Muddy neck humbucker??? Try a BASS CUT circuit!

[McCreed]

I can't believe I didn't catch on to this sooner. For years my relationship with humbuckers has been one of ambivalence. For a raft of reasons, but mainly not digging the neck pickup tone.

Recently I have been replacing the standard tone circuit in a few of my strats with a Passive Treble Bass circuit (PTB ala Leo Fender) when it hit me - "why not do this with humbuckers?" - Duh!!!
Like most things, I am not the first to think of it, and a quick web search revealed numerous methods of accomplishing this.

I have now fitted two variants into two of my humbucker equipped guitars and it has been nothing less than a revelation. It's actually a bit emabarrassing that I had not discovered this sooner, especially since it's not a new concept. I have used a fixed high-pass filter in a standard tone circuit before, but this approach is so much better.
I can see these guitars getting played a whole more now and not ultimately being put back in their case with a feeling of "meh".

So your take-away should be this:
If you're not happy with the tone of your neck humbucker... install a Bass Cut!

I won't post any links, as diagrams and info are readily found online and there are different variations for different applications to choose which suits your scenario best.

[OliSam]

Thanks for that!
Im going to start my research now!


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[McCreed]

Hey Oli.
Just thought I'd add a bit to my recent (and on-going) bass cut experience for you.

If you can source C1M pots for the bass cut pot, it's worth doing. So far I have done a 4 control set-up (standard 2V/2T) and a 2 control (standard 1V/1T).
In the 4 control (Vol/Vol/Treb Cut/Bass Cut) I used a C1M for the bass cut, and the 2 control I used 2 x 500k pots, but with a 1M resistor on the bass cut (as per one schematic). I prefer the sound and feel of the C1M pot.

I have some other mods to do on the 2-knobber, so I'll be switching it to a C1M pot when I do.

[Cliff Rogers]

Where did you get the C1M pot?

[McCreed]

Where did you get the C1M pot?

Hi Cliff. Short answer is Tayda Electronics.

Longer answer: The only ones that Tayda stock are 16mm, which doesn't worry me. I'm not necessarily a "pot size" snob.
One reason for using their pots was they have splined shafts and since I wanted to use them primarily on strats, I wanted to be able to fit standard strat-style top hat knobs. This was before I made the link to applying the bass cut scheme to humbuckers.

I did find 24mm C1M pots (a bit more money) at Element 14, but the only shaft option available is a solid D shaft. Completely usable, but obviously require grub-screw type or push-on D-shaft knobs, which didn't suit me at the time. However I am considering ordering some anyway just to have in stock, and I do have quite a few dome knobs with grub-screws that I could use. Still have 4 or 5 16mm ones left too.

Cost per unit, including GST & shipping:
Tayda - 16mm C1M x 10 = $2.35 AU
Element 14 - 24mm x 10 = $4.08 AU

EIDT to add:
Just had a look at Tayda, and they do have other C1M pots with 6 & 6.35mm solid shaft as well, but all 16mm diameter casing.

EDIT #2:
Just had a look at Element 14's site again, and I was mistaken on the shaft type available. They are only available with a 6mm solid shaft (w/ screwdriver slot). Which is probably better than a D-shaft tbh.

FWIW, my original research (and order) was from 2019, so my memory had slipped a little from then til now

[Simon Barden]

One other option, as it’s a tone control, would be to use a linear (B) taper 1 Meg pot, rather than the antilog (C) taper. It will bunch the main tone action up to one end of the pot travel, the same as when using a linear pot instead of a log/audio pot for tone control, but some people prefer that. It would certainly be an easier pot to find in full-sized and splined versions. You’d just have to reverse the order you wire up to the pot tabs compared to a C taper pot.

[McCreed]

Simon makes a good point about using a linear pot backwards, and I considered it, but my first experience with using the PTB circuit was in G&L's and I liked the way it worked so tried to stay true to the original design. Just a smoother taper, so more gradual feel.

I could probably get use to a linear pot, but I'm happy with installing the 16mm ones. Just a matter of preference I guess.

[Simon Barden]

Very much so. I prefer audio taper for tone controls, so if it was me, I'd try and source an anti-log pot.

[McCreed]

Very much so. I prefer audio taper for tone controls, so if it was me, I'd try and source an anti-log pot.

In the builds and mods I've done the past few years, I have reached the conclusion that I too prefer audio pots for tone.

Consequently I now have a boat-load of new & used linear pots in my parts drawer that will end up either in customer's guitars or on Marketplace .

[Cliff Rogers]

Thanks. 👍