Passive mid-range cut

[mjmclane]

I once had a guitar fitted with humbuckers and one of the tone controls had the effect of cutting the mid-range yielding a brighter sound. Not a "Strat" sound, mind you, but nontheless a useful tool. Does anyone have a schematic as to how that would be accomplished? I'd love to put it in another guitar.

[LPCustom]

Seems like this would require a filter rather than just a pot. Adding a capacitor should make a high-pass filter.

 

Does this just attenuate the mids? Or does it attenuate everything except the highs? If it attenuates everything except the highs then you would need to create a high-pass filter. I assume that this is your goal.

 

You could probably put a 1uf (or perhaps a .5 or .25uf -- I haven't done the math) capacitor in series in the circuit with an SPDT switch to switch it in and out. One path through the switch would include the capacitor and the other would not. The tone pot can act as the resistance for the high pass filter. You can experiment with different cap values to get the tone you want.

 

Note that this does not increase the highs, it just decreases the lows to make the highs seem _apparently_ brighter.

 

You could make an inductive filter instead of a capacitive filter. But the reactive purity and simplicity of the capactive filter (an inductive filter would need another resistor as well as a coil) makes it a better choice in my opinion.

[Dr. Ellwood]

Right or the filter set could be a cascading design where the envelope skirts are adjustable over a defined range, almost like a notch filter.

[Hairfarmer]

I believe you could also spend $15.00 here (http://www.has-sound.com) and get the same effect you are looking for.

[mjmclane]

Thanks for the feedback.