Breadboard Jumper / DuPont Wire for Treble Bleed Testing!

[State of Epicicity]

I'm at a loss that in the world of guitar electronics we're still stuck in the 50s, soldering away the same way they did it back then. I love that quick connect options exist from EMG and a couple other places, but I don't use them because I'm often using components for which there are no quick connects, like dual concentric pots.

Many months ago I finally resolved to find out if the type of wire found in EMG kits was available on its own, and through my search I discovered the term DuPont Wire, so I ordered an inexpensive pack.

I just rewired my replacement Sun Valley Super Shredder FR Black Limba, with the kind help of some very electronically inclined dudes at the Guitar Nuts 2 forum. In this project, I reassessed my penchant for 50s Les Paul wiring, and opted to test treble bleeds instead, which I did all day yesterday.

It was great, because all I had to do was solder the male ends of a DuPont Wire to my volume pot, where a treble bleed would normally go, and run the wires out of my guitar. With large packs of resistors and caps in front of me, I only had to slide in the cap and / or resistor to the female ends of the DuPont Wire to test. I was able to go through so many different options on the fly, and freely test in different tonal contexts.

Here's what it looked like when I landed on one I liked:

Anyway, I highly recommend this as an option for your own testing when you don't know what values you'll want to use.

 

[Eagle]

Teflon coated wire is expensive but good in a test or something that you are going to re-solder over a few times.

 

[State of Epicicity]

Teflon coated wire is expensive but good in a test or something that you are going to re-solder over a few times.

That's good know! For this I just wanted to be able to switch values back to back quickly for comparison, so the soldering could be one and done. Not only was I comparing values, but whether to go series, parallel, or cap only.

 

[HomespunEffects]

I’ve really been liking the Parrish treble bleed circuit. It’s less ice-picky.

 

[norminal]

“DuPont wire?” Looks like a standard female breadboard jumper wire to me.

 

[State of Epicicity]

I’ve really been liking the Parrish treble bleed circuit. It’s less ice-picky.

Very cool! I was reading a bit about that in this intensive treble bleed thread. I've linked to page 3, but if you search for "20k," this was put through some testing. Awesome that it's working well for you; the values I ended up liking are not far off from that, though I'm still not sure where I'm going to land. I'm rethinking some of my wiring.

 

[State of Epicicity]

“DuPont wire?” Looks like a standard female breadboard jumper wire to me.

Well, this kind of wire was new to me, so that's the term I found for it! I don't do any breadboard stuff, so that's not something I'm familiar with. So you guys call it breadboard jumper wire? Regardless of the name, I think it's so helpful for trying out anything where you want to try many different values. I've read so many instances of people building rotary switches to go between many different values of caps or resistors or whatever, and this in contrast is just so easy and quick.

 

[norminal]

So you guys call it breadboard jumper wire?

Yeah, they’re typically used on breadboards. The male pins are inserted into board and the female pins to headers or even through-hole pots (upper right):

Testing a treble bleed is a great application for them!

 

[State of Epicicity]

Yeah, they’re typically used on breadboards. The male pins are inserted into board and the female pins to headers or even through-hole pots (upper right):

View attachment 21994

Testing a treble bleed is a great application for them!

Do you know if there are any small inductors one can use for a guitar circuit? I've read about inductors in the 1-3H range that can be used to scoop mids. I'm looking to get more realistic strat tones from a humbucker in parallel. I've found a brief explanation of how to raise the resonant frequency, but scooping mids is another matter.

 

[norminal]

Do you know if there are any small inductors one can use for a guitar circuit? I've read about inductors in the 1-3H range that can be used to scoop mids. I'm looking to get more realistic strat tones from a humbucker in parallel. I've found a brief explanation of how to raise the resonant frequency, but scooping mids is another matter.

Man, I don’t have any experience with that. That’s some mad-scientist type of shit right there. I’m lazy and would rather just swap out pickups.

 

[State of Epicicity]

Man, I don’t have any experience with that. That’s some mad-scientist type of shit right there. I’m lazy and would rather just swap out pickups.

I barely know what I'm doing, but I'm motivated to experiment because I'm too broke for new pickups haha. Thanks anyway!

 

[HomespunEffects]

Very cool! I was reading a bit about that in this intensive treble bleed thread. I've linked to page 3, but if you search for "20k," this was put through some testing. Awesome that it's working well for you; the values I ended up liking are not far off from that, though I'm still not sure where I'm going to land. I'm rethinking some of my wiring.

Yeah, the cap and resistors in parallel just seems to dump the bass as soon as you move off of 10. Adding the 20k and changing to 1.2nF seems to work more consistently along the volume range.

 

[State of Epicicity]

Yeah, the cap and resistors in parallel just seems to dump the bass as soon as you move off of 10. Adding the 20k and changing to 1.2nF seems to work more consistently along the volume range.

Interesting. I'll listen for that specifically. It's certainly easy enough to try. Thanks!

 

[HomespunEffects]

Interesting. I'll listen for that specifically. It's certainly easy enough to try. Thanks!

Oh. I’m using it on single coils if that matters.

 

[State of Epicicity]

Oh. I’m using it on single coils if that matters.

I did read in the testing that using single coil vs humbucker does change things definitely. I'm still ruminating the right way to go for myself; i.e., do I want something that sounds exactly the same when the volume is at 1, or do I want a slight treble bump? If it's the latter, the parallel cap and resistor I liked best will be the one, but if it's the latter, the cap only, between 100 and 330pF is the answer.

I'm thinking that maybe it's best just to keep it as even as possible to accommodate each selector position well. With one volume knob I've wired the switch to have it control my neck humbucker in series and parallel, as well as bridge inner / neck outer, and the other volume knob controls bridge series and parallel. The kicker is, series and parallel alone ask for very different amp voicings, and the bridge inner / neck outer is vastly different. So the logic is, rather than trying to find a treble bump compromise to span these options or rewiring the guitar to send both series positions and bridge inner / neck outer to one knob, and the parallels to the other, with a brightener on the parallels, I just have the most even sounding bleed, the parallel cap and resistor of the .82nF and 150k for everything.

But, on the other hand, part of the point for me is having convincing single coil tones, so why not send the parallels to their own knob with a cap only brighter bleed? It's easy enough.

 

[Devin]

Nice

I put one of the little variable treble bleed circuits in my Balaguer that you can adjust with a trimpot and it's quite rad

 

[Eagle]

I don’t like them at all . I like the effect of rolling the volume to about 7 particularly on a strat . It smooths things out.

 

[State of Epicicity]

I don’t like them at all . I like the effect of rolling the volume to about 7 particularly on a strat . It smooths things out.

I felt that way until now, but I had never tried so many before this. I had never before found one that just maintains the tonality of my pickup throughout the volume pot sweep range. For me, the one I've found is good enough to make me not want my tone pot any more.

My experience with treble bleeds was always with ones that got shrill as you pulled back, so I'm thinking now they were probably cap only. But a resistor at the right value changes everything.

 

[Blix]

I've never met a treble bleed I didn't hate.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I like treble bleeds, but I've found having a dedicated bass cut control is almost all that's needed for my liking. Although I do have both installed on 3 guitars. I like the bass control when using a fuzz face because it turns it into an overdrive when you back off just a bit. There's a bit more versatility there than just backing off the volume control, and treble bleeds aren't that great with a fuzz face anyways.