How To Use A Treble Bleed On Guitar 

Me watching the demo: oh yeah, that makes sense. I can totally hear the difference. Phil pulls pickups out of the back of the guitar. Me: WHAT THE #*$& JUST HAPPENED?!!!

Treble Bleed aside... I LOVE how you swap those pickups around!

I have a guitar with passive humbuckers that comes with a treble bleed, and I am very happy it's there, it allows me to roll down the volume without the output getting muddy. I have a telecaster with NO treble bleed, and its single coils are very bright already, and I'm equally happy it does NOT have a treble bleed, as that lets me roll back volume and soften the sound for rhythm parts. Different applications and situations are, well, different.

Great clear demonstration Phil. I’ve always thought of doing it, but now I can hear the darkening of the tone is actually useful for the way I play

I've been toying with this idea for a while now,...thanks for the clear, concise explanation PK!

This is a great demo. What amazes me is perceived volume. W/ treble bleed added, even as the volume knob is set to decrease volume, things seem louder because of the added clarity

Phil just got off the phone with Mark at Somnium and bought his In Stock sibling to your Orange TS3 with a MAPLE NECK! I am so jazzed! Thanks for all the ideas I now have in my head for my "Impossible Guitar" :-) "To Bleed or Not to Bleed, that IS the question"

Well done Phil! Cheap, Easy and Worthy! Thanks for sharing brother! Be Well All!

My ears get it now. Thanks. What a great guitar tech teacher.

Great video Phil. I actually started the video thinking I wanted that mod, and then realized I didn't. Excellent worl

Phillip: Excellent precise demo. Thank you as usual.

Great and very detailed info on Treble Bleed… I’ve been mulling on putting them on my guitars. You explained a lot more than I was expecting. Thank you very much and decided to put it in my guitars. OMG!!! …that quick change guitar! Unbelievable! I want one of those for sure. Thanks for showing it off!!! Peace out, brother.

Wow a GREAT Explanation ! Thanks Phillip

Great job with this Demo and explanation Phillip. Always enjoy your content my friend.

Good job man, this experiment is amazing! Thank you! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻😁👍🏻

Pretty cool. I did so this mod on my old Strat and I absolutely love it. Thank You for the video!

This is fantastically useful!! Home run once again sir!

What a great way to try pickups back to back comparisons

I dig it Phil!!! Thanks for the demo!!! Stay Safe man!!!

Phil I've been wanting to do this video for years. Thanks for doing it. All my (mainly single coil) guitars have treble bleeds, and wired between the "10" side of the Volume and tone control. To defeat or adjust the effect of the treble bleed I use the tone knob between 10 and 8 (where usually nothing really happens). Since I use staggered (or series) gain staging in my signal, it's the ultimate control infinitely variable. Turning down the volume feels more like rolling off the lows which cleans up the signal instantly. As you said the only time it's not needed is bridge High output Humbuckers. On a 5 way Strat switch there's ways to do that, as well as dual Vol/Tone control guitars. Very useful on the Neck Humbuckers. Think of it also as having that one "sit in the mix" knob when live mixing yourself with the band, ("I can go from the "singer doesn't notice me" to the "real dirty looks / I'm taking a Solo NOW" setting without touching the pedal board.) Sadly that's why 90% of players never use the volume knob on the guitar but at 10. Should be part of Guitar Lessons (when teaching electric).

Great video. Glad to see how it affects different style pickups

Mr Philip´s ideas and information always help´s a lot. Thank you very much Sir!

Outstanding video. You can really hear the difference. Just installed on my Jazzmaster, I really like it. I play at home at low volumes and this helps a great deal, especially since I wear hearing aids... Big problem for me. Will install on my other 20 guitars. Thanks again.

Brillant coverage. Thank you!

This video was wonderfully done Phill, really insightful! You should consider making a video regarding 50's wiring, as a lot os people have many questions regarding it's effects and how it compares to a treble bleed mod

Great way to demonstrate this concept. Thanks!!!

