I will consider it! Two of my guitars may benefit from it: a double-cutaway LP copy, and an ES-335 copy. I have a treble bleed mod to add to the LP copy, and pickup upgrades for the semi-hollowbody, so I may apply your mod to either or both based on the results.
Man I love your ideas! I think I might want to pedal this, so I can try it out on my array of guitars. Also my acoustic, I run it through my reg pedalboard and tube amp. I love the sound but I would love a better way to shape the bottom end without having to add another eq pedal. Bro I wish you lived next door!
Great informative videos. I am an electronics engineer, and understand what is going on. However, my understanding of some of the terms, you refer, is somewhat less. To start, what do you mean by a "muddy" pickup. I am a bit old and think my hearing is still Ok, so I am using headphones all of the time for your vidoes, regards
I tried this today on my Korean made PRS SE custom 24 which has a muddy neck pickup. It has master tone and volume and both have separate coil splits for each pickup. Not sure I have the wiring correct though as this guitar does not match the available wiring diagrams I can find on PRS or Seymour duncan. That said, it seems to work on the humbucker but not when it's coil split , which is OK. It looks to me like each humbucker has 3 grounds via the SPST switch.
Regarding your note about muddiness in distortion. This is the reason so many high gain players use a tube screamer in front of the amp. The tube screamer has this exact characteristic of rolling off the bass. A lot of the time they will turn the gain on the pedal all the way down to make it as clean as possible. And use volume to boost gain going into the preamp of the amp.
@@riokinsey2134 that you for your opinion. Noted. However the reason I mentioned it is because Waylon didn't mention it in the video, and I thought other people out there might like to know.
Wow, what a bunch of grumps commenting. I haven’t done this on a guitar but I have done the same thing on an old Zenith TV console tube amplifier I converted for guitar use. It has a single stage pentode preamp (6AU6 tube) that sounded quite muddy (Uncle Doug [look him up if you are interested in tube amp workings] describes the old pentode preamp amps as “warm” but that’s just being nice). I put a 100nf capacitor in parallel with the 10k grid stopper resistor, which is itself in series with the input, effectively the exact same thing you are doing here except it’s in the amp. With the guitar controls at 10 it’s electrically pretty much the same. That helped add some shine to the amp and the somewhat bigger capacitor allowed more lower treble frequencies to bypass the resistor giving a bit more gain. While no Vox “chime” or Fender “sparkle” it is a very usable sound. With the volume (the only control) on 10 and a bridge P-90 wide open, it rocks! I thought I was being innovative but this video and several of the comments made me realize that this sort of thing has been done for decades. I guess I’ll have to make my fortune elsewhere… Thanks and keep making useful videos!
With humbuckers, if you don't want to install anything there's an easy way to get more clarity. Drop the entire pickup height, then raise the adjustment pole pieces back up. So dropping the entire pickup lessens the output, then by raising the poles you're increasing the output of the one coil. You can lower them significantly to the point where if you have coil splitting the only difference between the coil splitting and the full pickup is that it'll hum when you split it, but the sound is almost the same. If you want you can start here and then dial it in by raising the pup and lowering the poles if you want to dramatically brighten it up, or just lower it a bit if you're just wanting to add a little clarity or dynamic response.
I have been doing this for years, I learned by trying to play santana's tunes back in my teens, you can have almost any pickup to sound anyway you want, everything is in the setup
uh no actually removing the pole from the coil weakens the magnetic signal. i have no idea why you think it would make a stronger signal. stop lying to people tiny tim
@@Hyperlink1337 you're not removing anything, and it absolutely increases it. When you move the pickups closer the output is louder, you move it away it weakens. What the hell do you think the adjustable poles are there for?
I made up 9 of these with a range of resistors from 10K/22K/47k/100K and I'll try a few in my LP style guitar I built that has some very muddy humbuckers.
That mud is around 156mhz for some reason there’s an odd super blast of mid bass that sucks. The problem is the area has a sharp Q, so you might cut the lower frequencies which don’t cause the mud.
Iprefer to install the demud capacitor to the output jack for three reasons: 1. It's always the neck pickup having too much bass. When you select a value that cuts out just enough of the neck mud, you won't hear any difference in the bridge pickup tone. 2. When installing the demud cap to the jack there will be no out of phase issues! 3. The cap also blocks possible dc coming out of the amp, and blocks "scratchy pots" sounds from your guitar. For example VVR can cause the DC leaking to the guitar, if your amp doesn't have caps blocking it. I have always used only the cap without resistors. But because of the video, I just tried the recommended value resistor and cap with my TV Jones Classic Filtertrons. Definitely better to use the cap with the resistor than without!
I have TV Jones Classics and want to try this mod. I was about to wire it up on the neck pickup between the green & red wires when I saw your comment. Where does one attach this mod to the output jack? Directly on the jack lugs? Between the hot wire and the lug? Curious! Thanks for the idea.
WOW!!! I've just tried this with my cheap pickups and result is killer! No mud even on neck pickup at full overdrive. Thank you! And btw this mod eliminates cable capacity influence. You saved my money :D
This is another great idea! Exploring the possibilities of resistors for example with coil splitting, ala PRS, where the resistor is used to "patially split" when the push-pull is activated keeps your output higher with a coil split scenario
Ive got an old Samick and i did a capacitor and resistor and wow! It was amazing! I love that guitar now. Vintage stuff though, seems to have a better sound when Vintage.
Great video, thank you I did something similar to my HH tele. Using a pot at first is a good way to get an idea of what value(s) you like and then you can develop your permanent mod.
I have read numerous interviews with the old guitar hero's or their techs stating that the bass knob on their amps was near or at zero. I used to play through a Hiwatt stack in a very loud band and with those size amps you need to cut the bass way back or your tone is dull. Let the bass player have that territory!
Cool mod! Personally when it comes to low tune baritone tuning b to b I tend to wire my pickups in parallel which gives a single coil like sound more like a p90 but still retains the noiseless factor of the pickup. It also cuts the output on the pickup a small amount but raising the pickups is an easy fix. Im always looking for something new to try for my baritone to clean the mud up. I play alternative music so cleans need to be clear and not muddy.
