Tone control vs varitone

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Tone control vs varitone

Post by werdna »

Am looking at getting a varitone, but first need to know if it's going to add something that my tone control can't do.

The varitone replaces the conventional tone pot. The 6 positions are from right to left:

1 BYPASS (full range of sound from pickup/s)
2 BRIGHT (slight attenuation above 1.4Khz)
3 MID BRIGHT (attenuation above 900hz)
4 MID (attenuation above 600hz)
5 LOW MID (greater attenuation above 450hz)
6 LOW (greatest attenuation above 300hz)
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Re: Tone control vs varitone

Post by Kev77 »

Do it, I have the tonestyler units in my Basses and a telecaster.
They’re spendy but worth it every time you play
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Re: Tone control vs varitone

Post by NippleWrestler »

You can make your own from a 6 pole rotary switch and an assortment of capacitor values. $5 would do it. Or you could make an 8 position baritone for extra choices by using an 8 pole rotary switch.

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Re: Tone control vs varitone

Post by Kris »

i have one on my moser,seems pretty powerful.i'd get a lot of mileage out of it if i played clean ;)

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Re: Tone control vs varitone

Post by werdna »

In a regular circuit, the tone knob has a single capacitor, or tone darkening cap, which controls the frequencies, and you use the potentiometer to bleed in as much of that as you want.

In a varitone circuit, there are five or more capacitors each controlling a different frequency. You choose between them. Once a cap is engaged, you have it 100%. But you are not limited by a single fixed amount when you have so many capacitors. If you have a tone knob as well, you can bleed each of them in on the potentiometer.
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Re: Tone control vs varitone

Post by NippleWrestler »

Not quite.

This is the mono varitone schematic with the choke and multiple resistors. Sorry for the massive link.

https://forum.gibson.com/applications/c ... 11f035238a

I think the Tonestyler is just a rotary cap switch so you could choose effects on the fly. I guess if you were wiring one yourself you could have a bass cut, a mid notch, treble cut, whatever, depending how you wires your resistors. You could go crazy.

If you're just looking for a treble roll off device then get a bigger cap in your existing tone circuit to cover more roll off.

It all depends what you're looking for.

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Re: Tone control vs varitone

Post by werdna »

I want my tele bridge pickup to sound less shrill.
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Re: Tone control vs varitone

Post by NippleWrestler »

Change the pickup, or the pot value for something smaller, or increase the cap value.

An easy thing to do is to put a resistor across lugs 1 and 3 of the pot to lower the resistance then see how you like it. It might dick the taper a little but will give an idea how it sounds.

Use a resistor in parallel calculator to work out the values but using a resistor the same value as the pot halves the value eg 250k and 250k gives a 125k resistance.

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Re: Tone control vs varitone

Post by werdna »

I like the idea of click and forget, rather than using the tone control.

However many of you prefer riding the knob.
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Re: Tone control vs varitone

Post by werdna »

I like the idea of click and forget, rather than using the tone control.

However many of you prefer riding the knob.
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Re: Tone control vs varitone

Post by Slowy »

werdna wrote: Sat Jul 25, 2020 9:50 pm I want my tele bridge pickup to sound less shrill.
Rotate the tone pot, Grasshopper
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Re: Tone control vs varitone

Post by Reg18 »

NippleWrestler wrote: Sat Jul 25, 2020 10:48 pm Change the pickup, or the pot value for something smaller, or increase the cap value.

An easy thing to do is to put a resistor across lugs 1 and 3 of the pot to lower the resistance then see how you like it. It might dick the taper a little but will give an idea how it sounds.

Use a resistor in parallel calculator to work out the values but using a resistor the same value as the pot halves the value eg 250k and 250k gives a 125k resistance.
I have a Tele with 500k vol pot and a humbucker in the neck and standard single coil in the bridge, I messed with heaps of resistors (the resistor is attached directly in line with the hot wire of bridge pickup) and I think I ended up settling on something like 170ohm resistor. Not sure what that would be making that actual resistance but it sounded the best to me. Rolling back the volume for different sounds has been compromised though, it defiantly changed the taper.

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Re: Tone control vs varitone

Post by NippleWrestler »

If it were across the pot youd have a total resistance of 169 ohm.

If it's in series with the pickup out you're dropping the voltage output of the pickup.

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Re: Tone control vs varitone

Post by Jay »

:D Noting that most pots have at least a 10% variation, which would be 50 kilo ohm for your pot, then the 170 ohms in series does phuck all :D
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Re: Tone control vs varitone

Post by sizzlingbadger »

Reg18 wrote: Sun Jul 26, 2020 8:07 amI have a Tele with 500k vol pot and a humbucker in the neck and standard single coil in the bridge, I messed with heaps of resistors (the resistor is attached directly in line with the hot wire of bridge pickup) and I think I ended up settling on something like 170ohm resistor. Not sure what that would be making that actual resistance but it sounded the best to me. Rolling back the volume for different sounds has been compromised though, it defiantly changed the taper.
You need a 470K resistor soldered between the hot wire of the bridge pickup and ground. Then the Humbucker will see a 500K pot and the Bridge will see 250K pot.
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