Treble bleed vs 50's wiring

[justsomeguy1]

I'm wondering what peoples thoughts are on using a treble bleed vs a 50's wiring scheme.

I will be wiring a custom set of pickups (based off of a Super Distortion [bridge] and PAF Pro [neck]) and trying to decide on which to do.

I understand the difference in that with 50's wiring you retain some high end when rolling off the volume, but you also experience change in volume when using your tone knob. I've also seen posted a couple of times that sometimes this method doesn't work well in high gain situations, though I'm unsure if that is true or not given the scarcity in which I've seen it posted.

I also understand that a Kinman circuit treble bleed retains high end as well but can sometimes be TOO bright and tinny when volume is rolled off too much, and also you need to have the correct value components.

Has anyone experimented with both using similar output/constructed pickups before?

 

[TBurst Std]

Well it depends. If you are in a double humbucker with single vol control, go with treble bleed.  If you 2 vol controls, try 50s. I ended up going 50s on 1, the other I went with treble bleed.

For ultimate honk (think 60s early 70 Allman tone), go 50s.  Using those 2 volume controls puts you in the area.

If honk doesn’t matter, then treble bleed.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

...with 50's wiring you retain some high end when rolling off the volume, but you also experience change in volume when using your tone knob.

...treble bleed retains high end as well but can sometimes be TOO bright and tinny when volume is rolled off too much...

You have nailed it. I would only add that with 50s wiring the tone/volume interaction is only really present if both controls are rolled back. With the volume all the way up, the tone control behaves "normally". It becomes a matter of preference. I wire dang near everything 50s style myself.

 

[justsomeguy1]

You have nailed it. I would only add that with 50s wiring the tone/volume interaction is only really present if both controls are rolled back. With the volume all the way up, the tone control behaves "normally". It becomes a matter of preference. I wire dang near everything 50s style myself.

Thanks for the info. Do you have any experience using 50's wiring with high gain amps?

 

[Verne Bunsen]

You have nailed it. I would only add that with 50s wiring the tone/volume interaction is only really present if both controls are rolled back. With the volume all the way up, the tone control behaves "normally". It becomes a matter of preference. I wire dang near everything 50s style myself.

Thanks for the info. Do you have any experience using 50's wiring with high gain amps?

I don't really do much at modern high gain levels, so I don't have any experience to call on there. For a reference point, I'm a Fender amp guy and a mildly crunchy Deluxe Reverb with a dirt pedal in front is about as aggressive as I get. In that context, the 50s wiring cleans things up really nicely.