The Famous 5 Treble Bleed Guitar Mods Compared

Which one is your Go-To | Comparing 5 Unique Treble Bleed Guitar Mods

Memberships Only Page (Free to Join)

Waylon McPherson Guitar

My Originals Project Whiskey Soho

My Day Job "McPherson Stompboxes NZ"

[WaylonMcPhersonGuitar]

🎸 Finally got this video together, it was so great to compare these designs!

[thomaslthomas]

You are missing your calling as an online instructor in electronics. you are better than any instructor I had in college. Keep up the great work.

[-processdrone-]

I come from an electronic engineering background, I started my improvised journey on what combo to go with, but it was cut short when I found the Octave Doctor treble bleed. It surpassed everything for me.
Octave Doctor came up with the series combination of 1 nF capacitor and 150 k-ohm resistor. It's recommended by many sources as a good choice for maintaining a consistent resonant peak as volume decreases and presents that pretty well on an Oscilloscope (a way of converting audio signals into visual representations so you can really see if your ears are telling you the truth) .
Your "Mystery" one didn't actually surpass the one I've settled on for me, it's a tangent I didn't go down because it felt like an unnecessary expense after finding a solution and in your demo it appears to stay louder longer which isn't what I need from it. You've made me glad I didn't pursue it.
Everything I've said goes along with your point; it's a personal and individual decision.

[shredgd]

As shown, the single 330p cap bleed is the only one which really retains the audio taper of the pot. It only keeps treble, and you can easily fine-tune it to your desire (PRS uses 180p, Ibanez uses 330p, which is my favorite).
You really can’t make volume swells in overdriven solos with the other types of treble bleed, because you’ll have an abrupt transition from 0 to 1 in volume, as those bleed circuits immediately let too much frequencies (highs but also mids) pass as soon as you move away from 0. Actually those bleeds transform the volume pot in a bass-cut pot, because as said not only high treble gets passed, also mids start to pass undisturbed through those bigger 1n caps. That’s most evident with the “mystery” bleed, with that gigantic 6.8n cap.

PS: thanks for this very well made comparison, the best on YouTube to date!

[xbob]

Thank you for doing all of this work for us. What a brilliant way to do side by side of these variations. You've got me really interested in trying out a dual pot control to see how it does play with OD and fuzz pedals, as I do a whole lot of playing around with drive and fuzz levels using my volume pot. And yes, you did a fantastic job of explaining the electronics so that us non-electronics people could get it. I'm subscribed and looking forward to watching more of your videos!

[jamiew.lacroix]

Awesome video, no more confusion with this mod. Thank you for all you hard work.

[artysanmobile]

Thanks very much for your efforts. Finding this solution is very time-consuming for certain guitars which physically put up a big obstacle to checking parts. I know I’ve gone done a long road finding the solution for my Strat, but once found, it is very gratifying. Having the right bleed behavior gives a player an infinitely variable sound palette with the simplest possible control - the volume. I’m happiest with just enough bypass to keep rolloff behavior but reduce it by what I’d call ‘about half.’ The variations are infinite but a solution can be found.

[robertdonosobuchner]

Thank you for explaining all treble bleed types. I will try out some variations. You are an inspiration! Great video! 😊

[mindfield]

I have my guitars wired like Jazz basses with the Duncan style (parallel) treble bleeds. I like the pickup blends and also keeping one of my pickups set at a lower volume and then the other pickup I can swell in or out. With the volume of one pickup at full and the other pickup volume at my cleanup setting you can't hear the blend until the louder volume is dialed back so basically I'm using one volume knob for most of my sounds at times. 

I think when having the input lead on the center lug and the output lead on the outer lead changes the tone and possibly the taper a bit when rolling down the pot. But when using the Duncan style treble bleed helps to restore the sound to a more conventional guitar wiring. If I used a conventional wiring I'd likely just go with a 50's wiring and no treble bleed as I have in the past. The tone pot wired to the input of the volume pot really affects the treble roll off when rolling down the volume pot but just moving that lead to the output lug remedies it a lot.