I'm a single coil guy and probably the most electronics ignorant viewer here lol. I found your video fascinating and interesting. You did a great job explaining it so that even I could understand. Thanks👍
The vintage DeArmond Rhythm Chief’s control box had a capacitor in series with the pickup that could be shorted with a switch to bypass. But it lacked the resistor so probably cut too much. I think most people left it shorted. Many Framus guitars from the 1960’s and on had a bass cut control that was essentially your circuit with a 3.3nF cap and a pot instead of a fixed resistor. G&L later adopted this idea for their PTB circuit using a 2.2nF cap. I have a 1968 Framus BL-15 with a bass cut control, and it’s very useful if you have bass-heavy pickups.
The impedance of active pickups is much, much, much lower so you'll likely have to play with the values a little bit. A smaller resistor may be necessary to get what you want. Take the range presented here of 10K-1Meg and widen that a bit to include lower resistances like 1K and up. Actual values will depend on the value of your volume pot which is often 25K in active setups as opposed to the 250K or 500K usually used in passive wiring.
@Peter_S_ EMGs are normally wound pickups. The only difference is that the two coils are going to separate op-amp buffer circuits and are combined after buffering them to get the common mode noise rejection. Because of this, they have similar brightness to a humbucker wired in parallel or two single coils in parallel. Normal humbuckers are wired in series, which means that they have higher impedance, and each coil kind of filters the signal of the other coil. With EMGs, the two coils are effectively isolated from each other until after they've been through a unity gain amplification stage. EMG pickups have normal passive tone controls after the active circuit though as far as I know. So you could definitely get a result by doing this, especially of you wired it with a pot to roll off bass. If you're a metal player, maybe you don't need a normal tone control at all, and could rewire the tone to roll off bass instead. It could be tuned to do what a Tubescreamer does, giving you much more low end definition with high gain.
This looks like exactly what I need for my inexpensive kit guitar. The cap/resistors i have on hand are .022uf/10ohm. Would this pair be decent, or should I just order new cap/resistors in the recommended range?
Thanks for checking out the vid, That cap and resistor pair would not work. Definitely stick with a 10nf and a resistor in the 10k-470k range, cheers :)
Thanks for this. I love to do this sort of thing. I have just installed all new electronics in an old lawsuit Les Paul copy, and the neck pickup is a slightly muddy when the volume is all the way up. This model came with a switch from the factory between the two volume pots. Right now that hole is empty, but I'm mulling over ideas about what to do with it. Putting a miniature three way switch in there with two different combinations of cap+resistor and one thru position might be a good option.
@@WaylonMcPhersonGuitar Mine is one of those pressed top models with large routed out cavities. Really cool. It looks just like any solid body until you go inside to work on the electronics. Sort of a semihollow or chambered body.
I have installed a switchable bass cut in some of my guitars (only on the neck pickup) , but only with the cap, no resistor. I think I will try the r+c in parallel. The problem with the bass cut is the fact, that your tone control doesn´t work correctly anymore. The pickup loses its resonant peak and sounds completely dull and lifeless. Maybe that´s less prominent with the rc combination. Otherwise you need a smaller cap value for the tone pot.
I'm a little confused... Muddy pickups usually means too much lower mids / upper bass in the 100 Hz to 300 Hz range. You're cleaning up muddy pickups by rolling off the bass? Entirely? A band-pass filter as opposed to a high-pass filter seems like it would be more appropriate. For $40 you can get an EQ pedal that'll clean up mud way better than that mod ever could. When I build a guitar that has even has tone controls, I don't mess with that old school WW2 / Marconi "volume tone tube amp" tech, I just put a built-in EQ on-board.
The mud lives below 150Hz. Have you ever used an EQ? Or did you ever see a guitar signal on a frequency analyzer? Try using any EQ plugin and you’ll see it yourself.
How about combining this filter with the volume pot. As you turn the volume down, you roll off the bass as well. Full volume full response, half volume sparkly cleans.
Yes, lower pickup, raise pole pieces first. If you put the cap in series with no resistor, it also raises the resonant peak, which can give a more "single coil sound." If it removes too much bass, use a larger value cap. You can have a cap that doesn't remove much bass but still adds a little bit of higher peak, if desired. I think that's a good place to start. There's also absolutely nothing wrong with using the resistor if you like the sound better. Whatever works for you. Feel free to experiment. BTW Good quality caps and resistors should cost pennies. They may cost more in small quantities, but should still be less than $1.00.
Your arrangement of “man in the mirror” is really cool lol I like how with the mod the low E is much snappier with more of a equal bass response to the rest of the strings!! Very good video!
Thanks! I keep the capacitor the same value and vary the resistor, the higher the resistor value the more bass cut. I have some values in to try in the vid, cheers :)
Hi here. Thanks very much for making these vids, it actually help for people with no electronic background, I really appreciate it, I tried this in my 7 String and I do like the tod I get out of this mod lots of clarity but I am not loving the lack of gain and lower volume, any advise to remedy this issue I am using 560pf between coils, thanks
Before you even get to the already included RC filter in the tone stack of your amplifier, the cathode bypass capacitor on the amplification stages prior to that are setting the frequency band pass... Then of course the tone stack is a attenuator that can only take away frequencies that can't add them.... Now add the tone control on your guitar into the mix and you already have three stages doing exactly what you're trying to do by adding a fourth stage. You're just adding another Gizmo to tweak and you're not properly tweaking the gizmos you already have!!!!
Placing the package between the coils will make the coils asymmetrical, which in itself will effect the operation and sound of the pickup (slightly). For symmetrical humbucking operation, place the package in between the hot output wire and switch.
Hey man great vid and demonstration! Just a question on my side tho… In theory, would installing a cap at the output jack hot wire have the same effect as installing it at the pickup? I mean, it does the same thing but further down the signal chain in the guitar wiring. I appreciate your effort 😊
Thanks! Yes you could install it on the output jack the only problem is that it will affect all the pickups, which is great if thats what you are after, cheers!
Electronics must have changed since I studied it at University 40 years ago... Changing the order of components in series doesn’t alter anything. “Inductor -> capacitor/resistor -> inductor” is functionally and mathematically identical to “inductor -> inductor -> capacitor/resistor”
@@duncanmcneill7088 I prefer to physically test things and there is a small audible difference when adding a HPF in between the coils to adding after the coils, cheers!
