Passive treble and bass controls

[curtisbrady]

What are your "default" settings for the treble and bass controls on guitars that have them? Do you start with both maxed out, treble maxed and bass cut, or what? Just curious....

[louis cyfer]

there is no default. adjust to taste.

[Craig]

What are your "default" settings for the treble and bass controls on guitars that have them? Do you start with both maxed out, treble maxed and bass cut, or what? Just curious....

See this post in the G&L Knowledgebase: Can you explain the PTB circuit?

[curtisbrady]

Thanks, guys. There is nothing wrong with my PTB circuit, and I understand the idea is to adjust to taste. That's what I'm curious about--what do you prefer? For instance, I usually keep the treble up pretty high, but I adjust the bass quite a bit from song to song and style to style. Maybe someone else might like to have them both set a certain way and try to just leave them there. I'm interested to learn what others do with the same stuff that I use.

[Craig]

Try Search using PTB as the keyword. You should find some examples of some members settings for specific uses.

[Boogie Bill]

Read my recent post on the Comanche. I set all of my guitars with the bridge pickup highest, then I graduate the middle and neck lower for even output. You should be getting good quack in positions 2 & 4.

I set my amp using the bridge pickup to get the brightest tone I will need from the bridge pickup...with my PTB controls set to T-10 and B-5. I set my rhythm volume with the guitar's volume at 7--8. I can roll up the volume for solos.

I can get a darker, jazzier tone by just rolling down the PTB treble. This very effective at removing some of the spike you often get from a strat bridge, and gives great, bluesy woman-tone from the neck.

Rolling the PTB bass off can get me close to tele twang. On a solo, I can roll the bass all the way up to add punch and fatness.

Oh and the PTB works even better with the hotter pickups on the S-500, Comanche, and Legacy Special.

That's how I do it.

Bill

[curtisbrady]

Thanks, Bill. That's precisely the type of info I'm looking for.

[curtisbrady]

Bill: Excellent write-up on the Comanche. I've come to think of it like the actor Jack Nicholson. He doesn't really play different characters, he just plays himself in different situations, and I think the Comanche is a lot like that.

[Miles Smiles]

Do you start with both maxed out

As you named it in the title, these controls are passive. So if you use them, you "cut" something out of the original signal which the pickups are delivering.

So at first I try without having the controls being part of the game. That means maximum values. (I bet, someone will point out, that these circuits are always part of the game, rolled off or not )

On my SC-2 and the Comanche I removed a capacitor which does just cut off treble. In fact I have now to use the treble blend sometimes but not always, on these guitars.

On my F-100E, I have to roll of the bass blend to about 75%, when using it in active mode. In that setting, the guitar sounds louder but quite similar to passive mode with everything set to maximum.

[Philby]

Rather than fiddle with the settings on my amp, I prefer to adjust the PTB controls to get a similar response to my conventional S-type guitars. For me that means volume on 7-8, treble on 3-6 (depending on pickup position) and bass on 5.

As Bill said, rolling up the volume on the S-500 changes the tone away from traditional strattiness towards more modern fatness, as does adding a touch of bass.