The Fender Grease bucket tone components were first offered up around 2004. At that time no one gave a rip about the tone circuit because it sounded like marketing hype and was different.
Now after 6 years guitarist seeking better tone options and D-I-Y-ERS are re-looking into this circuit with interest.
Everyone knows a passive tone circuit can only roll off high frequencies. When this works right we hear more bass , but bass hasn’t been added its just more prominent. This passive roll off depends mostly on what value tone caps are used. A range example would be from .01 to .1m. Our standard strat circuit is a high pass filter that’s all. The grease circuit is a combo of a high and a low pass filter. This cuts high frequencies without added bass which may cause muddiness. One of the main keys is that the pickup is being used as a inductor and the other key is the little resistor. A 4.7k resistor prevents the pot value from reaching zero, slightly altering the curve, but retaining your benchmark tone and high end as you adjust the pots . In every diagram I’ve looked at, the 4.7k resistor is wired in series with the 0.022 cap from lug #3 of the tone pot to ground on the can of the tone pot, it’s no secret. That resistor is where the magic is for sure. Of course many other factors play in like , do you have 250k CTS or Alpha pots or 500k or 300k tone pots? Are you using stock .02 caps or 0.033 or 0.047 paper in oil capacitors. All things work together, but we have to modify-- right?
NOTE: Fender has a great archive of guitar diagrams, it’s worth checking out.
My version includes a carbon comp 4.7k resistor and vintage new old stock ceramic .1m &.022 capacitors I stock many types of vintage caps. Ceramic, Orange Drop caps, paper in oil, wire kits. Guitar and bass hardware and plastic replacement guitar and bass parts. I have an Ebay store for the smaller items and a new web store for bodies, necks pickups and hand selected capacitors too.
No comments:
Post a Comment