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Post subject: Greasebucket
Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:35 pm
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My Highway One has a Greasebucket in the bridge. When the pickups were replaced with CS Texas Specials, that wiring was left intact. The neck is my favorite pickup with a kind of wicked hollow glass sound with the gain up on a Blues Junior amp, but the bridge also sounds good, and at lower gain levels the bridge is preferable for clarity. So, keeping in mind I've been a lot like Jim from Taxi since I finished all the chemo to beat cancer a few years ago - keeping it real simple - what's the Greasebucket circuit do? I know it "rolls off highs without adding bass" or something, but I'm a simple guitar player and what's that mean?

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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:13 pm
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I've never heard a real good technical explanation of that Greasebucket circuit. I showed it to an electrical engineer friend and he didn't have a name for it (I was wondering if it was some notch-filter, it's not), so it must not be a common circuit "trick."

The best explanation I heard about the "without adding bass" aspect is that it doesn't cause a low frequency resonance peak like the standard tone control.

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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:24 pm
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orvilleowner wrote:
I've never heard a real good technical explanation of that Greasebucket circuit. I showed it to an electrical engineer friend and he didn't have a name for it (I was wondering if it was some notch-filter, it's not), so it must not be a common circuit "trick."

The best explanation I heard about the "without adding bass" aspect is that it doesn't cause a low frequency resonance peak like the standard tone control.


It's pretty much just a bandpass filter that only filters the high end while leaving the mids and lows pass on by.

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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 8:08 pm
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Looking at the wiring it seems to me to be a treble bleed circuit. Meaning that normally when you turn down the volume you lose the highs, with this circuit when you turn down the volume you don't lose those highs.

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Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 8:26 am
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This was posted supposedly by
Mike Eldred - Fender
Fender Staff
Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:05 am Post subject: Greasebucket

Howdy!
The tone control developed at Fender gives you some loading, without losing gain. It was developed for a guitar we were making for Billy F. Gibbons. The term "Greasebucket" comes from that can my mom used to keep on the stove where she'd pour the excess bacon grease. That stuff was good to make gravy with. As with the guitar, you crank it up, add some of that "grease" and mannnnn, it sounds KILLA!

I believe like Chet that this is a Treble Bleed circuit.

Ron


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Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 8:57 am
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Does anybody have a diagram of the circuit? I'm very currious if this is the same method I came up with on my own.

What I was experimenting with was using the 3rd lug (normally not used for tone) as the signal connection with a cap from that lug to the center lug. The 1st lug (the one that normally has the cap) connects through a cap to the case/ground. This gradually puts the second cap in series with the other one as the tone is turned down. This effectively lowers the total cap value and shifts the cutoff frequency higher as the tone is turned down.

-Eddie


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Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:04 am
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eddie_bowers wrote:
Does anybody have a diagram of the circuit? I'm very currious if this is the same method I came up with on my own.

What I was experimenting with was using the 3rd lug (normally not used for tone) as the signal connection with a cap from that lug to the center lug. The 1st lug (the one that normally has the cap) connects through a cap to the case/ground. This gradually puts the second cap in series with the other one as the tone is turned down. This effectively lowers the total cap value and shifts the cutoff frequency higher as the tone is turned down.

-Eddie


Check the Support section above for the Wiring Diagrams Section and then look for Upgraded Highway 1 Strats.

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Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:16 am
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Here is a link to the Highway 1 strat:
http://www.fender.com/support/diagrams/pdf_temp1/stratocaster/0111700B/SD0111700BPg2.pdf


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Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:31 am
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Thanks (I didn't know what models had this)

WOW, that IS what I came up with. The only difference is that they added a resistor to one cap (which is just going to limits how much treble to can shunt to ground). I'm not sure if this makes me clever or stupid (for inventing something that already exists)
:)


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Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:40 am
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The Greasebucket circuit is basically a more elegant version of the old treble bleed circuit. It's pretty common on bucker equipped guitars to keep the tone from getting too dark as the volume gets reduced.
You can try different value caps on your volume pot until you get the amount of tone response you like. I've done this on several guitars I have built or modded for people and people really like it especially when the only control is a volume pot. It lets you adjust your level without killing the overall tone of the guitar.
I have never done it on a Strat with single coils since the 250k pots don't react the same as 500k ones with this circuit, but it will still work.
There lots of info on the web as well on the treble bleed circuit.


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:54 am
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Not really. A teble bleed circuit is something different and has a different purpose. This is actually a mod for the tone controls and not the volume control as in a treble bleed circuit.

A treble bleed circuit it intended to counteract the treble reduction you get from the volume control when it's turned down.

What this circuit does is shift the tone controls cut off frequency higher as you turn the tone down so that it doesn't get so muddy. In some ways this gives you what the the ToneStyler gives you.


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