Skyliner and guitar type ?

[jaysg]

I did some tweaking last night and wasn't happy with the change from a 250K bass pot to 500K + .001uF cap. I'm mostly a Strat guy and I was testing with the EMG Gilmour setup. I'll try some other guitars tonight.

In searching here, I found comments from Gil about low midrange boost with that setup. So the question is for the guys who like that setup. What guitars/pickups are you using?

thanks ahead

[ayan]

I did some tweaking last night and wasn't happy with the change from a 250K bass pot to 500K + .001uF cap. I'm mostly a Strat guy and I was testing with the EMG Gilmour setup. I'll try some other guitars tonight.

In searching here, I found comments from Gil about low midrange boost with that setup. So the question is for the guys who like that setup. What guitars/pickups are you using?

thanks ahead

I have one amp set up that way, Skyliner with mid switch, and one with the early 80s circuit with a deep switch instead. The Skyliner sounds great with a Tele (better than the 80s), and it sounds great with my 335 on the bridge pickup (the 80s sounds just as good). But, t does not like the Strat very much at all. On the other hand, the 80s sounds best with the Strat and can be used with the 335 on the neck pickup.

Hopefully that will help you decide what you want to go for. In my case, I've chosen (for a couple of months now, at least), to have one of each.

Gil

[Bob-I]

I'm not sure I understand what constitutes a "Skyliner" TS as opposed to more classic Dumble TS's. Maybe someone can expand on this for us dense types

As for the 500k/.001uF, I agree it sounds better with a humbucker/LP type than a Strat type. Being mostly a humbucker guy I like it.

[ayan]

I'm not sure I understand what constitutes a "Skyliner" TS as opposed to more classic Dumble TS's. Maybe someone can expand on this for us dense types

As for the 500k/.001uF, I agree it sounds better with a humbucker/LP type than a Strat type. Being mostly a humbucker guy I like it.

Probably everyone's definition will not be 100% equal, but this us what I meant:

1. Early 80s = .1 uF Bass Cap, .047uF Mid Cap, 330pF treble cap; deep switch; treble and bass pots = 250K, middle pot = 100KL

2. Skyliner = .1 uF bass cap, .01uF Mid cap, 330 (equivalent) treble cap; mid switch; 250KA treble pot, 500KA bass pot with .001uF cap, 250KA middle pot.

Gil

[jaysg]

I wasn't changing much:

From: 0.1 uF Bass Cap, .047uF Mid Cap, 330pF treble cap, treble and bass pots = 250K, middle pot = 180KL (pull switch for mid boost)

To: 0.1 uF Bass Cap, .047uF Mid Cap, 330pF treble cap, treble pot = 250K, bass pot = 500K (part reads 606K) + .001uF cap, middle pot = 180KL (pull switch for mid boost)

I putzed around with Duncan's tonestack simulator on a BF stack. Changing the mid cap to 0.01uF looks like it would shift the notch up farther in freqency.

[Darkbluemurder]

In the Guyatone donor (70s clone) I started out with

Treble cap: 330pf
Bass cap: 0.1uf
Mid cap: 0.047 uf
All tone pots 250kA (didn't have a 100kB left)
Slope resistor 150k
Bright cap 120pf
No boost or other switches yet

I liked this set up with humbuckers and with the strat. P90 was OK, Firebird was thin. Have not tested with a tele but teles very rarely give me a problem.

I then changed the mid cap to 0.01 with the intention to fatten up the sound especially with the Firebird. As expected the Firebird was better, strat was OK but better with the 0.047, humbuckers were OK but the OD sound gets muddy quickly (for chord playing I have to turn the bass all the way down), the neck pickup is muddy throughout and the clean tone seems to have lost sparkle. I also think that the mid control controls a lower frequency and is not as effective as before. All in all I prefer the 0.047 to the 0.01. I probably could balance out the sound with the 0.01uf mid cap by reducing the OD snubbers from 500pf to 250pf but that would not help the clean tone. But I think I'll try a 0.022 or 0.033 until I get the clean tone I want and then balance the OD to that.

I guess this is what HAD did when he tuned the amps to the customer's guitars.

[keithrick]

While on the discussion of tuning, when switching between the Skyliner and 80's tonestack is it also important to change the plate/cathode resistors and bypass caps? If so, does that mean we should use the #124 values (100K and 1.5K resistors) for the eighties tone stack?

I am personally using a .047 mid cap with the hybrid A values Potentiometers and Plate/Cathode reistor values. Looks like I need to try a 100K mid pot.

[tictac]

My tone stack is the skyliner without the .001 across the bass cap, and a 100kl mid pot w/pull switch. The pull switch switches the mid cap value from .01 to .047 which is the main difference between the 80's and the skyliner.

Without a pull pot I like a .02 mid cap. You get a boost in mids like the .01 but with the mid pot turned down you still get a nice mid dip. The .001 bleeds off too much treble for my taste but if you had a DPST pull pot you could switch both the mid cap value and the .001.

TT

[Darkbluemurder]

Without a pull pot I like a .02 mid cap. You get a boost in mids like the .01 but with the mid pot turned down you still get a nice mid dip.
TT

Yes, I fully agree! That's what I tríed tonight and I just stopped from a 1 hour test ride with different guitars and I can even make it sound very . Just turn the treble to 9-10, mids to 3, bass to 0, volume to 5-6, input trim to 10, OD drive to 9-10 and it sounds quite brutal. Of course it lacks the low punchy bass and you cannot turn up the bass control or it gets mushy but very nice indeed.

[TimS]

So for somebody who uses mostly humbuckers and wants a tone that is clear and open but not thin, what tonestack would you guys recommend?

[Darkbluemurder]

Tim S,

See my first post in this thread. Perfect humbucker values.

Possible variations:

Mid cap: 0.033uF
Mid pot: 100kB
Bright cap: up to 250pF

It's all a matter of taste. The values which sound good to you are correct.

[dogears]

IMHO, always use a 250ka midpot. It is wired as a variable resistor. The 250ka gives you the flexibility to use the lower cap sizes. It has ZERO effect on the tone. If you put in the 100kb, you may need to change it if you go to the .01uf midcap.

Tim S,

See my first post in this thread. Perfect humbucker values.

Possible variations:

Mid cap: 0.033uF
Mid pot: 100kB
Bright cap: up to 250pF

It's all a matter of taste. The values which sound good to you are correct.

[Darkbluemurder]

IMHO, always use a 250ka midpot. It is wired as a variable resistor. The 250ka gives you the flexibility to use the lower cap sizes. It has ZERO effect on the tone. If you put in the 100kb, you may need to change it if you go to the .01uf midcap.

In fact I did use a 250kA. The major advantage is that they are readily available in push-pull-pots.

[TimS]

Of course it lacks the low punchy bass and you cannot turn up the bass control or it gets mushy but very nice indeed.

Is it even possible to get low punchy bass that doesn't mush out with a Dumble-like circuit? If so, how? The only way I can think of is by filtering out the subguitar frequencies, but dogears says it doesn't sound good if you do that.