Great video as always you have helped me out big time!! Oh and that white explorer with the gold pick guard is awesome beautiful guitar.

Thanks so much for doing this, I was just asking myself this question!

That guitar is sooo cool! Learning a lot quickly.

Excellent video, answered all my questions, and some I didn’t know I had

Slick. Cool video as always Phil. Rock on!

Great! I added a treble bleed but found a different layout. Two resistors one out on one side acting as a lead, then another one in parallel like you did. I really like the results. Using it on a Tele style with two high out put humbuckers that split into single coils.

I absolutely LOVE that plug & play guitar!

As always, informative and good value Phillip. Thanks mate! ✌️Putting one in my Tele asap.

Great information and demo. Thank you.

After this, I'm totally putting a treble bleed in my Strat. Thanks for the video!

Best video ive seen about the treeble bleed ever.

I got one for ya Phil, GFS has several different circuits you can install into your guitar that incorporate everything from overdrive to delay. The one I’m interested in is the comp/sustainer mod. Maybe you could look into that a bit. Would make for a series of videos actually if you tried each one. Thank you for your consistent informative content and no bullshit approach. It shows your work ethic and concern for the community is priority one. Appreciate you man!!! You are a hero…

Nice job Phil!! My Ibanez JS1200CA (Satriani model) has a treble bleed and it's wired to a push/pull volume knob. It's the best of both worlds.

Great vid Phil, i didn't know that this mod made hotter pickups behave differently to low-output pickups. Thanks for letting us know.

From Leo: Good demonstration. That guitar is really a great demo tool. I really like a treble bleed, but I am more subtle. I like a 390pf capacitor only with no resistor. Lots of ways to get there, it is the cheapest mod that does anything positive to the sound.

Thanks for all you do Phil

Great video! Thanks for the knowledge.

Every guitar should have this!

So useful! Thanks! awesome guitar for doing tests by the way!

thats so cool almost like your knob is actually controling the volume for once and not desimating tone

of all the somewhat gimmick stuff that we see in our industry nowadays, that guitar is by far the one I'd love to own the most, what a great and well executed idea!

that pup changer guitar I want one! Great vid

This could not have been more perfectly timed. Getting ready to change the pickups out in one of my guitars, and I was curious about a treble bleed. Best explanation I found so far. Thank you very much, and now I will be making a removable one myself.

My American Professional Strat comes with a treble bleed and I love it!

I loved the pickups quick hitch system...

I've been on my own little pickup journey since middle of last year. Keyztone Exchanger pedal has definitely been my guiding light. It makes everything sound clear and provides great string definition. I use it to A/B guitar pickups and see how much muddiness is in the stock one, compared to its keyztone counterpart. Pickups like the field coil single coils from Supro, 1996 tex mex strat pickups, Gretsch Broad Tron pickups wired in parallel and fishman pickups survive the A/B comparison. I like the clarity, because it helps identify when technique isn't its greatest and let's me build better arpeggiation into parts. So far I've gone with classic core fishmans for my PAF (ESP LTD 1000T) Fishman SSS strat pickups (Mim Strat) Tosin Abasi replacing my PRS custom 24s 85/15s pickups. I'm becoming a on trick pony with solving my pickup issues, where previously I'd do a lot of phase/parallel/split coil modifications. Just feels like Fishman takes the guess work out with a consistently produced product that does the thing it says its going to do. Which is the exact opposite experience I had chasing the "right" PAF sound.

I mod my Mex Strat with treble bleed and Blender with the help from my friends. I'm very happy with the result 👍👍👍

what a cool video. Phil you da man!!

I've got a Nashville Tele and it's really pronounced when I back off the volume about 10%. I've wanted a treble bleed circuit on it. Thanks for posting the links.

Excellent video. Blessings.

