Tone Control

[Rusty Walker]

I use a Rockman for practice.It's a good sound,but has a bit of a sharp edge to it.Is it possible to make up a little box with a tone control to go inline with the input cord,and if so what pot and how to wire it?Thanks Rusty

[Jim Sliff]

Rusty - If you were to go to the trouble to wire something up, it would be not too difficult to simply download the Esquire wiring diagram from the support section of the Fender site and install two pots and a switch in a small enclosure, using a plug attached to it so it plugs right into your guitar. That would give you tone AND volume, plus, the switch gives you 1) tone-bypass, 2) tone control use, or 3) a deep bassy tone...the second two can be changed by varying capacitor values. It's not as complicated as it looks/sounds and might take a couple hours at most to build.

If your steel (I assume it for steel) has the usual 18-22k DC resistance pickups, I'd use 1 meg pots instead of thenormal 250k pots used on 6-strings with single coil pickups.

I'm planning the same thing for my GFI - I've never understood the lack of volume/tone circuits on most steel guitars.

[Rusty Walker]

Thanx for the info Jim.In retrospect,it's probably the output of the Rockman to the headphones that should have a tone control on it.There is an edge in the phones that I would like to take off.And the Rockman has no tone control,but plenty of volume control.

[Rusty Walker]

So maybe my next question is-can you buy stereo headphones with a tone control?

[Stu Schulman]

Hey Rusty,I have a little EQ that I got for a buck in a thrift store...it uses 4 double A's,If you want it send me an address and I'll give it to you,Stu

[Donny Hinson]

I've never understood the lack of volume/tone circuits on most steel guitars.

I believe I can help you in that department, Jim.

Many years ago, one very famous player let slip the fact that he'd unhooked (bypassed) his volume and tone control in order to get a little more clarity or "bite". Needless to say, when average players heard about this, they followed in lock-step, just like lemmings, believing that this would make them sound just like that very famous player. (LOL!) When manufacturers caught wind of this, they thought..."Well, if they're going to unhook the things, we'll save 'em the trouble (and ourselves a little money) by leaving them out altogether!"

Now you know...the rest of the story!

[Micky Byrne]

Rusty, good to see you on the forum again and hope you get help with your enquiries. I did speak to you on the forum couple of years back, telling you how I admired your steel playing when I used to see you backing George Hamilton IV on British Television some years ago before Bob Lucier. Send me some of your licks all the best for 2008 to you and yours.

Micky Byrne United Kingdom www.mickybyrne.com

[Rusty Walker]

Mickey, check your mail

[Jim Sliff]

Donny - that figures!

Yep, you get a ton of bite by bypassing the volume/tone circuit in 6-strings...and icepick treble plus a shrill tone to boot.

No wonder I don't care for the "straight-out" tone of most steels.

[Wally Taylor]

Jim, do you have a capacitor value in mind?

Thanks,
Wally

[Jim Sliff]

.047uf or close is the old stadard. .022 is used often nowadays...the misconception being it gives you more highs,when actually it just rolls off less. The top end is the same. I sometimes use .068 or even .1uf for a really wide sweep. You can really get a great boo-wah effect with a .1 depending on your pickup.

A handy tool is a condeser box, often found at electronics swap meets for five bucks. They have about 10-20 caps of different values...you wire it temporarily where the cap will be and can try a bunch just by turning a knob.

[Wally Taylor]

Thanks Jim.

Wally

[Rusty Walker]

Stu,just wondering if you got my E-mail.Ishould have notified you. Rusty