I LOVE the way you show how to do this - I can actually follow what you're doing. Do you have suggestions on where to look for wiring this capacitor & resistor up to a push-pull pot to make the mod switchable, the way you have it? I use PTB wiring on one guitar, where the bass cut (the "B" in the "PTB") serves a similar mud-cutting purpose as the capacitor/resistor you have here. However, I've got an Epi Les Paul where I think this mod would be super useful - but I'd like to retain the original tone for when that's most useful, which is why I'd want to make the mod switchable like you have it in this video.
This is awesome!! Recently diving into Arduino I have a load of caps and resistors to play around with and finally got brave enough to carry out the Danelectro Rocky Road mod. For the curious it's WELL worth it. I'll be taking your advice to my Lace Huntington as its sounds pretty good and this will surely make it that much gooder ;) Why not?
I am going to try this on a tappable P90 pick-up which sounds fantastic at 9/10 volume on the Guitar but pure mud when lowered and the tone basically sounds wooly below 8. I may try the cap and resistor on the treble volume pot 1st and if that still sounds off I shall try it in-between pickup and switch like yours. I did this on a Les paul special which was only clear at 8/9/1₩ but after the modification using the GTR vol at 4 /5 sounded bigger and clearer than any other Les Paul humbucking or P90! Thanks.
NZ is a pain in the butt for getting small amounts of components for guitar, pedal, and amp modding. I might just need a few 400v coupling caps and some resistors. Nobody local has them that I can find and Jaycar just has bare basics that are not suitable most of the time. It means paying more in postage to import than the cost of the handful of components. What's your workaround? I'd guess buying larger orders to stock up with all the stuff you might need. I see it's much easier for US peeps. Any part they need is usually available and sent to them in a day or two. Amp mods is what interests me most. I've tried a bit of this and that in JMP 1987 circuits. Very basic stuff though. I also have a Trinity amps 18 watter turret board that I still have not populated in over ten years, because I do not want to have to import parts.
well that answers my question from the GOAT MOD video!!! THANKS! im looking up 100k resistors and there are a bunch of different Watt values, does it matter? the ones im seeing are 100k 1/4 Watt 1% and same but 2%....what are the percentages? does it matter? sorry for the long question
Does the capacitor only make a difference if you turn down the volume or Tone? So if i have volume on 10 and treble on 10. Will i get the full pickup range. Lot of videos saying that the capacitor only rolls of the bass and treble if u lower volume or tone…..thanx
Hmmm, looks like that's the stock thing on my Fender Classic Player Jaguar HH, they call it "strangle switch". I removed the resistor and left the cap only, I think it is much more useful now for me.
now you've got me thinking about the variable version, I have a Zappa style (way too many switches) guitar. coil splits and phase, I love the out of phase stuff..... sometimes.... a tweakable phase shift could be fun. Would a 1 Meg pot give me the biggest range?
I think it would. You may want to try an audio taper pot rather than a linear one, but I could be wrong. My concern with any pot in a circuit like this would be most of it's range doing almost nothing, with it suddenly doing too much in the last little bit of the range. Too low a value pot will always be filtering out bass, too high and you'll end up having a lot of the range doing very little. I think an audio taper is what you want through, because it will be a smoother and more usable range, which is why it's an audio taper lol.
The "muddy" sound starts with the same pickups, some have a lot of wax, getting rid of the extra material, also maybe consider replace the magnets for ceramics or alnico 8, or replace the volume pot for 1meg will work
How would this compare to just using higher value pots (or even putting in a bypass so the PU goes directly to the output jack, bypassing tone and volume pots)? For example, going from 250K pots on single coils up to 500K or even 1M. I guess it comes down to comparing less attenuated high frequencies vs more attenuated low frequency. It might be an interesting mod for 2 HB style guitars with separate (although they are clearly not separate) tone controls for each PU. Instead have a master tone control (normal high end roll off) and a master low end roll off.
Interesting. Do you have any plans on a how to on a treble bleed ? Been flirting with the idea for a while now . Ive done a couple of mods on my strat, different pup and tone on bridge but that would complete it quite nicely, i think. Also, can you recommend a good vol pot thats not some cheap ass linear taper for humbuckers? The one i have (on my schecter) is dreadful. Its either on or off. I don't know if its relevant but has a push pull coil split on the tone pot. Tempted to swap it out for a switch as i never use the tone lol
Waylon, I love your mods videos and thank you for them! I don't know how to say this politely so here it goes: ditch the reverb. When your doing tone variations videos, not only is it not helpful, it is a hindrance. Go with the pure sound of whatever you're showcasing(pickups, pedal, etc). Even with the headphones, it's a nuisance. Otherwise, keep it up, what you're doing is appreciated.
Thanks Vincent, I appreciate your concerns about reverb. I'm going to make a video on this exact subject. In my experience, it is a misconception that reverb masks the sound, almost all guitar tracks we hear (recorded or live) contain reverb, sometimes way more than you think (google SRV Stems) I think it will be a fun experiment, cheers :)
I'm trying to make this modification, but it only works when the pickup is in parallel with the bridge pickup (middle position). To verify this, I disassembled everything and connected the "hot" wire of the neck pickup directly to the tip of the jack, and the other wire to ground. The pickup sounds, but the capacitor has no effect. However, when I connect the "hot" wire of the bridge pickup to the same point as the neck pickup (tip of the guitar jack) and the other wire to ground, both pickups sound, and now the neck pickup with the capacitor works as it should. Does anyone know why this is happening? Thanks!
Hello! Forgive my ignorance on this topic and my bad English... but is this mod the same mod for retaining the high frequencies? The famous treble bleed. I know that treble bleed can also be done in sequence with the resistor and capacitor, but it is also done this way in parallel... Is this the same thing you did?
@@WaylonMcPhersonGuitar Thank you. I'll watch it again. This is a great mod. Thanks for sharing it. I will get the parts ordered and try it on a older DBZ Bolero that's having issues with the stock pickups.
Hi Waylon, I just did the mod and it works great! I have installed it in 2 other guitars. I was saving to buy new pickups for all of them but they sound so much better now I don't need to buy any. Thanks alot for the video!!! I am subscribed to your channel now. I will be watching your upcoming videos.
