Suggestions for rewiring SE Custom 24 (treble bleed/50s wiring et al), please.

[DanielKennethRego]

Hello everyone,

I own a 2013 PRS SE Custom 24, that I've decided I want to tweak the wiring and electricals of, to get its volume control to behave more uniformly.

This is the situation at present:

Vol 9 - 10: Great. Full, clear and balanced tone.
Vol 6 - 8/9: Suddenly muddy, wooly and lacking clarity.
Vol 1 - 5: Clear and bright, but lacking some body and fullness.

As I was told in another thread, the SE Custom 24 is wired with a sort of treble bleed ("cap bleeds the treble to ground"), apparently a 180pf cap, but I'm not entirely sure of this. I opened the control cavity to check, but I can't really read the value of the cap.

I want to rectify this situation, to get a more even, consistent tonal response through the sweep of the volume pot, because I'm very into the idea of controlling overdrive/distortion gain with the volume knob, and I have some very responsive, dynamic drive pedals that are well up to the task (Jetter GS124 and TCJ Kollmanation), but in practice, I find the results unsatisfactory because of the unevenness described above.

I've read about the 50s wiring scheme, and it sounds promising, apart from the volume and tone knob interactions (less volume available the lower the tone pot is set). I've also read about different cap values for the treble bleed wiring, and I suppose I should try that too.

Any advice/suggestions/recommendations on what wiring/electrical changes will give me the most consistent and even tonal response from my volume knob?

 

[DHW]

this should explain it.

 

[DanielKennethRego]

Wow, thank you, that video explained the concepts better than any text I've read. One thing I noticed though, is that 50s wiring didn't seem to register a very significant difference, in treble retention, compared to modern wiring. It was audible, but I'm not entirely convinced it's the solution I'm looking for. I'm very bothered by the muddiness I'm experiencing on my SE Custom 24, between 5 - 8 or so, on the vol knob, and that's with the treble bleed cap already in the circuit.

On the other hand, the 50s wiring should make the 1 - 5 range sound a little fuller.

What would you suggest I try?

By the way, thanks for all the help DHW, in this thread and my previous one. Very appreciated.

 

[DHW]

Wow, thank you, that video explained the concepts better than any text I've read. One thing I noticed though, is that 50s wiring didn't seem to register a very significant difference, in treble retention, compared to modern wiring. It was audible, but I'm not entirely convinced it's the solution I'm looking for. I'm very bothered by the muddiness I'm experiencing on my SE Custom 24, between 5 - 8 or so, on the vol knob, and that's with the treble bleed cap already in the circuit.

On the other hand, the 50s wiring should make the 1 - 5 range sound a little fuller.

What would you suggest I try?

By the way, thanks for all the help DHW, in this thread and my previous one. Very appreciated.

What you need to understand is that better quality pots will make a difference as well. That video is only showing the capacitor difference. Upgrading the pots to something of tighter tolerance may make a significant difference as well. I'd rewire it is the 50's style and try it out. If you don't like it and want to go modern its just a matter of moving the cap. If you don't like it either way then a pickup change might be in order. Going with something of vintage output should help keep it from getting muddy under high gain. With modern high gain amps you don't need the extreme output.