To bleed or not to bleed...

The treble bleed is wired across two of the lugs, so you just need to apply heat to the lugs and make whatever changes one at a time. The lugs will heat up very fast.
 
Agreed. It does seem to heat up... but the solder doesn't react...
after butchering many control cavities with dozens of low quality soldering irons I finally just invested in the Hacko 788 70W, and it wasn't even that expensive $100, you can precisely dial-in the temperature super amazing piece of equipment. different guitar manufacturers use different types of solder some melt quick others use the very high melting.
I use the slightly flat pointed tip. it is awesome. turn it to one side it's very narrow turn it 90° you have a lot more flat surface contact. I used to take 3 to 4 hours to change pickups,a lot of that was due to stripping the 30gauge 4 wire conductors, I damaged them severely, So the other key component is the wire stripper. the wire stripper pictured is absolutely mandatory super beautiful stripping with absolutely no damage to the wires. Now I can change pickups in less than 10 minutes,these two pieces of equipment turned me into a professional, the lower wattage soldering irons do damage the pots, as it takes so long for the temperature of the solder to rise, with the 40 W I could hold it on their for 2-3 minutes before it would melt. the entire cavity would start smoking. so the high wattage melts the solder almost instantly and you're done. you can order 10 different tips for $10 super flexible.
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A proper solder station just makes your life so much easier, and considering how relatively little they cost, it is an excellent investment.

With regards to wire strippers, these are the best I have used - http://www.idealindustries.ca/products/tools_totes/wire_strippers/stripmaster.php

Can’t recall if I have the light or the regular version, but they definitely make stripping a lot more fun.:p

I had a version of those, but you still have to pick the hole size, but I really like the fully automated self adjusting version of these, you don't even have to pick the wire size you don't have to do anything, except squeeze.

here is a dude giving an example and they do work on those 30 gauge 4 wires no problem, just perfection.

 
So is 1 - High Precision Silver Mica Cap 180pf and 1 - .022uf SBE Orange Drop 225P 400v Cap., worth the $8 I just spent? Or should I cancel the order before it ships?
 
What is the Orange Drop for?
The description said the OD is for the tone pot

"Suitable for Humbuckers as well as Single Coils. Order 2 kits for 2V/2T guitars. Same values used in Paul Reed Smith Guitars, but higher quality 180pf Silver Mica bleed cap and 400v .022uf SBE Orange Drop 225P tone cap. Works equally well for Humbuckers or Single Coils. Includes: 1 - High Precision Silver Mica Cap 180pf and 1 - .022uf SBE Orange Drop 225P 400v Cap. Diagram Included. The listing is for 1 Kit which has 1 volume / treble bleed cap and 1 tone cap, which cover 1 Volume and 1 Tone Pot. For Single Coil Guitars with 1V/2T , the Tone cap can be shared between the tone pots if desired."
 
Back in the days of Tin-Lead (SnPb) solder, you only needed 650F degrees to melt it. With silver, today, you need at least 700F degrees. I recommend 750F. You have to get your tip up to temp and prep it with solder before attempting to work on anything. If the tip will take solder, you can work. Apply solid pressure with the front side of the tip for maximum coverage and it should start to wave in a couple of seconds.

Do yourself a favor and get an accessory kit with a brass ribbon tip cleaning thingie. And one of those solder suckers.

Btw, most PRSi come with 18pf treble bleed caps already.
 
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So is 1 - High Precision Silver Mica Cap 180pf and 1 - .022uf SBE Orange Drop 225P 400v Cap., worth the $8 I just spent? Or should I cancel the order before it ships?
I've changed the stock 0.33uf tone cap in mine to a 0.22uf 225P orange drop tone cap. certainly no problem there. Nice and big so easy to handle, does it's job well. Not sure if I can comment whether it's worth it as such, I'm sure I paid a lot less than that as I bought a whole bunch of them in different values from an electronics components catalog years ago. They were dirt cheap that way.
 
The description said the OD is for the tone pot

"Suitable for Humbuckers as well as Single Coils. Order 2 kits for 2V/2T guitars. Same values used in Paul Reed Smith Guitars, but higher quality 180pf Silver Mica bleed cap and 400v .022uf SBE Orange Drop 225P tone cap. Works equally well for Humbuckers or Single Coils. Includes: 1 - High Precision Silver Mica Cap 180pf and 1 - .022uf SBE Orange Drop 225P 400v Cap. Diagram Included. The listing is for 1 Kit which has 1 volume / treble bleed cap and 1 tone cap, which cover 1 Volume and 1 Tone Pot. For Single Coil Guitars with 1V/2T , the Tone cap can be shared between the tone pots if desired."

If you have a newer guitar with the tube shaped tone cap, I wouldn't bother with the Orange Drop.
 
The tonal differences in capacitor types is so esoteric that I’m hesitant to suggest one over another. Personally, Sprague Vitamin-Q paper in oil caps have made it into 3 of my guitars and I love them. How much influence they contribute is debatable. It’s the total system that yields the results...it’s up to you to pick the right parts.
 
The Orange Drop "Special" cap kit arrived in the mail today and were immediately installed. There is, to my ears, a noticeable difference between the OEM capacitors and the new capacitors. Volume ramp up and down is clean and progressive, tone appears crisper, cleaner. And as an added bonus, I didn't destroy my guitar in the process.
 
The Orange Drop "Special" cap kit arrived in the mail today and were immediately installed. There is, to my ears, a noticeable difference between the OEM capacitors and the new capacitors. Volume ramp up and down is clean and progressive, tone appears crisper, cleaner. And as an added bonus, I didn't destroy my guitar in the process.
Is that just a replacement for the tone cap, or did you replace the 'treble bleed' one as well? The stock tone cap was probably 0.033uf, and I also noticed a difference changing to the 0.022uf orange drop. A bit clearer and more treble, which is to be expected given the value changes. I generally put the 0.022uf orange drop in everything as they perform well and are cheap and easy to get.
 
Is there a definitive list of current past models that come with or do NOT come with a 180pf Cap on the volume pot(s) direct from factory?

I'm still somewhat new in the PRS family... bought a CE24 semi-hollow, Love It.... then had to buy a 594SC, Love It. But I noticed the CE24 keeps the tone/treble when I roll off volume far more/better than the 594. Low and behold, cap on the volume for CE24 - - but not on either volume for the 594. I plan to mod the 594 very soon.

Curious about this "list" and perhaps why this would or wouldn't be on a guitar's spec sheet (online) - seems like a helpful thing to know.
 
You can easily clip a treble bleed cap on your volume pot to test it out. 1 nF caps are incredibly high IMO for a treble bleed in a guitar, especially if you’re playing through British-style higher gain amp circuits. To each their own, as they say.

A lone treble bleed cap acts as a high pass tone filter. A resistor in parallel will bleed more of the entire signal around the treble bleed cap and act as a fixed blend control on the treble bleed itself. Like a parallel EQ.
 
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