All praise to PTB!!

The place to discuss, post photos, video, and audio of the G&L products (US instruments, stomp boxes, etc.) produced after 1991, including the amps & gear we use with them.
patricks
Posts: 187
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2012 8:53 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

All praise to PTB!!

Post by patricks »

I just finished putting together some effects pedals today (a fuzz, an overdrive, a tremolo and a phaser; pics to come in the project page when I get a sec) and after all the soldering and troubleshooting, I spent some "getting to know you" time with them. Man, I've played some guitars that get very bland once you plug into a pedal, but I was amazed at how much the PTB controls interact with the pedals! :shock:

Apart from the usual "overdrive cleans up when you back off the guitar's volume", the PTB made an enormous difference to the fuzz and really changed the character of the swirly phaser. I was most surprised at the effect on the fuzz. For example, rolling up the bass turned it from punchy and nasal to a snarling monster, without touching anything on the pedal (the guitar gave the pedal more harmonics to play with, I suppose).

I can see many, many well wasted hours ahead of me... 8-)
G&L Tribute Comanche || G&L Tribute L-2500 || Roland XV-88 keyboard || Roland TD9 V-drums || Austin ribbon mic || Sennheiser HD280 Pro cans
Studio One 2.6 (64 bit) || Audiobox USB || Asus U50f Intel Core i3, Windows 7 x64

http://www.patrickmusic.me
blind willie
Posts: 25
Joined: Thu May 23, 2013 6:06 am

Re: All praise to PTB!!

Post by blind willie »

The PTB wiring is my absolute favorite thing about the G&L and Tribute guitars I've played. All S-style guitars should be wired that way, IMO.

Or is my favorite thing the DF trem?

Or is it just that Leo absolutely perfected the Strat-style guitar during the G&L years?

You're right, the versatility that the PTB gives the guitar is astounding.
Boogie Bill
Posts: 793
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:16 pm
Location: Portland, Oregon

Re: All praise to PTB!!

Post by Boogie Bill »

PTB works even better on the guitars with the hotter pickups.

I like to induce a bit of musical feedback, and the use the PTB treble to "tune" the harmonics.

Thank you, Leo Fender!

Bill
patricks
Posts: 187
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2012 8:53 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: All praise to PTB!!

Post by patricks »

Yeah, it's working a treat with the Z-coils in my Tribute Comanche!
I was a bit cautious at first, thinking that I'd get all tied up in knots trying to sort out tone/EQ settings between the guitar, pedals and the amp sim, but it's surprisingly intuitive.
G&L Tribute Comanche || G&L Tribute L-2500 || Roland XV-88 keyboard || Roland TD9 V-drums || Austin ribbon mic || Sennheiser HD280 Pro cans
Studio One 2.6 (64 bit) || Audiobox USB || Asus U50f Intel Core i3, Windows 7 x64

http://www.patrickmusic.me
patricks
Posts: 187
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2012 8:53 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: All praise to PTB!!

Post by patricks »

Yeah, it's working a treat with the Z-coils in my Tribute Comanche!
I was a bit cautious at first, thinking that I'd get all tied up in knots trying to sort out tone/EQ settings between the guitar, pedals and the amp sim, but it's surprisingly intuitive.
G&L Tribute Comanche || G&L Tribute L-2500 || Roland XV-88 keyboard || Roland TD9 V-drums || Austin ribbon mic || Sennheiser HD280 Pro cans
Studio One 2.6 (64 bit) || Audiobox USB || Asus U50f Intel Core i3, Windows 7 x64

http://www.patrickmusic.me
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Miles Smiles
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Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2010 2:02 am
Location: Europe/Austria

Re: All praise to PTB!!

Post by Miles Smiles »

Still not knowing what the P in PTP stands for, I recently developed this circuit, which PTP plus some ideas I got from the passive F-100 circuit:

Image

The result looks like this:
Image

Image

I equipped my Squier 50s CV with this and it works great.
Boogie Bill
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Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:16 pm
Location: Portland, Oregon

Re: All praise to PTB!!

