PRS Stripped 58 57/08 treble bleed mod help

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trojanhov

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As always, you have to try it to see if you like it. But assuming you know how to solder correctly, I think the decisions you'll need to make are: 1) what do I want the volume knob to do when I turn it down or up, and therefore what value of capacitor to select, and 2) whether or not to include a parallel resistor.

A treble bleed mod involves soldering a capacitor to the input and output lugs of the volume pot. If you're looking down on the pot from the rear of the control cavity, the input lug is the left, the output is the middle, and the right is the grounded lug, usually bent and soldered directly to the pot body (and then grounded through the ground harness).

The PRS stock replacement volume pot has a 180pf capacitor already pre-soldered to the input and output lugs of your pot. You'll want to look under the control cover of your guitar and discover whether that is present or not on your volume pot. I would bet that it is. If so, changing that depends on what you'd like to accomplish. I absolutely love the 180pf cap on the bleed mod. It leaves an excellent amount of treble that darkens nicely and slightly throughout the sweep of the pot. A higher value capacitor will tend to be somewhat darker, but that is to everyone's taste. The parallel resistor/capacitor mod (like the Stewmac Golden Age treble mod) will tend to leave your treble constant throughout the pot sweep and give more of a master volume feel to your pot as opposed to a volume knob that varies in gain as you sweep it. I have the Golden Age treble mod on a 594 and it sounds great, but I think the stock 180 pf cap is a little better in terms of tone effects from the volume knob.

Check it out and see what you have. Chances are, it's all ready to go.
 
trojanhov said:
https://i.imgur.com/0671B7F.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Onu1HAY.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/zGGL1Zx.jpg
Click to expand...
You do not have a treble bleed cap on either volume pot, so you’re in for a treat.

You can add the treble bleed mod without disassembling the factory wiring. What you need is to first choose what you want to add. If it were me, I would start with the PRS factory treble bleed and go with 180pf ceramic caps from Stewmac. If you don’t have anything to solder with, I would recommend the soldering kit fr Stewmac that comes with the iron with a digital temp set and read switch. It’s critical to avoid burning up your electronics and is worth it in the long run if you plan on doing any more soldering. I also recommend getting paste flux from your local hardware store. Flux reduces oxidation on your soldering tip, makes it last longer, and makes for kickass solder joints.

Take your capacitor and trim it to the length you want. The legs are overly long. I would leave at least 1/2 an inch or so. Then, hold the cap leg with a pair of metal pliers or a hemostat and tin each leg after you’ve tinned your soldering tip.

You’re going to then heat up the volume pot lugs individually with your tinned soldering iron. The lugs you’re interested in are the ones your black cloth braided wires are already attached to: one middle, and the one at 8 o’clock if the middle lug is at your 6. You took closeup pictures more of your tone pots than you volumes. Remember when you flip the guitar over, everything is reversed. The cap will ideally go through the lug hole that the cloth wires are already soldered to. Clip a heat clip to the lug you’re going to heat up from underneath or side. Heat up the lug and the cap tip with the iron. As the solder on the lug melts, push the cap leg into the lug. If you have enough solder on your iron, it will add to the solder joint. Then it’s time for the pull out method! Pull the iron off and let everything cool slowly. Don’t blow on the joint. It should be a mirror finish, which indicates a hot joint. Repeat with the other cap leg in the adjacent lug and you’re good to go!

This cavity is pretty clean, so you shouldn’t have to worry about running into innocent wires, but protect everything and keep an eye out to be safe.
 
Forgive me if any of this is rhetorical, but hold the capacitor with a pliers or hemostat when you heat it. I prefer hemostats because they lock closed, so you can move the part around without fear of dropping it.
 
ViperDoc said:
Forgive me if any of this is rhetorical, but hold the capacitor with a pliers or hemostat when you heat it. I prefer hemostats because they lock closed, so you can move the part around without fear of dropping it.
Click to expand...

Thanks man! Appreciate the help!
So you recommend just doing this (180pF):
https://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and...ts/Capacitors_and_Resistors/Ceramic_Caps.html

As opposed to this:
https://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and...esistors/Golden_Age_Treble_Bleed_Circuit.html


Also, pardon stupid questions, but I’m obviously doing this to both volume pots right
 
Interesting to see the Tone cap values of 0.033uf on there. That is a standard PRS value for guitars with a treble bleed mod on. My thoughts on this are that the treble bleed mod makes the guitar a bit brighter even when the volume pot is on full, so a 0.033uf Tone cap is used in conjunction which is slightly darker to compensate (0.022uf is a fairly standard value for humbuckers normally).
The only time I've played a SC58 was demoing it in a shop, and I do remember thinking at the time that it seemed a little dark for my tastes, maybe this is why, 0.033uf Tone caps but without the treble bleed on the volume pot.
I'm not a fan of treble bleed myself, I just don't need them for my setups and usage, so I've disconnected mine, but then had to change the Tone cap from 0.033 to 0.022uf to brighten up the sound again.
 
trojanhov said:
Thanks man! Appreciate the help!
So you recommend just doing this (180pF):
https://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and...ts/Capacitors_and_Resistors/Ceramic_Caps.html

As opposed to this:
https://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and...esistors/Golden_Age_Treble_Bleed_Circuit.html


Also, pardon stupid questions, but I’m obviously doing this to both volume pots right
Click to expand...
Yes, those are the “right caps”. Try it and see if you like it.

Whether to do one or both is your call. I’d say both but that’s just me.
 
CORliWN.jpg
Treble bleed mod done. Love it with the prs rec caps! Preserves just the right amount of high end! This guitar is very very special.
 
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