Fender Tonesaver - The price of convenience
- Thread starter benny_profane
- Start date
SillyOctpuss
Well-known member
Phew it's OK. I totally thought that treble bleed was a rip off until I saw it was only 4 interest free payments of $12.49.
Edit: it does look cool though. I will give them that
Edit: it does look cool though. I will give them that
MichaelW
Well-known member
I think I remember reading somewhere that someone opened one of these up and it's just a treble bleed circuit.
I've used the "capacitor only" method a la PRS but when I do, I like using a Silver Mica cap.
MichaelW
Well-known member
But then my tone may not be saved and headed to a fiery furnace......
Robert
Reverse Engineer
Let's not forget Gibson "bumblebee" capacitors...
benny_profane
Well-known member
Oh cool, Gorva before Gorva.
SillyOctpuss
Well-known member
I actually have one of these in my prs. I took them out of my les Paul when it was getting new Pickups and replaced them with some PIO caps.
The pair of them sat in my stash for about 5/6 years and when I was rewiring my prs I measured it and it was bang on 0.022. Regardless of what's inside it I still think it looks cool so stuck it in.
Bricksnbeatles
Member known well
At least gorva is honest about what it is
andare
Well-known member
What is Gorva up to? I thought they only make enclosures.
Sturdag Lagernathy
Well-known member
Anybody ever tried rolling their own PIO's? Not too hard, but does take practice. They can sound damn good too! A couple strips of paper, a couple strips of aluminum foil each with a tiny wire bonded, roll it up, hold it tight with heatshrink, dunk it in mineral spirits, hot glue the ends for a very basic capacitor. Even some that I did first, before getting the knack, still made 10- 15 nano..
MichaelW
Well-known member
That’s interesting….and sounds like a pretty deep rabbit hole haha. I’ve had a lot of good experiences with the RUssian KY series, they sound like real Bumblebees to me without the stupid prices tags. Although supply seems to be drying up since Putins Folly.
Bricksnbeatles
Member known well
They makes “Quies” (I think that’s what they’re called) which are modern 1/8w metal film resistors encased in plastic to look like 1/4w carbon comps. They specifically say that they’re just meant to recreate the vintage look while having modern reliability.
benny_profane
Well-known member
Guitarists are weird huh?
I didn't know that. I only use their enclosures and I do like the 1590BB size ones.
I really don't get the whole mojo thing about carbon comp resistors. Under tough use they drift in value, they can be noisy, they cost more than carbon film - why not just use carbon film? That's what I use in my amps unless I need something more heat resistant or higher wattage than 1 watt. I don't spend my time looking at the resistors - I play the amp. I have fixed a heap of amps with CC resistors where the resistors have drifted wildly in value until the amp sounds sad - and not in a cool blues way. One BF Super Reverb I worked on had plate load resistors (which were supposed to be 100K) measure almost 1M. No wonder there was hardly any volume coming from the amp - the plates couldn't get any voltage.
I think that if you can use something of better quality but make it look like an original part then that's fine, as long as it's not being done to trick anyone. But when that part is inside an amp or pedal or whatever where it's not on display typically then that's getting to be a little tragic.
Making new stuff look like old stuff is not just limited to the guitar world. Triumph make motorbikes where the throttle bodies are cast to look like 1960s Amal carburettors. Airboxes are hidden and the connection made to look like old-school air filters. It will be interesting to see what happens when more motorbikes become purely electric - will there be a market for retro-styled electric bikes? I wonder how you would even do that??
I used to work in a guitar store. Guys would come in and buy the latest (at the time) JCM900 Marshalls and insist that they wanted only tube amps with no SS trickery in there. They would buy the models with two channels so you could set up a clean and a dirty channel, all tube. Then ignore the dirty channel and run a Boss pedal into it.
Mentaltossflycoon
Well-known member
I paid like $20 for a Sozo PIO cap from Lindy Fralin when I rewired my P bass. I felt silly as hell but did it anyways. I felt like since I understood that I was acting like a clown that it was acceptable
It's OK to be a clown as long as you apply the makeup yourself. Just like when I bought top shelf weed at the dispensary the other day. Happily walked out covered in clown makeup.
SillyOctpuss
Well-known member
I paid like $20 for a Sozo PIO cap from Lindy Fralin when I rewired my P bass. I felt silly as hell but did it anyways. I felt like since I understood that I was acting like a clown that it was acceptable
To be fair that's not any weirder than me when I order humbuckers. If I'm having a set custom wound I always order them with zebra coils because zebra coils just look cool.
But then I have nickel covers put on so you can't see the zebra coils. I still do it every single time because I know they're there and that's all that matters.
I also put fancy caps inside guitars. Not because they sound better but because they look cool and make me happy whenever I do have to go into the control cavity and see them.
As long as these things make YOU happy that's all that matters. Anyone else who doesn't like it can do one.
SillyOctpuss
Well-known member
The jcm900 uses some solid state components for the clipping I think? I could be totally wrong but I vaguely remember being told that by an amp tech who fixed mine a few times.