Post by Boogie Bill »

Passive Treble and Bass.

As opposed to the active tone controls used on the early Music Man Sabres and the F-100.

Bill
GeorgeB
Posts: 143
Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2013 12:36 pm
Location: Berlin, Germany

Re: All praise to PTB!!

Post by GeorgeB »

Hi Miles,

Funny, I could have taken almost the identical photos last night at 3am when updated my '93 Squier with that Duncan "Everything-Axe" set while I was servicing for the upcoming tour, and of course I installed a PTB while I was at it. I used a standard 500K log which has to operated backwards as no 1M reverse log was handy, no big deal for me. 500K gives enough bass attenunation (9dB with a 250K Vol) for my needs and I increased the cap to 4.7nF to have attenuation one octave lower because I only wanted to cut lower bass/fundamentals to make high gain distortion less muddy. Treble pot is push-pull to series/parallel the bridge pup, the other pups run hardwired in parallel config.

Speaking of the pickup set, it is great but I'm a bit underwhelmed by the hum perfomance of the DuckBucker, do find this with your set as well?

With my ASAT Super I won't be able to put a classic PTB in but I'll probably install a push-push for the tone pot to have a switchable bass reduction.

-------:-------

PTB (adjustable bass, that is) is the ideal way to fine tune distortion perfomance as most amps or pedals have no tone control in front of the distortion stages. With my Fuchs amp which is more on the muddy side of distortion in the bass, it works perfectly to get the tone right for my tastes, plus I can dial in enough bass for the clean/crunch right at the guitar.
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Miles Smiles
Posts: 610
Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2010 2:02 am
Location: Europe/Austria

Re: All praise to PTB!!

Post by Miles Smiles »

Boogie Bill wrote:Passive Treble and Bass.

As opposed to the active tone controls used on the early Music Man Sabres and the F-100.
Thanks, you mean F-100E as the regular F-100 has a passive circuit too. :)
GeorgeB wrote: Speaking of the pickup set, it is great but I'm a bit underwhelmed by the hum perfomance of the DuckBucker, do find this with your set as well?
Can't say that. Mine is very silent. Gain cranked up fully, there's a faint but notable hum in middle position and dead silent in positions 1 and 5.
But it's really nothing compared to what comes out of the other two pickups in split mode, with the same settings and condition. So the Duck-Bucker does a good job in hum bucking too. Of course it depends on the environment, but I checked while sitting in front of the computers TFT display.

I think this Duck-Bucker is similar build to that Z-Coils. I tried to split, but while possible, it's unusable in that mode, as you can fully hear only 3 strings. The other 3 are heard too, but very quiet only. So it's not a complete Humbucker, although Seymour Duncan claims that.

I'm very pleased with that set and that circuit. That Squier now has 21 different sounds, without touching Treble and Bass control
patricks
Posts: 187
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2012 8:53 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: All praise to PTB!!

Post by patricks »

That Squier now has 21 different sounds, without touching Treble and Bass control
Holy pickup permutations, Batman!! :shock:
G&L Tribute Comanche || G&L Tribute L-2500 || Roland XV-88 keyboard || Roland TD9 V-drums || Austin ribbon mic || Sennheiser HD280 Pro cans
Studio One 2.6 (64 bit) || Audiobox USB || Asus U50f Intel Core i3, Windows 7 x64

http://www.patrickmusic.me
User avatar
Miles Smiles
Posts: 610
Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2010 2:02 am
Location: Europe/Austria

Re: All praise to PTB!!

Post by Miles Smiles »

patricks wrote:Holy pickup permutations, Batman!! :shock:
:)

If there's some interest - I've made a long description and some sample videos in a German forum, the following link points to the translation of that page by Google, it's quiet funny, but the most of it should be readable though. ;)

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... ltung.html