August Mod Of The Month: Push Pull Volume Kit
For August, we’re talking about the Fralin Volume Kit, or Treble Bleed Circuit. The Volume Kit is basically a Capacitor and Resistor tied together to solve a simple problem on your guitar – loss in highs when you roll your volume down. On traditional volume pots (250K’s are the worst for this), when you roll your volume down, your tone gets darker. The midrange and bass is preserved, but your highs go right down the drain.
Some players actually like this, some don’t. This mod is a quick way to get the best of both worlds. Using a 250K Push Pull pot, we can wire up the Volume Kit and select it when we want to use it, and put it away when we don’t.
Here’s what we’ll need to preform the mod:
- 250K / 500K Push Pull Pot
- Fralin Volume Kit
- Soldering Iron with Basic Soldering Skills
How To Wire It Up:
This mod will take the place of your Volume Pot, so, follow the wiring diagram below and you’ll be good to go!
How it works:
- When pushed down, your signal is entering through lug A, but it ends there, as it doesn’t have anywhere to go.
- Pulling up, A & B and E & D are now connected, connecting the Volume Kit to your circuit.
If you want to reverse this, simply move the Connector Wires (two cream wires in the photo above) to Lugs C & F. This will remove the Volume Kit when you pull up.
We hope you dig it! Let us know what you think in the comment section below!
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I believe the diagram is a bit incorrect as the way it is shown in the diagram cuts all signal to the jack when the ‘volume kit’ is switched to the ‘off’ position. To fix this (and have it function as intended) you need to put the yellow wires in the center lug pair and the ‘volume kit’ [a parallel cap+resistor treble bleed] on either A.) the upper set of lugs, or B.) the lower set of lugs, for it to work properly..
Great mod though!
I know the diagram looks very simple, yet it is very unclear. Are we choosing left or right? Are we doing both?
Hey Oz, you are choosing one of the two diagrams. One of them keeps the volume kit engaged when the push pull is in the down position. The other diagram doesn’t have the Volume Kit on by default until you pull up.
This wiring diagram is absolutely horrid, it is difficult to understand what to solder for this mod.
Sorry to hear that, Chris! What are you having difficulty understanding? Just so you know, those are two completely separate wiring diagrams, depending if you want to keep your Treble Bleed kit on when in the down position or up position.
What could be the cause of no signal at all whenthe kit isNOT engaged? While i engage the Treble bleed everything works as expected. But when i disengage the kit i lose all sound. Any suggestions?
Hello.
About the issue “loss in highs when you roll your volume down” why not to try to avoid the problem instead of adding an additional system to compensate it?
I mean, to my point of view, when we decrease the volume, we adda a serial resistance on the signal line. This resistance comes in addition with the Tone resistance, so decreasing the volulme has the effect to lower the tone frequency.
Why not simply place the Tone before the Volume?
In response to Le Chavilier Noir,
The placement of the pots does not make a difference in regards to loading the signal down. When a volume or tone pot is on “10” or all the way “up” the pots resistance is what is keeping the signal from grounding completely. Turning the pot down lowers the resistance of the path to ground until there is no load, or a “direct to ground” path. Therefore there is a load, or resistance to ground even when the pot is all the way up. This load contributes to signal loss and the first part of the signal to go is the treble. This is why higher value pots sound “brighter”. The lower the pots resistance, the more signal is lost even when the pot is on 10.