Bass roll off mod for Telecaster

Pickups, Pots, Caps, Wiring

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Reg18
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Bass roll off mod for Telecaster

Post by Reg18 »

So although I love modding things I have no idea what I'm doing!
After spending lots of time trying to figure out pays to reduce bass from my neck mini humbucker, I've just performed a mod similar to the reverend bass roll off thing.
The good news is it works! The bad news is it seems to work on the bridge pickup as well even though i thought I had connected it only in line with the neck pickup.
Now admittedly my wiring is somewhat complex with a master push pull volume (for neck and bridge pickups only) engaging different value resistors and a dual pot with 250k and 500k pots with one blending in the middle pickup and the other doing the bass roll off.
Now what I can't figure out is when the bass is completely off it seems the bridge pickup is acting as it used too, but when I start to roll in more bass it adds (perceived at least) more bass to the bridge pickup......how is this possible?

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Re: Bass roll off mod for Telecaster

Post by TmcB »

Can you draw a diagram of your wiring?
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Re: Bass roll off mod for Telecaster

Post by Reg18 »

TmcB wrote:Can you draw a diagram of your wiring?
Will hunt out a 5B and attempt a sketch later on!

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Re: Bass roll off mod for Telecaster

Post by Reg18 »

This was the basis for the mod,but mine is slightly different
http://www.metalguitarist.org/forum/gui ... s-cut.html

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Re: Bass roll off mod for Telecaster

Post by mrmofo »

touch the string on the neck pick up once the bridge pick up is selected and the bass roll off pot is engaged.
see if you can hear the neck pick up when its not switched
There are still some that think the neck PU is moved to accommodate the extra frets which only proves they cannot detect the difference in length of each.

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Re: Bass roll off mod for Telecaster

Post by Reg18 »

mrmofo wrote:touch the string on the neck pick up once the bridge pick up is selected and the bass roll off pot is engaged.
see if you can hear the neck pick up when its not switched
Tried this tonight and you are bang on! When I roll up the bass contour knob it not only adds bass to the neck pickup when in front and middle positions, it blends in the neck pickup when the bridge position is selected.
Now I attempted to sketch something out but I just couldn't get anything that remotely made sense, I think that the problem may be that I reversed the bridge pickup wires so the ground was going to the 3 way switch and the and the hot is attached on the back of the pot (the same pot that the neck pickup ground is soldered too) I did this to get the classic Tele in between sound but maybe that's what causing the problem.
If I reverse it back making the hot wire from the bridge go to the 3 way switch it doesn't sound right in the middle position. Could this be the problem?
It is the only link I can see connecting the neck pickup and the bridge pickup obviously minus the 3 way switch.

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Re: Bass roll off mod for Telecaster

Post by Reg18 »

Update: in fact it appears the neck pickup is on when the bridge is selected 100% of the time, the bass contour does roll off the bass of the neck pickup only as intended.

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Re: Bass roll off mod for Telecaster

Post by GrantB »

Kinda related, and a good solution for those wanting to tame the bass on neck humbuckers when using traditional 1 vol, 1 tone, 1 switch layouts..

https://www.allparts.com/EP-4585-000-CT ... _1443.html

Wire the 500K to the neck, 250k to the bridge...yehar!
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Re: Bass roll off mod for Telecaster

Post by Reg18 »

GrantB wrote:Kinda related, and a good solution for those wanting to tame the bass on neck humbuckers when using traditional 1 vol, 1 tone, 1 switch layouts..

https://www.allparts.com/EP-4585-000-CT ... _1443.html

Wire the 500K to the neck, 250k to the bridge...yehar!
I've actually got that exact one but funnily enough I'm not even using it for the master volume (which maybe I should be) I'm using it as the volume for middle pickup and bass contour. I've got a resister in line with a 500k pot for neck and bridge , which I was happy with but this whole bass roll off thing is messing with my head so I might just redo the whole freakin thing!

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