[mikegrisafi]

I have been using a variation on the series method for a couple years on my main guitar. I forget the values off hand, but its 2 caps (one large, one small) feeding the outer lugs of a trim pot and the wiper serves as the output of the network allowing the trim to both blend between them and setting the series resistance. You can kind of go from either just the very high sparkly treble frequencies in the bleed to introducing more upper mids along with it depending on which cap the trim is panned toward. And since the trim pot is always in series with the caps there is no effect on volume pot taper, which is important to me as well. I typically run a simple single channel amp up nice and hot so a good treble bleed is essential to get both the clean and dirty sounds I am after.

[felderup]

at least for the first 4, you could have done it with a rotary switch, it'd also make it possible to fit in a guitar. haven't reached the 5th option yet, shallsee.

[davidmackie]

I use the volume knob for swells a lot. A year and a half ago, I bought a Jerry Donohue Signature Hellecaster Strat that had the standard treble bleed as stock. It messed up the taper enough that I had to clip it out in pretty short order. Most of the time I don't miss it, but sometimes when I turn down a little more than usual, say 5 or 6, (I tend to live around 7 or 8 and turn up to 10 for leads) I disappear in the mix. It'd be nice *sometimes* to have that little extra "cut". I don't know though, sometimes when I'm totally solo I really like how the treble rolls off just right along with the volume. I may have to try that series version, but to be honest, in that guitar, with all its extra switching function and extra wire packed in there and small pots, it'd be a bit of a pain to accomplish. Thanks for the comparison though. It's certainly helpful.

[Crabfather]

Absolutely brilliant man, thanks ! Its the series for me ! You are a fantastic resource, possibly the best ive actually found and i cant wait for your channel to start taking off. Its so cool to hear a familiar accent and decent playing too !

[haraldwestman]

Fantastic!!!!

Would be awesome to hear the corresponding comparison with single coils and a 250K pot.

[Pikatrainer]

On one of my guitars I decided to put a treble bleed on a switch so I choose when I want it. On cleans it can sound really nice but it's nice being able to turn it off when I don't want it.

[axeade]

I just did a guitar with a parallel cap and a linear pot.
The treble bleed works great and it reacts like a audio taper

[moreorlesslikeso]

Well, this has been very helpful to understand the concept of treble bleed(s) – you got me subscribed on the spot. I've actually – after some research – put the "series" type treble bleed (130K resistor and a 0.0012mF cap) in my Strat with Kinman Noiseless PUs a couple of years ago, but I'm still not sure if I’m really happy with it...
I sort of feel like there now is some kind loss on the bottom end of the sound when I roll back the volume so the tone gets somewhat spiky and I wonder if this loss of bottom end is actually the case or if it is just an impression I get because the (retained/preserved) treble kind of overpowers the bottom end which only seems to be less present due to the "loudness" effect of hearing lower volumes.

[gbrsVAN]

Very informative! Loved the thorough comparisons and explanations of each alternative. Thanks so much for the video

[justinpaquette]

After days with alligator clips hanging out of my guitar, the values I settled on are 1500pf cap in parallel with 150k resistor, 280k audio pot, Nashville Tele into deluxe reverb, 20ft low cap cable before first buffer. What I like about it is that I can go from (mostly clean) lead at 10 to totally clean funk rhythm at 7-8.5ish. This bleed gets pretty bright bellow 6, but that's fine because I really only use my guitar volume from 6-10. The other treble bleed all lost that funky neck + middle pickup magic as soon as I rolled the volume back a little

[boblonghurst]

What a brilliant video Mr McP.!! Ive dabbled with these circuits on my Strats, but hearing them all on your Vid, made me think that i prefer the Mystery circuit. More involved, but for me, a bit of a "Shadows" player, I'm gonna give it a go on my recently bought Squier RED. Im watching loads on your Channel. Keep up the good work. Yours....Mr Bob, UK