A Treble-Bleed circuit for my single coil Fraser guitar. Comparing tones before and after.

When you turn the volume potentiometer down, you gradually loose the treble part of the signal. A treble bleed is a capacitor often coupled in parallel or in series with a resistor on the master volume pot to help keep this from happening.
00:00 Why I'm considering a treble-bleed
00:58 Tones before installing the treble-bleed
02:50 First a little TLC for the fretboard
04:50 Installing the treble-bleed capacitor and resistor
06:13 Testing the electronics if they still work
07:01 Tones after the treble-bleed installation
10:00 Turn off the overdrive and listen to clean tones
12:12 Final thoughts
Some references mentioned in the video:
Understanding Guitar Wiring, Part 4 from Stewmac:
www.stewmac.com/video-and-ide...
Evil Sheep Guitar pickups: evilsheeppickups.com/
Fraser guitars: fraserguitars.co.uk/
HOW A TREBLE-BLEED CIRCUIT CAN AFFECT YOUR TONE:
www.fender.com/articles/tech-...

[@SubhadeepDas]

For anyone that's wondering, it is a 150k ohm resistor in paralled with a 0.001uf or 1000 pico farad capacitor. You can identify resistor values using the color code of the bands. Hope this helps!

[@GUITARSGIZMOS]

Thanks for this info, I will pin your comment to the top here as many will probably find it useful. Cheers!

[@SubhadeepDas]

@@GUITARSGIZMOS awesome! I think I should also mention the fact that these exact specs are used by Andy Timmons when it comes to the treble bleed mods on his guitars.

[@DTGuitarTech]

Best treble bleed demo on KZbin. You’ve inspired me to install this mod. Thank you so much.

[@jimmcclanahan]

Interesting stuff. I want to try a treble bleed on my project strat as kind of the last piece of the puzzle with its electronics. But then i want to get another project strat an try a PTB pair of tone knobs to see how that works.

[@BorbasBence]

This guitar sounds amazing with this mod! Sounds as warm as sitting by the fireplace with your family at Christmas but at the same time it's crisp and doesn't lose any clarity at all! Nice mod and great playing Thor!

[@paulstaffordcook8799]

Sounds good Thor. I didn’t think it would make much difference…. but I definitely hear it. Nice tones and lovely playing too 👌

[@GUITARSGIZMOS]

Hi Paul, thank you😊. I have had a treble-bleed in all my other Strats but wanted to follow Fraser's advice on this one. Turned out too dark with the volume rolled a bit down to my taste. I'm happy I did the change now and I clearly prefer the tones with the circuit installed.

[@RegieFilho]

Thank you for this! I was just pondering about using that in a Charlie Christian pup.

[@giulioluzzardi7632]

It works....but the sound you had at the start without the bleed was lovely and the midrange was warmer too, that's what I heard. I also open up my 60s style strat because I am curious to know what can be done. I have learnt that this style of Guitar is extremely sensitive to any changes in wiring and even the type of wire used can affect the tone. I shall try the "50s" wiring and if that does'nt please I will take it back to stock. N.B. even having the tone working on the bridge pickup can make it sound empty. I usually try the mods and a week later bring it back to stock again but you learn a lot on the way though. It's a quest to find a sound that makes you want to play more and that is a good thing.

[@GUITARSGIZMOS]

Hi, yes I think you are right about that minor changes like I've done here may affect the overall tone. However, I find this mod a lifesaver for this guitar, and I have not regretted it so far. And if it should prove not to work well, it's easy to go back to how it was. The 50s wiring might work well, so would be interesting to hear your experience with it if you choose to do it. Cheers, Thor

[@davelong7218]

Sounds great btw....!

[@moreorlesslikeso]

The loss of treble when dialling the volume back is quite noticeable with the unmodified guitar, I think. However, the mids and bass are really strong right from the start and as they stay that way the treble loss seems al the more audible. To me your sound actually seems quite balanced and pleasant at all volumes after putting that treble bleed in. With my own Strat, however, I do observe a certain thinness of sound after having put in a Kinman type treble bleed. Maybe the values of capacitator/resistor are not the optimal ones and too much of the lower frequencies get blocked...