Love your videos, I’ve got a request for you! I’m doing several guitar mods right now, and on the subject of treble bleed, you can apparently wire the resistor and cap in series as opposed to in parallel. I’ve heard good things about this, you could maybe do a comparison or if you know the effect it has maybe mention it next time you discuss treble bleed. Rock on buddy🤘

For rock and fusion etc., I tend to live on my bridge pickup and fully utilize both Volume and Tone controls (esp the Volume). With no treble bleed, there wouldn't be much point for me in doing that. IMO. With the circuit, turning down to even as low as 2-3 still can yield a usefully delicious clean-but-present rhythm tone, even with an overdriven-on-10 setting. On the other hand, with my jazz archtops, I definitely prefer a darker 'traditional' jazz tone and this mod wouldn't be necessary there. IME. In that case, I also will make use of the entire Volume knob's range, but it's just going to a different type of warm tonality for that style, when lowered. All, of course, in my opinion and experience.

Phil, love your channel, always informative. Now maybe i may have missed you explain this one part but, here is my question: Isnt this what a tone capacitor does? Or is this kindof a volume pot equivalent of what the tone cap does on the tone pot? I hope im wording this ok, but i always thought tone capacitors and treble bleeds were the same. Maybe they are, but it is different in the way you wire them / the effect it has?

Great topic! Thanks

That Lizzy Hale Explorer tho...

I used to put a treble bleed mod in all my guitars now I convert them to '50s wiring try both but I like the '50s better after I got used to it.

The treble bleed saved my best guitar for me. A deluxe hss strat, the neck and body are wonderful, but the noiseless pickups were to "muffy". I played the guitar for years like this, but after i read some stuff about the noiseless i decided to put 500K pots in. That resolved the "muffieness", but the single coils went completely high-less when turning down the volume. (Because of resonance peak and stuff.) The treble bleed was the last piece to match the electics to the great wood base. It would have been easier to just put other single coils in, but i liked the sound of the noiseless (n3) enough to try this. And now i wish fender would have done this from the start, the noiseless would have a better reputation now i think.

love the guitar, cool video

Would love to see some Lambertones (tele types / humbuckers) pickups please! I’ve heard some excellent feedback from those in the worship guitar community and I’d like to purchase some but not sure if I’d find a similar sounding one here in the UK or they really are special enough to order from USA! Thanks Phil! This is a great series and resource!

Awesome !! Cheap brilliant mod!

this is completely off topic but the most amazing part about this video was the pickup hot swap!

Amazing demo. Perfect work with switching the circuit in the pot. Thank you. But now I know I prefer it without the treble bleed. PS: Swapping those pickups just threw me off the chair.

Might have to try this

I did something similar to this with one of my guitars and I found out I always turn the treble bleed off. Good to figure that out though!

I do that mod on all my guitars. I make my own because the parts are so cheap in bulk. Try Brandonwound Pickups, I love the PAF humbuckers(low output) and the "Sally's" witch are a set of Strat style mid scooped pickups. High quality and period correct construction and his pickups are all I am buying since I tried them!

Hi phil I have treble bleeds in all my guitars.. cause I can pick up any of my Stratocasters and can tune them in tone and treble bleeds make them work at any volume it works good for my style clean.. Thanks great video

You should check out the PMT V-Treb variabel treble bleed bypass circuit. Works great and you can dial it in as you like.

Great idea. Nice Mod.

It works great for high output pickups and high gain. The effect is more subtle and doesn't clean up as well compared to low output pickups but It really helps for dialing out low end flub and mud when using a lot of gain. It tightens and focuses the low end and does wonders for palm-muted notes. Overall, it helps harden and sharpen attack and allows the guitar to stand out more over bass and drums.

PRS replacement pots come with a 181pf cap on it. Smart.

I was recommended to install a treble bleed circuit to my volume pot to try to fix the volume pot which does not reduce the volume as you rotate it down. At just about the end of the throw it does drop the treble right before it turns off volume. The pot is wired to both a push pull for humbuckers and a Fishman piezo bridge pickup, Guitar is a Schecter C-1 E/A. Any suggestions? Txs, Ron.

