Treble bleed on volume - yea or nay?

[Powdered Toast Man]

What's the consensus around adding a treble bleed to the volume pot on a Jaguar (or JM)? I've noticed a significant and rapid roll off of the highs on my AO60's Jag when I move the volume pot even a little.

[Embenny]

I love treble bleed circuits and put them on any new guitar that I happen to be wiring up or modding.

[Stephen_42]

I did it to my Squier Jaguar, mostly because I wanted to learn how to do simple mods myself. But it works well enough, it's incredibly cheap (about £2 or something) and easy to do if you own a soldering iron. It's easily reversible if you decide you don't like it, so I'd say do it and decide for yourself whether you like it.

[gnoleb]

I always do either a mojotone treble bleed or 50's style wiring, depending on the guitar. I like to have a lot of range between just-before-break-up and full on, and I like to retain some brightness when cleanish.

And yeah, agree with the above that its super cheap, easy, and reversible, so why not try it?

[electric12]

Definitely.

I do it to all my guitars.

[MechaBulletBill]

nah makes fuzzes sound weird when you roll it back

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

nah makes fuzzes sound weird when you roll it back

Opens up a whole new world of twang to me. Even prefer these sounds now! So a clear yes from me!

[HarlowTheFish]

I like the Ibanez style treble bleed (single 330pf cap), because it brightens up just a bit when you roll the volume down and doesn't mess up the taper much. I prefer having a beefier tone full-up and having a bit more brightness and clarity when I roll down to clean up my tone a bit.

[Harmoncj]

Hard yes. There are different types but I think all guitar volume knobs need it. Kinman style treble bleed goes nice on a stock jazzmaster. And I use fuzz face with the roll off trick it still sounds great! The trick is you want the treble bleed that only compensates for the treble loss of a plain pot.

[timtam]

I kind of like the option of reducing some brightness by rolling back the volume on particularly bright guitars (ie no added treble bleed). It's a bit different to using the tone control. But also complicated by two things happening a once. While I've gone into the last couple of builds thinking I'll probably add a treble bleed, I haven't ended up doing so (yet). But on a guitar where it got muddy I would.

[Powdered Toast Man]

Hard yes. There are different types but I think all guitar volume knobs need it. Kinman style treble bleed goes nice on a stock jazzmaster. And I use fuzz face with the roll off trick it still sounds great! The trick is you want the treble bleed that only compensates for the treble loss of a plain pot.

It's funny because I've got a lot of other single coil guitars and the only time I've every thought, wow this needs a treble bleed, is on the offsets. I first experienced this when I had a TVL JM - it was a shocking roll off from clear to mud. I added a treble bleed on it and it was way better.

Now I've got my AO60's Jag and it's the same thing. Bright as all get out when full on but roll the volume back any more than just a hair and it's like throwing a blanket over it. My guess would be this is a side effect of the 1 meg pots. On all my Teles and Strats there is some roll off of the highs but it's not as pronounced so early on the dial.

[snarf]

I only just recently tried this out on a Jaguar build and it sounds great. My philosophy on guitar tones is that any tone is achievable even on the stock setup by tweaking amp settings or EQ. I notice the clarity of more frequencies when using the treble bleed circuit.

[Harmoncj]

Hard yes. There are different types but I think all guitar volume knobs need it. Kinman style treble bleed goes nice on a stock jazzmaster. And I use fuzz face with the roll off trick it still sounds great! The trick is you want the treble bleed that only compensates for the treble loss of a plain pot.

It's funny because I've got a lot of other single coil guitars and the only time I've every thought, wow this needs a treble bleed, is on the offsets. I first experienced this when I had a TVL JM - it was a shocking roll off from clear to mud. I added a treble bleed on it and it was way better.

Now I've got my AO60's Jag and it's the same thing. Bright as all get out when full on but roll the volume back any more than just a hair and it's like throwing a blanket over it. My guess would be this is a side effect of the 1 meg pots. On all my Teles and Strats there is some roll off of the highs but it's not as pronounced so early on the dial.

yeah I have that same issue I just bought a squier starcaster which I love (fantastic affordable guitar) but any adjustment on the volume pots instantly halves your treble and volume. the stock squier JMJM has a better usable range to the volume pot even without the treble bleed mod. I haven't looked but I would guess the JMJM has a linear pots and the starcaster has audio pots... go figure the linear response is more usable for tweaking guitar.

[adamrobertt]

I think they're useful but I never use my volume knob really, unless I'm trying to silence myself in a quiet part. So I don't see them as essential. But I've had them in a few guitars and I think they're a no-brainer if you're the type who uses your volume knob a lot.

[algeriet]

I have 'em on two of my five Jazzmasters and when the guitar definitely is a keeper (tbh they all are) and I can be arsed I install one.