Need helping installing a treble bleed cap

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

I've got my PRS SE Hollowbody 2 apart, ready to install the 22nF treble bleed cap but I'm not sure which legs of the pot to solder it to. The volume is an a500 pot and the tone is a B500 pot. Adidditional there is what appears to be a resistor between the volume and tone pots. TIA

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

Based on what I see online, my thought is to solder it like this:

 

[Coda]

Based on what I see online, my thought is to solder it like this:
View attachment 39760

That looks correct. The lug on the right should be the ground. You want the other two lugs…

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

That looks correct. The lug on the right should be the ground. You want the other two lugs…

Thanks, I'm delaying this because I realize I got the wrong cap! I meant to get a 220 pF cap (0.22 nF) but accidentally ordered a 2200 pF (22 nf) cap.

 

[Sturdag Lagernathy]

That lil' yellow thing is (I believe) a 22nf capacitor. You sure that isn't already set up with a "treble bleed"?..
Some PRS I've seen have 180pf installed from factory..

 

[Feral Feline]

223 is indeed an axial cap, however...

22 to the 3rd decimal place, ie 0.022µF (22nF, 22000pF)

The "K" after the number, if I'm not mistaken, means it's a ±10% tolerance cap.

You can check out the datasheet for the 160BB here.

 

[andare]

Based on what I see online, my thought is to solder it like this:
View attachment 39760

If that B500k is the tone pot then it's the wrong pot. The treble bleed goes on the volume pot, same two lugs.

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

If that B500k is the tone pot then it's the wrong pot. The treble bleed goes on the volume pot, same two lugs.

THe B500K is the volume pot.

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

223 is indeed an axial cap, however...

22 to the 3rd decimal place, ie 0.022µF (22nF, 22000pF)

The "K" after the number, if I'm not mistaken, means it's a ±10% tolerance cap.

You can check out the datasheet for the 160BB here.

So if that is a cap between the volume and tone pots. What is the best would to preserver the high end when turning down the volume pot? I find I get very muddy if I turn the volume down. Should I substitute a different cap, add a second cap, move the position?

 

[Coda]

So if that is a cap between the volume and tone pots. What is the best would to preserver the high end when turning down the volume pot? I find I get very muddy if I turn the volume down. Should I substitute a different cap, add a second cap, move the position?

Normally, 50's Wiring would fix that. It appears, however, that your circuit is already wired with 50's wiring...though I could be seeing things incorrectly...

 

[Feral Feline]

THe B500K is the volume pot.

In the OP you said the A500k was the volume pot.

Find out which wiring diagram is for your guitar and post it here?

@MichaelW does a lot of guitar work (I don't), perhaps he can shed some light on your wiring and treble-bleed issue.

Is this the same guitar as for your other thread?

 

[Feral Feline]

For example, the SE Custom diagram shows an even bigger cap, 33n, AND a treble bleed cap/resistor combo:

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

In the OP you said the A500k was the volume pot.

Find out which wiring diagram is for your guitar and post it here?

@MichaelW does a lot of guitar work (I don't), perhaps he can shed some light on your wiring and treble-bleed issue.

Is this the same guitar as for your other thread?

My mistake b500k volume and a500 tone

 

[MichaelW]

This is from the PRS site for the HB II wiring.

@Ctrl4Smilerz can you verify this is how your guitar is wired?

Since you already have the pots out I'm going to highly suggest swapping the volume pot out for an A500k.

So then if you want to follow the stock wiring and add a treble bleed it would go where I've circled in the pic below.

PRS uses a 180pf (picofarad) cap alone with no parallel or series resistors for their treble bleeds. I'm surprised the HB II did not come with one.

When I do a treble bleed on PRS Guitars I generally like to use a Silver Mica 180pf. But that's just preference. Film or MLCC or Ceramic Disc will all work.

BUT.....before making a commitment......take a look at this article........

I'd suggest using some alligator leads and test a couple of configurations to see what works best for those pickups and your ears before deciding.

 

[MichaelW]

Another alternative is to go old school and re-wire it with 50's style wiring (which is what I would personally do on that guitar).
In which case you will not need a treble bleed and can just leave it out.