Thanks for this video, I've been trying to research putting a capacitor in series to pass highs/cut lows but there's a lot of confusion online. I have an Epiphone SG. When I dial in the bridge pickup to sound good, the neck is far too muddy. When I dial in the neck pickup to sound good, the bridge pickup sounds far too ice-picky. I've tried adjusting pickup and pole heights but the tone and volume never match. I've tried using the tone control but I have to set the bridge on 2 to match the neck, and by then the output/gain is weak. My question is, what would the difference be between placing the 0.01uF cap between the pickup and volume pot, vs placing the cap between the volume pot & switch?
First thing I'd suggest is removing pickup covers, if you have them, and then f around with pole pieces... Then try capacitors etc or just buy pickups you like
Neck humbuckers are not any more muddy than the bridge pickup. A forgotten approach from the masters is to EQ your amp to make the neck clear. Yes, the bridge will now be very harsh but slowly back off the guitar tone knob until the harshness is gone. This is why you see classic rock hero's actually moving the tone knob.
I am going to buy 100k resistor but I dont know what W (for example 1/2 W 100k resistor/ 2W 100k resistor) resistor i should buy please somebody help me
The cap has its own resonant peak, which actually lowers the larger the value is. (Imagine filling and emptying a container, a big one takes longer.) So passing the signal through a lower value cap will cut more. I've used as low as 1nf for a strangle switch, a fraction of this 10! And could definitely go lower. (This is basically a strangle switch but with the resistor to lower rolloff rate.)
I wonder why guitars don't more often include a bigger variety of simple passive electronics? Especially if one uses "mutes" [pieces of soft steel] to adjust the sensitivity of pickups to different strings, it's possible to have the tone knobs affect different strings differently, which can work well if one uses different strings for different musical functions. If one wants to use a couple of strings for a bright "solo" sound while the rest of the guitar has a mellower sound, simple passives on the guitar will be able to shape sounds in ways that pedals wouldn't be able to if they only receive a composite output from the guitar.
@@jensenhealey08 Very few guitars at *any* price point have passive electronics which don't fit one of a few very simple patterns. If a guitar maker could use $0.20 worth of electronic components to make a pickup sound better than a more expensive one, that would seem like a win at most price points, even if not at the sub-$50 price point.
Treble bleed.. ? ? Capacitor in parallel to the pickup?? Hmm .. I think your using a electrolytic capacitor on your guitar because you can't mess up a n electrolytic caps.. it's has to be parallel.. but mine.. I use non polarized caps .. orange drop, ceramic mylar..
This is such a great mod, let me know if you install it. P.S the guitar in the video is a Bailey Prototype (UK), cheers!
Brilliant idea! You could call this mod the "mudbucker for humbuckers" 😂
I will consider it! Two of my guitars may benefit from it: a double-cutaway LP copy, and an ES-335 copy. I have a treble bleed mod to add to the LP copy, and pickup upgrades for the semi-hollowbody, so I may apply your mod to either or both based on the results.
Man I love your ideas! I think I might want to pedal this, so I can try it out on my array of guitars. Also my acoustic, I run it through my reg pedalboard and tube amp. I love the sound but I would love a better way to shape the bottom end without having to add another eq pedal.
Bro I wish you lived next door!
Great informative videos. I am an electronics engineer, and understand what is going on. However, my understanding of some of the terms, you refer, is somewhat less. To start, what do you mean by a "muddy" pickup. I am a bit old and think my hearing is still Ok, so I am using headphones all of the time for your vidoes, regards
I tried this today on my Korean made PRS SE custom 24 which has a muddy neck pickup. It has master tone and volume and both have separate coil splits for each pickup. Not sure I have the wiring correct though as this guitar does not match the available wiring diagrams I can find on PRS or Seymour duncan. That said, it seems to work on the humbucker but not when it's coil split , which is OK. It looks to me like each humbucker has 3 grounds via the SPST switch.
This is exactly what the "Dry Switch" on a Yamaha Revstar is doing. Very informative video, thanks!
It's a crime how widely ignored Yamaha guitars are in professional performance.
Regarding your note about muddiness in distortion. This is the reason so many high gain players use a tube screamer in front of the amp. The tube screamer has this exact characteristic of rolling off the bass. A lot of the time they will turn the gain on the pedal all the way down to make it as clean as possible. And use volume to boost gain going into the preamp of the amp.
So True, That is a common trick that works well, cheers!
So many pedals have circuits which alter the frequency spectrum
Pick your poison 😊😮😊😊
Wow, ned. Bet he never heard THAT before 🙄🤦♂️
@@riokinsey2134 that you for your opinion. Noted. However the reason I mentioned it is because Waylon didn't mention it in the video, and I thought other people out there might like to know.
Wow, what a bunch of grumps commenting.
I haven’t done this on a guitar but I have done the same thing on an old Zenith TV console tube amplifier I converted for guitar use. It has a single stage pentode preamp (6AU6 tube) that sounded quite muddy (Uncle Doug [look him up if you are interested in tube amp workings] describes the old pentode preamp amps as “warm” but that’s just being nice). I put a 100nf capacitor in parallel with the 10k grid stopper resistor, which is itself in series with the input, effectively the exact same thing you are doing here except it’s in the amp. With the guitar controls at 10 it’s electrically pretty much the same. That helped add some shine to the amp and the somewhat bigger capacitor allowed more lower treble frequencies to bypass the resistor giving a bit more gain. While no Vox “chime” or Fender “sparkle” it is a very usable sound. With the volume (the only control) on 10 and a bridge P-90 wide open, it rocks!
I thought I was being innovative but this video and several of the comments made me realize that this sort of thing has been done for decades. I guess I’ll have to make my fortune elsewhere…
Thanks and keep making useful videos!
With humbuckers, if you don't want to install anything there's an easy way to get more clarity. Drop the entire pickup height, then raise the adjustment pole pieces back up. So dropping the entire pickup lessens the output, then by raising the poles you're increasing the output of the one coil.
You can lower them significantly to the point where if you have coil splitting the only difference between the coil splitting and the full pickup is that it'll hum when you split it, but the sound is almost the same. If you want you can start here and then dial it in by raising the pup and lowering the poles if you want to dramatically brighten it up, or just lower it a bit if you're just wanting to add a little clarity or dynamic response.
I'm switching to a double humbucker guitar I think single coils sound terrible
I have been doing this for years, I learned by trying to play santana's tunes back in my teens, you can have almost any pickup to sound anyway you want, everything is in the setup
uh no actually removing the pole from the coil weakens the magnetic signal. i have no idea why you think it would make a stronger signal. stop lying to people tiny tim
@@Hyperlink1337 you're not removing anything, and it absolutely increases it. When you move the pickups closer the output is louder, you move it away it weakens.
