Increasing the treble limit on a TBX tone control

i have a strat that is fairly heavily modded and i am not quite satisfied with my tone. the settings (with the mods) that i like are the middle and neck in series with the bridge pick up over the top. i got a tbx tone control on there which i crank to eleven so i can boost the treble and avoid too much muddiness.

the problem is that when i crank the distortion on my orange rocker 30 it is still a little too muddy.

anyone know if it is possible to squeeze a little more treble out of this thing by playing around with the resistor/capacitor values without changing the tone?

I would imagine that you could do that with the swapping of some caps and such, although, on the same hand when you are changing things you by theory are going to suffer some change be it good once you hear it or bad whenever you change caps. Most, if any changes are going to subtle really, if even audibal. What are the values that you currently have. For the most part the higher the value the more trrble is cut so in theory, if you lower the value of your main tone cap, you should hence let more highs through...

Or atleast someone else will be able to give you a better answer.

yea that was what i was thinking. its just that the tbx tone control is a strange contraption and i'm not sure it works the same way as a regular tone pot (a far as caps go).

the cap is .022mf and the resistor is 1 meg,

here is a pick of the wiring for the pot.

First, ditch the TBX. I used to have it on one of my Strats, and I didn't care for it at all. From 1 to 5, it acted like a normal tone control, but the sweep was terribly short. Above 5, it just made the guitar sound weird- it took all the balls out and left me with a tinny, nasally tone.

Second, play with your amp's EQ. If it's muddy, turn down the bass! A lot of people will keep it at 5 or higher, but many amps I've had sound best with the bass as low as 2 or 3 when they are at higher volume. Also, keep in mind that any pedals you run in front of the amp may be adding a lot of low end.

While we're on the topic of tone controls, I really liked using No Load pots in my Strats. Turning them all the way up effectively takes the control right out the circuit so you get the full output of the pickup. It can make a HUGE difference.

You can lower the resistance on that TBX and get more trebble, but its still not going to sound great. If you do indeed need better tone from the guitar maybe you want to go active. I'd go here and try one of these is you do indeed need guitar EQing. They have many different controlls depending on your needs. it does sound like you may want a 2 way EQ but the sweeping tone controlls work great too.

http://guitarfuel.com/active_tone_circuits.php

The batteries last a year or so with normal use and they are fairly easy to install. .

they got a lot nice stuff on that site, thanks! not too expensive either. i don't know if i would be able to fit another battery in there. maybe if i *shudder* re did all the wiring and cleaned it up a little. but that would be a nightmare.

i like the idea of playing with the value of the resistor though. i might try that.

thanks

yes playing with the resistance or a cap can do the job. You're using a .022 cap as a tone cap, but I dont see a trebble pass there. Normally for a true tbx, the cap you show is to cut trebble and a trebble bleed is used to pass trebble and block bass, just the opposite of what you show in your diagram.

You can use a .1 cap and pass the signal through that and block the bass and increase trebble. (I believe dan electros use this combination tone pass and cut. You can probibly find a diagram on it and compare against your own. Rickenbacher used it on many of their guitars as well.

What you would wind up with is in the center, all is normal. turn one direction, trebble block/bass pass, the other direction trebble pass/bass block.

The other option is to just put a trebble bleed on the volume controll and if you need a bit more trebble just turn the volume down a notch or two.

I do this on strats and use one of the tone controls to add the bleeder. I turn the volume down a hair and it normally makes the sound a littel muffeled, then I use the bleeder tone to adjust how much bleed across the volume pot i want.

the way i have it wired it works as a high pass filter one way and a low pass filter the other way with bypass in the middle. just did some reading up on a data sheet that fender just sent me and it looks like when it is turned up its maxed out top end wise. playing with the values will only lower/raise the low pass limit.

my options now are to either change my pickups (which i don't want to do, i really like the classic 69's that came stock on it), or add a separate circuit.

i think what i am gonna try is to add a rangemaster type circuit (if i can fit it). it is a pretty minimal circuit so i think that i can shrink down the foot print and see if i can fit it in.

I believe the TBX resistor is really 82k, not 1meg.

My understanding of the TBX, is that it works simply by taking the loading of the tone network out of the circuit. The top half (in your diagram) just adds 0-1Meg resistance between the the tone circuit in the lower half.

drewfx

yea that was what i was thinking. its just that the tbx tone control is a strange contraption and i'm not sure it works the same way as a regular tone pot (a far as caps go). the cap is .022mf and the resistor is 1 meg, here is a pick of the wiring for the pot.

Ah, just where I was going to head with this one. The original is on this page. I love his web site. Lots of nice little tricks on there. You can tweak them in the same way you can with a treble bleed.

If that's your guitar in your avatar, where did you get the pickguard? Very cool! That would go great with my hair-on-hide strap!

yea thats my baby up there. i almost got it perfect (for me at least haha). believe it or not i drew that on there with a sharpie then hit it with a bunch of clear coat. i've been doing a bunch of em for friends lately.

here is a close up of it.

That page says it uses a 22.5uf cap. Definately a misprint.

LOL! I thought it was one of those things where the top layer (as in a WBW pickguard) is thinner and tooled like those desk and wall signs where part is carved away to show the white underneath. From a distance, I guess that could pass for the same. How many Sharpies do you go through doing those?

you know lately the the color has been wearing away right where i play so i've been thinking about busting out the dremel tool and carving it down. i think i went through 4 or five doing this lol.

Try "Doc's Mod" for the TBX. I do it to all my TBXs.

http://blueguitar.org/new/schem/_gtr/tbx_fdp.pdf

Of course putzing with cap and resistor values may help. Try shoving a really love value cap on there for example. Or even try subbing in common ones you have to hand.

Solder up two wires where the cap would usually go, crocodile clip the ends of those wires. Reassemble guitar with the wires hanging out. And then you can drop in caps to suit.