I recently took the treble bleed cap off of my Reverend (never knew it was there until recently).
There are also caps on the jack. I wonder what those could be for? I can't find any mods that call for that.
Mods are cool, but I'm starting to think un-mods may be cooler!
Last edited by NDRU; 10-13-2008 at 04:41 PM.
After removing the treble bleed cap, do you find you lose highs when you turn down the guitar's volume?
"I haven't slept for ten days...because that would be too long." -- Mitch Hedberg
Yes I do, but that's actually good. What I was noticing before was that I would turn down the volume and if there was overdrive, it sounded thin & fizzy.
Combine that with the bright cap on my DRRI and I felt I was playing through two bright switches--but it was really only a low volume issue.
I only played with it for a while yesterday, but it seemed to give a smoother overdrive. I ended up being able to use more tone range on my pedals.
This is the case with a fuzz pedal! A germanium fuzz pedal cleans up nice with the guitar's volume control unless you have a treble bleed cap and it gets all fizzy!Originally Posted by NDRU
There is a better way to retain some highs when turning down the guitar's volume. Wiring a guitar like a '50s Gibson works well. There were threads here a couple of years ago describing how to apply it to a Strat and Tele.
I'm considering the 50's wiring, but my Reverend Manta Ray (2HB design close to a Gibson 335) has 3 knobs: volume, treble, and bass controls. So I'd have to figure something out. Maybe 2 volume & 1 tone, or 1 volume & 2 tone?
But mostly I want to remove the caps on the jack. I just want to find out what they do first.
Draw up a diagram how it's wired. Or get a wiring diagram for it, then post it. We'll figure it out!
Those are probably used to filter any external interference ie RF noise etc.There are also caps on the jack. I wonder what those could be for? I can't find any mods that call for that.
If so their value will be about 10nF. The jacks should be isolated from the chassis and the shield of the jack is decoupled to ground via a 10nF cap.
Pete
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
Henry Ford
I love "un-mods"- snipping erroneous crap out of my guitars, amps and pedals!
That's what hot rodding is really about- getting rid of stuff that's not needed rather than adding stuff that isn't.
Interesting. I'd like to look into that more.
But I read last night that they are for removing some of the treble from the signal, sending it to ground. It is rated 330pF (not that I know what that means!).
The designer said he felt it gave the guitar a more "vintage warmth." I assume that must be a compensation for the ceramic pickups, which I replaced, or the bass contour control, which vintage guitars don't have.
If it's because of the pickups, then I want to remove the the cap. But if it's because of the bass contour, I want to leave it, as I like that feature. But I can't figure that out yet. I might clip it just to see, since it's so easy.
I love playing this guitar, and can't afford a Gibson, but when I A/B's my friend's Les Paul Standard, his sounded way better, even though mine had Gibson pickups. So I started looking into how it was wired.
I can't find a diagram, but the cap on the jack has a value of 330 pF.
I'm scared of my amp, still, but I might try an un-mod of my Crybaby.
I wouldn't screw around inside a Boogie!
I've un-modded the heck out of my recent GA-5 (it's a tweed Champ with an EL-84 power tube, solid state rectifier and ceramic speaker now) as well as my Vibrolux Reverb (I had it modded with a bunch of Boogie features. Un-modding it was a big job!).
I have a tweed Deluxe clone but you can't un-mod one of those unless you wanted something different in the first place. They're already where you'd want to un-mod an amp to!
I have bags of parts that I pulled out of my Les Paul and Strat while un-modding them!
Connected to the tip or sleeve? Draw a pic and scan it if you can.
I'll take a look later.
I seem to remember there being two of them, but online only references "a cap," and not specific to the tip or sleeve.
One of the great things about Reverend guitars is that you can actually talk to the designer. Imagine a Tele player who could say the same!
from my conversation with him on the Reverend forum, creator Joe Naylor said:
"The caps are not an original vintage era feature.
It has nothing to do with the pickup design. The cap helps maintain warmth when the bass contour is used, and overall contributes to imparting the warmth of a well-used, broken-in, older instrument.
I should also note that the cap is a subtle thing, being a small value (330pf). Many players would not notice or would barely notice the change in treble.
I think the feel and character of the treble is more noticeable than the actual amount of treble. With the cap, the treble is less harsh and the feel of the attack is not as hard.
Obviously, I believe that most players would prefer the cap installed. But some players might benefit from removing it, it all depends on the individual's technique, taste, style, and related gear."
NDRU wrote:
I have read that the magnets in pickups age, so when we buy copies of the older PAF's they might not sound quite like old pickups, but rather what those pickups might have sounded like when they were new.
"Magnets can lose some power, and coil wire insulation can break down. Also, the guitar's neck and body can become more flexible over time from repeated vibration. All these things will result in a warmer sound."
Sounds like a sales pitch. You'd probably get the same effect by over shielding the guitar.
I'd try it with and without it.
a little bit, yeah. He's explaining why his guitars are as good as the vintage ones. He definitely always denies that his ceramic pickups are any worse than alnico.
I do wonder how a capacitor could simulate a "vintage vibe" but I appreciate that he answered my question at all.
It's connected to both, one end on the tip & one end on the sleeve. I was surprised to see that, actually, I thought you kept those things separate.
I'm not surprised to hear that.
oh, right, because it's sending some of the signal to ground
Funny enough, I was rehearsing and found myself actually turning my tone down more than normal. It felt like the guitar was actually brighter since removing the treble bleed on the volume control.
It didn't sound bad at all, but the tone control was close to 5 where I used to have it at 7-8.
The reverend is wired oddly, I wonder what else could be a factor in this. Schematics aren't readily available for these guys.
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