What the hell do you think the adjustable poles are there for?
This method is a bit more heavy handed in terms of sculpting the sound.
I made up 9 of these with a range of resistors from 10K/22K/47k/100K and I'll try a few in my LP style guitar I built that has some very muddy humbuckers.
That mud is around 156mhz for some reason there’s an odd super blast of mid bass that sucks. The problem is the area has a sharp Q, so you might cut the lower frequencies which don’t cause the mud.
Iprefer to install the demud capacitor to the output jack for three reasons:
1. It's always the neck pickup having too much bass. When you select a value that cuts out just enough of the neck mud, you won't hear any difference in the bridge pickup tone.
2. When installing the demud cap to the jack there will be no out of phase issues!
3. The cap also blocks possible dc coming out of the amp, and blocks "scratchy pots" sounds from your guitar. For example VVR can cause the DC leaking to the guitar, if your amp doesn't have caps blocking it.
I have always used only the cap without resistors. But because of the video, I just tried the recommended value resistor and cap with my TV Jones Classic Filtertrons. Definitely better to use the cap with the resistor than without!
I have TV Jones Classics and want to try this mod. I was about to wire it up on the neck pickup between the green & red wires when I saw your comment. Where does one attach this mod to the output jack? Directly on the jack lugs? Between the hot wire and the lug? Curious! Thanks for the idea.
@@jasonphillipsvideos Yes, one leg directly on the jack and the other leg to the hot wire 👍
WOW!!! I've just tried this with my cheap pickups and result is killer! No mud even on neck pickup at full overdrive. Thank you! And btw this mod eliminates cable capacity influence. You saved my money :D
Absolutely the best soldering iron money can buy. I own the exact same machine.
Decent soldering iron and likely the most popular bench iron in the entire nation of Japan, but I would much rather have a JBC or an older XYtronic.
@@Peter_S_ alrighty,will have to check out the mentioned brands, thanks for the info.
This is another great idea! Exploring the possibilities of resistors for example with coil splitting, ala PRS, where the resistor is used to "patially split" when the push-pull is activated keeps your output higher with a coil split scenario
Listening to this on my phone and could clearly hear the bass rolloff and a very slight shift in the mid frequencies. Awesome
Great to hear!, your comment also made me realize I need a new phone :)
Ive got an old Samick and i did a capacitor and resistor and wow! It was amazing! I love that guitar now. Vintage stuff though, seems to have a better sound when Vintage.
Glad it worked great for you, cheers!
@@WaylonMcPhersonGuitar , appreciate that.
Funny how that works, with the magic vintage pixi dust. ;)
Great video, thank you
I did something similar to my HH tele.
Using a pot at first is a good way to get an idea of what value(s) you like and then you can develop your permanent mod.
I have read numerous interviews with the old guitar hero's or their techs stating that the bass knob on their amps was near or at zero. I used to play through a Hiwatt stack in a very loud band and with those size amps you need to cut the bass way back or your tone is dull. Let the bass player have that territory!
Cool mod! Personally when it comes to low tune baritone tuning b to b I tend to wire my pickups in parallel which gives a single coil like sound more like a p90 but still retains the noiseless factor of the pickup. It also cuts the output on the pickup a small amount but raising the pickups is an easy fix. Im always looking for something new to try for my baritone to clean the mud up. I play alternative music so cleans need to be clear and not muddy.
I'm a single coil guy and probably the most electronics ignorant viewer here lol. I found your video fascinating and interesting. You did a great job explaining it so that even I could understand. Thanks👍
Glad it helped, cheers!
Just tried this out on my mustang that I put an SH-8 invader in 👍
The vintage DeArmond Rhythm Chief’s control box had a capacitor in series with the pickup that could be shorted with a switch to bypass. But it lacked the resistor so probably cut too much. I think most people left it shorted. Many Framus guitars from the 1960’s and on had a bass cut control that was essentially your circuit with a 3.3nF cap and a pot instead of a fixed resistor. G&L later adopted this idea for their PTB circuit using a 2.2nF cap. I have a 1968 Framus BL-15 with a bass cut control, and it’s very useful if you have bass-heavy pickups.
Wouldn't putting the cap in between the coils change the phase relationship between the coils?
No. When passive components are in series the order makes no difference.
Hi. Does this work on active pickups like EMGs? Thanks
Yes, it should work great on active pickups
The impedance of active pickups is much, much, much lower so you'll likely have to play with the values a little bit. A smaller resistor may be necessary to get what you want. Take the range presented here of 10K-1Meg and widen that a bit to include lower resistances like 1K and up. Actual values will depend on the value of your volume pot which is often 25K in active setups as opposed to the 250K or 500K usually used in passive wiring.
@Peter_S_ EMGs are normally wound pickups. The only difference is that the two coils are going to separate op-amp buffer circuits and are combined after buffering them to get the common mode noise rejection. Because of this, they have similar brightness to a humbucker wired in parallel or two single coils in parallel. Normal humbuckers are wired in series, which means that they have higher impedance, and each coil kind of filters the signal of the other coil. With EMGs, the two coils are effectively isolated from each other until after they've been through a unity gain amplification stage. EMG pickups have normal passive tone controls after the active circuit though as far as I know. So you could definitely get a result by doing this, especially of you wired it with a pot to roll off bass. If you're a metal player, maybe you don't need a normal tone control at all, and could rewire the tone to roll off bass instead. It could be tuned to do what a Tubescreamer does, giving you much more low end definition with high gain.
This looks like exactly what I need for my inexpensive kit guitar. The cap/resistors i have on hand are .022uf/10ohm. Would this pair be decent, or should I just order new cap/resistors in the recommended range?
Thanks for checking out the vid, That cap and resistor pair would not work. Definitely stick with a 10nf and a resistor in the 10k-470k range, cheers :)
Thanks for this. I love to do this sort of thing. I have just installed all new electronics in an old lawsuit Les Paul copy, and the neck pickup is a slightly muddy when the volume is all the way up. This model came with a switch from the factory between the two volume pots. Right now that hole is empty, but I'm mulling over ideas about what to do with it. Putting a miniature three way switch in there with two different combinations of cap+resistor and one thru position might be a good option.
