Treble bleed
A small capacitor, sometimes with a resistor, wired across the volume pot so that high frequencies are not lost when the volume is turned down.
The problem it solves is characteristic of a passive circuit: as the volume control reduces the load and its resistance rises, the cable capacitance starts to roll off the top end, so a guitar turned down sounds progressively darker as well as quieter. A treble bleed bypasses that effect and keeps the brightness roughly constant across the knob's travel. The values matter, since too small a capacitor makes the sound thin when the volume is low.
Example: a player who cleans up an amp by rolling the volume back keeps the definition of the sound with a treble bleed fitted.
See also
Related
- PageVolume pot
- PageTone control
- PageActive pickup
- PageAlnico
- PageBlade pickup
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley
- PageAd-Rock