Does anyone else do this with HSS wiring?

Mark Wein

Mark Wein

Grand Poobah
Staff member
This is the Schematic for my Suhr, and its now how my McFeely is wired. Apparently the 470k resistor in parallel with the pickups keep them from sounding too bright. Is this standard for a Fender HSS guitar for example?

hss-1.jpg



Here are some folk discussing it on TGP: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=293930

It works great in my guitars but I was curious if anyone else did this...
 
It's not that common.... I was actually looking for that diagram to try it on one of my builds, mostly to get the right tone pot load to each pickup.
 
I'd try it and see what you think. I made the mistake of believing all the fancy mods I read about before making my first Strat and put in a treble bleed without trying it dry. I never liked the sound of that guitar. Then one day, like 10 years later, i took out the treble bleed and BAM, I instantly had the sound I had always been looking for.
 
irishstu said:
I'd try it and see what you think. I made the mistake of believing all the fancy mods I read about before making my first Strat and put in a treble bleed without trying it dry. I never liked the sound of that guitar. Then one day, like 10 years later, i took out the treble bleed and BAM, I instantly had the sound I had always been looking for.
Click to expand...

That's actually the schematic for the Suhr strat I've been playing for 11 years. I bought the same pickups for my McFeely but didn't know why the guitars was so bright sounding until I looked this up. I put both the 470k resistors and the treble bleed in last week and suddenly it sounded how I wanted it. I was wondering if the resistors were a common thing or if suhr does this because their pickups are naturally bright. Or if its how you balance hums and singles in the same guitar.


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Mark Wein said:
That's actually the schematic for the Suhr strat I've been playing for 11 years. I bought the same pickups for my McFeely but didn't know why the guitars was so bright sounding until I looked this up. I put both the 470k resistors and the treble bleed in last week and suddenly it sounded how I wanted it. I was wondering if the resistors were a common thing or if suhr does this because their pickups are naturally bright. Or if its how you balance hums and singles in the same guitar.
Click to expand...


Might also make you think if you haven't experimented with pickups enough maybe.
 
Mark Wein said:
That's actually the schematic for the Suhr strat I've been playing for 11 years. I bought the same pickups for my McFeely but didn't know why the guitars was so bright sounding until I looked this up. I put both the 470k resistors and the treble bleed in last week and suddenly it sounded how I wanted it. I was wondering if the resistors were a common thing or if suhr does this because their pickups are naturally bright. Or if its how you balance hums and singles in the same guitar.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Ahh right, sorry. Not something I've seen before and looking at it as an electronics engineer, it seems like a waste of some of the signal. Still, guitars don't always follow the rules and I've no doubt Suhr have done a lot of research to find what ends up giving the best tone.
 
Mark Wein said:
... or if suhr does this because their pickups are naturally bright. Or if its how you balance hums and singles in the same guitar.
Click to expand...

Probably both.

It's why some manufacturers pickups are darker (and inherently muddier). It's probably a way that Suhr gets versatility and clarity out of their setup at all volumes and tone settings.
 
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