Your welcome, I absolutely love those late 70's Ibanez LP's, we still get a few every year through the workshop, cheers!
@@WaylonMcPhersonGuitar Mine is one of those pressed top models with large routed out cavities. Really cool. It looks just like any solid body until you go inside to work on the electronics. Sort of a semihollow or chambered body.
Man I really appreciate this!!
I have installed a switchable bass cut in some of my guitars (only on the neck pickup) , but only with the cap, no resistor. I think I will try the r+c in parallel. The problem with the bass cut is the fact, that your tone control doesn´t work correctly anymore. The pickup loses its resonant peak and sounds completely dull and lifeless. Maybe that´s less prominent with the rc combination. Otherwise you need a smaller cap value for the tone pot.
Great video. I will try this with one of my next builds.
I'm a little confused... Muddy pickups usually means too much lower mids / upper bass in the 100 Hz to 300 Hz range. You're cleaning up muddy pickups by rolling off the bass? Entirely? A band-pass filter as opposed to a high-pass filter seems like it would be more appropriate. For $40 you can get an EQ pedal that'll clean up mud way better than that mod ever could. When I build a guitar that has even has tone controls, I don't mess with that old school WW2 / Marconi "volume tone tube amp" tech, I just put a built-in EQ on-board.
The mud lives below 150Hz. Have you ever used an EQ? Or did you ever see a guitar signal on a frequency analyzer? Try using any EQ plugin and you’ll see it yourself.
Appreciate the diagram - thanks.
How about combining this filter with the volume pot. As you turn the volume down, you roll off the bass as well. Full volume full response, half volume sparkly cleans.
Similar to the "treble bleed" mod which should be called the bass roll off or "anti-treble decay" 😂
Seems like a lot of trouble for something that might be quite subtle under the compression of heavy distortion.
I'd have thought you would still lose treble in that circuit, I wonder what this and a treble bleed would like.
Yes, lower pickup, raise pole pieces first. If you put the cap in series with no resistor, it also raises the resonant peak, which can give a more "single coil sound." If it removes too much bass, use a larger value cap. You can have a cap that doesn't remove much bass but still adds a little bit of higher peak, if desired. I think that's a good place to start. There's also absolutely nothing wrong with using the resistor if you like the sound better. Whatever works for you. Feel free to experiment.
BTW Good quality caps and resistors should cost pennies. They may cost more in small quantities, but should still be less than $1.00.
Your arrangement of “man in the mirror” is really cool lol I like how with the mod the low E is much snappier with more of a equal bass response to the rest of the strings!! Very good video!
Thanks so much, glad you liked it!
Really helpful and something to look forward to 👍🏼
This stuff is absolute gold!
Thanks! I keep the capacitor the same value and vary the resistor, the higher the resistor value the more bass cut. I have some values in to try in the vid, cheers :)
Definitely heard the difference! I really don't like muddy humbuckers, so this would be a very cool mod indeed. Thanks for the video!
No problem!
Good stuff nicely explained and demonstrated, you just saved people a lot of money by replacing a pickup🙂
Thanks :)
Hi Waylon! What is your take on coil split? I tested different methods and to my ears they all sound weak. Do you have any tip?
Hi, no it's not a coil split, I will have to make a video on different splits, there are some good ones!
Thanks I'm a fiddler and luv this kind of lab stuff ... how do I make a guitar pickup more hot and microphonic?
Increase the induction.
What type of solder do you use? Silver solder ? Can a difference be heard?
Hi here. Thanks very much for making these vids, it actually help for people with no electronic background, I really appreciate it, I tried this in my 7 String and I do like the tod I get out of this mod lots of clarity but I am not loving the lack of gain and lower volume, any advise to remedy this issue I am using 560pf between coils, thanks
Before you even get to the already included RC filter in the tone stack of your amplifier, the cathode bypass capacitor on the amplification stages prior to that are setting the frequency band pass... Then of course the tone stack is a attenuator that can only take away frequencies that can't add them.... Now add the tone control on your guitar into the mix and you already have three stages doing exactly what you're trying to do by adding a fourth stage.
You're just adding another Gizmo to tweak and you're not properly tweaking the gizmos you already have!!!!
Placing the package between the coils will make the coils asymmetrical, which in itself will effect the operation and sound of the pickup (slightly). For symmetrical humbucking operation, place the package in between the hot output wire and switch.
Did this mod today. Works perfectly. Thanks!
Awesome, glad it helped :)
Hey man great vid and demonstration! Just a question on my side tho…
In theory, would installing a cap at the output jack hot wire have the same effect as installing it at the pickup? I mean, it does the same thing but further down the signal chain in the guitar wiring. I appreciate your effort 😊
Thanks! Yes you could install it on the output jack the only problem is that it will affect all the pickups, which is great if thats what you are after, cheers!
Can you do a video showing the change in phase? I want to try this on some p90s but I quite like the sound of the middle position
I've got one coming on that exact thing, cheers!
@@WaylonMcPhersonGuitar legend thanks for the amazing videos
Maybe having it switchable gives the best of both worlds.
If you wire it between the coils is it only affecting signal from the first coil before it goes through the second?
Yes, That is correct but the 2nd coil does not really add any additional low end so the effect is pretty much the same, cheers :)
@@WaylonMcPhersonGuitar cheers for confirming that.
Electronics must have changed since I studied it at University 40 years ago...
Changing the order of components in series doesn’t alter anything.
“Inductor -> capacitor/resistor -> inductor” is functionally and mathematically identical to “inductor -> inductor -> capacitor/resistor”
@@duncanmcneill7088 I prefer to physically test things and there is a small audible difference when adding a HPF in between the coils to adding after the coils, cheers!
I LOVE the way you show how to do this - I can actually follow what you're doing. Do you have suggestions on where to look for wiring this capacitor & resistor up to a push-pull pot to make the mod switchable, the way you have it?
I use PTB wiring on one guitar, where the bass cut (the "B" in the "PTB") serves a similar mud-cutting purpose as the capacitor/resistor you have here. However, I've got an Epi Les Paul where I think this mod would be super useful - but I'd like to retain the original tone for when that's most useful, which is why I'd want to make the mod switchable like you have it in this video.
How about lowering the pickup body a couple millimeters and raising the pole screws back up?
