do, you are losing too much of the high end, then start adding resistors in series with the cap to control the bleed.
I put my money on this
solder a capacitor lead (.1uf) to the volume pot on the terminal your pickup connects to, then solder the other capacitor lead to your resistor (25k) then solder the other resistor lead to ground. This would give you the same circuit as the tone pot at 10.
Don't bitch to me about the economy while you're still buying Chinese products.
You're right Tony,tonefight wrote:I suppose the center tap will work the same but it isn't where the tone control is commonly hooked ( at least not on a strat ). This sounds Ok but it sounds like more experimentation than my approach. Just a capacitor without the resistor will be like the tone control all the way down wouldn't it ? Wich will probably cut too many highs and make it sound muddy.Ron wrote:Just connect the cap from the center leg of the pot to the ground on the body of the pot, the smaller the value of the cap, the higher the frequencies which are bled to ground.
If you find that no matter what you do, you are losing too much of the high end, then start adding resistors in series with the cap to control the bleed.
I put my money on thissolder a capacitor lead (.1uf) to the volume pot on the terminal your pickup connects to, then solder the other capacitor lead to your resistor (25k) then solder the other resistor lead to ground. This would give you the same circuit as the tone pot at 10.
Soldering the cap to ground from the output leg of the pot will make it cut the highs all of the time (like a tone control rolled the whole way down). But I would bet that Joe plays with the volume up all of the way all of the time, haha, so there would be no real difference between the two.
Putting a trim pot in series with a cap tied to the output jack leg of the pot, as MeYatch suggested, is a great idea to help reduce the amount of experimentation, (and precisely dial-in the amount of treble cut), but the real task is find the right cap value to get the highs to start rolling off at the desired frequency.
... and then the wheel fell off.

Maybe I'm not explaining myself well but this is very simple and I'm pretty confident it will work. Maybe the diagram will help. I've drawn a cap and resistor into the 1 volume circuit and if you compare it with the 1 volume 1 tone circuit it is the same with the resistor replacing the tone pot.
Joe, if you wire this up your guitar will be just like its wired with 1 volume and 1 tone ( with the tone on 10 ) If you want to cut more highs lower the resistor value a little.
You just wanted to cut the excess highs correct Joe ?
Don't bitch to me about the economy while you're still buying Chinese products.