The 58/15 S pickups are low output PAF style pickups and "can" sound a bit thin with modern style wiring. I would always choose 50's wiring with vintage output hum buckers.

Here's some diagrams for a 4 knob layout but you just drop one set of controls.




Contrasted to "modern" wiring which looks like this.....

 

[Feral Feline]

My mistake b500k volume and a500 tone

That seems so odd to me as I'm just so used to logarithmic being used for volume in pedals.

...

Since you already have the pots out I'm going to highly suggest swapping the volume pot out for an A500k.

...

Given that there's one of each (log and linear) I'd just swap the pots, given my pedal-centric notions:
A500k = Vol
B500k = Tone

I knew you'd bring the Jams to the thread.

 

[andare]

That seems so odd to me as I'm just so used to logarithmic being used for volume in pedals.







Given that there's one of each (log and linear) I'd just swap the pots, given my pedal-centric notions:
A500k = Vol
B500k = Tone

I knew you'd bring the Jams to the thread.

Me too until I got my Jazzmaster, which has a linear pot for both.

Linear volume works great actually, no immediate drop from 10 to 9 and a Fuzz Face still gets clean but at 5 instead of 7 so there's more fine tuning available.
This particular guitar gets very dark though so I think I need a treble bleed. Too bad the Squier wiring is so messy that I couldn't attach alligator clips to the pot to experiment with different values.

Linear pot for tone is garbage, it's like an on off switch.

 

[MichaelW]

223 is indeed an axial cap, however...

22 to the 3rd decimal place, ie 0.022µF (22nF, 22000pF)

The "K" after the number, if I'm not mistaken, means it's a ±10% tolerance cap.

You can check out the datasheet for the 160BB here.

@Feral Feline is correct, that's a standard .022 tone cap commonly used for Humbucker guitars. It would affect the way the tone control works and how it tapers. I don't see it having the impact one the "muddiness" that @Ctrl4Smilerz is trying to address when rolling off the volume pot.

Adding a treble bleed to the volume pot would be the simplest solution if you're satisfied with how everything else is working.

 

[Flying]

Hi Ctrl4Smilerz

I got the same guitar in November, and for me I’d have to say the clean up is pretty good. I know that doesn’t help you, but there are a few things about your guitar that give me pause for thought.

Your pots have long threads, needing several washers to pack them out. Mine are the regular ones, not needing any packing.
The pickup surrounds are black, I’ve only seen black ones on the blue finished version of this guitar and yours looks like the Tricolour which came with light coloured ones.
Has your guitar been worked on? Are they the 58/15 S pickups?

I wish I was able to tell you the values and tapers of my pots but unfortunately although my pots are alpha pots they don’t have the value or taper stamped on the back like yours.
All the wiring is neatly tidied away in mine with cable ties stuck to the underside of the top which is why I’m reluctant to pull the pots out to see what is what.

Hopefully a treble bleed will solve your problem.

In your original post Want to add a treble bleed to an SE Hollowbody II guitar you said you wanted to use the Derailer Overdrive as an always on pedal, I’m not familiar with this pedal, do you have good clean up with this pedal with other guitars?

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

Hi Ctrl4Smilerz

I got the same guitar in November, and for me I’d have to say the clean up is pretty good. I know that doesn’t help you, but there are a few things about your guitar that give me pause for thought.

Your pots have long threads, needing several washers to pack them out. Mine are the regular ones, not needing any packing.
The pickup surrounds are black, I’ve only seen black ones on the blue finished version of this guitar and yours looks like the Tricolour which came with light coloured ones.

I changed the plastic pickup trims from white to black (I think it looks better).

Has your guitar been worked on? Are they the 58/15 S pickups?

They are the standard 58/15 S pickups

I wish I was able to tell you the values and tapers of my pots but unfortunately although my pots are alpha pots they don’t have the value or taper stamped on the back like yours.
All the wiring is neatly tidied away in mine with cable ties stuck to the underside of the top which is why I’m reluctant to pull the pots out to see what is what.

If you haven't pulled the pots out, how do you know yours has different pots then mine?
I got the guitar used, so there is a chance it has had work done, but as far as I can tell it doesn't look like it.