Definitely a great option, those two height adjusting screws are probably the most useful tone shaping controls on a guitar :)
This only works when you engage the volume pot right? It's like a treble bleed mod?
Hi John, It will work all the time independent from the volume control, it's quite different from a treble bleed, cheers :)
So a lower value capacitor (say, 2nf) would remove more bass from the signal, correct?
I use a Helix and can basically use the EQ's to do the same thing and per patch.
Definitely a good option for sure!
This is awesome!! Recently diving into Arduino I have a load of caps and resistors to play around with and finally got brave enough to carry out the Danelectro Rocky Road mod. For the curious it's WELL worth it. I'll be taking your advice to my Lace Huntington as its sounds pretty good and this will surely make it that much gooder ;) Why not?
Awesome! Stoked you like it!
I am going to try this on a tappable P90 pick-up which sounds fantastic at 9/10 volume on the Guitar but pure mud when lowered and the tone basically sounds wooly below 8. I may try the cap and resistor on the treble volume pot 1st and if that still sounds off I shall try it in-between pickup and switch like yours. I did this on a Les paul special which was only clear at 8/9/1₩ but after the modification using the GTR vol at 4 /5 sounded bigger and clearer than any other Les Paul humbucking or P90! Thanks.
You may also want to try a treble bleed circuit .
what you suggest about cut off single coils treble frequency
NZ is a pain in the butt for getting small amounts of components for guitar, pedal, and amp modding. I might just need a few 400v coupling caps and some resistors. Nobody local has them that I can find and Jaycar just has bare basics that are not suitable most of the time. It means paying more in postage to import than the cost of the handful of components. What's your workaround? I'd guess buying larger orders to stock up with all the stuff you might need. I see it's much easier for US peeps. Any part they need is usually available and sent to them in a day or two.
Amp mods is what interests me most. I've tried a bit of this and that in JMP 1987 circuits. Very basic stuff though. I also have a Trinity amps 18 watter turret board that I still have not populated in over ten years, because I do not want to have to import parts.
I just put this cap as a "treble bleed" on volume.
No resistor required.
Works almost like a PTB-system on G&L.
well that answers my question from the GOAT MOD video!!! THANKS! im looking up 100k resistors and there are a bunch of different Watt values, does it matter? the ones im seeing are 100k 1/4 Watt 1% and same but 2%....what are the percentages? does it matter? sorry for the long question
Thanks, go for 1/4 watt as they are a nice size, 1% tolerance if you can, cheers!
Subtle change, but a noticeable difference for the better :)
Definitely! The more you up that resistor the cut is far more prominent, thanks for checking it out!
Does the capacitor only make a difference if you turn down the volume or Tone? So if i have volume on 10 and treble on 10. Will i get the full pickup range. Lot of videos saying that the capacitor only rolls of the bass and treble if u lower volume or tone…..thanx
Hmmm, looks like that's the stock thing on my Fender Classic Player Jaguar HH, they call it "strangle switch". I removed the resistor and left the cap only, I think it is much more useful now for me.
But in my jag it is a "master switch", so it affects all pickup positions. And make it more hearable.
now you've got me thinking about the variable version, I have a Zappa style (way too many switches) guitar.
coil splits and phase, I love the out of phase stuff..... sometimes.... a tweakable phase shift could be fun.
Would a 1 Meg pot give me the biggest range?
I think it would. You may want to try an audio taper pot rather than a linear one, but I could be wrong. My concern with any pot in a circuit like this would be most of it's range doing almost nothing, with it suddenly doing too much in the last little bit of the range. Too low a value pot will always be filtering out bass, too high and you'll end up having a lot of the range doing very little. I think an audio taper is what you want through, because it will be a smoother and more usable range, which is why it's an audio taper lol.
Another thing to consider with regard to range is the value of the cap. A higher value will roll off more bass at a higher frequency.
The "muddy" sound starts with the same pickups, some have a lot of wax, getting rid of the extra material, also maybe consider replace the magnets for ceramics or alnico 8, or replace the volume pot for 1meg will work
so this is basically the treble bleed mod on the volume pot that keeps the tone more neutral when turning the volume down
Actually, that's a great way to put it, cheers!
Have you ever put a neck position pick up in the bridge position? I did it recently and I couldn’t believe how much better my guitar sounded.
Boss SD1 works amazingly for this.
So true, don't forget the good old Tube Screamer as well :)
How would this compare to just using higher value pots (or even putting in a bypass so the PU goes directly to the output jack, bypassing tone and volume pots)? For example, going from 250K pots on single coils up to 500K or even 1M. I guess it comes down to comparing less attenuated high frequencies vs more attenuated low frequency. It might be an interesting mod for 2 HB style guitars with separate (although they are clearly not separate) tone controls for each PU. Instead have a master tone control (normal high end roll off) and a master low end roll off.
Interesting. Do you have any plans on a how to on a treble bleed ? Been flirting with the idea for a while now . Ive done a couple of mods on my strat, different pup and tone on bridge but that would complete it quite nicely, i think. Also, can you recommend a good vol pot thats not some cheap ass linear taper for humbuckers? The one i have (on my schecter) is dreadful. Its either on or off. I don't know if its relevant but has a push pull coil split on the tone pot. Tempted to swap it out for a switch as i never use the tone lol
It depends on how steep you want the pot to work. The Gibson vintage reissue pots have a 10% taper and they work well as tone pots too.
@@Mark70609 ah, cool.. I'll give it a Crack.. thanks :-)
I LOVE this Ch...
Can you split the pickup with this mod, with the components inbetween the wires, those that normaly split the pickups?
Do you have an overdrive example of before and after?
Sounds great !.... without the mod. :')
(by the way, what are ur pickups ?)
Nice interesting video.
Great idea.
Hi, isn't it a classic treble bleed ?
Hi, no this is way different from a treble bleed but I have a video coming all about the 5 different treble bleed designs, cheers!
Waylon, I love your mods videos and thank you for them! I don't know how to say this politely so here it goes: ditch the reverb. When your doing tone variations videos, not only is it not helpful, it is a hindrance. Go with the pure sound of whatever you're showcasing(pickups, pedal, etc). Even with the headphones, it's a nuisance. Otherwise, keep it up, what you're doing is appreciated.
