Rothstein - Platinum Lab Varitone/"Orange" Midrange Shaper

[KingOfTheCountry]

Hey fellas, I found these passive mods by Rothstein some time ago. I didn't pay much attention to that, but I'm thinking to try it in my strat. I mean it looks really awesome, but I've been looking all over the internet, and I haven't found any demo or video of it. So I don't really know how it actually sounds. I'm going after Platinum Lab Varitone and Orange Midrange Shaper.

This is the whole idea:
Platinum Lab Varitone is a pot with 6 different sounding positions. It provides 5 tonal filters and true bypass.
[list type=decimal]
[*]Position 1 = true bypass
[*]Position 2 = subtle cut of highs - softens up a harsh tone
[*]Position 3 = clapton style "woman tone" - works great with overdrive for a nice creamy distortion
[*]Position 4 = scooped mids
[*]Position 5 = deeper scooped mids- similar to five but at a different frequency
[*]Position 6 = darker jazz tone
[/list]
More info here: http://www.guitar-mod.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=V6&Category_Code=MID

"Orange" Midrange Shaper is a pot which works as a master tone for passive midrange.
Form 5 to 0 you get  scooped mids, which can be useful for funky rhythms.
Form 5 to 10 you get slightly enhanced thicker midrangy tone.
The position 5 is neutral.
More info here: http://www.guitar-mod.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=RG500D&Category_Code=MID

I'm really excited to try 'em, bus as I sad I've never heard the sound of them so if you know something about these, please share your info.

Thanks.

 

[jmcecil]

I have been wanting to set myself up a "project" strat where I can play with alternate, pot types/values, various wirings, cap values etc...  Sounds like a good candidate.  I have no idea what these mods sound like, but certainly interesting options. 

 

[Cagey]

The "Varitone" switch just swaps in different values of capacitor for your regular tone control, so no magic there. Besides, as soon as somebody starts telling you that a type (ceramic vs. mylar vs. polystyrene vs. oil/paper, etc.) of capacitor has a "tonal" quality, you know they're blowing smoke.

The "Orange Midrange Shaper" is different, though. It actually has an inductor in the circuit along with the caps and resistors to form an "RCL" network, which allows you to move the filter range around. That's pretty unusual on guitars, but I can see where it would be useful.

Bill Lawrence sells a device called a Q-Filter...

...that allows you to do a similar thing, but it's more of a component than a replacement control. On the plus side, you can add resistors/capacitors around it to change its behavior to suit whatever pickup you're using.

 

[KingOfTheCountry]

The "Varitone" switch just swaps in different values of capacitor for your regular tone control, so no magic there. Besides, as soon as somebody starts telling you that a type (ceramic vs. mylar vs. polystyrene vs. oil/paper, etc.) of capacitor has a "tonal" quality, you know they're blowing smoke.

The "Orange Midrange Shaper" is different, though. It actually has an inductor in the circoouit along with the caps and resistors to form an "RCL" network, which allows you to move the filter range around. That's pretty unusual on guitars, but I can see where it would be useful.

Bill Lawrence sells a device called a Q-Filter...

...that allows you to do a similar thing, but it's more of a component than a replacement control. On the plus side, you can add resistors/capacitors around it to change its behavior to suit whatever pickup you're using.

Thanks for the info.

Yeah, I forgot that the "Varitone" is originally Gibson stuff. I've heard it on ES-345 few years ago. It sounds kinda dull to me, so I've gotta agree with you!

I like the idea of "Orange Midrange Shaper" but I'm not still sure what it'll sounds like on my guitar. I can imagine the sound of the 0-5 position, but I'm not quite sure how the 5-10 pos response... description says that it enhances midrange slightly, but as long as it's passive mod it can't really boost the mids anyhow.

So I looked for the Q-Filter and it sounds cool. Then I found a Stellartone "ToneStyler" which is like a advanced tone pot.
I checked some demos and it's sort of similar to the Varitone, but much better and more versatile. The big minus is its price, 'cause I can have 5 Q-filters for that money... More info here: http://www.stellartone.com/Page.asp?NavID=334

Also I found these:
http://www.guitarelectronics.com/product/PMT-DMTG/Dual-Mode-High-Low-Pass-Tone-Control-For-Guitar.html
http://www.guitarelectronics.com/product/PMT-HCP/HCP-Humbucker-Control-Pot-w-Coil-Filters.html
They are also great passive mods...

The first one is High and Low Pass tone pot. Something similar to Fender's TBX?
The second is a pot for Coil Splitting with many options...

Some thoughts?

 

[Jet-Jaguar]

The first one is High and Low Pass tone pot. Something similar to Fender's TBX?
The second is a pot for Coil Splitting with many options...

Some thoughts?

I don't have any information, but I'm also interested in that HCP pot.  I haven't seen it anywhere except Guitar Electronics.

 

[KingOfTheCountry]

I don't have any information, but I'm also interested in that HCP pot.  I haven't seen it anywhere except Guitar Electronics.

Well me neither... But I'm sure it can be used with some humbuckers which sound great as single coils when split. SD did a article about this on his page. It'd be cool to have HB at position 1 and SC at position 10. Then you have lots of different and very useful tones in between those positions.