Can I mod my tone/volume pots to brighten up my 85/15 pickups?

[Johan Allard]

One thing I’ve been experimenting a bit with recently is adding a high-pass filter (to remove bass, especially for the neck pickup). This is done by adding a cap in series with the signal. I originally found this on my 2012 Signature Limited which has a 0.022 uf high-pass filter (https://www.prsguitars.com/csc/schematics/2012/signature_2012.pdf) connected to the 3 way selector for both pickups. I’ve always struggled a bit with my P245 Semi-Hollow being a bit woofy on the neck. I love the roundness of the neck pickup sound but it was just too dark. By adding a 0.0022 uf cap (yes, another 0) on the 3 way selector for the neck pickup position only (remove the neck pickup hot wire from the 3 way selector, solder one end of the cap on the 3 way selector and the other end on the hot neck pickup wire) I’m liking it a lot better. The roundness is still there but the overwhelming bottom end is gone.

With high pass filters like that, the lower the cap value, the more bass you’re going to remove. The 0.022 uf cap in my Siggy Ltd that’s used for both pickups just removes a small amount of bass. If you want to make it more noticeable, go with 0.01 uf down to 0.0047 or even 0.0022 uf for even more bass removal. I’m going to experiment a bit more in my other guitars.

To me, this is a way of balancing the guitar between the bridge and neck pickup. I find a lot of neck pickups to be overly dark and don’t tend to use them as much for that reason. On Les Paul’s and my 594s I’ve always run the neck tone on 10 and the bridge tone rolled off to balance the pickups, usually between 5 and 7. But with this recent finding I’m thinking that a better way may be to remove bass from the neck pickup to get the guitar more evenly balanced between the bridge and the neck.

Obviously EQ pedals and other things discussed in this thread are great tools to balance the overall sound of the guitar but if you’re not scared of a soldering iron the high pass bass removal trick could well be worthwhile to try out.

 

[László]

One thing I’ve been experimenting a bit with recently is adding a high-pass filter (to remove bass, especially for the neck pickup). This is done by adding a cap in series with the signal. I originally found this on my 2012 Signature Limited which has a 0.022 uf high-pass filter (https://www.prsguitars.com/csc/schematics/2012/signature_2012.pdf) connected to the 3 way selector for both pickups. I’ve always struggled a bit with my P245 Semi-Hollow being a bit woofy on the neck. I love the roundness of the neck pickup sound but it was just too dark. By adding a 0.0022 uf cap (yes, another 0) on the 3 way selector for the neck pickup position only (remove the neck pickup hot wire from the 3 way selector, solder one end of the cap on the 3 way selector and the other end on the hot neck pickup wire) I’m liking it a lot better. The roundness is still there but the overwhelming bottom end is gone.

With high pass filters like that, the lower the cap value, the more bass you’re going to remove. The 0.022 uf cap in my Siggy Ltd that’s used for both pickups just removes a small amount of bass. If you want to make it more noticeable, go with 0.01 uf down to 0.0047 or even 0.0022 uf for even more bass removal. I’m going to experiment a bit more in my other guitars.

To me, this is a way of balancing the guitar between the bridge and neck pickup. I find a lot of neck pickups to be overly dark and don’t tend to use them as much for that reason. On Les Paul’s and my 594s I’ve always run the neck tone on 10 and the bridge tone rolled off to balance the pickups, usually between 5 and 7. But with this recent finding I’m thinking that a better way may be to remove bass from the neck pickup to get the guitar more evenly balanced between the bridge and the neck.

Obviously EQ pedals and other things discussed in this thread are great tools to balance the overall sound of the guitar but if you’re not scared of a soldering iron the high pass bass removal trick could well be worthwhile to try out.

Interesting that you mention the HPF, because I use the hpf on recording gear all the time, and my Pettydrive 2 has a couple of high pass Filter choices for each channel - I use those, too.

I had a Sig Ltd., and dug it. Wasn’t aware of the HPF, but maybe it’s one reason I liked that guitar so much!

 

[Johan Allard]

Interesting that you mention the HPF, because I use the hpf on recording gear all the time, and my Pettydrive 2 has a couple of high pass Filter choices for each channel - I use those, too.

I had a Sig Ltd., and dug it. Wasn’t aware of the HPF, but maybe it’s one reason I liked that guitar so much!

Yeah, the Sig LTD is awesome. I can’t see myself parting with mine. These days I play exclusively through an Fractal Audio Ax8 and one thing that I, and a lot of others judging from the Fractal Forum, do is to put both high-pass and low-pass filters in the cab block. Usually HPF 80-150hz and LPF 5-10khz. But obviously this affects all of the guitar tone. Looking at various drive blocks in the Fractal, there’s filters in pretty much all Drive pedals but mostly they are not configurable.

 

[László]

Yeah, the Sig LTD is awesome. I can’t see myself parting with mine.

I don’t blame you! I missed mine, and that’s one of the reasons I jumped at that PS20th Anni Ltd. when it came out; it has the 408s from the Paul’s Guitar, and a 57/08 Narrowfield into the bargain as well.

It’s different from the Sig Ltd., of course, but I use it in much the same role in my studio as I did the Sig. Beyond that, it’s an incredible guitar.

 

[Johan Allard]

I don’t blame you! I missed mine, and that’s one of the reasons I jumped at that PS20th Anni Ltd. when it came out; it has the 408s from the Paul’s Guitar, and a 57/08 Narrowfield into the bargain as well.

It’s different from the Sig Ltd., of course, but I use it in much the same role in my studio as I did the Sig. Beyond that, it’s an incredible guitar.

That's awesome. I'm waiting for a Custom 22 Piezo that I ordered last May and latest thing I got told was that it was due to arrive in July. Next thing after that is definitely getting a Private Stock. At the moment I'm thinking of ordering a 594 body with 408 pickups, trem and piezo. 3 way pickup selector like on the 594, master volume, master tone, coil splits and piezo 3 way positioned like on the 509. We'll see, I think I have to get the new guitar before ordering the next

 

[László]

That's awesome. I'm waiting for a Custom 22 Piezo that I ordered last May and latest thing I got told was that it was due to arrive in July. Next thing after that is definitely getting a Private Stock. At the moment I'm thinking of ordering a 594 body with 408 pickups, trem and piezo. 3 way pickup selector like on the 594, master volume, master tone, coil splits and piezo 3 way positioned like on the 509. We'll see, I think I have to get the new guitar before ordering the next

One interesting thing about PS20 is that it has the 594 scale length, a thicker mahogany body (I think it might be thicker than the McCarty, haven’t measured, though) with the 408s. I love the way it sounds; it’s gorgeous. The middle pickup is great to have as well.

Anyway, I think you’d have a pretty interesting guitar with the 408s on the 594 body.

On the other hand, I love the stock 594 and P-90 594s I have, because that traditional, warm sound is SO GOOD! As we know, PRSes just seem to proliferate, like rabbits, once you get one.

 

[Johan Allard]

One interesting thing about PS20 is that it has the 594 scale length, a thicker mahogany body (I think it might be thicker than the McCarty, haven’t measured, though) with the 408s. I love the way it sounds; it’s gorgeous. The middle pickup is great to have as well.

Anyway, I think you’d have a pretty interesting guitar with the 408s on the 594 body.

On the other hand, I love the stock 594 and P-90 594s I have, because that traditional, warm sound is SO GOOD! As we know, PRSes just seem to proliferate, like rabbits, once you get one.

Yeah, that PS20 sounds really interesting. And yeah, they keep amassing don't they I'll have 6 when the new one arrives in July. But... I don't have a P90, yet