Thanks Vincent, I appreciate your concerns about reverb. I'm going to make a video on this exact subject. In my experience, it is a misconception that reverb masks the sound, almost all guitar tracks we hear (recorded or live) contain reverb, sometimes way more than you think (google SRV Stems)
I think it will be a fun experiment, cheers :)
I'm trying to make this modification, but it only works when the pickup is in parallel with the bridge pickup (middle position). To verify this, I disassembled everything and connected the "hot" wire of the neck pickup directly to the tip of the jack, and the other wire to ground. The pickup sounds, but the capacitor has no effect. However, when I connect the "hot" wire of the bridge pickup to the same point as the neck pickup (tip of the guitar jack) and the other wire to ground, both pickups sound, and now the neck pickup with the capacitor works as it should. Does anyone know why this is happening? Thanks!
Hello! Forgive my ignorance on this topic and my bad English... but is this mod the same mod for retaining the high frequencies? The famous treble bleed. I know that treble bleed can also be done in sequence with the resistor and capacitor, but it is also done this way in parallel... Is this the same thing you did?
I've done this mod with hot wire neck pickup.. but not good when position neck & bridge .. is the problem same as mine ?
What size capacitors and resistors are recommended?
Hi, I give some suggestions in the video, cheers :)
@@WaylonMcPhersonGuitar Thank you. I'll watch it again. This is a great mod. Thanks for sharing it. I will get the parts ordered and try it on a older DBZ Bolero that's having issues with the stock pickups.
No problem :)
@@michaelorourke7032
Hi, thank you. Is this mod the same a treble bleed?
Hi Waylon,
I just did the mod and it works great! I have installed it in 2 other guitars. I was saving to buy new pickups for all of them but they sound so much better now I don't need to buy any.
Thanks alot for the video!!! I am subscribed to your channel now. I will be watching your upcoming videos.
Would this be the same as a Treble Bleed Mod? Great video going to give this a try.
Thanks, this is quite different from a Treble Bleed, I've got a video coming soon comparing the 5 unique Treble Bleed designs, cheers!
Nice Mod... Cheers 🍻🥃🥃 🎸🎼🎵🎶🎶
Thanks for this video, I've been trying to research putting a capacitor in series to pass highs/cut lows but there's a lot of confusion online.
I have an Epiphone SG. When I dial in the bridge pickup to sound good, the neck is far too muddy. When I dial in the neck pickup to sound good, the bridge pickup sounds far too ice-picky. I've tried adjusting pickup and pole heights but the tone and volume never match. I've tried using the tone control but I have to set the bridge on 2 to match the neck, and by then the output/gain is weak.
My question is, what would the difference be between placing the 0.01uF cap between the pickup and volume pot, vs placing the cap between the volume pot & switch?
Excellent.
First thing I'd suggest is removing pickup covers, if you have them, and then f around with pole pieces... Then try capacitors etc or just buy pickups you like
Nice one!!!
Neck humbuckers are not any more muddy than the bridge pickup. A forgotten approach from the masters is to EQ your amp to make the neck clear. Yes, the bridge will now be very harsh but slowly back off the guitar tone knob until the harshness is gone. This is why you see classic rock hero's actually moving the tone knob.
Or install the mod and be done with it, lol.
just replace the volume and tone potentiometers to 1meg ohms and there you go nice and open up bright volume
Hello..how to less bass on emg neck pickup..my esp eclipse to bassy on neck..I don't like it
Great Bluesman
thanks!
@@WaylonMcPhersonGuitarI meant ‘Muddy Pickups’ was a great bluesman😅 but you’re good too
@@WaylonMcPhersonGuitarBtw I’m just getting into modding and I’m a subscriber 👌
Haha, cool glad to have to onboard, cheers!@@Arthur_My_Dear
I am going to buy 100k resistor but I dont know what W (for example 1/2 W 100k resistor/ 2W 100k resistor) resistor i should buy please somebody help me
Hi there, inside a passive guitar you can use almost any wattage, I'd go for 1/4W or 1/2W as they are a better size, cheers!
If your guitar has two tone knows you could wire one to roll off bass, and the other to roll of treble.
So the bigger the cap and the bigger the resistor, the greater the effect will be both in terms of the bass-cut and the phase-shift.
The cap has its own resonant peak, which actually lowers the larger the value is. (Imagine filling and emptying a container, a big one takes longer.) So passing the signal through a lower value cap will cut more. I've used as low as 1nf for a strangle switch, a fraction of this 10! And could definitely go lower. (This is basically a strangle switch but with the resistor to lower rolloff rate.)
The bigger the cap the less effect it has in the circuit.
Didn't the JHS advance guitars already have a similar thing back in the day? They used a pot instead of fixed resistor.
7-10 band equaliser?
An EQ is always a great option but it's not the same response wise + you can install this mod on one pickup and not the other, cheers!
I'm a country guitar player so I don't have any pedals just a 65 fender twin reverb and a telecaster
That's no excuse 😁
So...all factory Les Pauls.
The unmitigated shade, if only it wasn't true
It will drop your signal level a bit too
Not in the pass band.
@@kirkp_nextguitar But when you combine it with the 500K pot thats connected to ground, you've made a voltage divider.
You are right. I can’t hear the difference through the phone.
I wonder why guitars don't more often include a bigger variety of simple passive electronics? Especially if one uses "mutes" [pieces of soft steel] to adjust the sensitivity of pickups to different strings, it's possible to have the tone knobs affect different strings differently, which can work well if one uses different strings for different musical functions. If one wants to use a couple of strings for a bright "solo" sound while the rest of the guitar has a mellower sound, simple passives on the guitar will be able to shape sounds in ways that pedals wouldn't be able to if they only receive a composite output from the guitar.
Adds to the ticket price. In the lower price market price rules over quality, especially now most people don't, can't try before they buy.
@@jensenhealey08 Very few guitars at *any* price point have passive electronics which don't fit one of a few very simple patterns. If a guitar maker could use $0.20 worth of electronic components to make a pickup sound better than a more expensive one, that would seem like a win at most price points, even if not at the sub-$50 price point.
sounds like a buffer/booster pedal circuit
Sometimes a magnet change is in order.
Treble bleed.. ? ? Capacitor in parallel to the pickup?? Hmm .. I think your using a electrolytic capacitor on your guitar because you can't mess up a n electrolytic caps.. it's has to be parallel.. but mine.. I use non polarized caps .. orange drop, ceramic mylar..
I thought Muddy Pickups was a blues singer.