Loving those changeable pickups! I've been using treble bleed/bypass circuits for 10 years. I believe the .001 has been standard on tele's for decades. But they get too bright with the volume below 4. That's why p.r.s. uses 180pf and Suhr uses 680. They aren't as bright

Thanks Philip Stay safe

AWESOME!

Great video! But how does it compare to no tone knob just a straight volume?

I removed all treble bleed circuits from any guitars of mine that had them years ago. I found that at gigs, if I'm turning the volume down, I'm wanting to tuck into the mix more, it's the reason for turning down, the treble loss makes that work very well with less actual volume reduction; making not having TB in a performance/live band setting more musical more often than not. Depends on genre and YMMV of course but worth noting.

Thanks, Phil. So, on a Gretsch, with individual volume pots for each pick up, and a master volume, would you be looking at adding this circuit to each volume pot, ie 3 of these circuits?

A W E S O M E !!! Tks for posting this video

Great video !!! Can you tell how to solder that correctly like you did with that push pull button ? Can you send me a picture ? Thanks !!

Hi, do you think you could do an upgrade on a Dan Electro DC-3 ? I've been watching your videos and i've started upgrading my Squier Strat using your videos and my friend wants to get involved with his dan electro so would be good for some ideas, cheers.

Definitely put it on a bypass switch. In a live situation the more variation the better.

Theres a treble bleed in my sg n it keeps the high end but the vol is all but an on off switch . What hav i done now ? Love the channel . Thx

Yes you need it.

What is the difference or which is better, changing to a .047 orange drop or adding a treble bleed? Can you do both? 1st time guitar mod attemp.

I just bought six of these from Stew/Mac about a month ago but I didn't put them in anything yet. One question I have (and this may sound obviously dumb) but if I am putting treble bleed on a Les Paul, do I do both volume pots using two treble bleeds? I assume that I have too. Am I wrong?

Dimarizo Super Distortion T. Seymour Duncan Jerry Donahue. Both are exceptional Tele Bridge pickups. Dimarzio SD T is surprisingly sweet sounding. .

I'm a strat guy. I found the lack of trebble... troublesome, sometimes. But then, sometimes when I roll back the volume, I actually WANT that tone swap. I have a trebble bleed installed in one of my fave strats, but still... Like most things related to gear: it depends! But I really enjoyd your bypass solution. This I would try!

Interesting! Dan Erlewine, at StewMac, is the first one I remember doing that years ago. For a demo, would you please do the StewMac 'Golden Age, Vintage Vibe' humbucker? They are reasonably priced, and supposed to be lower output, like the PRS 'LT" pups in the 594. Thanks!! --gary

Would’ve loved to see how this affects the SD Invader, Tom Delonge productions had a super high value treble bleed

Hi Phil, I know this is an old video, but I hope you can respond. I need an appropriate treble bleed, but I can't afford to have someone install, and reinstall them over and over if they don't work right. I have a 2001 American Deluxe Stat. It came with early (sucky) Vintage Noiseless single coils. There was a treble bleed included. I have since upgraded my pickups to HSS (not noisless), with a coil split on the humbucker. Callahan Pickups that sound great. The single coil sound of the split humbucker sounds great, as does the humbucker mode. I asked the tech to put in a treble bleed, but he said there was already one he left in from the original design. Problem is that when I turn down the volume now, it not only keeps the treble, but it cuts the bass! So as I go down in volume it starts to sound like an AM radio. I don't know what type of treble bleed circuit might be more appropriate to put in, being that I go back and forth between split coil, and humbucker. As it is now I can't turn down without losing all my bass response. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks for the great channel!

I have a treble bleed and RWRP middle pickup Custom Shop strat . The middle/front tone dial I have to put at almost 2 dial way back, otherwise way too much treble. I have an american standard strat with the similar Custom shop '69 pickups but no RWRP middle. I am still in doubt as to which strat sound better though...

That has to be most versatile guitar i have ever seen

Would you recommend a treble bleed circuit with Texas Special Pickups?

I'd love to hear the Lollar Chicago Steel pickup (strat size)