You can call it what you want, but I call it messin' with the Q. Need Help!

[vanessa]

Here's a weird one... Usually it's the other way around. 

I have a Les Paul that for obvious reasons has a humbucker in the bridge. For certain songs I wish it had just a little more spank and twang like my Telecaster without have to bring it out to shows.

I was thinking about putting in a tone push-pull switch that when pulled would get me more spank and twang, hopefully without the use of active circuitry.

Any suggestions that might get me some of that Tele twang out of it via some sort of e.q. circuit?

[jrem]

um, try a tele?  they weigh a hell of a lot less, and they cost a lot less, too.  Then add a push-pull switch and a stacked humbucker in the bridge, a couple of stomp boxes, and you can get . . .   ready?   . . .    a les paul tone!

all around a more functional guitar, IMO, unless you just want to be jimmy page.

[joegagan]

i am sure there is a way to get close, but i go the opposite way. i use a tele and then fatten up the tone with a fuzz.

i think only a tele really does the tele thing, but the classic fat lp tones are pretty easy to approximate if one tries hard.
i guess some people might disagree but i can handle it...

[vanessa]

um, try a tele?  they weigh a hell of a lot less, and they cost a lot less, too.  Then add a push-pull switch and a stacked humbucker in the bridge, a couple of stomp boxes, and you can get . . .   ready?   . . .    a les paul tone!

Are you serious? Sounds like you got a beef against Les Paul's? I already have a tele and love it, I'm just looking for a quick "in the ball park" faux twang switch for my les paul so I don't have to lug that around when I have a show that I need the les for.

all around a more functional guitar, IMO, unless you just want to be jimmy page.

Um, Didn't Jimmy Page use a Tele at one time? 

[vanessa]

i am sure there is a way to get close

I was thinking maybe a switching in small value cap in series with the output. I think that would cut a lot of the bass response and depending on its value could get me in the that neck of the woods.

[moro]

What about a coil tap on the humbucker(s)?

[PerroGrande]

I'm very interested in this thread, too. 

I know *exactly* what you're talking about. 

My Les Paul has a terrific sound all-in-all, but can get a bit muddy or lost in the mix at times.  A bit more "bite" at certain times would help clean up/cut through just a bit more.

So I'm very curious as to what other's suggest.  One suggestion that was given to me was a coil tap, just like Moro said.  I have that feature on one of my other guitars and it really does seem to help. 

[slacker]

How about modding the tone pot into a high pass filter, so it rolls off some bottom end? Or do the Peter Green mod, that is supposed to give more twang to the middle position

[vanessa]

I'm very interested in this thread, too. 

I know *exactly* what you're talking about. 

My Les Paul has a terrific sound all-in-all, but can get a bit muddy or lost in the mix at times.  A bit more "bite" at certain times would help clean up/cut through just a bit more.

So I'm very curious as to what other's suggest.  One suggestion that was given to me was a coil tap, just like Moro said.  I have that feature on one of my other guitars and it really does seem to help. 

One thing I would look into is seeing if your pots are the stock 300k. If they are I would replace them in a heart beat with 500k (CTS) pots.

That will rid your life of the mud associated with humbuckers. I mean it's like night and day. Best mod I've ever done to one. But even though the bridge pickup is bright it lacks spank and twang. I guess it would be hard to get the twang, but some more spank would be great. Clean and doing twangy stuff I'm finding it a little too big sounding. 

[vanessa]

How about modding the tone pot into a high pass filter, so it rolls off some bottom end?

What would be a good starting point? Link?

[joegagan]

ok,  a couple ideas from past experience playing hb guitars onstage etc.
normal HB pickups do not sound good or have enough output (or both) when cut to single coil mode, so a coil switch to do single coil on regular HB is out (again my opinion, but one shared by others who have tried).

the only time i have liked the tone or output of a hb in single coil mode was on a very high output HB, which has its own tonal problems when used as a HB

so, the filtering suggestion is much better IMO

if you can get away with turning down the pickup a smidge and kicking a boost (possibly with some eqing to assist n the tele-tone), try a treble bleed cap, i use one with an onboard control , as below. it is amazing the amount of control this gives

[joegagan]

ps
.002 cap might be better for some setups, and for sure silver mica sounded better to me than anything else i compared to.

[Paul Marossy]

I was thinking maybe a switching in small value cap in series with the output. I think that would cut a lot of the bass response and depending on its value could get me in the that neck of the woods.

I was thinking that maybe a push-pull switch with two different values of tone caps might be something to try. The other one could be something smaller than what is in currently in your guitar and it would dump a little bit more of the lows to ground. I'm not sure how close that would get you, though, as it's a humbucker vs. a single coil, correct? Another thought is doing a coil tap on the pickup(s), if that's possible. That would probably get you a lot closer than a capacitor would.

I have not tried the capacitor in series with the output before. I would be interested to hear how that works, if you try it...

[vanessa]

normal HB pickups do not sound good or have enough output (or both) when cut to single coil mode, so a coil switch to do single coil on regular HB is out (again my opinion, but one shared by others who have tried).

the only time i have liked the tone or output of a hb in single coil mode was on a very high output HB, which has its own tonal problems when used as a HB

so, the filtering suggestion is much better IMO

That's what I was thinking too. I like you believe a filter would be the better route to go. I mean come on, if you have bigger you can get smaller right?

[vanessa]

I was thinking that maybe a push-pull switch with two different values of tone caps might be something to try. The other one could be something smaller than what is in currently in your guitar and it would dump a little bit more of the lows to ground. I'm not sure how close that would get you, though, as it's a humbucker vs. a single coil, correct? Another thought is doing a coil tap on the pickup(s), if that's possible. That would probably get you a lot closer than a capacitor would.

I have not tried the capacitor in series with the output before. I would be interested to hear how that works, if you try it...

Paul I value your input, thank you! I guess I'm looking to boost the upper mids? And the highs a bit? Limiting some of the lows? But at a closer output to a normal humbucker than say one that's cut to single coil mode?

[PerroGrande]

Is the twang created, at least partially, as a side-effect of the scale/string-tension of the instrument?

[Paul Marossy]

Paul I value your input, thank you! I guess I'm looking to boost the upper mids? And the highs a bit? Limiting some of the lows? But at a closer output to a normal humbucker than say one that's cut to single coil mode?

Hmm... I have to think about that one a little bit.

[DougH]

Try adding a switch to switch the coils from serial to parallel. This gives more of a "fender-y" sound without thinning it out too much.

[aron]

What about the Bill Lawrence Q filter?

[Dai H.]

funny, was thinking the same thing. Something about that on the BL site (using the Q thing in parallel to lower the inductance and something something).