[@mitcholiver1169]

this is a very good and honest, useful video Thor! it sound very linear and good all the way through the band! I use a .00062 pf without resistor but it gives me grounding problems and buzzes when turning down if the power is dirty in a venue... can you please confirm the value of the parallel combo you used? thanks and nice video again.... mitch

[@GUITARSGIZMOS]

Thanks Mitch, very kind of you. I'm afraid I don't know the exact value because it's one I had laying around. If you look at 5:08 out in the video and go to this page for determining the value based on the color codes, you might be able to figure it out. I didn't manage to myself: www.make-it.ca/resistor-color-code-calculator/ Best of luck with your project. Thor

[@davelong7218]

Curious about the fender treble bleed tone saver on the tone pot. I'm just learning about this stuff myself.

[@martgryfny]

Some interesting things from my experience: 1. For my HH setup putting cap and resistor in parallel made volume unusable. At 9 i was getting most of mids and lows cut out. On 8 there were already only highs left. Removing the resistor didn't change anything. I resoldered the cap and resistor in series, and now I got quite predictable and expected behavior. 2. On guitar wiring FB group someone told me to try '50s wiring, where the tone circuit is soldered to the volume knob on its output side. It means it is soldered directly to the cable that goes straight to the output jack. Normally the tone circuit cuts highs from the full signal and then it goes through the volume pot. In '50s wiring wen you roll down the volume you also make the tone circuit cut less highs, because it cuts it from lower signal. But that wiring can also add some other quirks like change of signal level when messing with the tone knob.

[@GUITARSGIZMOS]

Hi, thanks for sharing your experience. It's interesting to hear your thoughts around this. I considered putting the resistor in series (The Kinman way) and also to try out a 50's wiring. But I went with the parallell method for the cap and resistor for now (mostly because it was pre-made that way). I think I need to try it like this for a while to see if it is a good solution or if I feel the need to try one of the other options. I can't say that I experience that the tone gets thinner/more trebly when I roll down the volume, but I have heard others also mention that it can be the case like to your experience. Cheers, Thor

[@curtrod]

you're a nice gentleman first, and I wish I could visit Norway second, your playing sounds great third, fourth and fifth, the 'fraser' guitar doesn't sound like a strat really and just buy a strat 😊

[@thedoodl38ug]

I have a Fender CS 60's stat. Highly considering one of these guitars but can it really compare? Would love to know your opinion.

[@GUITARSGIZMOS]

Oh, I would love to compare the two, but I'm afraid I can't tell you for sure. It feels like a high end guitar to me, and the playability of the neck is just fab! I think you should ask Sean Mann (check out his youtube channel). He has a couple of Fraser S-style guitars, and maybe he can tell you how it compares to CS Strat. All the best, Thor

[@thedoodl38ug]

@@GUITARSGIZMOS Thank you for taking the time to answer my question! I will ask him. given the pricing of both guitars i'd love to know how they compare. Could save myself a fortune!

[@Tone.Corner]

Hey - I have never installed it. what resistor values ​​did you use, 100k? I'm thinking about it...I'm curious what the others say...you are happy and it’s good, have a nice Sunday🎸🎼💥

[@GUITARSGIZMOS]

Hi there Uli, I am not 100% certain, because I find the numbering system on these a bit Greek. But from what I am able to find on the net, the capacitor I used says 102K and that looks to be a .001 uf. I don't know the value on the resistor, but I think you can find it from the colour codes, and I show it at 05:07 in the video. Thanks for dropping by. Cheers, Thor 😃

[@SM-zl5hb]

Thanks for the video, very much appreciate to hear a clean tone. I was curious as well and seems 150k resistance - brown, green, black, orange (1,5,0, K). Along with 0.001uf caps, cut off is about at 1kHz. To my ears the high pass sounds almost like going through a semi-acoustric guitar. I was looking for this kind of tone even through a solid body.

[@SubhadeepDas]

5 band color code. Brown orange black green brown. This is a 150k resistor surely. Perfect! 👍🏻👌🏻

[@les7118]

Do you have linear or audio volume pot? linear or log?

[@GUITARSGIZMOS]

It's audio tapers (log)

[@les7118]

thank you, my cts logs even with kinman treble bleed "eats" almost all signal after 6 on volume knob

[@GUITARSGIZMOS]

@@les7118 I hope you manage to figure it out. I see that Fraser has installed 250K Dimple Vintage Audio Taper in this guitar.

[@john15333]

Man those pickups need treble bleed for sure.

[@thomkopal1740]

The pickups are installed very low (far from strings), and that rolls off highs. In other words, the pickups are probably not inherently dark-toned.

[@SubhadeepDas]

Nope, ​lowering your pickups won't affect the highs to that extent. It will only slightly affect the overall gain of the pickup. All potentiometers naturally lose highs when you turn them down. It doesn't have anything to do with the pickup height. Hence the treble bleed is used.@@thomkopal1740